Following the disbanding of Upstate Escape, guitarist/singer John Norwood founded Blanker as an open-ended outlet to continue putting music out into the world. To date, Blanker has released six albums, the most recent of which is All’s Fair – Vol. 2, the second of two sister EPs released in 2024. Beginning where the first EP leaves off, the genre-hopping album touches on themes of love, pragmatism, and the cognitive dissonance therein. While Blanker previously existed as a one-man project, these sister EPs feature drummer Bryan Schwenk, Norwood’s long-time collaborator from Upstate Escape.
Norwood juxtaposes the jagged guitar work and neck-breaking tempos with lyrics meant to release tension on “The Great Divide.” The song encourages all to shamelessly take time for themselves while presenting Norwood as a seasoned songwriter wise beyond his years. The raw and searing vocals deliver accents to the ever-evolving guitar work, giving this song a lo-fi feel while maintaining pop sensibilities. Norwood took a message everyone needs to be reminded of and set it to memorable melodies as if sending the listener a subliminal message never to forget the sentiment of “The Great Divide.” Despite his own restless work ethic, Norwood created an anthem for those who need to be reminded that your job does not define you, put yourself first, and allow “The Great Divide” to soundtrack your day of relaxation.
“The inspiration for ‘The Great Divide’ was a conversation with my dad, in which he bragged about rarely ever taking sick days or using his full allocation of paid time off while working for the City of Philadelphia. I found that odd, as it essentially results in you donating your free time to your employer rather than yourself,” explains Norwood. “I wrote this song as a silly counterpoint to his argument, with a narrator vowing to use up every single resource made available to them in an effort to leave nothing behind once they die. Musically, I was trying to go for something both heavy and danceable, kind of in the vein of early Bloc Party or We Are Scientists.”
