Q&A: Blondshell at Hinterland
WITH JUST A MICROPHONE AND A VISION — Blondshell allows her music to speak the words that she, Sabrina Teitelbaum, otherwise cannot say. Music has always been a release for Blondshell, who has been open with her struggles throughout life. Her indie-rock sound touches on topics like body image, love, sobriety, and more, which not only allows her to better relate to the world around her but brings in listeners, who are also looking for a similar sense of community.
The Blondshell persona gives Teitelbaum the chance to talk about the things she feels the most passionate about. If she doesn’t feel overly excited or especially angry about a topic, then she knows it isn’t worth writing about. Her childhood in New York City pushed her further into music, while her move to becoming Los Angeles–based introduced Teitelbaum to a community of like-minded artists who helped support and uplift her career.
Sans flashy outfits or exaggerated stage design, Blondshell dresses in her favorite and comfiest clothing and jumps on stage to give it her all. Her music is strong enough to carry an entire set and captivate an audience of waiting fans. Blondshell isn’t just for Teitelbaum — it’s for any person who needs an escape from the real world.
Between a variety of festival appearances and before jumping on tour with Glass Animals next month, we had the opportunity to chat with Blondshell at Hinterland Music Festival in St. Charles, Iowa. We dived deeper into Teitelbaum’s history, understood how Blondshell came to be, and learned about what’s coming next. Read it all below.
LUNA: Tell us a little bit more about who you are as a person and as a musician for someone who might not be familiar with you.
BLONDSHELL: I’m Blondshell, and my name is Sabrina. I grew up in New York and I make indie-rock music.
LUNA: How did you come up with the Blondshell name?
BLONDSHELL: The Blondshell name isn’t that interesting, to be honest. My sister and I were kind of throwing things out there and being like, “Okay, what about this? What about this? Blonde… blah blah blah,” and then we ended up getting to it and it felt really right. I think a lot of those things, it can feel really intimidating to come up with an artist's name, but it was kind of a gut check. It just felt right to me and so we stuck with it.
LUNA: Were there any rejects?
BLONDSHELL: Oh my god, so many. You’ll never know.
LUNA: What about any contenders?
BLONDSHELL: One of the first months I was wondering if it actually sounds right. I asked some of my friends what they thought and a couple said that they didn’t like it. I was like, “Okay, I know that I should do it because even though you said that, I still want to do it.” Normally I would take their word, but I felt so strongly about it that I wanted to do it anyway.
LUNA: Looking into your music journey, has music always been a part of your life or did you fall into it?
BLONDSHELL: It’s always been the biggest thing in my life. I was really obsessed with music and listening to music as a kid. It was like a person in my life or something where the relationship has changed and grown. It’s always been the most important thing in my life, other than people.
LUNA: What really drives your music? You mentioned you make indie rock — do you feel tied to that genre, or do you enjoy playing around with your sound? What inspires you?
BLONDSHELL: I feel really inspired by anything that I feel conflicted about. If I know that I feel a specific way — like I feel really good about something or I feel exclusively bad about something — writing for me is something that helped me figure out how I feel about it. Just anything really intense, if I feel sort of tepid about something, then I’m not really going to write about it.
LUNA: Where are you from?
BLONDSHELL: Originally, New York.
LUNA: You grew up surrounded by a big music scene. How do you think that's influenced you as an artist? Do you take your New York roots with you or have you been a nomad as you’ve toured and picked up different things in various cities?
BLONDSHELL: I feel it a lot. I feel the New York stuff and I think having the nerve to do any of this, like get on stage when something you don’t feel perfect or have an insecurity, so growing up in New York when there’s so much going on all the time you’re forced to be confrontational and build up confidence in a certain way. I think that affects things for me. I’ve also lived in LA for a really long time, like eight years or something, and that’s where I found a music community. I didn’t have that growing up.
LUNA: Do you think the music scene in New York pushed you into music or do you believe if you were based elsewhere, it would’ve still been so important to you?
BLONDSHELL: It’s hard to say. The only thing that I know is what happened, but I think the way I feel about music is really kind of chemical for me, so I feel like it would probably be the same. But who’s to say?
LUNA: If someone were to have just found Blondshell and they wanted to listen to one song that really encapsulated your career, what song would it be?
BLONDSHELL: “Sepsis.” The way I feel about that song sort of summarizes the entire album. It’s my favorite song on that album, and I’d say to start there.
LUNA: You had previously posted about singing “Kiss City” in front of family members with the song’s lyrics. Has it gotten any easier?
BLONDSHELL: No!
LUNA: Did mentioning it make it worse?
BLONDSHELL: Yeah, my grandma confronted me about it. I mean, she was so nice, like, yeah, you know, “I’m a cool grandma.” It’s just a boundary thing. When you’re writing music and performing it, you end up not getting the boundaries that you would choose in that live stage experience. It’s just past it all, and so I’m getting used to it.
LUNA: When you present as Blondshell on stage, it’s usually just you and a microphone. There isn’t a crazy light display or any flashy costumes, you just let the music speak. Why did you choose to let the music be the focus of the shows?
BLONDSHELL: I’ve actually tried in the past and tried out different things. I wondered, what if I dress up for a show? What if I try to be a bigger version of myself and it just never feels right for me. There’s some people and artists where that is how they shine and in their mind, that’s who they want to be. They’re making it come to life and it’s really beautiful, but that’s not who I am as an artist. I feel best when I am wearing exactly what I would wear at home or with my friends, and I talk the way I talk. It’s not this big theatrical thing just because I don’t feel like anybody other than myself.
LUNA: With where you are at in your career, do you feel the opinions of critics or other artists to switch things up? Or, since you’ve done this for so long, do you feel concrete in who you are?
BLONDSHELL: I just don’t think it would come off well if I tried to be somebody else, and that’s the truth. I wanted to be a musician for a really long time and so I tried a lot of stuff. The main takeaway that I had was that it’s a pain in the ass and it doesn’t come off well when you try to be somebody else. I tried to be like other people and it just didn’t work.
LUNA: What can we expect to see from Blondshell going forward?
BLONDSHELL: New music, very soon! I have a song that’s coming out very soon and I’m working on another album.
LUNA: Is there anything you can share?
BLONDSHELL: Secret!
LUNA: Okay, then we’ll just have to wait!
