Why You Should Drop What You're Doing and Listen to Blankslate

When the indie-rock trio Blankslate plays the hi-dive on Thursday, August 8, it will have fresh sounds to share. The band was one of our standout sets at the Underground Music Showcase, and if that was a teaser of what's to come, then live-music lovers are in for something special.

For one thing, the local band has a new voice in Cameron Cade, known for her indie-folk-leaning solo work. Cade recently stepped in as lead singer alongside founding members Tess Condron (drums and keys) and Rylee Dunn (guitar and bass); at the beginning of the summer, Blankslate was just getting started with the season's shows when its longtime former vocalist dropped out of a gig. That exit included the band by the end of the night.

"The situation was dramatic," says Condron. She received the news on the way home from the concert with Dunn, who agrees that "there were a lot of pretty big feelings in that moment." For six years, Blankslate had been on the come-up — perfecting its brand of smart, emotional rock (by turns grunge-y, punky and folky), building a loyal fan base and touring steadily after 2022's well-received debut, Summer on a Salt Flat.
The departure brought things briefly to a hard stop during an exciting time for the band. It was lined up for a slew of summer shows, in the middle of prepping a sophomore album, Lookout Mountain Charley (with cover art courtesy of William Schaff), and about to drop the re-tracked single of "a fragile thing" (one of Salt Flat's standouts), produced by Friendly Collective's ego of ego n friends. The hi-dive show on Thursday will include openers ego n friends as well as hellocentral.

Songs from Lookout Mountain Charley are the other new element cropping up in the band's current sets, which would have displayed a changing sound even without Cade entering the picture. "I like to think of our last album as a breakup album," says Dunn. "This album has basically just been the inverse of that: It's been about falling in love." The result is a suite of songs they say is more upbeat and hopeful than Salt Flat, "while still feeling raw," adds Condron.

"I really wanted to move away from more of our folkier stuff," continues Dunn. "I think on our last album, there were a lot of songs that were really built around a finger-picked guitar line, or something like that. For this one, I really thought about what would be a fun song to play live, almost every song. I was like...'What could be the absolute most fun to just rip?'" "Ripping" has been very much on the menu since Cade joined up following an early-summer meetup and cram session. 

"Cameron was insane, and learned ten of our songs or something in a matter of quite literally ten days," says Condron. After that, it was a whirlwind week of appearances, starting with a headlining set at the first-ever Montrose Pride Celebration, followed by concerts in Telluride, Colorado Springs and Boulder. Despite the nail-biting timing, the new bandmates quickly began to gel.

"It really has felt like a blessing in disguise, because [playing with her] has been amazing," Dunn says. "We just kind of lucked into this really beautiful partnership and kind of new phase of the band [that] we didn't even realize we were missing."

When the shakeup happened, Dunn "had an inkling" that the situation might be worth discussing with Cade. There had already been plans for her to open the hi-dive show, and they'd developed a mutual admiration after sharing a Sofar Sounds gig. Blankslate had been "blown away by her musicianship: vocals, songwriting, all the things," says Condron. For her part, Cade thought, "They're the coolest band I've ever seen."

"I was just like, 'I wanna reach out to Cameron and see if she wants to just meet up and see what's up,'" recalls Dunn.

"But she was the only person we reached out to. We didn't have a backup plan," she adds with a laugh. "I was just like 'All right, we'll see if she's interested. If not, I don't know what we're gonna do."
Cade was hesitant at first; she was already in the middle of juggling her solo career with a five-day work week, and worried that she wouldn't be able to devote enough time to the band. In the end, she dove in. Blankslate's music has always been written by Condron and Dunn, with Dunn contributing lyrics, as well, so from the outset, Cade knew that her voice, style and contributions would be a change. She was imagining something along the lines of "Mazzy Star, because you have that grunge backing, then the vocals are kind of floating on top."

"I was definitely a little nervous," she says. "But I knew going into it that my voice was so different that it wasn't going to be a matter of matching; it was going to be a matter of seeing what new thing we could bring." Dunn says that she's found the change to be invigorating. "I find myself falling in love with these songs again," she says. "It feels like bringing another really talented musician into the fray and letting them work with the template that we create between the two of us."

Summer crowds have swooned as well. After the set in Montrose, they were rushed by fans begging for signatures. "I've never signed anything," admits Cade. "I almost used my government name, and I was like 'Oh, wait.' It was crazy."
Another milestone was last week's UMS appearance, Blankslate's first Denver show with the new lineup, where fans embraced both the new band as well as the new material. "It was really cool to see so many faces that I've seen at Blankslate shows throughout the years, and people singing along to our old songs," says Dunn. "The reception was really warm."

Lookout Mountain Charley's title comes from one of Dunn's childhood inspirations, folk-hero Mountain Charley, a colorful nineteenth-century figure reputedly killed by one of Barnum and Bailey's elephants. "We kind of looked into him more, and we found these other two Mountain Charleys that actually hit a little closer to home," Dunn says. The first was a decorated Civil War spy who after his death was "discovered to be a trans man, and he had lived his entire life as a man, and no-one had ever questioned him about that." The other was a woman who assumed the identity of a man to hunt down her husband's murderer. She eventually followed him to Colorado and was successful in exacting revenge.

That explanation makes reference to Blankslate's reputation as one of the best LGBTQ+ groups in the area, one thing that hasn't changed for the band during this tumultuous summer. "The three of us all identify as queer in one way or another," says Dunn. "[But] at the end of the day, we're a band, and we make music that feels resonant to us. ... In my opinion, these are two of the best musicians I've ever seen in my life."

"The fact that they're queer women obviously is amazing and important," Dunn attests, but she says what's just as important is that "[Condron is] an incredible drummer and [Cade is] an incredible musician. ... There are definitely times where people are like, 'You guys are my favorite queer band,' and I'm like "All right, but I want to be your favorite band!"

Blankslate, with ego n friends and hellocentral, 7 p.m. Thursday, August 8, hi-dive, 7 South Broadway. Tickets, $15, are available at hi-dive.com.