Who is Miss Blume? It’s not a person, it’s a band that I had the opportunity to meet and interview at their studio. They are made up of four members: Thad Cochran (lead singer, and yes, grandson of MS senator Thad Cochran), Joey Cavicchi (guitar), Will Elliot (bass), and Wiley Carter (drums). Miss Blume does shows around the Jackson-metro area, other cities in Mississippi, and even other states. They just released their first album, Slick Vanity, which is available on all streaming platforms. They debuted this record at their most recent show, which took place at Hal and Mal’s on May 13. Here is their story. 

Q: How did Miss Blume initially form? 

A: (Joey): I was in a band with someone and we needed a drummer, so we posted something on social media and Wiley was one of the guys who responded to it, so we auditioned him and he was in. We broke off from the other guy and started jamming with Thad and Danny Royals, our old bass player. Then Will came along, and here we are now. 

(Wiley): And we’ve been on a grind ever since.

Q: Have you always had this studio or did you used to practice somewhere else?

A: (Wiley): Unfortunately not.

(Joey): We started out in a much smaller place. We would just go in there and crank it up.

(Thad): It was the easiest path to tinnitus you can think of. 

(Wiley): Yeah, I have hearing damage at seventeen years old from that. But then we migrated to Thad’s garage for a summer and the cops kicked us out because of noise complaints, so now we’re here. 

Q: Who would you say your musical influences/inspirations are?

A: (Wiley): Definitely Nirvana and a lot of the bands from the 90’s grunge scene

(Thad): I think a lot of it goes back to the roots, you know, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, stuff like that for me. 

Q: How do these influences affect/play into your songs?

A: (Wiley): It’s beautiful because it’s so diverse, we all like our own stuff but when it comes together it just creates this. I mean, we don’t really know what genre we are, but we’re just making music all the time. 

(Thad): Yeah, we have all kinds of inspiration but we aren’t particularly trying to do anything, so it just creates something else.

(Will): We are on a different page in our music taste but it’s all in the same wavelength, if that makes sense. 

(Wiley): Like me and Will don’t listen to the same music but we come in here and make music together and this is just our music tastes mixed together. 

Q: What are the inspirations behind some of your songs?

A: (Thad): Society.

(Joey): A lot of it has to do with youth, society, what you live and what you breathe.

(Wiley): Instrumentally, we’re pretty hard and “in your face.” I think in that way we’re influenced by ourselves, our adrenaline, and that feeling we get playing in front of a big crowd, like that’s just a feeling you can’t stop chasing. Lyrically, we are all about society, the upbringing of our generation and how everything is unfolding and whether it’s good or bad. 

Q: What is your writing process like? 

A: (Joey): It’s collective, but it usually starts at a riff or groove or lyric and we just build from there. 

Q: The band’s original band name was Twist; why did you change it?

A: (Wiley): Copyright- we just needed to avoid legal trouble.

(Thad): There’s a Canadian band named Twist, so we needed to change it. I think the reason we chose Miss Blume as our new name is because Twist was pretty abstract; it doesn’t mean anything; so we decided to choose another abstract, “no special meaning” type of name. It’s just our label.

Q: What are some challenges y’all have faced so far as a band? 

A: (Thad): Finding a producer and getting down rehearsal, like the groove of things and how we need to be rehearsing. 

(Joey): Getting a schedule and maintaining consistency. 

(Will): Having everyone in one spot and finding the right guys for different things

Q: How often do you rehearse?
A: (Thad): We try to do every day; just as much as we can, especially when we have a show coming up.

(Wiley): Rehearsals get really intense, like a boot camp, right before a show. But it’s fun, you know, we enjoy it. 

Q: What has been your favorite performance so far?

A: (Joey): Probably our last show

(Thad): Yeah, the one in Hattiesburg at The Switchyard. I really liked the sound in the place and we all just had a really good time. 

(Wiley): I think the one in February at Duling Hall was one of our most influential shows. It was just really good for the scene we are trying to build in Jackson right now. A lot of people got out of their comfort zone and I think that was a good thing. But I’d say the most fun one for me was the one in Hattiesburg. 

Q: How long did it take you to prepare the album? 

A: (Thad) It took us about three months to write the album and a year on top of that to find the right producer.

(Joey): Once we started jamming, the songs just kind of fell out of us. We had all of this music and these feelings we wanted to express and they just came out of us super organically when we started playing together.

Q: What was the recording process for the album like? 

A: (Thad): We actually recorded the whole thing right here in this studio in a day. We got it mastered in London and now we’re rolling. 

Q: Earlier you mentioned you had trouble finding a producer; how did you find one? 

A: (Thad): It was actually the simplest answer, it just took us a while to figure it out. It was a connection my mom had; Clint Stevenson.

(Wiley): He was there all along. We didn’t realize he was the gold until he mixed our music and we realized he knows what he’s doing. We lean towards the more raw side when it comes to recording. We aren’t against production, but we’re against overproduction. A problem that we continued to run into was that previous producers wanted to put their own spin on our music and we wanted it to be 100% authentic. So when we found Clint, he just mic’d us up and let us do our thing. And those were the best recordings we’d ever gotten from anybody. 

Q: What’s your dream through this band? 

A: (Joey): To be fulfilled by music forever. 

(Wiley): I just want to be happy. 

(Thad): Mine is to create a community. If we can create a place where people are present and happy in today’s society then I’ll be very fulfilled. 

(Wiley) A tour would be cool. 

Q: What are your favorite songs you have written?

A: (Wiley): We have a song called “Rash” that’s my favorite. It’s pretty crazy and “in your face.” 

(Joey): I just like playing. 

(Thad): I don’t think I can choose one song. They’re all just part of something. Everything just goes together on our record. 

Q: You’ve had another local band, Lady Gun, open for you several times; why did you choose them? 

A: (Thad): We look for genuine, nice guys who aren’t pretentious 

(Joey): They’re original and they’re great guys and we just have similar interests. 

(Wiley): One thing we look for in an opening band is just originality. These days, you don’t really see a high school band that plays no covers. Miss Blume is all original music and that’s just what we love to do. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to play other people’s music, but it just doesn’t feel right. Lady Gun is also 100% original music and they’re fun to be around, so we play with them a lot and want to build a scene with them. 

Q: At the show in February at Duling Hall, concertgoers stormed the stage. What was that like from your perspective? 

A: (Wiley): We had no idea that was going to happen. We told the audience that they could run up and jump off into the crowd. But people just got up and either stood there or danced. 

(Thad): I was all for the chaos. I liked that moment a lot. 

(Wiley): We were so scared someone was going to trip a wire and just take the sound out. Our sound guy was fixing stuff while everyone else was on stage. 

Wiley’s dad, Craig Carter, was one of the “stage divers” at Miss Blume’s previous concerts. Here is his take on that: 

“Back in my day, we liked to stage dive at punk, heavy shows. It was just part of our growing up. The people in the crowd knew to catch us. What you do is you get up onstage and you just dive off. Miss Blume had a new song they were going to play and I told them, ‘When you play that one, I’m going to stage dive.’ They were like, ‘You won’t do that!’ And I did.” 

Q: What are some of the band’s future plans?
A: (Thad): Just to keep rocking, keep playing music and building something in Jackson. 

(Will): I want to grow this and make this my living. 

(Joey): I just want to be really invested in this; pave a different path, you know, just give it all you got. 

(Thad): We’re not only playing in Jackson, though, we’re booked in Nashville, Oxford, Tupelo, and a lot of other places for the summer. 

(Wiley): Yeah, we’re really focusing on expanding so eventually we can go nationwide and keep pumping out more music.

Having a local band is such a special thing to a town and Jackson is lucky to have many. Miss Blume has worked so hard to get to where they are now and will continue to grow in the upcoming years. The atmosphere of their concerts is fun and wild and I would highly recommend that you go to one. You can follow their Instagram, @missblumeband, to stay up to date on shows and when they will perform next. And of course, if you go, try out stage diving. That’s not something you get to do everyday, so why not try it at a Miss Blume concert?