Blind Eliza Single Launch Show

Northern Beaches band Blind Eliza are not what you expect for a bunch of hard rock musicians.

Fresh off winning this year’s Northern Composure Band Competition hosted by Northern Beaches Council, 20-year-old Harry Hagop, 19-year-old Sean Mulligan, 21-year-old Ross Thomson and 19-year-old Valentin Delerue invited the Northern Beaches Advocate to join Blind Eliza for a practice session at The Factory Studios in Mona Vale on Sunday, 07 May.

Meeting the band for the first time, it becomes apparent they defy the stereotype. This is not a group of hard rock fans who decided to form a band, it is a group of purposeful musicians with a variety of tastes and musical talents.

At various times since rock music was born in the 1950s, bands have had success with music that emphasises the electric guitar, but a lot of hard rock music relies on raw force more than raw talent.

Blind Eliza is setting out to be a breakthrough band in the genre, and with two singles released already, ‘Over My Way’ and ‘Thirst For Gold’, their music is like a wine that evokes notes of great vintages.

There are clear influences from the Seattle sound of the 1990s, with nods to Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Evanescence and Pearl Jam, but also local tones from the likes of Spiderbait and Silverchair. Despite the obvious heritage, their sound remains their own and is not derivative.

None of the four recent high-school graduates knew each other before joining Blind Eliza, attending different schools and mixing in different friend groups.

Like a plot-line from The Blues Brothers, band founder and guitarist Harry Hagop from Warriewood (image above) said he embarked on a mission to put the band together, seeking like-minded musicians who were committed to the process of making great music.

“I was at Freshwater Senior Campus [Curl Curl] for my last years of high school, and it was a really, really good school, and I had a phenomenal music teacher who encouraged me to pursue music further during my HSC.

“I decided I wanted to be in a band. The hardest thing to find for the sort of music I was going to work towards, was going to be a lead singer.

“I messaged a few people from other bands and a few people who knew people, but at the end of the day, I ended up getting in contact with Sean.

“I remembered seeing him about two or three years earlier at a concert at Narrabeen Sports High. They had a music search showcase night, and Sean was performing.

“Sean popped into my head, and I got in contact with his ex-girlfriend, to get his contacts. He met up in my garage about a week later, we played some music together, and we agreed that we wanted to go somewhere,” said Harry.

As the new lead singer for a hard rock band, Sean Mulligan from North Curl Curl (image above and below) has a surprising musical background.

“I started singing Latin Opera at St Augustine’s College [Brookvale]. From there, I took a pop route, very mainstream music, listening to what was on the radio.

“I was at a point where I was going to give up on music because I just didn’t find much inspiration from it. So I became a tradie, doing carpentry,” said Sean.

“Harry texted me out of the blue. He started playing a genre of music I’d never heard properly before. He played Finnish rock bands called Santa Cruz and Shiraz Lane.

“He introduced me to this new genre of music and I was just blown away by it. I love the sound of it — the flaring guitars, drum solos and the singers with their ranges and techniques.

“It was so different to anything I’d heard. When I heard the grunt in Chris Cornell or Kurt Cobain’s voice, I wanted to start working towards shaping my sound like that. It really took my interest,” shared Sean.

Harry needed a drummer to underpin the band’s rhythm, and for his hard rock sound, he turned to jazz drummer Valentin Delerue from Warriewood (image above). Valentin said he had likewise been struggling to find a band who shared his commitment, when a message from Harry popped up on his social media.

“I did this thing called Friday Live at my school [Pittwater High, Mona Vale]. I’d always fill in for random people who needed a drummer. I spent a long time trying to form bands, whether it be jazz bands, rock bands, funk bands, whatever it may be.

“It was always really hard to find people that were committed enough to want to make music. I reached the point where I just played for fun, to see what happens.

“It was when I was not looking for it, that Harry came to me. I was doing a drum battle, and we were playing on the courtyard, and there were a lot of people watching, someone was filming and Harry saw it.

“He was a random person who popped up on my social media. I remember the first day I met him to do a rehearsal, he came to pick me up. I opened the car door, and there is blaring metal music that I’m not used to because I’m a jazz drummer.

“He’s got the super long hair, the singlets and jewellery. He said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ and was so lovely, I was so taken by it,” said Valentin.

“Harry immediately felt like a great leader, and someone who had a level of commitment that I’d never seen in other musicians. Most of the musicians that I’ve worked with were sort of the stereotype.

“It was really hard to find someone who was keen on making music and making it a living. Also the fact that I was in the middle of school and in the middle of COVID, there was just a lot of things not going my way in terms of finding that. Then I found Harry and this project,” praised Valentin.

As to how he feels about jazz mixing with hard rock, Valentin pulls no punches.

“Not to say I am the world’s greatest drummer, but I would argue the world’s best drummers, certainly the best I have heard in my lifetime, are jazz,” declared Valentin.

Demonstrating the band’s professional attitude, Harry Hagop said their fourth band member, guitarist Ross Thomson from Wahroonga (image above, left and below), joined after a previous band member did not meet the required level of commitment they were aiming for.

“We initially had a different guitar player, but he was uncommitted. I don’t expect the world from anyone, but at the very least, you need to come to practice and he didn’t.

“I first saw Ross on a zoom call during lockdown, when he was playing guitar. Then we met at a party,” said Harry.

Coming out of COVID lockdowns and the impact that had on live music, Ross Thomson said he was immediately struck by the professional approach of the band members, and the willingness to invest in becoming successful.

“What we get out of this is definitely related to what we’re willing to put in. My initial expectations weren’t that high, but the more we practiced and the more weekends we gave up, the more we saw the results.

“Once we started playing gigs, we played a few pretty good ones, especially towards the end of last year. One that we played at the Factory Theatre [Marrickville] when we released ‘Over My Way’, was a really good gig.

“The band before us, there were maybe like five people in the room. So, we wondered if anyone was going to show up. We have played gigs before when almost no one showed up.

“I was setting up all our stuff on stage and someone said my name. I looked up and a mate who I didn’t think was going to come had rocked up, and the room was half full already. After that we were buzzing for the next two days, because we had such a good gig,” said Ross.

When asked about the creative inspiration behind the band’s name and logo, Harry Hagop said both originated from a doodle he did one day in high school, with stylised eyes that had been crossed out.

“It all stems from the eyes logo, I had a vision of the girl. I think I drew that in Year 11 in my math textbook, I thought nothing of it but it looked cool.

“I wanted to use it, and because it looks like eyes, we experimented with different meanings of the word blind. That’s pretty much where the options for a name stemmed from, and Blind Eliza was the one we ended up settling on,” explained Harry.

The Northern Composure Band Competition win on 28 April, is affirmation for the band they are headed in the right direction, and motivation to continue building on their success. Drummer Valentin Delerue says Blind Eliza is looking at how they treat the band as a business as well as their passion.

“I think I speak for all of us to say, I have fallen in love with the process of progressing this band, and we never want to rely on luck. You hear so many stories of musicians who blow up [overnight success], but that’s not how life works,”said Valentin.

Harry agreed, saying every overnight success is directly related to the work put in.

“They’ve put work in somewhere, then managed to bump into someone or have someone notice something. That’s what got them there. People look at it like, that was a lucky opportunity. Sure, but there’s all that work, it’s a domino reaction. It’s very rare, if at all, someone does something great from nothing,” said Harry.

In terms of managing the business of the band, the team look to the example set by multi-ARIA award-winning artists Parkway Drive, a Byron Bay metalcore band who manage their own affairs. Valentin says Blind Eliza is reinvesting earnings into their growth.

“Every cent that we make never goes to us as individuals. We have a band account and we manage all our spendings back into the process, as a unit. I think it’s been a really smart decision.

“We look at Parkway Drive as a good example. We’re trying to stay as autonomous as possible, and keep the workload to ourselves,” said Valentin.

Harry agreed, saying the example set by Parkway Drive showed them it was possible to run the band professionally, allowing them to retain full control of their music.

“That is super cool to us, because we can look at that and know, this is a band that is running something that some pop artists would dream of having.

“They have come so far in terms of running what is essentially a large business and an international business. It is amazing how serious they take it, how much effort they put into it, and it’s very inspiring to us,” said Harry.

The holistic way in which the band is committed to their music, and the process of making it, belies their age and defies expectations. It could be the time for hard rock has come again, and Blind Eliza are the next big thing.

- via Northern Beaches Advocate