The Plodes | Vancouver locals
Published by BeatRoute Magazine
“We were just these rowdy teens that were like I love punk rock, I'm ready to die for punk rock”  stated Gemma drummer of the Plodes when discussing her early career in the music scene. The Plodes fronted by Reid Blakely are a scrappy up beat band pulling influences in everything from Barenaked Ladies to the Dead Kennedys. “the beginnings of the Plodes were in Calgary when I was just out of high school” Blakely explains “the first real show was just me and an acoustic guitar playing some silly songs I had written in a coffee shop”. From there Blakely had decided to relocate to Vancouver in 2011 to attend college, he frequented local shows spending his time networking and making connects in the scene. “I ran into my friend Fraya who I had met at a ZooZhop show and her boyfriend (Matt) at the time at a Starbucks, I was complaining to both of them about how hard it was to find musicians to start a band .” “It was like a bad movie” Matt pipes in “I just can't find anyone to play my tunes... And I was like, DUDE!!” Shortly after that fated meeting Blakely put together a show at LanaLou's before heading home to Calgary for the summer, in need of a drummer he called upon Matt to step up to the plate. Fraya was also added into the mix that fall on Bass for a Halloween show. This is the line up that would take The Plodes on their first tour across the Pacific North West. Shortly after returning Alexa (who has recently left the band) would be added in on Accordion.
“I was in a band from comox” Gemma (The Plodes current drummer) explains. “We got added to this battle of the bands that Joe Kiethly was putting on. We were just these rowdy teens that were like I love punk rock I'm ready to die for punk rock, lets harass your mom to take us to Vancouver so we can play this show”. The harassing worked and Gemma and The Plodes were set to play on the same bill. “We signed up for the same reasons, I was a big Joey Shithead fan” said Blakely. Soon after the battle of the bands, Fraya had decided to part ways with The Plodes and they were left without a bass player. Matt, who had been attending school at Nimbus Recording had a full schedule of his own leaving the  band without a drummer for most of the time. “Gemma started subbing in drumming, then we decided to switch Matt to bass. Just a couple days ago Alexa decided to leave the band, and now we have The Plodes current line up. We've been working together since this past summer” says Blakely “But as long as I'm apart of the band I consider it to be the Plodes.”
The Plodes pull their influences for a a vast array of bands with all three of the members coming from very different genre backgrounds. Some of Blakelys biggest influences were The Dead Kennerys and the Barenaked Ladies which he attributes to the reason why he started playing music in the first place. Other influences include They Might Be Giants, Talking Heads, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Radio Head, No Means No, and Peter Gabriel. “When I was in highschool I started volunteering for CGSW” stated Blakely “it opened me up to the local indie music scene for all ages. It really opened my eyes to the idea that I could actually do something like this.”
