By: Georgia Hartley
Eric Carter is the remaining member of the Athens band Bloodkin, which he has continued to pursue after the death, in May of 2021, of his longtime bandmate and best friend, Daniel Hutchens.
Eric Carter, co-founder of the band Bloodkin, holds his guitar in his home in Athens on April 18. (Photo/Georgia Hartley)
Q: How long have you been playing music, and when did you and Danny solidify your musical partnership?
A: Well, our musical partnership was solidified pretty young. We grew up on the same street and we had, you know, we just discovered all these things that we had in common. And when we got to probably about teenage years, because we both always really liked music, but that’s when we started. He started picking up guitar and the first thing I was actually learning to play was drums.
Q: Did you have a specific moment in your life where you were like this is it like, I know that this is what I’m going to spend my life doing?
A: When we were going to Marshall (a university in Huntington, West Virginia) there was this club. It was called Snaks Fifth Avenue. And they had one night a week where it was like an open mic night. Danny would go there with another buddy of ours and do his thing and play some. I was thinking about stand-up comedy so I would do a little 15-minute thing or whatever. But, I sat in with him there one night doing that with him and our buddy and the response was this is what I need to do. That little moment, that one night at that bar, that’s where I felt most comfortable, like okay, this is what I’m meant to do.
Q: Do you remember the first show you saw in Athens and how you felt?
A: We went to see a show at the 40 Watt and any of this stuff would have been exciting to us. It illustrates how diverse the types of bands are that are here. We saw Porn Orchard and Dreams So Real sharing a gig together. That just illustrated how, you know, these are two completely different things, but they are playing a show together. I thought that was really cool.
Q: Do you have a part of Bloodkin that you are most proud of?
A: Well, I was really proud of the “Black Market Tango” record. When we decided we were going to try to make another record, he came over and it was just like when we were kids. We sat down on the floor with our guitars. We sat there for probably like three hours just like kind of putting this together.
Q: After Danny died, did you know you wanted to carry on with Bloodkin or was there ever a moment when you thought about moving on from it and doing something different?
A: There’s always a moment with me as long as I’ve been a musician where it’s like I’ve had enough of this because I’m lazy. But I will say if it wasn’t for our manager Carison Stokes… like she’s an old friend. She’s been around Athens for a long time. But she’s the one that kind of stepped in, to kind of keep it going or kind of helped me get it together. She’s actually also the one that spearheaded us even doing the last record, “Black Market Tango,” you know, with me and Danny.
Comments trimmed for length and clarity.
Why I Wrote the Story:
I am a long-time fan of Bloodkin’s music so this was a great opportunity for me to begin to dip my toes into the world of music journalism. Since Hutchens died in 2021, the band known as Bloodkin has undergone many changes. I wanted to hear, from Eric Carter himself, about these changes.