“I don't think it's worthwhile to dwell on the past; any fear I have for the future of music would be the same as my fear for the future of the whole world. As long as there are people who have the chance, there will be music.”

Alex Blum: Good Weather for The Blues

Alex Blum does a lot with his music, but it all comes back to a core of blues guitar and rock music. North Carolina native multi-instrumentalist Alex Blum delivers a heady, genre-bending statement with his latest single, “Believe Everything You Hear About Me”—an introspective, blues-soaked odyssey that sits somewhere between confessional and cosmic, wrapped in gritty guitars and minimalist electronic production. Now streaming everywhere, the track is a standout from Blum’s 2025 album Good Weather, a self-produced tour through blues-rock terrain with detours into hip-hop, ambient, and progressive sonic realms. Built from the ground up with Blum on guitar, vocals, harmonica, drums, keys, and production, “Believe Everything You Hear About Me” is equal parts confrontation and transcendence. The song reads like a modern-day blues diss track without names, biting with sarcasm: “So believe everything you hear about me / And make sure you ask for details too / And go take all your authority / And go make it true.” The track’s psychedelic guitar solo—layered with delay in the spirit of Eddie Hazel’s “Maggot Brain” and John Frusciante’s whammy-warped leads—anchors the emotional surge. This duality defines Good Weather, the follow-up to Blum’s fast-tracked blues LP Speak Dreams to Me.                         (Photo: Alex Blum, North Carolina)

It’s a cohesive yet eclectic body of work that threads together his diverse catalogue: from traditional blues and instrumental guitar EPs to danceable beats, ambient textures, and even a rap mixtape. Still, it always returns to what matters most: the guitar and the message. Blum’s music, rooted in Chapel Hill and forged from late-night Asheville sidewalks and solo studio sessions, is soaked in authenticity and unfiltered expression. A line cook by day and a sonic architect by night, he brings the same raw energy to the studio as he once brought to the streets of Asheville and Nashville, busking with an amp and an idea.

Interview by Michael Limnios                Special Thanks: Eric Alper (That Eric Alper)

How has the Blues and Rock Counterculture influenced your views of the world? What moment changed your music life the most?

I guess rock music has just shown me that you can make your own standards for success in life. I think the moment that changed my music life the most might be when I started busking, or playing out on the sidewalk for tips. It opened me up to a more transcendent form of focus and expanded what could be thought of as an individual musical moment and enabled me to free up my creative expression.

How do you describe your sound and songbook? What characterize your music philosophy? 

That's an interesting question, since my albums each sound so different from each other, by design. My sound is basically just based on everything guitar, everything American, and everything blues; there are bits of every style that came out of blues music. I combine it with more modern production on this album but that just really means some drum machines and electronic keyboards; the music is the same. I never really thought about a single philosophy of my music, but I think anything that sounds good is worth pursuing. I also definitely emphasize spontaneity and rawness in all of my music. I just love interacting with all the ways a single guitar string can sound as it vibrates and that influences a lot of my playing as well.

”I'm always experimenting with everything I can to keep making innovative-sounding music and making music in different styles. I think making albums that sound different from each other is a pretty important part of that.” (Alex Blum / Photo by Taylor Lawrence)

Who are some of your very favorite artists or rather, what musicians have continued to inspire you and your music? Where does your creative drive come from?

My favorite artists definitely include Jimi Hendrix, whose albums stand out among rock music just based on the overall sound of all the music as it's coming off the record. I also love the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the solo music of John Frusciante, the guitarist in particular. He also inspired me to add music production and electronic music to my arsenal to support the rock and guitar-based music I was already making. 

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

I don't think it's worthwhile to dwell on the past; any fear I have for the future of music would be the same as my fear for the future of the whole world. As long as there are people who have the chance, there will be music.

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications? How do you want the music to affect people?

At one point in my life, I wanted to become involved with the off-grid ecovillage movement and I lived for about a year with virtually no money because I thought that if people came together in smaller, low-tech communities based on sharing, we could circumvent the problems of capitalism and government. The biggest lesson I learned is that even once you do that, now the biggest problem is people who just refuse to get along. You could have a thriving off-grid commune farm where people are growing their own food and the whole nine yards, and the people might still just argue about petty ego-driven politics and still kick each other off the farm, forcing a return to the same economic cycles. So therefore what we need the most is the emotional intelligence and the willpower to actually re-examine and understand our actual relationships with other people, our sexuality, and our communication methods so that these things don't have to happen and if we do actually get that off-grid farm together, we can actually enjoy it, together. If at all possible, I'd like my music to encourage that kind of growth.

What are you doing to keep your music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?                                                             (Photo: Alex Blum)

I'm always experimenting with everything I can to keep making innovative-sounding music and making music in different styles. I think making albums that sound different from each other is a pretty important part of that. I made a very experimental album, Abstract Sample-Based Music, which is like ambient music verging into noise music but it still has some compositional structure and melody to it, which I am proud of and is possibly my most unique-sounding creation. On one hand, I just want to keep making rock and electronic music that has some reason for existing where you can listen to it and say, I haven't heard anything before that does that, like a totally unique and new creation. At the same time I realize not every single work has to be groundbreaking and that opens up the space for when I do write a song that has a timeless hook, it can also stand on its own with a very simple instrumentation and production, and I won't need to feel like I have to do anything innovative to satisfy my creative itch.

As an indie musician, how do you navigate the balance between creative freedom and commercial appeal?

I don't, really, I have never been very good at marketing or promotion and I've gone pretty long stretches without playing shows if it wasn't fitting in my life at the time. I still have a day job. However, people are invited to order my custom spray-painted shirts and hoodies as well as a CD copy of my last album, Speak Dreams to Me, through my bandcamp.

Alex Blum - Bandcamp Home