THE BLOSSOM
With only a handful of tracks to their name – all released since March 2020 – THE BLOSSOM is a force to be reckoned with, from their “sad-happy” lyrics to their autotune-soaked melodies. They sat down for an interview with Bridgette talking all about their newest track “ANGEL FANGS” and put together an exclusive playlist of songs that “make them cry and make them laugh”, linked below!
Interview
Interview by Bridgette
July 28, 2020
My name is Bridgette and I’m joined today by THE BLOSSOM! Welcome!
Hi!
Thanks for sitting down with me today! Where are you joining me from?
I’m in LA from my little studio apartment in South Pasadena.
Awesome! And so when you say studio apartment, it very much is your studio, right?
Yeah! Well no, it’s a studio apartment, but it also happens to be my studio. I've been tracking vocals and recording and writing a bunch in my closet recently, which has been very effective and I love it and nobody bothers, and it’s nice and cool and dark. So yeah, it's been my creative space for the last couple months.
Awesome! We love a double meaning (laughs) your studio studio.
Yeah exactly! (Laughs)
So today is a big day for you; your single “ANGEL FANGS” is out right now! So I guess we can just dive right into this track; tell me about it. What was the process, what was the inspiration behind it?
So this track was really on the fly. I actually wrote the lyrics while I was recording. I didn’t have anything written down, which has only happened a couple of times. It was really serendipitous, honestly. My dad and I wrote it– he produces some of my stuff and we’ve been collaborating on the last EP. But yeah, I had this guitar riff and he played it out for me, and then I just jumped on the mic and I had a couple of lines. We did maybe three takes and on the last one I was like “yeah that’s the one that we should use.” So yeah, it was a really visceral song, it doesn’t have a lot of production on it. It’s really just guitar and vocals, and then there’s a few vocal effects with autotune and some filters in that. But it’s just really raw; it’s exactly what it was when it was first recorded and tracked– that’s how it is now that it’s released. (Laughs)
That’s so cool! And I love how you collaborated with your dad on this. Is he with you in California?
No, he's in Australia. I wrote this in Australia when I was visiting my family back home. He’s a producer in his own right, so he works with a bunch of young Australian artists and developing artists, and he’s a songwriter. We collaborate really casually when I’m back home and I’ll send him stuff and he tracks guitar on a bunch of my stuff, too. But yeah, we have a really cool, open, collaborative sort of relationship, and “ANGEL FANGS” was something that came out of that. Yeah, it just started with a really simple guitar riff that I had and then he kind of elevated that a bit, and that was it! (Laughs)
That’s so cool, I love that! Keeping it in the family. So you’ve released a ton of music, just since the start of the year alone. Your debut single “KILL MY MIND” was out on March 13, and since then you released two more singles and your EP, BLEEDING BUTTERCUP on May 29. Were you sitting on these songs for a while or did you write them all during quarantine?
I honestly wrote them within six months. So I kind of had a bunch of stuff that I was developing and working on, and then these songs kind of arose. (Laughs) These songs came up, and I’m pretty straightforward when I really love something. I was like yeah cool! It just felt like the right time. I was like hell yeah I’m gonna release this! Nobody was really waiting for it, nobody knows who I am, and it was really just perfect. I just kind of put it out and was able to really get a feel for people and what they were feeling and thinking, and their whole vibe on my sound. It’s been really overwhelmingly positive and cool! It’s definitely the very early beginnings of a journey, but I feel like the debut EP for me was an amalgamation of exactly what my sound is, and my next stuff is kind of elevated from that. But yeah, it’s very bittersweet and a bit airy. My newer stuff is a little bit more aggressive, I would say. But they have this common thread which is this bittersweetness; it’s kind of like happy-sad-happy-sad-happy-sad.
What was the process of making that whole EP like?
Some of the tracks I recorded, some of the stuff I just did on my own, and some of the stuff I did with my dad. Some of the stuff I did with a friend Jessica Winter, who is an artist from the UK with Warp [Records]. She’s really cool. We wrote “BORED BABY BLUES” together, and it just fit in really well with the EP, so I was like yeah I’m gonna chuck this one in! But honestly, it was kind of all decided on the fly. I was recording and writing a bunch and I would love one song, and then I would replace that song with another song, and then I would love that song and replace that song with another song. That’s kind of how I work, I don’t get too pensive over it. I just honestly had a bunch of stuff I really loved and I had been writing and working for other artists before my EP, so I was like okay now it’s time for me to put out my own stuff. It felt really good and I did it all on my own! It didn’t go viral or have a huge streaming success, but putting it out within my community and having my friends listen to it and having it circulate amongst other people felt really good.
Yeah! I’m sure it felt super cathartic, too.
Yeah, for sure!
So I wanted to ask about the autotune, as well, because I love that in your sound! What inspired you to use it so much and go for this sound?
That’s a cool question because I love using autotune and there was this interview with Young Thug – I think it was on the Breakfast Club maybe, don’t quote me on that – and he was saying how autotune allows him to use melodies and go places with melodies that you usually wouldn’t go to. A lot of stuff that I listen to has autotune on it, not as a voice correction, but as a full effect– a lot of hip hop, a lot of pop stuff that I listen to, even alternative stuff that I listen to. So I started using it for my writing and I would switch it on before I come up with a melody – I would just have a beat or a guitar riff. I would switch the autotune on and then just try a bunch of stuff, and I found that writing with it took me to all of these places rhythmically, because you can do certain sounds and pronunciations with your voice that sound really rhythmic through autotune. I just fell in love with it and I was obsessed with writing with it. So I just started using it heavily and becoming really comfortable and really knowing how to use it, because it’s so malleable and you can really twist it and weave it and bend it into melodies that I feel like I wouldn’t come up with otherwise. Young Thug is one of my favorite artists, so I was like, I’m going to listen to what he says. (Laughs)
Totally! It almost becomes another instrument.
Yeah, absolutely another instrument!
Also I love that Young Thug is one of your favorite artists! Do you have any other types of inspirations that have influenced you in your musical journey?
Yeah, a lot (laughs). My favorite artists range from Young Thug to Elliot Smith. I love the band Duster; at the moment, I’m listening to this band Lungfish that I really like. I love The Cure– there’s so many people. I love Lil Baby, I love Playboi Carti, I love a bunch of stuff, I don’t know. I listen to everything, but I feel like I gravitate towards stuff that has this certain– I don’t know! In my head it’s really cohesive; even though sonically they’re different, they kind of fold into each other thematically… which probably makes no sense (laughs) I’ve just reeled off a bunch of artists. But that’s what the playlist that I made for you is; it has lots of artists that are different but to me have this cohesiveness and all of them have influenced my sound in some way.
Totally! And I know what you mean; when you say it it almost doesn’t make sense, but when you listen to your music it totally does make sense.
Oh cool, yeah!
Listening to some of your music I always thought there’s a bit of 80s in there. So when you said The Cure, I definitely hear that.
Yeah! I love a lot of shoegaze stuff, like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. I listen to a lot of shoegaze, a lot of slowcore sort of stuff, a lot of pop punk sort of stuff, and then I listen to so much hip hop all the time and have since I was a kid.
And even mentioning the playlist you made; I think, as you said, it definitely does paint the picture of your sound with all of these different styles coming together. And I know you also grew up between Sydney and New York. Do you think that has had some sort of influence on your music?
Yeah, for sure. Growing up between those two cities, they’re polar opposites. New York has such a rich connection, obviously, to hip hop, being the birthplace of that genre. And I feel like the whole city, energetically, has a lot to do with my personality and a lot of what I write about thematically. And then Sydney is a really beautiful, naturalistic, naturey, beachy place to grow up, so it’s really the polar opposite. I think that both of them have an influence on my character, per say, when I’m making music and my sound palette choice, for sure; this kind of ethereal, airy, pretty, soft sound mixed with a more harsh, thrashy, heavy sound.
Definitely– the edge of the city. I could see that! Well, next up I’m going to play your new single “ANGEL FANGS” that’s out now. So now that it’s out, what are you looking forward to? Do you have anything coming up?
Yeah, I’m going to keep releasing a few singles, maybe another project at the beginning of next year. Right now I’m just writing and collaborating with a bunch of other kids that are in the same sonic realm as me. Yeah, just having stuff to sink my teeth into everyday during this really strange, weird time and continuing to connect with people is cool. I’ll keep on writing a bunch of really sad-happy songs. (Laughs)
That’s exciting! Well, THE BLOSSOM, thank you so much for hanging out with me today!
Thank you! That was so much fun! (Laughs)
This interview originally aired on WNYU Radio with Bridgette Kontner on July 28, 2020 on The Sound Between at wnyu.org/archives/2020-07-28-the-sound-between.