Blonder is the project of Constantine Anastasakis and his new release, the Crystal Ball EP, sees him returning to a more pop oriented sound while simultaneously foraying into the psych rock world. The six songs on the Crystal Ball EP deal with themes of sobriety, substance abuse, romantic musings, and a critique on the notion of a “career” in music.
Most of us are sequestered in our homes, doing our part to slow the spread of COVID-19. That includes some of our favorite artists, so we’re asking them to tell us about one thing — a book, a movie, a record, whatever — that’s helping them get through this difficult time.
I’m in a town called Oyster Bay, on Long Island. It’s like 30 minutes from the city. I live here alone, so I’m also insanely quarantined here. At first it was a little weird, but I kind of got into it and I appreciate this weird thing where FOMO is not an issue.
I’m on a news diet, trying to separate the stuff on the news from the marketing of the news. And trying to weed out information from the alarmism — that’s been an interesting thing for me. It’s made me feel way more sane. I also do yoga. I’ve been doing it for years, so I’m into it. It’s the most miraculous stress reliever.
And I’m also going for drives. I have a little car that I wrote about on this new EP, a song called “Brand New Car.” It’s a ’99 Accord that I got from my grandma, but it’s in near factory shape. The roads around here are beautiful and they’re winding and they’re totally unpopulated. That’s one little break in my day. I don’t go on too crazy a drive, maybe 30-45 minutes. I’ll usually go to a beach or get out and walk on the Long Island Sound. I like to see some water, it helps to chill me out. Maybe listen to a little music in the car. To be completely honest, it’s usually my own music I’m working on. I hadn’t listened to this EP that’s coming out in a couple of months, and I just put it on. I listened to two songs off my own record. [Laughs.]
Besides that, I have a really weird set of listening habits right now. I feel weird about new music in general. There’s a hilarious country music artist from Nashville named Ernest, he has a song called “Locals Only,” which puts me in a good mood. More seriously, I listened to Marilyn Manson’s “The Dope Show” yesterday and it was a lot better than I expected it to be. I had no idea how labored over those songs are. They’re really beautiful.
