Charly Bliss: “We want people to have as much fun as possible”

“We want to play the Weezer cruise!” Eva Grace Hendricks exclaims, bursting into a fit of excited laughter. “It sounds like the height of ridiculousness.” Driving from Portland to San Francisco on tour with PUP and Rozwell Kid, Charly Bliss are having the time of their lives – and that’s what it’s all about, really, isn’t it? “The essence of a Charly Bliss song is fun,” Eva affirms. “The more we’ve toured and played our songs, the more that’s been cemented as what we’re hoping to come across. We want people to have as much fun as possible. That’s really important to us.” If there’s anything to be gained from Charly Bliss’ music, it’s a sense of enjoyment. The band’s self-termed bubblegrunge sound brings infectious pop hooks to life in an addictively raw style. Larger than life guitars and driving rhythms resound with an all-encompassing energy, sugar sweet vocals and searing solos glimmering like a diamond in the rough. Debut EP ‘A Lot To Say’ might be “so far from what we sound like now that I don’t know if I would totally count it” (and consequently has vanished from their bandcamp), but it allowed the group to cut their teeth and take their first steps towards something truly great. Sounding stadium ready from the outset, the expectations the quartet - completed by guitarist Spencer Fox, bassist Dan Shure, and drummer Sam Hendricks – had for themselves were decidedly more down to earth. “At the beginning we were so excited just to be making music at all,” Eva chuckles. “Then when we started playing shows we were ridiculously excited that anyone would let us play a show anywhere.” Landing national tour slots with the likes of Darwin Deez and Veruca Salt, the group are watching their dreams come true around them. “Our first show with Veruca Salt I don’t think it fully registered with any of us what touring with them was going to mean, or how big of a leap that was going to feel,” Eva recalls. “It was a huge venue, and there were tons of people, and everyone was dancing. I kept looking around and seeing everyone’s faces and we’re all just like ‘WHAT IS HAPPENING? THIS IS WHAT THIS CAN BE LIKE? HOLY CRAP!’” With a debut album “about 90% there,” moments like this one don’t look set to stop happening any time soon.