Blinker The Star take a relaxing Holiday with Madonna in their latest single — premiering exclusively on Tinnitist.
The final preview of Blinker’s July 2 covers album Arista finds mastermind Jordon Zadorozny converting the Material Girl’s poppy breakthrough single from 1983 into a mellow, melodic charmer laced with a headnodding groove, chiming guitars, and smoky vocals surrounded by ping-ponging backups. But if you think a Madonna cover is out of character for Can-rock veteran Zadorozny, think again.
“When putting this album together, recording a Madonna song was a given for me,” he says. “Her early records have such an identifiable New York sound to my ears and were a huge part of my musical youth. With this being a summer release, I thought Holiday fit the bill perfectly, but really I could have recorded any number of her songs. I’m a huge fan.”
He’s also partial to Solange, ZZ Top, No Doubt, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Boz Scaggs, The Rolling Stones, Land Of Talk and Aerosmith, based on the other artists he tackles on Arista, a collection of clever covers cdesigned specifially for summertime consumption. The 10-track disc — the followup to November’s Juvenile Universe, Zadorozny and Blinker’s most recent album of original fare — is basically a classic rock and pop fan’s dream come true. Which is more or less how the whole thing started.
“I had a daydream where I imagined Clive Davis signing me to Arista Records. He said, ‘Zadorozny, you’re all right. But you have no hits. And hits are the lifeblood of the artist. I’m going to sign you to Arista but I get to choose the songs.’ So I let the imaginary Clive Davis in my head A&R this album, as he would have for Whitney Houston or Santana. You might say I have A&R issues.”
He might have a few control issues as well. As with all Blinker releases, Arista was recorded by Zadorozny at his Skylark Park Studio in Pembroke, Ont. “I operate mainly as a one-person band in the studio at this point, bringing in friends to add colour and texture on certain tracks, but for the most part I start and end things alone,” he says. When not recording material for Blinker The Star albums, Zadorozny has worked with Courtney Love, Chris Cornell, Sam Roberts, Ken Andrews of Failure and Mandy Moore, among others.
Listen to Holiday above, hear his version of Land Of Talk’s Some Are Lakes below, and offer him A&R suggestions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
