Your New Favourite Band: Bloodflower

Us collective of CULTURED VULTURES brought Bloodflower to your attention a little, wee while back, when they’re latest single ‘People/Places’ dropped and immediately made our SINGLE OF THE WEEK as it did so. The single itself was another shining example of Bloodflower’s deft hand at knocking out shimmering and sharp synth pop with its big hooks and bigger choruses, weighted down by more layered and tense elements of electronica.

The band themselves are artist Jonnie Owen and producer Tom Manning, both long time friends and collaborators, but the band branches out when performing beyond a duo when performing live to bring a whole new dimension to their music. I caught up with Jonnie and Tom from the band for a round of my Jeremy Paxamn-esque level of interview skills, to get to know a little bit more about this generally a little mysterious pair. Have a read, and get closer to YOUR NEW FAVOURITE BAND.

Hello there, how are you, and, for those that might not know, who are you?

Very good thank you, despite the Baltic weather we are faced with outside.  We are Jonnie and Tom from electronic duo Bloodflower.

‘People/Places’ was our Single of the Week recently. Would you care to tell our readers, who might’ve missed that, a little about it?

People/places is the first single from our forthcoming Noise EP.  It’s our attempt at creating a dynamic yet minimalistic atmosphere born out of the bass line and percussion loops. Conceptually, the song presents a juxtaposition.  The lyrics in the verses long for isolation and intimacy in the style of fantasy, yet the music is quite cold and spikey, industrious.  This is highlighted further when the drone of, ‘people/places’ constantly interrupts the fantasy, an attempt to humour modern life itself.

Your music seems to encapsulate both modern and classic electronica and synth-pop, but also the more anthemic and melodic side to both of those, as well the more abrasive and intense elements. I imagine you have a wide array of influences from the more electronically inclined, but has it always been that kind of music that has driven you?

No.  We are both massive music fans.  A lot of our time is spent discussing music old and new, of all different styles and genres.  We’re constantly swapping music and sending links back and fourth.  Listening to music is a massive part of creating music, just like reading is for the development of writing words.

Of course, we’ve mentioned your recent single, and you’ve had previous single releases, but what EPs or an album even. Is there anything in the pipeline for something along those lines?

There certainly is, our Noise EP will be released in the spring.  It will feature along with people/Places 5 previously unreleased tracks.

At its core Bloodflower is a duo, but live you boost your numbers. How do you feel your music translates live in contrast to on record?

We never really expected to take Bloodflower to the live stage as the studio experience was enough of a buzz.  However, when our songs started getting more plays on radio, magazines and blogs started taking notice the question kept creeping up ‘when are you playing live’.  So this was a totally exciting period for us both to decide to take it to the stage and re-imagine what we had created in the studio.  It was almost like re-writing each song again, hearing them come together, building each element up from scratch but with the help of some talented musicians that we know.  We spent a lot of time preparing intensely for the live stage and the feedback from the little amount of gigs that we have done has been very positive.  We are looking to develop it more in 2015.

Speaking of playing live, are there any up and coming live dates that our readers can come catch you at?

Hoxton Bar & kitchen – 18^th March

Camden Koko (Club NME)  – 8^th May (headline slot)

How do you feel about the musical landscape for up and coming artists like yourselves? Are there any bands/acts you’d recommend we check out?

There’s a lot of excellent music out there, just look at how many new releases came out in January.  It’s a great time to be a musician and a fan of music.  There are so many new acts such as Public Service Broadcasting, Sohn, Deptford Goth, Boxed in, Eno/Hyde, Sweetface, Jauge from Cardiff (who has just finished a re-mix of people/places).  However, I’m currently listening to a cd I got at a charity shop called ‘street noises of Tokyo’.

Lastly, at Cultured Vultures we have our own cultured vulture called Voltaire, but if you had a vulture of particular culture, what would you call it?

Vernon the Vulture