Bloods are long-time friends of Cool Accidents (they wrote and performed the theme song for Craft With Kit don’tcha know) and their new album Feelings is out now through Share It Music. We caught up with Victoria Sweetie Zamroa (bass), Marihuzka Cornelius (guitar and vocals) and Dirk Jonker (drums) to see how they’re feeling on release week. Check out the album here.
CA: Hello Bloods! Congratulations on Feelings. You can't really put out an album called Feelings and not have people ask you about your feelings, so how are you feeling now? How are you feeling looking back on these feelings which when writing and recording would have been all fresh and raw and are now out there for other people to feel?
MC: Firstly, thank you! We are so excited the album is finally out. It’s a great feeling having all these feelings out there now. The album is such a journey through the past few years, that some of those feelings feel like a distant memory to be honest. There are probably as many happy songs as there are sad songs, so the memories are bittersweet at times. Overall, I think we are feeling thankful for the feelings that helped us to finish Feelings.
CA: It's an exciting record, sonically. What decisions did you make going in to album #2 to punch up the sound and did Sub Pop have any sway in who you would work with?
MC: We were very free in terms of where we were able to take it. We had made a conscious decision going into the first record to make something that reflected us as a live band. With this album, we just wanted to make a record of songs that sounded awesome. After we compiled the first few demos I remember saying I wanted to make an album that sounded like ‘a drunk cheerleader’ or ‘Louise Belcher falling in love’. I think we achieved that. I really loved Sleigh Bells and I told our friend Andrea who works at Sub Pop that and she suggested we use Shane Stoneback to mix. That collaboration set the benchmark for the entire record I would say.
CA: It must be a dream come true to work with those guys and a great progression from just the publishing side to now an album release. How do you feel about the relationship?
MC: Well we are on Share It Music which is distro’d by Sub Pop and was founded by Cayle Sharratt who signed us to Sub Pop Publishing. Our relationship with Cayle has been amazing and his belief in our band has been nothing short of inspiring to be honest! We are so proud to be aligned with Share It Music and honoured to be Cayle’s first release!
CA: You've chosen to support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation on this record - tell us about how this works with your release and why it's important to you and how we can donate to this cause?
MC: Well, Share It Music is set up as non-profit and 50% of the label’s profit goes to the ILF, which is so awesome! It’s a cause we feel all Australians should be passionate about! You can support them by a direct donation and if you buy our record or stream it, you’ll also be donating via our contribution.
CA: The cover art is dope - what's the story behind it?
MC: I clocked this pic when our friend Ari put it up on her Insta about a year ago! The first time I saw it, it literally took my breath away and I knew at that point that I wanted it to be the cover. The enormity of that tree, the vibrancy of the flowers and the way the tree towers over the house and the crossing leads to the path all felt like the metaphor for where my heart was at, at that moment. Kind of the perfect metaphor for love, really.
CA: Any last shout outs, anything you guys want to let us know about?
MC: We’ll be dong two ‘Summer Kick Off’ parties in December! Sydney – 8th December at the Union Hotel; Melbourne – 14th December at The Old Bar
Bloods have made us a playlist too – get your ears around this.
