We chatted to vocalist Billy Douglas from Birmingham based alternative band Blood Dealer about their brand-new music and upcoming tour.
I have to ask, where did the band name Blood Dealer come from?
To be honest, me, Charlie, and Will, the sort of founding members. We were in a band that no one could pronounce. We’re like, we need to change up this band name, so we literally kind of all just threw names in a hat, and that’s the one that we sort of picked out. It’s a bit dark and mysterious, aggressive and I think that kind of matches the energy of the music. So, it kind of a bit of a chicken and egg situation, where it’s like the name was there, and now the music’s there’s and it makes sense.
You’ve recently released your single ‘Jealousy’. Which feels like a personal song, how do you write about things personally?
Oh yeah, definitely. The song sort of came about, I was in a bit of a rough place, and everybody does that thing where they go on Instagram or any social media. I started doing a lot of self comparison, and you go, ‘why am I not there?’ or ‘why, haven’t I got these opportunities?’ or ‘why am I not as far along in life as these guys?’ or whatever it may be. So, instead of ‘Jealousy’ being about how we can get jealous in relationships and things like that. I wanted to write it something a bit more internal. Something that’s a bit more like, ‘When am I going to get my break?’, ‘When am I going to be heard?’. What I’ve been involved with and what’s going on around me and and not letting that comparison win. It’s all kind of based around that ideology.
Do you think that’s kind of like a release for you to write about personal things that have you gone through?
Yeah, absolutely. I think that in our earlier work, we were writing about what was around us rather than what was in us. I think it’s been really, really relieving. It’s about stuff that actually resonates, not with just us, but with a load of other people as well, it’s definitely refreshing.
What would be the starter pack for Blood Dealer? How would you describe your sound and what like track would you give them to listen to?
I love that question. I definitely give them ‘Jealousy’. We have a couple of new songs coming out. But ‘Jealousy’ right now defines who we are in terms of the sound and the R&B-poppy stuff with the metal. It just sort of showcases that really well.
I’d describe this as, fun, chaotic darkness, that’s sort of the better blend. We want to keep it fun and light-hearted, but there’s definitely a darker level to it. So it’s like a dark romantic novel.
What do you personally listen to to inspire this sound?
We listen to a real massive range of artists, ones we sort of throw in the middle because we all have different tastes, right? We listen to bands like Chase Atlantic, Bad Omens, Sleep Token, Premium Horizon. These obviously humongous staple metal bands, but also like Chase Atlantic Kalani, who are very like R&B orientated.
We have a lot of hip-hop as well, like Kendrick. We all meet in the middle in those sort of areas – it’s good to have a range.
How would you describe your writing process when writing your songs?
It depends, sometimes it’s just an idea where we want to tackle this issue, or we want to say a particular thing. Sometimes it doesn’t start with the idea, and whether that feeds into the lyrics first or the instrumental kind of it takes on the mood really.
It’s mostly me and my guitarist, Charlie. We work very, very well together. We’d sit down and pick each others brains, and we try and write a bit more ‘out of the box’ and see what we can bring to the table. We try and do something a little bit different each time, it’s a bit complicated, but the fundamental of it is havingthe idea and trying to sort of bring that to life. I definitely need Charlie when writing.
You first released music back in 2021, so it’s been a few years now! What would you say you’ve learned from the music industry since that first release?
Incredible question. I guess to not being afraid to ”just do and ‘just put out’. I think that a lot of our biggest obstacles have been time. A lot of that time you spend procrastinating and sort of going, ‘What’s the right move, is this the right sound?’ I think that the biggest thing that we’ve changed is being way more consistent with our music and what we want to put out. We’re just doing more. Social media is such a huge learning curve in the industry right now, especially in metal music, where you know bands who are known for being dark. And you know, mysterious? Having that image on a platform that is completely about authenticity. We’re fortunate enough to be in the position where we’re kind of like that in our music and in our in our content as well. We don’t really have that obstacle, but there are definitely fans out there who and you have to adapt to that new concept of breaking that fourth wall and being vulnerable.
You social media approach feeds the dark romantic audience, suiting your music perfectly. Did you discover that algorithm or fall into it?
With ‘Jealousy’, we knew that that was going to be a direction. We were going to go in musically, so it just so happens that it sort of kind of went hand in hand, especially with songs like ‘Lasttimeicried’ as well, which is again very, not so much romantic, but definitely around those themes. We kind of fell into it because we saw that a lot of our fans were into romance novels, and quite frankly, so are we. So it just was like a common ground that we found. It’s quite good because there’s a mutual connection with your audience already, without having that live interaction yet. We’ve got like fans asking us what book we’re reading right now, and things like that. I like having that. That connectivity and relatability, where we can just be, like, yeah, ‘we both like the same things, let’s just build this community together’.
Your social media is also designed consistently with a red theme, what’s the thought process here?
We sort of want it to be more of a visual representation of how the music makes you feel. Red can be quite sexy and it can be quite aggressive and fearful. We wanted to have a colour that represented all the things that the music would make you feel. We wanted a little bit of danger, a little bit of spice, you know, mixing that tube.
I think it’s just the colour that works for us really well. We’re quite fun and energetic guys, but we think that it just sets the tone for the music perfectly. So, just having that blend again is just so right for us.
Do you have any members of bands or bands in general that you’d like to collaborate with?
I’d love to collab with someone really left field. Like Justin Bieber or something. I’d really love to go with someone really obscure. I’d love the questions of ‘Why are you collaborating with them?’ and you’re like, ‘why not?!’
You have an EP coming out on 30th May. What can we expect from it?
The EP is called Designer Antichrist. I think is a great title to how it sounds. It has a lot of themes of gold and sparkly luxury, not in a literal sense, but in sort of like a metaphoric sense. Its that dark and romantic essence that we have in our music as well. So, you’re going to hear a lot more of what ‘Jealousy’, ‘Lasttimeicried’ and ‘Crossfire’ has to offer. We’ve got a little surprise in there as well for everybody, that has something to do with ‘Jealousy’, so that’s going to be very interesting!
How do you think these collide within a live show?
I think that it creates an environment of safety. It allows you to feel that this is a safe space to to let yourself go and and have fun with us. While there’s this element of mystery and dark, brooding, undertones. It’s still music at the end of the day, and it’s still gotta be fun! It’ll make you want to sing your heart too, so I feel like as people we allow that space to be created and allow that freedom. We take ourselves very seriously, but not too seriously.
We’re going to be doing five five dates at the end of July. We’re heading over to Wales, too. That’s gonna be very exciting. We’re from the West Midlands, but for some reason, London just loves us. So, we’re so excited to be finally playing a show there. It gives the fans something to join in on, and party with us.
Have you had to think about how those shows will look?
Yeah, we’ve started the rehearsal process. This is our first headliner so we want to get it right. We are very authentic and we want that to come through in a live show too.
Where do you want Blood Dealer to be in a years time?
I definitely would like a few tours under our belt. Maybe some Europe shows? I’ve been to Europe a couple of times, and I’d absolutely love to take Blood Dealer over there. That would be amazing, and I would love an album out. We are in the process of writing that, so that’s very exciting. I think we will definitely be having some new music out in that time. It’s a very exciting time!
Catch Blood Dealer on their first UK headliner this July, tickets are available now.