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I Saw The Bloodied Snow at their Olde Club show earlier this academic year.

In print | Published May 1, 2008

After two years of being within arms reach of a victory, I Saw the Bloodied Snow But I Did Not See the Creature finally came in first place at this past Saturday’s Battle of the Bands competition, winning the chance to open for Yo La Tengo. Phoenix reporter Anna Zalokostas spoke with some band members, Nick Forrest ’08, Stephanie Duncan ’08, Patrick Lindsey ’08 and Bizzy Hemphill ’08, in their moment of glory.

Anna Zalokostas: How did you guys get together and start playing music?

Stephanie Duncan: In February of 2006, Nick and I were sitting in his room, plucking around, and we had some toys lying around, such as the melodica and the accordion. Bizzy was there, and so we just started playing and recording on GarageBand and layering different sounds, and we did that until it sounded good. Then we got Dwight to get on drums for us, so that was the first year — the four of us. We played at Paces, and then we played at the Battle of the Bands. At that time we had four or five songs. [Band member Lindsey joined last spring because Hemphill said, “we wanted another set of lips to play the ol’ t-bone.”]

AZ: What was your favorite time you performed, or one of your favorite times?

Bizzy Hemphill: The first time we played at Battle of the Bands, sophomore year — sorry, without Patrick, unfortunately. It was just because it was one of the first times that we played in front of people. We had played at Paces “acoustically,” sort of — we didn’t have drums. We got a good reception there, and we handed out CDs afterwards. Then we played at Battle of the Bands, and a lot of people knew our songs from the Paces show, and although we were sophomores and it was the first time we had ever performed … we had a lot of people really cheering for us, including a lot of seniors. It was just really awesome.

Nick Forrest: At that first show, which was also my favorite show, I felt like we were making a new sound within Swarthmore. I just thought that we were being really innovative, and I think that made it really exciting, so I think that was why it was such a good performance.

AZ: What’s the origin of the band name?

NF: Back in sophomore year … there was this squirrel that was dead, that had gotten hit on Chester Rd., that our friend decided to take back into his apartment to skin and preserve. I was trying to describe this when I was out in Philadelphia with Dwight, my friend Lily, and Bizzy. They asked me what had happened … and so I said to them, “Yeah, I don’t know, I saw the bloodied snow but I didn’t see the creature.” [We] decided that that was a great name and so it just sort of stuck. So, long story short, it was something that actually happened, and something that was actually described, and so it became permanent.

AZ: Thoughts on winning Battle of the Bands and getting to open for Yo La Tengo?

NF: I’m really happy we won and that people cheered so hard, it really meant a lot to me. It’s such a great closing Swarthmore memory for me. I was overjoyed by the end of the it, but there was a sense of defeating your close friends, and of course that’s going to make you feel weird. But I really think everyone did a great job, and it’s always really hard to choose and also sort of arbitrary.

Patrick Lindsey: It’s kind of cool to be opening for a band that my parents have heard of, though, which is not always true.

AZ: Any future plans for the band?

NF: We may record before we all move away from Philadelphia. I think independently we all have our own projects in mind, but I really look forward to the day when we can play together again.

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