A Chestermere musician nominated for YYC Music Award says the nomination proves he is doing something right in the Calgary music scene.
Benevolent Like Quietus (BLQ) has been nominated for the YYC Music Award Metal Recording of the Year, for their single that was released earlier this year “Where Dead Hearts Reside.”
Chestermere musician, and bass guitarist for BLQ, Killian Murphy said he feels pride, gratitude and appreciation for the hard work the other creatives have put into the band.
“All our friends like [“Where Dead Hearts Reside”] but to hear that people who we don’t know also like it, and understand what we’re trying to do, and what we’re working towards is a really cool feeling,” Murphy said.
Murphy joined BLQ organically two years ago, after his girlfriend heard that the two founding members of the band were writing songs and looking for new musicians who shared the same goals.
“It was just like-minded people meeting up. Right place right time,” Murphy said.
For as long as Murphy can remember he has always been playing guitar to different songs at home.
“I listened to this music my whole life, my mom listened to it, she was a bit of a punk,” Murphy added, “Growing up I listened to Guns N Roses, AC/DC, motorhead — all those guys.”
Murphy participated in battle of the band’s during his middle school career and would frequently go over to friend’s houses and play songs from their favorite bands including Judaist Priest, and Iron Madden.
“We played them terribly, but we had fun with it. That’s all it was for us back in the day, hanging out with your friends and making some noise.”
Although Murphy has a special connection to metal music, after listening to it during his childhood, he wanted something more.
“I didn’t only want to listen to it, I wanted to become part of it in my own way,” Murphy added, “I wanted to create and get people who wouldn’t listen to that type of music to come check us out and realize it’s not scary.
“I eat sleep and breathe this music, if I can travel the world and play this music for people, even if I wasn’t making any money at it, just enough to feed myself and go to India, China, or Australia and play for a bunch of people who want to have some beers and hang out that’s all I can ask for. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy or glorified just everybody have a good time,” he added.
However, BLQ has had to overcome internal challenges throughout the last two years, such as, finding the time to rehearse during hectic schedules, working full time, having families, making sure every band member is on board, doing well, committed, and moving along successfully.
“We do all of our merch and design, we don’t need to rely on anyone else to help us do it,” Murphy said.
Although BLQ has been creating an album for the last two years, the band members all lead regular lives.
Murphy’s everyday life is the same as everyone else’s, he goes to work as a residential carpenter, goes home, and does what he loves doing in between.
“We jam together every week,” Murphy added, “I play guitar everyday if I can, and we show each other what we’re currently listening to, and influence each other.
However, the band has struggled to get out and play live shows without over saturating the music scene, Murphy added.
“Music in Calgary is not as good as it could be, or as it should be, I’m not entirely sure why that would be, but we’ve had some venues in the city close down, and people don’t want to go out to shows as much. It’s a bit of a struggle.”
Murphy said, the band has some good friends who come out and support them, buy merch, and cheer them on.
“It’s good to have that to keep going. When you have good friends, and good people backing you it just helps you through and makes you keep pushing.”
He added, during the summer months it gets easier, since more people want to go out to music festivals.
BLQ recently played the Loud as Hell music festival in Drumheller Alta., which went better than anyone could have expected.
“It was basically just a big head banger family reunion, having a good time and getting loud,” Murphy added, “It was great.”
It’s moments like playing a show and seeing new faces in the crowd, and having people come up to the band later that make all the difficult times worth it, Murphy said.
“It’s a really cool feeling to see people appreciate music as much as I do.
“We have our crazy, heavy, “thrashy” songs, but we also have slower ballad type songs.
“For me, I want people to enjoy themselves, the themes to our songs aren’t overly happy or pleasant, but they make you feel good, there real,” Murphy said.
The themes to the songs are dark or sad, Murphy added, but he hopes that songs can help anyone who is in a dark place know that they are not struggling alone.
BLQ has been working for the last two years recording an album, and the band plans to release their record before the holidays.
“We’ve been working at this for so long, and to be able to hold a physical copy of something that you created and hold it up to all your favorite albums would be the coolest thing,” Murphy said.
“My future right now is this band, there’s a ton of great bands in the city and to be nominated two years in a row is really cool,” Murphy added, “It shows that we’re doing something right.”
Check out BLQ at the Blind Beggar Pub in Calgary on Aug. 24, Murphy added, “Check out our iTunes, Spotify, and lyric video on YouTube if you want to get dark and gloomy.
