Charly Bliss stays mum on new album, dishes on Vanderpump Rules

Few debuts in recent memory landed with as much impact as Charly Bliss' 2017 full-length Guppy. It provided some of the most invigorating power pop in years, with a dangerous edge bubbling underneath its sugary surface.

Charly Bliss, founded in 2014, is one of those bands that can single handedly restore faith in a genre that is supposedly both dying and undying every year. Charly Bliss also floats the radical idea in a live setting that bands are best when they exude genuine love for the other members. They're not shy with visible affection for one another on stage and that sincerity is contagious.

The four-piece is currently between records — bandleader Eva Hendricks tells Pittsburgh City Paper that the new record will feature more expanded, adventurous instrumentation and will be released sometime this year. So we mostly talked about other things, ahead of the band’s Club Cafe show on Tuesday.

I heard the last time you guys were in Pittsburgh, you were feeling kind of under the weather and did something of a karaoke set with the audience.
I was really sick. Basically, we had just kind of overstretched ourselves and we had just come back from being in Europe. I hadn’t gotten any sleep and was able to just keep going for most of the shows, but we had like five shows back to back as soon as we flew back from Europe. But yeah, it was actually one of my favorite shows that we ever played. It could have been such a disaster in a lot of ways. We recently canceled our first show a few weeks ago, but before that, we’ve never canceled a show. It’s so important to us to always play if there’s a possibility to play, so the fact that everyone at the show in 2017 was still so supportive and understanding, it just ended up being such a special night.

So how did that work, did you bring up one or two people at a time to take the mic?
Everyone stayed onstage in the band, just the audience as a group sung all of the words, and I lip-synced along.

You’re in between album cycles, so I won’t prod into that too much, but is there anything you’re able to share about the new record, and when we might expect that?
Yeah, I wish I could say more about when [the album will come out]. But I will say by the time Guppy had come out, we’d been playing most of the songs for three or four years at that point. So as special as it was for that album to come out, we’d already spent a lot of time with those songs and toured them so much. It’s really exciting that whenever we’re able to put out this next album, it all still feels fresh. These are our last few shows that will be totally Guppy-centric before we start playing new material. So it’s exciting both for that reason, and we’re gonna start sneaking in some new songs we haven’t played yet into these sets.
A little outside of music, but I saw a couple of months ago on Twitter you guys were in Beverly Hills, went to [famous Hollywood restaurant] SUR, and ran into the legendary Lisa Vanderpump. How did you end up there, what was it like inside?
Oh yes. We became huge fans of the show Vanderpump Rules like about a year ago, and honestly, I grew up in the era of Laguna Beach and The Hills on MTV. I loved those, but in between those shows and the past two years, I didn’t watch like any reality TV at all. But my brother, [Charly Bliss drummer] Sam, became really [into it], he basically got me into The Bachelor, and now I’m obsessed. From there it was just a terrible slippery slope. And of course, I watched all of Vanderpump Rules in the past year, like child’s play, watched it, loved it. Then I was like "I have to know more about the legend Lisa Vanderpump," so I went back and watched all the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which was, in my opinion, more shameful than my Vanderpump addiction.

So basically we went to three of the main Vanderpump restaurants, we went to SUR, Pump, and Tom Tom, the new restaurant. And when we sat down in Tom Tom, Ken, Lisa’s husband, walked in and I was like "Holy shit, it’s Ken." Then I swear to you, I was just looking at the ground, zoning out, and I see this pair of beautiful high-heeled shoes and these gorgeous legs, and just from that I was like “It’s Lisa Vanderpump.” [She] walked right by me. I was like "SHIT," she went straight back into this back area, I just couldn’t see where she was, and I asked our server, “Can we approach her?” And he was like “Do not approach her while she’s eating.” So we waited in Tom Tom and just drank there until she left her dinner, which ended up being like three and a half hours. So we were just plastered by the time she left her dinner. I just followed her while she waited for her car. I was just like “Lisa, please!” And she was clearly trying to ignore me and just get into her car, so I was like “Lisa I’m so sorry to bother you, but you really are my hero, and I would love to get a picture with you,” and she said “Well, if I’m your hero, I suppose we simply must take a photo,” which is exactly what I wanted.

I had no idea that they would be so visible or active in the restaurants.
Don’t you think it’s just the most genius business plan of all time? You develop a reality TV series, and then you basically create a Disney World in the middle of West Hollywood that people can come visit and see all the characters from the show at the restaurants, and also spend money at your restaurant. It’s genius!

Looking ahead to the upcoming year, do you have any goals or things you’re looking forward to either as a band or on a personal level?
Yeah totally. The new year just happened and I think it’s kind of nice to reset and refocus what you kind of want for yourself in the new year. I think an ongoing goal for myself is I want to be less hard on myself and enjoy whatever’s coming next more. We have a really exciting year ahead of us and I hope I can be a little less neurotic and just enjoy it and have as much fun as possible.