A ‘90s-inspired alternative band from Saskatoon is trying to produce an album to get more music out, grow its fanbase and go on national tours.

“Blind Commentary” has one EP which was produced on June 30, 2024 called “Eyes Open and Staring.”

“This EP has a more 90’s-influenced, alternative sound,” said Liam Jones.

The band has an upcoming show on Feb. 28, at The Exchange in Regina, playing with other local bands “The Whale and the Wolf,” as well as “Tracy Waters.”

The band has been in the studio working on an album. All the band members have similar goals for the future.

“I think our main goal right now is writing more music in the form of an album and making it more cohesive and well written than the EP,” said Sam Thomson.

Beginning in 2022, Blind Commentary was formed by Sam Thompson and a friend, “We met on a website called Band Mix, which is a very sketchy website where musicians could meet,” said Thomson.

“He liked ‘King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’, which is a band that I like, we just kept jamming over a period of several months to, like, a year.

“Me and the original guitarist came up with the name. I was heavily into punk music at the time, he was also just a very artsy person. We came to a compromise of a name that was kind of both. ‘Blind Commentary’ was vaguely punkish, basically what it means is making judgments based on nothing, just like giving your opinion when you have no knowledge of what you are talking about,” said Thomson.

Thomson later expanded the band through social media, “And eventually, I knew this guy in high school [Liam Jones], and I just said at some point on my Instagram, ‘hey, does anyone know how to play bass?’ And he picked up the bass, like a few weeks ago, months ago, something like that.” 

Thomson later recruits the band’s current drummer, “And then that kind of snowballed into me meeting [Liam] Swenson through Facebook”. 

And finally they recruited their new and current guitarist Malcolm Stensrud. “Malcolm was someone that was at our shows pretty regularly, and after our original guitarist had to leave Malcolm was just immediately in. He was like our biggest fan,” said Thomson

Like any band, they faced many challenges from who is going to play what instrument to songwriting. “We really struggled to write songs in the beginning, especially when we were a three piece. It was like, who’s gonna play what instrument?”

“We literally could not find a drummer so we had our original guitar player, playing the drums. We definitely also struggled with our sound in the beginning,” said Thomson

Each band member has specific ideas about venues and goals but they all share a common vision of success. “We’d all love to go on a tour, of course. And play a Tiny Desk concert, like, that’d be insane. Audio Tree as well,” said Jones and Thomson.

“We’re very proud of the work we did on the EP, but it was more so just us exploring different ideas and sounds, I guess, and this will be Blind Commentary at their best.”