Sydney melodic hardcore five-piece Bloom have been turning heads since their phenomenal 2020 sophomore EP In Passing. Last week, the lads shared their latest single “Bound to Your Whispers” – the first offering since 2022’s “Sink into the Soil” – and announced their signing to Pure Noise Records in partnership with local label Greyscale Records.
The new song opens with searing screams and blistering riffs over crushing drums and thudding bass to set the tone of its relentless nature. Soaring cleans decorate the chorus as the lyrics tell of internal conflict between one and their self-depreciative counterpart. In what is Bloom’s heaviest track to date, the band are in their best form and give us an exciting taste of things to come.
We caught up with frontman Jono Hawkey to chat about the new song, tours and more.
Congratulations on the recent signing and latest release! How has the past year been for Bloom?
We’ve had so many cool things under wraps for so long that most of this year has felt , restless, honestly. So much of this industry is waiting and refining to make sure everything is perfect for release, that it becomes easy to feel impatient or rush to get all your work out there.
Since SITS came out in Feb 2022, we’ve been hyperfocused on the next chapter of the band and all the things we want to achieve. We’ve been locked in on creating so much over the past two years that to have it finally see the light of day is a really relieving feeling. We’ve also made some incredible friendships this year in our laps around the country, and have been able to watch our band grow so we’re all excited to see what this release cycle will entail for us.
Pure Noise is home to some of the biggest names in the scene, from Knocked Loose and The Amity Affliction to Counterparts and The Story So Far. How does it feel to be on the same roster as these legends?
We feel incredibly blessed to be able to call some of our inspirations our label mates. When we first started making music together, signing to Pure Noise was a pipe-dream we all shared, and the weight of their talent is awe-inspiring.
We grew up listening to a lot of bands that are on the PN roster and still to this day are influenced and inspired by a significant chunk of their releases. It’s always been a bucket-list label for us so we consider it an absolute privilege to be a part of their roster and we hope to live up to their name in the best way we possibly can.
“Bound to Your Whispers” is a beautifully brutal track that balances the poignant emotion of In Passing with the sonic ferocity of “Sink into the Soil”. How did the song come together?
We created Bound as a focal point for where we wanted to be as a band going forward. We wanted to find a balance between the styles we’ve been inspired by and attempted to make all those things come together. This song is definitely one of the heaviest we’ve written, and lyrically focuses on feelings of anger, helplessness and self-destruction.
We typically write the instrumentals before committing to lyrical content, and we found that with this song the moulding of melodies and cadence around the music was a really rewarding experience. We are super proud of this one – hard hitting rhythms, melodic progressions, big breakdown moments and catchy vocals in a neatly wrapped package.
What has the evolution of the band entailed these past few years, and how has the sound developed?
It’s been a pretty steady progression for the most part. Starting out it was more a case of finding what worked for all of us individually and bringing that together in freeform environments. Now that the chemistry is all in place, we can be a little more considered in our sound, and build it from the ground up depending on what tone we want to set with each release.
At the moment, we know all of the elements that we want to see brought together, along with what already has been working for us, which feels really balanced when we’re workshopping ideas. We’ve been experimenting with a lot of different genres and influences recently as well, which will come into light soon enough. I’m sure we’ll continue to refine and hone the sound as we progress further into Bloom, too.
You’ll be supporting Thornhill on their Prom Queen City tour in October before hitting Good Things Festival across three dates in December. What are you most looking forward to about these shows?
Seeing all of our friends in person again. Having toured with Thornhill and Holding Absence in the past, it will be great to share the stage with them again and be able to catch up on everything that we’ve all been doing over the past year. Heavy music is deeply rooted in community, and it will be so nice to be able to engage with so many mates again on the tour, both on and off stage.
These are also some of the biggest venues we’ve ever played, which is really just icing on the cake. Playing Good Things is going to be a crazy few days – this will be our first touring festival so it’s going to be interesting to see how we all are after 3 days of travelling and playing festival stages. It’s still so surreal seeing our name on the poster alongside so many giant bands.
You’ve shared the stage with some of the best to do it by now. Where is somewhere you would love to play in the near future, or a dream artist to support?
We would love to take Bloom worldwide. Europe, the US, the UK, Japan, somewhere we can take our first international band flight. It’s been one of our goals for a while now and we feel we’re at a stage where it’s the next step for us.
A dream artist to support would be BMTH, Parkway, Motionless In White or a similar sized arena level band. Recently we’ve been seeing a lot more Australian bands absolutely killing it on an arena level all around the world – shoutout Polaris and Alpha Wolf to name a few. It’s super inspiring to see and it’s something we hope we can achieve one day as well.
Get your tickets to Thornhill’s Prom Queen City tour HERE and Good Things Festival HERE.
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