Bloom - 'Concept Records Are In Our Band's DNA'

On February 16th, Sydney-based melodic hardcore act Bloom unleashed their debut album Maybe In Another Life. With critics waxing lyrically about the prowess of this incredible release (including a 10/10 from us that you can find here), it is clear that Bloom is getting ready to take on the world.

To get a little insight into what goes into making such a stellar release and their plans for world domination, we caught up with guitarist/vocalist Andrew Martin, frontman Jono Hawkey and drummer Jack Van Vliet.

Welcome back to Wall of Sound, congratulations on the album! How does it feel to finally have it being released into the world?

Thank you so much! It’s been a long time coming and such a long process for us so for it to finally be out is unreal. We’ve put so much effort and work into making this album from the songwriting and production side of things to all the visuals that go along with it so we’re definitely stoked for it to finally be finished and out into the world.

Maybe In Another Life has been a long time in the making. Can you give us a little insight into the process of putting it together?

I think we made the decision to do an album just after ‘Sink Into The Soil’ came out and decided it was time to absolutely go for it. We had a Dropbox folder overflowing with demos banked up from the past couple of years and booked in some time with CV (Christopher Vernon the GOAT producer) to start the process. We went down in Jan 2022 and sorted though something like 20-odd songs we had for the album and chose the ones we thought were the best and worked cohesively with each other. We then worked on each song individually with everyone giving input of what we thought worked, what didn’t and what changes we wanted to make. A lot of these pre-pro demos made it all the way through to the end of the recording process – the end of ‘Fragments…’ is actually just a mic pointed at an unplugged electric guitar from that pre-pro session and if you listen closely you can hear Jack and Jono freaking out while playing PS3 in the corner.

It wasn’t until September that year that we were able to go down and actually record everything properly. Lyrically, there was a lot of work still to be done, but we had the whole concept of the album ready to go. There was a very conscious decision made that we all wanted to write to the concept together and collaborate on lyrics more so than previous releases. Each night after recording all day we would all sit down and write lyrics for the next song. Literally ending up writing lyrics the night before or even the day of recording. We set up a projector in the living room of the place we were staying, opened up a Word document, listen to the song a bunch and just go from there. It almost felt like a boardroom meeting at times with everyone pitching different ideas/rhymes/stanzas etc etc etc. It did mean some days we were doing close to 18 hours of work between recording in the studio and then doing lyrics that night, but I think it kept everything really fresh and exciting. Like we were writing the story as the album was being made. A really nice memory from the whole process that stands out to me was recording the big vocal part in ‘You & I’ at the end of the song. We decided we wanted a big choir-type section at the end of the song so we all took it in turns to go in the booth and track our parts. I remember CV being so surprised to hear that we can all sing. Listening back to that section for the first time was such a nice little moment. We knew doing a cleans-only ballad-type song would be pretty polarising, so recording what was essentially gang vocals felt like the perfect level of leaning into it and really committing to the idea.

Did you initially set out to do a concept album or was that something that emerged throughout the writing process?

I think concept records are in our band’s DNA now as to us it makes so much sense to write to a motif or overarching idea rather than throwing things together. While MIAL isn’t based on an experience like In Passing was, there was a pretty memorable “bad taste in our mouths” from the prior 2 years of COVID/lockdowns/slumps which I think was one of the things at the root of the original concept. The whole idea of imagining how different things would be if XYZ didn’t happen was a cycle I think we all pretty universally felt, and the concept for the record stemmed from that feeling.

The idea to do it as a narrative following a protagonist allowed us to write about a much wider scope of topics and craft a story which I think was the right move to make.

After the pre-production process, we had a much stronger idea of the overall sound and feeling of each song, and were able to shape the narrative and build lyrical “bones” for each song in a way that both instrumentation and lyricism would go hand in hand.

Over the years your sound has developed, but the original essence of Bloom has remained, how have you approached refining your music?

There’s always been a level of trying to keep our melodic hardcore roots present throughout our writing. Our identity is definitely rooted in writing emotive and melancholic songs, but as we’ve grown and developed as musicians I think we’ve expanded our arsenal to incorporate more “modern metalcore” elements. Not to say that we’re doing it to hop on current trends, but having catchy choruses and big breakdowns is something that we get the most enjoyment playing live and our fan base seems to enjoy the most as well.

With MIAL, we wanted to push the extremes in both directions and step outside of the safety of the songwriting styles we’ve established already. Having a 70-second song like ‘Laughing Stock’ which is just pure anger and frustration, and songs like ‘Fragments of a Dream’ and ‘You & I’ being more ballad-ish post-hardcore songs was us trying new things and trying to innovate. We figured if we are doing a debut album, this is the time to show off as much as we can of ourselves and experiment with different flavours of “melodic hardcore”.

Nostalgic little nods towards our earliest work are also scattered throughout the album. ‘You & I’ features a guitar lead line throughout the main part of the song that is near identical to the main lead on the title track of our first EP. Similarly, ‘An Exit’ is a reworking of ‘Phantom Pain’ off that same EP, with some lyrics and entire sections almost being an evolution of that song.

There are so many songs on this album that could have been singles, how did you land on putting out the ones you did?

Yeah it was definitely not an easy decision. We knew pretty early on that we wanted MIAL to be the “big album announce” second single. Being the title track it made sense that it be the one that goes alongside all the hype that comes with announcing an album. Lyrically it acts as a really solid base for the rest of the album and encapsulates the overall feeling we wanted to explore with the record. As for the rest, we knew we wanted to showcase a little bit of MIAL without giving away all the secrets.

‘Bound To Your Whispers’ felt like the right song to release first as it’s probably the closest song on the record to ‘Sink Into The Soil’, and really leans into that heavier side we’ve been slowly doing more and more of. Also it subtly hints at the theme of the album without really giving it all away.

We really wanted to throw a bit of a curveball by releasing ‘You & I’ – the only song on the album without any heavy vocals screaming. I think we were anticipating more backlash for it that we actually got – people really seemed to connect with it and it got an overwhelmingly positive response.

And then finally ‘Siren Song’ we wanted to play live at Good Things and then release just before the album as it’s a great live song to play and it doesn’t fuck around. It’s one of the heavier songs on the album and we wanted it to try and reset everyone’s expectations after hearing ‘You & I’.

Throughout the album there is a strong dialogue and connection between the lyrics, the emotion in the vocals and the overall instrumentation. Nothing sounds or feels unintentional. Is that a conscious effort the band made or did that flow naturally?

Thank you so much, feels really good hearing that because it’s definitely something we pride ourselves on and have spent a lot of time working on. 100% a very conscious effort, we spent a long time listening to the pre-production songs and feeling out what emotions we got from each song, then trying to match it with a concept that fits within the theme of the album. Some of them came to us really easily like ‘Laughing Stock’ being such a short aggressive song, we wanted it to touch on destructive and obtrusive thoughts but to also not linger. And songs like ‘Carve’ and ‘You and I’, being somewhat more melodic and glowy songs it felt right for them to touch on more delicate subjects like losing a loved one.

Speaking of the emotion in the lyrics, Maybe In Another Life is told through the eyes of this character you’ve created. How much of your own experiences have found their way into this character’s story?

Yeah, I think a lot of the themes of this album have come from our own experience from everyone in the band, when we’re were writing lyrics some of the songs are definitely linked to distinct things that have happened to us personally, while some other songs are an expansion of thoughts, feeling and ideas that we’ve had thought throughout our lives. I think within the whole album there’s probably a couple songs that nearly everyone can relate to. I think it’s almost a universal feeling of wanting to be someone else or in a different situation to where you are at the moment.

As each track is a part of this character’s story, especially Jono, do you find yourself having to tap into this character to fully channel the feelings behind these stories? If so, how do you step into that mode and is different to performing your older songs?

There is definitely an aspect in performing and creating art that can put you into a different headspace, and I think one of the best aspects of the record is how affecting a lot of the instrumentals and lyrics are. If at first, it feels like we’re all getting into character eventually it begins to turn into genuine connection with the content that kind of transcends the need to get into character. It is different with in passing in that it was so rooted in real events and how I was processing all of those things in retrospect, but with MIAL the emotional core is the same, but instead of channelling the past it’s channelling the present and the future.

One of the tracks that I keep going back to is ‘Through The Threshold, Beyond The Bend’. Especially the way it expresses a sense of growth through self-awareness. The perfect ending in some respects, but leaves it open for another chapter. Is there any thought to taking this story further or is it too early to say?

The open-endedness was intentional in the way that we really wanted the audience to take their own meaning from the record as a whole. There’s a lot of different interpretations on how the ending resolved the album, if it’s a moving forward point, or if it’s cyclical and loops back to the start, or if it’s the holistic end of the character’s journey etc. The great thing about albums is how interpretative they are for the listener, and we really wanted to have something that felt open to everyone paying attention. We all have our own meaning that we apply to it, but to have all the answers is to ruin all the fun.

Musically, Bloom has grown and matured, but on a more personal level, what experiences have stayed with you from releasing ‘Cure Me’ to now putting out Maybe In Another Life?

Looking back on where we’ve come from is kind of a surreal experience. Going from just a couple of guys hanging out and jamming everyday not really thinking anything of it, just doing it cos we liked making silly little songs in a lil prac space to now being signed to Pure Noise and going to play shows in freaking Japan is absolutely crazy. Some of the things that have stuck has gotta be our first-ever show with Stuck Out and Stateside at Crowbar and having such an incredible reception, playing a bunch of absolute stinker shows with less than 20 people in the room, to getting the opportunity to be apart of Invasion Fest in 2020, to signing to Greyscale and releasing In Passing, playing UNIFY and Good Things and ofc I think I can confidently say our collective best tour with Thornhill through regional Australia and just having an absolute blast. Really can’t wait to see what’s in store for us in the future.

At the end of last year, saw you guys heading over to Auckland for your first International shows and currently you are in Japan to support Erra. Besides these shows, what would be your dream tour destination?

If you would’ve asked a couple months ago I definitely would’ve said Japan, that place is so spectacular and to be given the opportunity to go over and play shows is an absolute dream come true. But It’s gotta be the big dog international tours, the US and Europe/UK. That’s absolute bucket list stuff. But I think the dream destination at the moment for us is Paris, there’s just something so enchanting about Paris.

2023 was a massive year for Bloom, with 2024 looking to be even bigger, what is the band looking to achieve this year?

Would absolutely love to take Bloom to the next level, I think more international touring would be amazing, perhaps a cheeky headline tour at some point this year would be great as well. And just as a Hail Mary, a Grammy would go down a treat.

Interview by Kayla Hamilton (@kaylazomboid)

Maybe In Another Life is out now. Listen here.

Bloom – Maybe In Another Life tracklisting

1. An Entry
2. Maybe In Another Life
3. Siren Song
4. Bound To Your Whispers
5. Carve Yourself Into My Lungs
6. You & I
7. Fragments Of A Dream
8. Laughing Stock
9. An Exit
10. Through The Threshold, Beyond The Bend

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