The Blameless Project
Interview With Scot Thompson
Rockin’ Interviews: How did you get your start in music?
Scot Thompson: “It goes back as far as I can remember and I’m not a kid. I’ve always enjoyed singing but high school was when I really started meeting musicians with the same taste in music: rock. One of the kids I knew in school was the bass player of a local band in Ridgefield, CT, where I grew up. He asked me to audition for the band and I got in. We played the battle of the bands and I have been in bands ever since. I was a sophomore in high school.”
R.I. - Can you talk about the formation of The Blameless Project?
S.T: “In 2012, I started getting these ideas about the word blameless. In the Bible, the word blameless talks a lot about how God sees us. A lot of people have self-esteem issues. I got this idea of starting a band and being genuine with my music and writing what I like. So then I decided to call it The Blameless Project and encourage people while bringing the rock. Similar to the attitude of Michael Sweet (Stryper), we’re a rock band, we don’t hide our faith, we write about it because we’re passionate about it. We want to give something good to people that will build them up rather than tear them down, but also give them the music that makes you want to bang your head and pump your fist.”
R.I. - What is different about you new album in comparison to your previous album?
S.T: “That is a great question. The first album was really a compilation of songs I had written over the years and some other songs I had written with Charlie, our rhythm guitar player and other vocalist. He and I write a lot together. We were just learning as we went and accepted a lot of things about it that we wouldn’t accept today, but we’re proud of it. This time, the album had a lot more meaning, the songs have a lot more meaning to us, we have a real cool cover on there that most of us in the band grew up playing at church and we rocked it out. We worked in a studio here in Connecticut with Roger Filgate, a long time friend of mine, he was in the third band I was in, and we moved to L.A. to pursue music years and years ago. He engineered the album and that made a personal connection and that also made this album a lot different than the first album. The band members are more solidified with this record, Frank is our seventh drummer, and he gave us the foundation we needed and changed the whole sound.”
R.I. - Do you find writing or singing to come easier?
S.T: “Writing flows a lot easier but singing is something I have to work on because it’s a muscle. I have to work on it that way so I can sing 20-30 songs in a show and not lose my voice. I’ll be somewhere and music will just pop, I’ll get a pen and a paper and just start writing. The writing is a little bit easier than singing because I have to put a little bit more work into the singing part.”
R.I. - What are you most looking forward to with the release of this album?
S.T: “Getting it out to a lot more people than the first album using social media, it’s gonna be everywhere. You name it, it’ll be there: Amazon, Spotify, iTunes. I think there are at least 30 places you;ll be able to find the record. This time we are going to do our best to market it across the country and to other countries as well. We’re really excited to make it happen.”
R.I. - How was it opening for Stryper?
S.T: “That was a dream come true. When my wife told me about Jesus and, as they say, I got saved, I thought music was over for me. My wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, gave me a Stryper cassette and I listened to it and said, ‘This is Christian?’ and she said, ‘Yeah, this is Christian’. I was like, I’m in. Listening to Michael Sweet has helped me grow as a musician and as a Christian, all my life. When we got the opportunity to open for them, it was a dream come true for all of us in the band and we hope to do it again.”
R.I. - What is the hardest thing about being a Christian rock band?
S.T: “That is a great question. Stryper isn’t a band that plays Christian festivals and events, they are out there playing clubs, we want to get out there. It’s hard to do that as a new band because they don’t know you. We go to as many clubs as we can to introduce our music. We try to mix in some covers that people are familiar with. We can get our style of music out there because most of our shows in 2019 were not Christian events. We’re back at The Chance Theater in November opening for an Ozzy Tribute. When we opened for Stryper there, a lot of people followed up with us.”
R.I. - Since you are coming up on 5 years as a band, what do you look forward to in the future?
S.T: “Bigger events coming up starting in 2020. As a Christian rock band, we have played a lot of coffeehouses and sometimes there are more people in the band than in the crowd. I’ve known from the beginning that we were built for bigger things. We’ve paid a lot of dues.”
R.I. - What is the one thing you want people to know about your band?
S.T: “That is a deep question. It’s a privilege to answer a question like that. We want people to know that we are serious and passionate about our faith but we aren’t coming out there to tell people that they should be Christian, that’s not our purpose or our job. I read the Bible a lot and I’ll wake up and be inspired to write lyrics. People who go to Stryper shows don’t necessarily go to Church and they go to the shows because they know that Michael Sweet isn’t going to come out and condemn them and that’s what we want for us. Not that we are trying to be Stryper because we’re not, we are The Blameless Project, we’re trying to be who we are, but we agree with that approach. To me, if you’re calling yourself a Christian band, you’re putting yourself in a box we are a rock band. I’d rather write about things I’m passionate about and that I believe in rather than making stuff up to attract people on a false premise.”
R.I. - Anything else you want to include?
S.T: “I wanted to talk about some of the band’s musical influences. I was an arrogant Led Zeppelin fan in high school, girls wouldn’t date me because I wouldn’t play top 40. It’s gonna be Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, maybe Journey, but if you wanna ride in this car, we’re gonna rock. If it was disco, no, if it was top 40, no. I’m a little more open-minded now, but those were our influences. Charlie grew up in the church, he was never exposed to any of the cover songs we do. But he’s not against playing those songs.”
