Tāmaki Makaurau pop-punk outfit blindr have employed a fruitful blend of good fortune, music skills and good sense to produce a very good debut EP called ‘lover.fighter’. Having won a band competition in 2023 the self-managed four-piece have taken full advantage of various music professionals’ mentoring included in the prize package to record five tracks that traverse a variety of styles. They talked with Richard Thorne ahead of the EP’s release party at the beginning of March.

The blindr story starts in Dunedin in 2021, with guitarist Bill Caldwell and drummer Charlie McCracken jamming together along with then-singer Reeve Edmond, and Sam Howell on lead guitar.

Edmond gets the credit for saying he’d always wanted to have a band called “…having a blinder or something,” which quickly got trimmed to the altogether more catchy blindr.

All in their last year of studies at Otago University the four had got together with the idea of playing a battle the bands comp that Covid ruled out. By the end of the year when the band all went their separate ways their low mileage songs were left behind, doing nothing as Caldwell, now vocalist/guitarist/lyricist, explains.

“Charlie moved up to Auckland to come home, and then Jack [Power – bassist] and I also ended up in Auckland, because we were just chasing work up here. And then I met Blake [Woodfield – lead guitar] through some other circumstances and saw that he was into playing guitar, and we kind of just jammed. Then a few flat parties turned into a few shows, turned into a few songs, turned into an EP…”

All now making good use of their professional qualifications three of them share a flat, while Woodfield lives just round the corner. Caldwell estimates over half the flat is allocated to music making, but even so balancing the demands of corporate roles severely interferes with them having regularly scheduled rehearsals.

“A very fortunate event in our history is we kind of landed this flat that has like an outhouse, and the space was going to just be unused really. So we threw an electronic drum kit, piano and all our recording gear and stuff in here. So it’s kind of separated from the flat, but we can still get to come together and make lots of music.”

‘lover.fighter’ is the name of blindr’s debut EP, released on the last day of February 2025. Three of the tracks have earlier been released as singles, each showing a different musical side to a band that essentially considers themselves to be a modern pop-punk act, high-energy with a melody-driven sound. 

The song lending its name to the EP was the first written as a band, back in the student flat days. Less punk, more pop-rock, McCracken observes that it is testament to the band members’ wide ranging influences.
“The blues flavour that underpins the track makes it one of our favourites to play live, and we’re so pleased with how well it has translated in the studio.”

“I think we’ve been playing the songs in some form, whether it’s a riff or most of the song, for a few years,” Caldwell picks up. “Another tune called Everything is a slower one, and that was from 2021. The riff of Letdown, the first single from the EP was all, you know, Dunedin bass. Give It and Break, are the two songs that kind of came more so up here.”

Knowing they had enough good songs, the new blindr had got to a stage of needing to do something with them, but no further. Enter the kind hand of fate, as Caldwell relates.

“We entered the Ding Dong Lounge band competition in 2023, kind of just on a whim I think, because they needed bands! I think we figured that if we did alright we’d get to play live week after week after week and, you know, maybe build up some skills. Then, fortunate event number two, we took it out!

“So we got a bit of money in the tin, and kind of that’s when we really thought, ‘We need to put these songs together’. And we were kind of  lucky that we could tip in some of our money to stretch the generous prize we got from them a bit further, and turn the recordings into an EP.”

Being hooked up with some great mentors meant blindr extracted maximum benefit from the annual competition’s prize package, which included financial support for recording, music video production and a promotion package.

Letdown was produced, mixed and mastered by Auckland producer Zorran Mendonsa, much better known for his work with heavier Kiwi rock and metal acts including Devilskin and Shepherds Reign. They returned to him with the EP’s other tracks and Mendonsa obliged, despite their musical palette veering more into rock radio territory as the band experimented with genres and influences.

Not much more than a year on from being prizewinners blindr not only have an EP to promote, but have also become a much tighter live outfit.

“Coming out of that competition we obviously went into the studio to record Letdown,” Caldwell explains. “We really liked how everything was coming together in the studio and we thought we’ve got to try and bring the same standard live. When we released it we had a show at Ding Dong, as kind of a celebration of the single and where it all came from.

“I think that show was kind of the catalyst for everyone to up the stakes in terms of what we bring to a performance, just being a bit more professional about it. Discipline is definitely the right word. Playing in bands in high school and stuff, you’re just throwing tunes around, whereas now it’s much more purposeful.”

Their prize included having a music video produced by former Written By Wolves’ guitarist-turned-director Bahador Borhani  of Studio B. Borhani married the chorus lyric, ’I build you up just to let you down’, with the band progressing from a blank, empty room, to a party peak with them performing on stage, before ending up back where they started. With its furious riffing Letdown is their party song.

Second single Give It finds blindr at their most rock, and a video almost as cost-effectively shot at the single’s prize package launch gig.

“We all joke that it’s the heavy metal part of the show,” laughs Woodfield. “It’s about as close as we get! We find Give It is our most polarising song – some nights it’s the crowd favourite, and then other nights it goes unnoticed, or feels like the end of the show!”

Indium Design has provided visuals for the singles and EP with graphic designer Barny Bewick being another professional hook up that’s endured from the comp.

“Barny was so great to deal with the first time we’ve just keep dealing with him again. He made it so easy, we were really able to let our creativity sort of shine through – and then he just really took it to the next level.”

Caldwell says he wrote anthemic pop-punk song Break not long after moving to Auckland in pursuit of a professional career. An introspective track it has proven surprisingly universal.

“I grew up in Dunedin and spent 23 years there. The song just kind of tells the story of moving away from home, going out on your own and seeing what’s out there in the world for you. So definitely my personal story, but one I think everyone can relate to in some way -which wasn’t really the intended effect! I know some people like to write music that’s relatable by design, but this one just kind of came naturally, so I was really happy with the way the lyrics came together.”

Woodfield describes the EP’s final track Everything as taking a bit of a risk for blindr.

“It’s our soft ballad, stripped back and raw, but we felt it’s important to show a more vulnerable side of who we are. I think we probably all agree that across this EP we’re sort of trying to find where we sit and to navigate where our sound is going. And I think the songs all sort of explore different directions. With Everything it was really fun to do something different, and it’s really fun to play live as well. It’s an acoustic song but it’s obviously got the big ending and sort of brings it all together as a big crescendo. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the show.”

As with their gigs, the diversity of blindr’s debut EP shows this fully, and effectively self-managed band being experimental. It’s too early for them to say which musical direction it might lead them, and there’s no problem with that according to Caldwell.

“I think that so long as the ingredients are the same and we enjoy playing it, it’s blindr, right? So long as Charlie’s in the pocket it’s blindr, you know! So that’s kind of where I sit. And so, I’ll keep writing music that inspires me and that I like to listen to, and hopefully other people like it too, I guess.”

Photos by Samantha Davies