San Diego-based shoegaze duo Blossom bares their hearts with raw emotion, echoing the sounds of classics like Slowdive while infusing a modern sentimentality reminiscent of bands like Wisp and Whirr. Their upcoming EP, Florecer, promises a nostalgic yet fresh sound, dripping with relatable lyrics on love and longing. With dreamy guitar melodies, pulsating drums, and ethereal vocals, Blossom captivates listeners with a sonically timeless refrain. Gaining visibility in the Southern California underground scene, they're set to play at San Diego's Voodoo Room in March, riding the wave of a newly emerging shoegaze craze alongside gritty alt-pop sensation Slater.
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
The band formed at the start of my freshman year of High School in 2021, it started with just me and another friend at the time. I had wanted to start a heavier shoegaze band due to my inspirations. Then we wanted to figure out a name for the project so we were going back and forth with names and didn’t put too much thought to it at the time and the last name that was considered was “Blossom” which I had recommended and later grew on us and so we decided to move on with the name. Though it didn’t have such a deep meaning then, I take Blossom more as a way to describe the growth I’ve had with this project as I've stuck with it in the past almost 4 years of my high school life and during that finding new sounds and things I still want to experiment with.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
I had recorded a few songs prior to starting blossom under my Mateo Ruiz which can probably be found on spotify but it was more acoustic indie stuff but Blossom is the only band i’ve started so far.
First concert that you ever went to?
The first show I went to was The Descendants at Soma in San Diego with my uncle back in 2021 I believe
What's your writing process like?
My writing process can be kind of secluded to just me demo’ing songs in my room with programmed drums and mic’ing up my amp and trying to get the main idea of a song or riff or sometimes the entire thing that I'll later bring to the band. A lot of the songs off the next EP were written like that.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
A big inspiration for me has been whirr since I started this project. I remember listening to their demo, “Distressor” for the first time after my uncle had told me to check them out because I kept seeing Jamie from Title Fight wear their shirt in videos i’d watch and I was overwhelmed by their sound being very gut wrenching, I checked out their record, “Sway” which made me lean on the more heavier side of shoegaze and with an accompanying dramatic sound with giant chords which I wanted to pursue in a band of my own.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be its own thing?
I don't think live music should be exactly like how it sounds on record but I think it’s awesome when bands do happen to sound like the record whether that be with samples/backing tracks, I think playing live is an environment where you can make a sonic as well as a physical impression on people. It’s a space to make an experience for people to take in and hope they get something out of it.
What's up next for the band?
The next thing I hope for the band is a tour and expand our sound to trying different things and experimenting way more as well as playing shows with awesome line ups and branching out.