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Together with American Songwriter and Sean Ulbs of The Eiffels, we had the pleasure of interviewing Blame My Youth over Zoom video!
As his debut single “Fantastic” climbs to 5 million global streams and reaches the top 40 at Active Rock radio, Blame My Youth (Sean Van Vleet) shares a new song, the emotionally charged “Go To Sleep.” The song is a rock interpolation of an old folktale “Didn’t Nobody Leave But the Baby.” The track was made popular by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch who did a traditional version for the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack. Van Vleets take on the song was inspired by his days on the road and he says, “Like most Blame My Youth songs, ‘Go To Sleep’ tries to find a bit of hope in a shitty situation. It’s a love letter sent home to someone who probably deserves better.”
As with earlier song “Dance With My Demons” and the perfectly-crafted modern rock banger “Fantastic,” “Go To Sleep” was produced Billboard’s #1 producer Joey Moi. The two also collaborated on Right Where You Belong,” which was written and recorded exclusively for the GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack to Bill And Ted Face The Music – it played during the movie’s closing credits – and marked the debut of Blame My Youth.
Van Vleet is not only busy with Blame My Youth — he is credited with writing 2 other singles out today – Octavio the Dweeb’s “Someday I’ll Be Happy,” and Mating Rituals’ “SONG TITLE.” Further he has six new songs on NVDES new album Psychomagic (also out today) and 11 songs on the latest Fitz album Head up High including the last single “Head Up High” and the current single “Congratulations (feat. Bryce Vine).”
About Blame My Youth
Blame My Youth is Van Vleet’s return to the band format, bringing all of the earworm-y grandiosity that permeated his quietly complicated pop gems. Sean Van Vleet first success came with Empires, a Chicago based indie band with several releases, an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman and festival appearances such as Austin City Limits, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and more during tours with Death Cab for Cutie, Deerhunter, Alkaline Trio and others. After Empires called it quits in 2015, he connected with friend Josh Ocean (NVDES) to build an impenetrable musical bond that has seen their explosive “laptop punk” find its way into placements around the world including the likes of Samsung, Google and Apple iPhone advertisements. As Van Vleet was writing the first Blame My Youth songs he shared them with close friends including some of the people he worked with along the way – a crew mostly renowned for their time in Nashville – Big Loud’s Seth England, Craig Wiseman and Moi. They have long wanted to collaborate and while Big Loud primarily work in the country music space, there was no denying that Blame My Youth was something special, and they quickly signed Sean to their new label imprint Big Loud Rock. “I met them all 10 years ago,” recalls Van Vleet. “Not only are we really good friends, but I think we all knew that we would eventually work on something awesome together. It’s just about the right timing.” With Blame My Youth, Van Vleet is showcasing his overwhelmingly feel-good approach with nods to Andrew WK’s brazenly positive big bang and Post Malone’s inescapable pop sensibility, all with touches of darkness and vulnerability throughout. It’s music meant for maximum volume while recovering from a life on maximum volume, yet so earnest, singular and inescapable that it relates to anyone who has fought through any sort of adversity.
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