Blossoms’ third album Foolish Loving Spaces opens in a kind of Ok Go fashion: happy, peppy, excited to be here. What ensues is essentially everything you’ve ever wanted from a British pop rock band, a humanist album with thumping bass and 80’s inspired instrumentation. It's cheeky, smart lyrics keep it from leaning toward the saccharine. To be frank, it’s a fucking delightful little slice of pop.
Growing up in Stockport, these lads did everything in order to be able to make music. Including, it seems, hosting band practice in a scaffolding yard. And it looks like they're gearing up to take on the world.
The Stockport-born rockers caught up with EARMILK about the new album and their podcast.
EARMILK: This is album number three, and it's coming out at the beginning of the decade. How do you feel you've grown as a band since you formed? Do you feel you understood your process better on this one?
TOM OGDEN: Yes I’d definitely say this process was the most enjoyable so far, we’ve grown as friends and we’ve grown musically together. You discover artists you’d never listened to before and that can inspire a whole bunch of songs. We used a lot of things off our demos for this album, which I guess shows how we’ve picked things up ourselves along the way recording the other albums.
EM: How are you feeling about the state of the world in the midst of Brexit, the climate crisis, Trump, the #MeToo era? Why was it important for you to release something that felt positive?
TO: I’ve always tended to write from quite personal experiences, and even though some of our lyrics in the past haven’t necessarily been positive our music always has, with big choruses and lots of melody. This time a lot of the lyrics reflected my current relationship and wanting to celebrate love. I guess that’s coincided with the dismal current state of affairs, I’ve never wanted to be political in my songwriting, I've always seen music as escapism, so It’s nice to be playing some positive songs in such times.
EM: You've said that you wrote this album after a summer spent listening to Stop Making Sense, The Joshua Tree, and Screamadelica. What new bands are you really interested in at the moment? Excited about anyone we may not know about?
TO: I really love Inhaler from Dublin. They’ve played a number of shows with us recently and I think they’re a huge talent with great songs. Ceramic Animal from Philadelphia are great too, I stumbled across them whilst I was in NYC, that actually went on to inspire me when writing this album.
EM: Tell me about your podcast! What inspired you to start one? What was your favourite episode to record?
TO: We were in between albums, coming to the end of touring our second album, whilst demo’ing the third. We wanted to put something out for the fans as a way to still be able to connect with them, so a podcast was the perfect bridge! I love the episode where Josh prank calls Pizza Express pretending the phone line is breaking up.
EM: What are the best and worst things about your hometown, Stockport?
TO: The best things are the small things you take for granted, like the sandwich shop I’ve been going to since I was 12, or the local pub which does the best Sunday Roast. The worst thing is probably the weather.
EM: What are you looking forward to most about the release of the new record?
TO: I’d say we’re looking forward to playing live again the most. Having new songs breathes a new lease of life into your live shows, so I’d say that!
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