After coming together as a trio in November 2019, bloom has spent the past year fervently writing and recording. Initially planning to release an EP, the group’s chemistry allowed them to amass a large number of demos in a short amount of time. They soon linked up with esteemed Toronto engineer Dominic “Dot” Okune and collectively decided to release these tracks as an album.
The moving and enigmatic “no good thoughts” is bloom’s first offering from this upcoming project, scheduled for release in January 2020.
Taking inspiration from a wide variety of artists including Juice WRLD, Post Malone and The Weeknd, the members of bloom – Jackson Courtnall, Noah Levine, and Christopher Giannaris – create music that blurs the lines between hip-hop, RnB, emo and indie. The group fuse their individual backgrounds to forge a sound that’s more than the sum of its parts, with Jackson handling the bulk of production, Noah providing lyrics and vocals, and Chris bringing unique guitar contributions that draw from a 90s grunge influence. The result is a boldly vulnerable sound that is fresh and exciting but suffused with poignance and emotion.
“In December 2018, I met Noah and Chris. Noah would text me every day asking to produce and eventually one day the three of us hung out and messed around. Around January 2019, Chris, Noah and I began messing around with vocals and after making “done now,” I had a feeling that music was going to be a huge part of my life for a long time.” – Jackson Courtnall
“no good thoughts” begins with a bittersweet guitar line which forms the melodic and rhythmic backbone of the entire track. As the guitar plays a distant and disembodied sample of female speech, hidden behind a wall of vocal effects and distortion, trap claps and hi-hats flutter into the sonic field before a weighty 808 swells to complete the percussive framework. Over this bold instrumental, bloom’s reflective lyrical content focuses on the negative thoughts that can creep in and slowly take hold of your mind.
“It’s about the constant struggle between thoughts that may be positive, negative, harmful, and self-depreciative. This struggle is due to past experiences (i.e. past relationships, friendships, traumatic events) and results in a crippling depression. As a result, in order to cope, relationships are torn, friendship circles begin to shrink and behaviour becomes reckless. It then becomes about self-realization and trying to change, with the goal of becoming better.”
As “no good thoughts” progresses, the members of bloom trade vocals back and forth. Hip-hop influence is markedly evident in their flows, but their lush vocal harmonies clearly display the pop and RnB sensibilities that permeate their entire sound. Once the chorus hits, the drums drop away, leaving only the guitar as a backdrop, as layers of stacked vocal harmonies sing in unison: “I never ran away/You just thought that I would never leave”.
“No good thoughts” is available on all streaming platforms.