Getting to Know... Blossoms

Far from home but hardly intimidated, indie pop quintet Blossoms made it their personal mission to break into the international music scene. Following the August release of their self-titled debut album and their subsequent rise to the top spot on the UK album charts, the unpretentious hometown friends are determined to make fans and friends around the world one country at a time. 

Myspace met up with Blossoms in Los Angeles on the last night of their North American tour to talk about friendship, coming to America, and their self-titled album.

 

Tom Ogden

Age: 23
Instrument: Lead vocals
Reflections on This International Tour: We feel like we’ve been on tour for the last two-and-a half-years really. We had a few festival dates in Japan and a few big ones in the UK, and then we went on a UK tour that was all sold out. Now we're in the States and it’s like starting over again, playing small, more intimate places like this. We’re just loving every moment of it really.
Best Performance You've Ever Had: The last UK show we did at the Ritz in Manchester. It was amazing and the crowd was massive. They were going mental to our walk out song before we were even on stage.
On Being Close with Your Bandmates: It’s like Oasis said in “Live Forever,” “We see things that they will never see.” You only get that with your mates that you spend a lot of time with. It’s real, and fans can see when it’s real and they just get it.
What You'll Take Back Home: If I go home thinking “I’m going write a song about being in America,” then it fucking won’t happen. It needs to come from something we’ve heard or something that happened, or just seeing the nice scenery. I’m not going to try and incorporate it because it’s contrived then, and that’s everything that we’re not. But I’m taking home t-shirts for my dad!

 

Charlie Salt

Age: I’m the father figure of the band at 25.
Instrument: Bass
Reflections on This International Tour: We’ve been to four countries: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Europe, and now we’ve come to the States. It’s nice to see people tapping their foot and knowing the songs everywhere we’ve been. You can’t really ask for more than that.
Thoughts on the Album: We kind of did the album in two parts: the first half of the album are tracks that were already on the EPs. Tom would bring the tracks into the rehearsal room and we’d knock it around in a traditional way, coming up with parts as we rehearsed. The second part Tom would bring a song into the studio, and we’d build it from there. It’s been really refreshing and fun to do it like that.
On Being Close with Your Bandmates: We’re just under no pressure within ourselves to create anything, so it just comes naturally. Even when we booked our first tour, the booking agent asked us where we wanted to go: to the main cities or everywhere in between. Obviously we said everywhere in between.
Best Performance You've Ever Had: San Francisco had more of a rough and ready vibe. I felt like we had our own system and bigger crowds back home, but in San Francisco it was like going back to the start, so that was kind of nice.

 

Josh Dewhurst

Age: 19
Instrument: Guitar
Favorite Performance: San Francisco as well, it wasn’t our first performance in the States so we had the previous two shows to get used to it a little bit, because it is very different than what we’re used to. It was just enjoyable and had a real charm to it. I just love being in America.
What You'll Take Back Home: I bought a t-shirt in every city. Metaphorically speaking, I’ll probably take back another side of life that’s way different in America and I really like it. I aspire to be over here a lot more now.
Song or Band That Influenced You: I played GTA San Andreas on the PS2, and it had different genres on each radio station. There’s a country western one where I discovered people like Conway Twitty and Hank Williams. Then there was the rock station where I heard Rod Stewart and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and that was my first introduction to real music. The whole soundtrack to Bully was done by one guy called Shawn Lee. I remember playing specific missions just to hear a particular song that he had written. In terms of my playing style — not that I really have one — it all comes from him. We e-mail each other.
Thoughts on the Album: When we go into the studio to build the rest of the album tracks, I found it personally easier to lock myself away and listen to the skeleton of the song. There’s no pressure, just the creative freedom to sit there and naturally hear what you think is right for the song.

 

Myles Kellock

Age: 22
Instrument: Keyboard and backing vocals
Reflections on This International Tour: The experience has been great. We had been sitting on the album for ages, but we're confident in how it would be received. There’s something endearing and exciting to know that people have yet to discover what we create. We just hope that we can crack America.
Thoughts on the Album: I really enjoyed being in the studio. Everyone has their own task in the creative process. It’s proper mad to walk out of the studio after being in there for two days and the song wasn’t there, but then you go in and get it all done. When you finish it’s pretty nice.
Song or Band That Influenced You: I remember hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the first time and listening to how awesome the drums were going into the song. I learned it on drums a few days after, but then I picked up a bit of bass and a bit of guitar. I was never a master at anything. It’s the same with the keys — I’m not very good at that either. I came across Muse and that was the band to get me into music properly, even though they make me cringe like fuck now.

Joe Donovan

Age: 24
Instrument: Drums
Reflections on This International Tour: It’s a bit weird when we go somewhere new and people come up to us to say “I’ve traveled 30 miles to come see you today.” It blows our heads a little bit. That’s the nicest compliment you can give, when someone travels that far or someone being really into your music when you’re so far away.
Thoughts on the Album: As a band, you dream about what you can call your album even when you’ve only had your first jam session. I think we’ve always had this thing about making it self-titled — it’s quite cool.
Song or Band That Influenced You: I love Oasis...I think that brought Tom and I together. I love hip hop. My drumming is quite simple. I love the not-very-intricate, straight to the point kind of beat.
On Being Close with Your Bandmates: We put way more into our craft than most people do in every single aspect, down to the equipment we use, our artwork, videos — even the way we dress. Collectively we knew we needed to do that. These days you need something to set you apart.

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