Premiere: Blanky’s ‘Oh Frail Memory’ is a fuzzy VHS meditation

Anthony Cunard of Blanky. // photo courtesy the artist

Lawrence indie rockers Blanky has a new record, Idols on the Wall, due out on June 27. The first of three singles from the upcoming album is called “Oh Frail Memory,” and we’ve got the music video for it below, as well as an interview with frontman Anthony Cunard about the album and song to check out after you’ve watched it in all its fuzzy VHS glory.

The Pitch: Idols on the Wall sounds more upbeat than the last record. How has the band changed since 2022’s Blood Harmony?

Anthony Cunard: Having Idols on the Wall be more upbeat than Blood Harmony was a deliberate decision. I never felt that I was able to get the reaction I wanted from an audience while performing the material on Blood Harmony. I wanted people to dance, to let loose, to be transported elsewhere or to a different time but I guess most of my peers didn’t know how to move to a waltz. Thankfully, we’ve had more success inspiring that type of engagement with this new stuff.

Since the release of that record, there have been quite a few major changes in the Blanky camp. Personally, I wanted to do something different, namely to write faster and shorter songs and to experiment with a little less reverb. Numerous member changes have also occurred since our last release and they’ve most definitely influenced the shift in style. Founding member Max Smith left for New York to pursue tattooing. Atticus Von Holten replaced Max Yoder on bass and then subsequently left to move to Chicago. Jacob Eckardt joined the band on drums and Edward Madill, who contributed to Blood Harmony with some guitar work, moved out to Lawrence from Philly to join the band full time.

Edward Madill and Jacob Eckardt of Blanky. // photo courtesy the artist

“Oh Frail Memory” has lyrics which feel as though they’re positive, but that title makes me think that it might be the sort of positivity borne out of not learning from past experiences. Is that an accurate perception?

Yeah, I’d say that’s accurate. The song is about letting go and learning to not hold on to the past, a lesson I’ve had to learn over and over again. It’s also about accepting the inherent and constant change that comes with life. The lyrics were partially inspired by my dad’s journey with Alzheimers but I kept the wording vague enough for the song to be open to interpretation. I hope people can connect with it in their own way.

Tracks on this album date all the way back to nearly two years ago. What has the process of making the record been like?

This record has been a long time in the making and quite an experiment. I think with all of the membership changes it took a while to figure out what everyone’s strengths were and to fully realize what this iteration of the project was going to be. Change has sort of been a hallmark of the band since its inception. Every Blanky record sounds different from all the previous releases but there are definitely some throughlines across the discography. Once I’ve been put in a box, I usually want to get out.

We wrote a lot of songs over the past few years and even recorded a full album’s worth of material down in Asheville, North Carolina, but after sitting with it for a few months we decided it wasn’t quite the direction we wanted to move in. We then wrote some more songs and chose to track and produce them ourselves. The result of that endeavor is the album we’ll be releasing on vinyl this June.