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From Whispers To A Scream With JONO HAWKEY From BLOOM · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hey, what's up. This is Johnath from Bloom and I'm chatting with Tara
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  from Heavy mag Awesome. Has your Davien? Man, it's been okay,
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  it's been all right. I had had a We got a nine week old
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  puppy two weeks ago, so we had to do a vet trip today which
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  was nice and fun. But yeah, not doing well. Just cruising,
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  yep, just cruising through. That's that's a full time job, getting a
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  puppy. Yes, and I'm working from home as well, so it's two
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  jobs for the price, I wouldn't get any work done. Man, hats
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  off to your Yeah, it's tough, that's awesome. So you guys have
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  got a lot going on for Bloom at the moment. Let's start with your
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  your new release, Bound to Your Whispers, which turned a week old yesterday.
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  I did. Yeah, So in your words, what does this track
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  mean to you and how did it come to be? Mm hm So I
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  think I think Bounty Whispers is kind of the next step for where we all
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  collectively see Bloom heading towards. It definitely shares the most sort of characteristics with
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  Sinking to the Soil, which was January last year, and it's kind of
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  a crop pot, so to speak, of the rifts and the breakdowns and
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  the really big moments that you know, it translates well, really translate really
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  well live. It's catchy and it's got a hooky chorus that is something that
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  we have always loved writing, and I think it also balances the sort of
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  the emotional and the lyrical and the really sort of literal wording that we've kind
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  of explored in all of our releases prior. It came to be sort of
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  the same way that I guess any of the bloom prior music has come to
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  be, where we kind of build up a drop box folder to the brim
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  of song ideas and demos and see sometimes just as simple as sections of songs,
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  and then we work super closely with a producer down in Melbourn called Christopher
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  Vernon. We've worked with him for ever release since Cold and he is kind
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  of the glue that brings the drop box folder together, and it's really the
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  sixth man who kind of pulls the best bits and helps us really structure it
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  in a way where we're getting the best bits of you know, maybe multiple
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  songs and kind of cramming them into the one Yeah, that's perfect. I
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  think your raw honesty is definitely what's drawing people in towards it as well.
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  It's yeah, yeah, yeah, I love it. So it took me
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  through the process on the film clip because when I watch it, I feel
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  like it kind of catches that fuzzy haze that you feel when there is self
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  yeah, and you're digging deeper into yourself. It's like, oh, and
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  you can't get out of it. It's like, am I on the right
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  path or how do you approach to it? Yeah? I mean where we
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  are so so lucky in the last in the last couple of years, we've
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  managed to build up a team of people around us who are just fucking phenomenal
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  at what they do. The music video for was done by our friend Jack
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  Fontes, who works as a part of June Labs, which is a sort
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  of music video company. We had an idea to create almost like a void
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  or a place where there was no sort of sense of walls or any structure
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  to it, and that entire video we shot in a big psych room,
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  so just a giant green screen and kind of gave him a little bit to
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  go off, you know. We wanted it to feel Barren. We wanted
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  it to feel kind of frantic, and we wanted it to look like fucked
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  up, like we wanted it to look distorted and noisy, because we kind
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  of felt like that resonated with I guess what the song was about about,
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  sort of these disjointed inner self feelings and this destruction and this isolation sort of
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  feeling. So he filmed it all and then he edited it and then he
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  reshot. He kind of did a digit to analogue, filmed a screen to
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  create like this really retro and noisy and irerierorated feeling, and it just came
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  together perfectly. I'm pretty sure we had one revision and we were like,
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  no, it's perfect, Like just change this one small detail and it's good.
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  No other notes. That's so good. That's awesome. I think frantic
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  describes it perfectly, like it yeah times and you kind of feel that,
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  I don't know, now's the feeling behind the song absolutely perfectly. Yeah,
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  yeah, now, absolutely crushed it. That's this video that he really he
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  took exactly what we described, what we wanted and just ran with it.
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  Like hats off to him. Yeah, that's perfect, And to have one
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  edit is pretty rare. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't happen. It doesn't
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  happen. Yeah, yeah, then the Madman made it happen. That's awesome.
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  That absolutely captured your vision just come to for sure. Yeah, that's
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  awesome. How would you describe Bloom to someone who's just jumped on the bandwagon.
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  Hmmm. I would say that we are well. I mean, I'll
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  hope that this person has stumbled across them for the right reasons and they have
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  an appreciation for heavy music. I would say that we combine a lot of
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  the parts of metalcore that people really like with this sort of melodic hardcore influence
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  that's emotional, and we always try to connect with what we're writing lyrically and
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  tying it all together where a band of we really want to have memorable moments,
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  and I think something that we hold sort of to the highest regard as
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  well as we always really put a lot into our live shows as well.
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  If you have just stumbled across Bloom and you're unsure come to a show,
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  well, let us let us sell us to you. I think we've always
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  sort of won our hearts on our sleeves, and I think that translates in
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  our releases as well. We really try and be very little all and very
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  earnest with the listener. We think that sort of makes the best the best
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  music or the music that you can connect to the most. So yeah,
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  if you stumble process, come see us live and you'll get the you'll get
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  the real experience. That's a great answer. Man. Your your passion and
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  how genuine you I think shines through this. And i think people even hearing
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  this would go, oh yeah, go shout and go check this guy out.
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  Yeah, a little bit salesman, only a little sales, a little
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  bit to day job exact. Scrolling through your socials, you can kind of
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  see the camaraderie between yours and that you're having like an awesome time, and
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  you do have a lot of people who are rotten for you, like you
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  see these days. You jump on socials and you see a mixed bag of
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  people being absolute jack asses. But there's a lot of people in there who
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  have shown you, guys love. So I'm kind of curious how did you
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  guys come to be and how long has that connection been there? Like,
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  what are your backgrounds? These are real doozy. So me and Jared and
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  Jack and Andrew all went to not the same school, but we all ran
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  in the same circle. So Me and Jared and Andrew all went at the
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  same school and only went to a school nearby, and Jack went to a
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  school nearby. We have been best friends years before Bloom ever started, and
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  I think that's kind of what you've you've picked up on as well as there's
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  this camaraderie. And I think Bloom started because we all had the same shared
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  love for music. But the reason Bloom has continued is because our friendship has
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  stayed so solid and we've got to achieve so many bucket list things together.
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  It's it's such an honor to be able to not only like you know,
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  play shows with friends and tour with friends, but just to still hang out
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  with friends all the time and accomplish really cool things together. It's it's super
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  jarring to me when I hear, you know, people talking about maybe their
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  band and their they see their their bandmates as bandmates. They are people who
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  are in the because they fulfill X Y Z role. I'm sure they're friends,
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  but it's kind of a different it's a different relationship to us. Whereas
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  if Bloom was to self destruct, I think all of us would still want
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  to remain friends and have that sort of relationship regardless of whether we playing a
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  band together or not. Yeah. Absolutely, And you can't teach that shit,
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  man, Honestly, you can put together a band or you want,
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  but to have that gel and that genuineness and that love and respect between each
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  other that comes. I thought that was normal. I thought that was like
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  what bands were like. And it was only after you know, a few
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  years of doing this where I went, we are super lucky to be in
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  the position that we're in, Like it's it is rare, and I kind
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  of just went in and going, yeah, this must be normal. You
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  know, everyone starts a band with their mates and does all these cool things,
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  No, and we are we consider ourselves super lucky. Yeah, absolutely,
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  Like sometimes it can start off that way, but to actually stick together
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  years later and still have the same envision and still passion and love, it's
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  a big thing, something to be definitely shroud of for sure. Yeah.
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  So this year has been huge for you guys. So you've joined forces would
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  destroy all lines. You've become a part of Pure Noise Records alongside yeah giants
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  in the industry quite literally, Yeah, liberal giant Yeah, yeah, no
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  pressure, Yeah, no pressure, man. You've been put on the bill
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  for Good Things twenty twenty three, which will chat about a little bit later.
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  But are you guys slowly just casually taking these things off your bucket list?
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  It's the it's the absolute opposite of the start of this year. Like
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  we had a kind of slow start to the year for no reason other than
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  we had to get our ducks in a row, so to speak. Like
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  it's been I guess the first six months of the year, Like we had
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  a great tour with ocean growth, but a lot of the time that was
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  not on that tour was spent focusing on this portion of the year. Yeah,
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  sort of, how how do we want the end of twenty twenty three
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  the start of twenty twenty four to look for us? Obviously the big one
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  and I think the thing that we were really just itching at the bit to
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  get out was with pure and noise that took a while, and we had
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  a like we have a phenomenal team of people like I can't speak that,
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  I can't sing their praises any higher who kind of got that across the line,
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  and Gray Scale has been amazing with it as well, and to sort
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  of join their roster is that's a real big bucket list one for us.
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  I made a post on my Instagram a few like last week about the signing.
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  But the short of it is, when Bloom started, we did the
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  you know, the typical thing of you know, you write your band goals
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  on a list. We wrote down three things. One of them was to
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  play Unify, one of them was to play an international show, and one
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  of them was to sign with Pure and Noise Records like there and then as
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  nineteen year olds, we pinned it, this is the label we want to
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  sign with. And we're probably nearing on seven eight months since those conversations as
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  Whispers first started happening, and we have, you know, slaved so hard
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  and the people around us that we work the slaves so hard to make it
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  happen, and it's kind of, you know, we've had that obviously signing
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  with joining destroyal lines and they're good things to end off the year. It's
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  just sort of it's the we've ripped what we've sown, I guess to put
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  it nicely, like, we we spent so much time in the weeds getting
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  all of our all of our ship sort of making sure that we'd crossed every
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  tea dot and every eye and now we get to kind of enjoy the role
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  outside and it just seems like all this amazing stuff is happening at once,
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  and I think on the outside it kind of looks like, oh my god,
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  what bloomers, this, this and this' it's it hasn't been without months
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  and months of how are we going to play this next sort of time.
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  Absolutely, and now you get to hold the flame for Ouzzy music. I
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  think, oh, yeah, yeah, you look at who's on there roster
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  and have you guys alongside. They're like I couldn't have scrolling down and seeing
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  my name on there. So that's that's a huge thing. We I remember
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  the day it went live, like we all sort of went on the Pure
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  Noise website screenshot. Yeah, it's crazy. Like as for Australian fans with
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  Pure Noise, it's us in the amity affliction like it is. It is
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  a fucking big it's a it's a huge get and like I cannot be more
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  grateful. I cannot express the privilege that we feel anymore. Like it's it's
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  it is literally the dream for us as a Bandit it was on the whiteboard,
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  so to take that one off is just phenomenal. He has manifested the
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  Oh my god, it worked. So you kind of answered this question here
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  because I guess you're going to say, go overseas, But where do you
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  see yourself in five years? That's the that's the big one, hopefully before
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  the five years is up. Where we want to get it down as we
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  can. Yeah, we're where where that That's the next big thing for us
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  is we've we've we definitely have still you know, he heeps more to cover
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  in Australia, but we're kind of at a point as a band where we're
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  like, okay, let's start tackling these international markets. We're all really good
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  friends with the Thornhill Boys and they have just been absolutely eating every country they
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  go to, and we kind of want to put ourselves on the same sort
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  of trajectory where we can do you know, a solid support slot in Europe
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  and in this in in in the States, and we all really want to
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  go over to New Zealand because we've all got family in New Zealand and I
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  think that's the that's the main focus is we want to we want to continue
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  to tour a ship out of Australia. We have you know, headline plans
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  and all the all the exciting stuff, but we yeah, we're itching at
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  the bit to get overseas. I don't think it will take too long.
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  Hope. It's happening for you guys in the balls roll and people are noticing,
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  so absolutely, I can't see it taking that long. So you guys
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  have supported bad Omens just quietly. Oh yeah, been a part of unified
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  gathering and you're heading out with on Heire next month on there probably tour.
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  So along side the other list of impressive shows that you've been a part of,
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  what's the core memory or show that's just stopped you in your tracks?
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  And you've got are you serious? Is this us? Oh? I've kind
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  of got. I've got two answers, because one of them is not a
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  show that is it is memorable to us as a band, but maybe not
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  on the on the grand picture. The first one would be the first headline
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  show that we did right after we released Cold. It was one hundred and
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  fifty capacity room in Sydney. It was the Berdeken Hotel and we packed that
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  room out and it was people that were singing along and were super into it.
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  Up until that point, we were very much a band. We opened
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  the shows and we were selling our music to the people in the room.
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  We were let's put on a really great performance and you know, hopefully these
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  people will walk out of here fans of the band. And that show was
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  the first show where it felt like there was a community. There were people
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  that were just super excited to be there, were there were there were friends
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  of ours, there were people we'd never met before. We had, you
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  know, people jumping on shoulders, and to do all of that, and
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  especially being the first headline we did, it was a really big moment of
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  wow, like, we we did this. They're not here to see the
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  headliner there, Like that was a really cool moment. The other, I
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  guess the other one that stands out as a giant one probably still Unify.
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  It was it was on the whiteboard, so to achieve that was was phenomenal
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  and it was just such a fun weekend. Like only a few of us
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  had actually been to Unify as punters in the past, so for me it
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  was my first experience actually seeing the campgrounds and really soaking in the atmosphere.
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  And to even just attend Unify was incredible let alone and be a part of
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  it. We were blessed with an incredible slot on the first day, so
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  we still had the whole weekend to really revel in its glory. Yeah,
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  that weekend exactly exactly. I mean I would hate nothing more to be like
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  closing Unify on the second day, like what do you do for the cool?
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  But yeah, and that was that was the by far and away,
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  the biggest, the biggest amount of people we've played to it up at that
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  point. So yeah, that was that was a real special one. And
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  yeah, it's always it's locked up in here. Yeah. Cool. And
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  that was just such a stacked line up to Yeah, it was crazy.
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  Yeah, that's awesome. So you're kind of you've spoken about the drop box.
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  Yeah, it would stacked full of your music. So do you guys
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  have another album in the work? So what are you thinking? We have
• 16:49
  lots more to share. We don't have any The NBA hasn't been lifted just
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  yet, but yeah, there'll be more from us before the year is up.
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  Cool, we have the ball has rolling bound is just the start of
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  everything. But yet we we started working on this next release cycle in we
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  started doing pre production for it. In January last year and we recorded in
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  September last year, so it has it has been a long time coming.
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  But we're all super stoked with with everything, and I think the thing that
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  I'm most excited to get out there is obviously bound is a taste, but
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  I think with you know, all the stuff that we have coming at,
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  really we've really drawn from wider influence as well. It's it's not sort of
• 17:41
  the same carbon copy of what we've been doing. It's kind of to both
• 17:45
  ends of the extreme, you know, heavier and softer. And yeah,
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  it's it's been it's been a really rewarding experience, albeit a long one.
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  But yes, there is more to come before the year is on. Looking
• 17:56
  forward to it to keep an eye out for that. So obviously coming up
• 18:02
  in December, you guys are playing good things amazing. Yeah, along the
• 18:04
  side Limp Biscuit, both my valentine, Corey Taylor, Slaughtered to Prevail.
• 18:10
  Just like a few who are you most looking forward to kind of rubbing shoulders
• 18:15
  with or playing alongside. Oh, I don't know if I'll be rubbing their
• 18:18
  shoulders. I would like to see fall Out Boy heat or to see Bloom
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  on the same poster as fall Out Boy alb at different sizes is crazy.
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  Like my introduction into sort of the heavier music was the fuel by Rahm and
• 18:36
  like Paramol panic at the disco fall out Boy era. So and I guess
• 18:41
  as well for like my parents to see a poster and you can see fall
• 18:45
  out Boy and this is my son band, Like that's that's some crazy shit.
• 18:48
  Fall Our Boy are going to be really fun. Limp Biscuit will be
• 18:52
  really fun. I think there's a lot of it's gonna be a lot of
• 18:55
  really good moments at good things. And not to discredit you know, a
• 18:57
  band's full discography, but you know, seeing Eskimo Joe play Black Fingernails,
• 19:02
  Red Wine, seeing Devo play with It, roll and break stuff with them,
• 19:07
  but like there's so many, so many incredible moments. I I'm really
• 19:11
  excited to see the plot. Knew as well. I saw them last time
• 19:14
  they were here. Phenomenal band. I really I really dig this stuff they've
• 19:18
  been putting out. Yeah, I think it's going to be just an absolute
• 19:23
  chaotic weekend. Like you know, three back to back, fly and fly
• 19:27
  out sort of thing is tricky for anyone. So yeah, it's it's gonna
• 19:33
  be a crazy weekend and yeah we we it'll be the I guess the second
• 19:38
  festival we've done first being Unify. I guess, big outdoor festival, I
• 19:42
  suppose, And yeah we we feel like Unifier, We've got a taste of
• 19:48
  it and now we get to do it three times in one weekend and just
• 19:52
  yeah, so excited. Huge weekend, absolutely massive. Yeah that's so cool.
• 19:56
  So where can everyone go to follow you? Only? Where are your
• 20:00
  most active? On you on your socials or your website. We get people
• 20:03
  to follow us on our socials. Instagram is probably the place where we're the
• 20:07
  most active, because fuck Facebook, but yeah, follow us on follow us
• 20:11
  on Instagram, Blue sid Anything that we are sharing is going through Instagram.
• 20:17
  You'll see live photos, you'll see upcoming, are coming shows, merch all
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  the like. Is the place to be awesome And honestly, I'm so excited
• 20:26
  to see what comes from you guys, like you're extremely passionate and I can
• 20:29
  see that you're in it for the right reasons. Music is your b o
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  end all. So yeah, Heavy mag will be at the Brezzy Good Thing,
• 20:36
  So hopefully we'll catch up then, yeah, catch up and see how
• 20:41
  the year has been a couple of more months between then, so I'm sure
• 20:42
  you'll conquer the world, hope, So we'll keep trying. But yeah,
• 20:48
  that's it. Well, thanks for your time, John, It's honestly been
• 20:49
  a place chat excellent. Catch you next time. Ta