A Dirty Dozen with HUNTER FITCH from SAINT BLONDE – August 2026

Photo credit: Abigail Mueller

According to a recent press release: “Saint Blonde have released “smooth talkin’” – the latest single from their forthcoming debut full-length, …with little ease, out September 18 via Pale Chord / Rise Records BMG. A declaration of self-worth from someone who refuses to be fooled twice, “smooth talkin’” is a biting indictment of manipulation, empty promises, and calculated charm. Propelled by razor-sharp lyricism and infectious, bass-heavy hooks, the track captures the moment blind trust gives way to hard-earned clarity as Saint Blonde channels frustration into an undeniably anthemic release. The band — Hunter Fitch (vocals), Tre Rollins (guitar), Alexander Hernandez (guitar), Tyler Lee (drums), and Kyle Cade (bass) — pull inspiration from the skate-punk anthems of the early 2000s while channeling the volatility of modern post-punk. Yet beneath the noise lies a universal message for a generation overstimulated by modern life and craving catharsis, connection, and the occasional playful rebellion.” We get singer Hunter to discuss new music, influences, and more…

1. Tell us a little about your latest release.  What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through?  Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?

The new single is called “Smooth Talkin’,” and it’s about social liars, the kind of people who posture and pretend to be altruistic, good-hearted people for clout or social gain when they’re really not that way behind closed doors. I’m pretty sure it’s the first falsetto chorus I’ve ever sung on a Saint Blonde song, so that part’s kinda different. I’ve always hated the thought of a Saint Blonde song sounding like straight disco, so every time I’ve written one it ends up getting canned or rewritten. I don’t hate disco, and that’s not a dig. It’s just a weird thing I’ve got. I finally caved and leaned into it. I think the release at the end of this song is pretty out of character for the kind of stuff we do. Cool jammin’ is in our DNA, but it’s never really been showcased in a track like that. We’ve been secretly sliding the song, and that part especially, into our set for a good while now, and it’s kind of taken on a life of its own. Not really a hidden nugget, but by the time one of our songs sees the light of day, we’ve basically already retooled it from playing it live and realized all the things we would’ve liked to do with it. Maybe that leads to some kind of live version release down the line. I think that’d be fun.

2. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?

A hard question to split five ways amongst the Saint Blonde brain, since I’m sure we’d all have our own answer and journey with it. For ME, it’s a culmination of being surrounded by music as a kid and having that ah-ha moment as a young teenager. I was around 12 or 13 when I saw all these cool bands on TV (the Fuse TV / Steven’s Untitled Rock Show / Henry Rollins Show era) seemingly making a life around an identity that was their own, and at the same time I had just started playing guitar. I went to my first club show, and all of that swirled together into a pretty crystal clear moment: being on stage in a rock band was what I wanted to do, or at least be around in any capacity. It took all of about one summer to completely rewrite my entire teenage personality around that.

3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?

There are so, so many. And the older I get, the more backward in time I tend to look for that sort of guidance. There’s not a ton of narrowed focus on one sound or artist. Most of my influence comes from places pretty far out from where you’d consider Saint Blonde genre-wise. A lot of old punk records, emo records. I learned to play guitar and sing (poorly, I might add, I’m the worst one in the band) playing acoustic Damien Rice and Bright Eyes covers in my bedroom, but then my first bands were all hardcore bands? So really all over the place. I think a lot of my songwriting sensibility now still comes from somewhere in the middle of that soup. The first real show I went to was a 300 to 400 cap club show where I saw Coheed and Cambria headlining their second record, and that was pretty formative in terms of “oh, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.”

4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?

Probably Robert Smith. I can’t think of anyone who has more single-handedly embodied what it means to be an artist on their own terms, and then made everyone else, whether that’s genres, the public, THE CHARTS, meet him on those terms. The best to ever do it.

5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour?  What do you like to do to unwind?

We’d all have a different answer for this one as well. We’re pretty lowkey collectively. We like board games, a good meal and a good quiet hang. Tre REALLY likes to go to the movies, and it’s something we like to do as a band on any off day or trip. He’s the best basketball player we all know. He really likes making us do chores. I personally have a lot of rat hobbies. Vintage, antiques, picking. Big Facebook Marketplace and resale junkie. I watch a lot of anime and love filling my brain with nature facts and Pokémon facts. Making stuff. We’re a pretty handy group. Me, Tyler, and Kyle play video games together a lot. Ever since he was a child Tyler dreamed of being indoors on his computer. He’s always cooking something whether it’s some obscure game mod, 3D modeling, or his awesome personally produced electronic music. Lox carries a fingerboard with him everywhere and shreds on every surface. He’s also really into (and really good at imo) aquascaping. Kyle likes rock climbing and karaoke. The rest of us do not like karaoke. All that said, it would be pretty disingenuous to say that writing together or playing shows ISN’T our collective favorite way to unwind. This is definitely something we consider fun, and a labor of love. It would be a gift to call this weird thing we do together for fun our work one day.

6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

We kinda have the rep now, over the span of our releases, for just doin’ whatever comes out. But it always sounds like us. Lots of genre drift, coming from a big pool of influences. Just writing whatever feels right for the moment of Saint Blonde. The new record, “…with little ease,” sounds like a wall of goopy, punk-inflected pop. Like a surfy soundtrack to a bank robbery sort of thing. I don’t think there are any comparisons that make us cringe, really, but there are definitely a few we’d hopefully like to distance ourselves from a bit with the flavor of songs on the new record. Someone once said to us, or commented, that we sound like The Hives meets Oingo Boingo, and I kinda loved that one because both of those bands are really rad.

7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

I’m using this question to instead promote the official cocktail of Saint Blonde whenever there’s a get together. It’s become a unifier within our social group. It’s vodka or gin, Squirt soda (preferably Squirt Zero), and some kind of lime or fruit additive. If it uses regular Squirt it’s called a Squirt Seniors, and if it uses Squirt Zero it’s called a Squirt Juniors. The plurals are important. Everyone should try a Squirt Juniors. Everyone in the band likes cooking except me and Tyler, who fully hate it. Kyle is guitar guy at any given thing, but we are not singing along. We are trying to talk over him while he plays in the middle of everyone, or off in the corner. Stop playing while we’re trying to enjoy our nice crisp Squirt Juniors, Kyle.

8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

Not really a starstruck kinda bunch, but we did have a collective “oh shit, that’s them” moment and were genuinely starstruck when we almost bumped into Elmo and Cookie Monster (his real name is SID, by the way, look it up) at SXSW when we played it last year. It was the real actual ones. In the flesh. Is it flesh? Or. Fur?

9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

The best part is definitely all the millions and mcbillions of dollars we’re making being in a small indie rock band. I don’t know, every other job I’ve ever done has kinda left me wanting more. Money isn’t really an end motivator for career goals for me, more a vehicle to try and achieve my real dream job. That dream job is to be in a rock band with my friends forever.

10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?

Still waiting for someone to ask me a really difficult would-you-rather question. I saw somewhere on the internet where someone asked something like: “Would you rather be 6 inches tall and the best person in the world at giving speeches, or be as good at basketball as Steph Curry but have to sleep every night in a muddy pen full of pigs?” We’ve been thinking about it for like 6 months. Mostly leaning towards the pigs, collectively.

11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?

We should’ve just been putting out our own full length records instead of singles, regardless of whether it was practical or not. I wish we had our music collected that way, because that’s largely how music is written for us and listened to by us: in a season of life.

12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

I think, in a somber way, Let It Be is my answer to this one. One final bow on a chapter of people who grew and changed with each other over a long period of time and strife, who arguably defined how music is written forever, now doing it one last time. The result of all that time and individual growth was clearly a struggle on all fronts. They had grown apart and gone their own ways, and had to find a way to get all the pieces that used to fit together so well to connect again. But the shapes of those pieces had changed so much, or had worn away entirely. I think that record is beautiful and tough to listen to because of that. It’s also my biggest fear.

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Category: Interviews