Bloom: Chasing Lights
“When I’m listening to it, I could see myself seeing this as a kid and really enjoying this,” drummer Jack Van Vliet of BLOOM confesses, and strikes at the core of the Sydney melodic hardcore band’s earnest approach to nostalgia on their sophomore album, The Light We Chase. Vocalist Jono Hawkey and drummer Jack Van Vliet are only weeks away from the album’s release when we catch up with them to chat about their new album.
Nostalgia is the beating heart of the album, with opening track Belrose inviting you to the area that the band grew up. “When the concept of the album started being fleshed out, one of the first things we wanted to do was write a bit of a love letter to that childhood” Jono explains. “The first lyric is, ‘walk back with me, and I’ll show you everything’, which is that invitation to the listener and a little Easter egg to our previous record Maybe In Another Life, which starts with the lyrics, ‘step into my state of mind’.” Jack adds “It’s the yearning to go back for it, and the yearning for something else. I think a huge proponent of the record is the desire to have something that you can’t have, which is kind of where the title feeds in as well.”
Inviting the listener to share in these important moments with the band, BLOOM also open up about more negative aspects of being in a band on the track Withered. As Jono explains “by writing that song, we were able to check in with each other and acknowledge that this band stuff is awesome, but it does come at a cost and sacrifice.” Jack adds, “we were wondering if it was the even the right decision when we were doing it. It was a point of vulnerability and sincerity, which we’ve always tried to push throughout all of our records.”
The Light We Chase was created in the space of a few weeks amidst an intense schedule of touring and studio time. Jack shares, “we’d been in the US talking about the new album for a month. So, everyone had this BLOOM mentality surrounding the album when we were doing it, which I think made it stressful for one thing. But it also means that you’re really focused on the one thing.” Jono continues, “I think that’s where a lot of confidence came from with the record as well. We knew what our sound was, we knew what we were capable of doing.”
BLOOM have always been unafraid to experiment, crossing the boundaries of metalcore and melodic hardcore, but on The Light We Chase, the newfound confidence sees them ripping up all of the rules. “When it came to album two, it was like, fuck it, let’s go even more extreme,” Jono shares. With everything from musical theatre’s narrative lyricism to MALEVOLENCE and MILEY CYRUS informing their listening around the time of the album, the band freed themselves to try new approaches.
Keep You featuring Patrick Miranda [MOVEMENTS] is one the band are especially proud of, despite their fears it may not fit in the BLOOM wheelhouse. “It didn’t really feel very BLOOM, and we knew we’d have to take a swing on it,” Jono explains. “Keep You just has this, this energy, this spark to it. I love playing it. I love listening to it. I think it’s probably one of our best songs.” They share that Patrick’s feature came of “manifesting it early” as Jack jokes about the track’s working title being Daylily. Jono shares. “He really solidified the value of having a guest feature, because he took the song and he ran with it.” Jack adds, “he just buffs it out pretty much almost exactly how it is. He crushes it on his phone mic in his car. It was crazy.”
Other features on the album come from fellow Aussies and friends of the band Mikaila Delgado [YOURS TRULY] on Tongue Tied and Jack Bergin [VOID OF VISION on Act II. “As we were writing the songs, we were kind of like ‘a feature here would be cool, Jack at the end of this song, in this fat breakdown would be awesome’. And when Jared brought Tongue Tied to the table, it was like ‘this song would be so much sadder if you had the other perspective’. It was just like, we can get our friends on these songs and they’ll be even better,” Jono explains.
As we talk, BLOOM are days away from heading over to Europe on an all Australian tour with their friends in THORNHILL and OCEAN GROVE. “I think this is probably one of the most fruitful periods for Australian bands. It’s really expensive and it’s really hard to get out of Australia. But I think now more than ever, there’s way more opportunity and for bands like ourselves.”
Regarding their live shows, they joke that Forget Me Not is their most anticipated track to debut live, “we spent a good hour testing it at like a bunch of different tempos to work out what is like the optimal jump tempo,” Jono laughs. BLOOM are exploring nostalgia with a brutal vulnerability, but are always keeping their younger selves close to their hearts. Jack jokes. “The hypothesis is that it’s the perfect jump tempo, but we’ll see. It hasn’t been ground tested yet.”
The Light We Chase is out now via Pure Noise Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS126 here:
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