Jono Hawkey & Jack Van Vliet - Bloom 'Simmering in the Sauce and Taking Stock of the Journey So Far'

Ahead of the release of their sophomore album The Light We Chase, we caught Bloom before they went on tour to have a chat about the album creation process, relentless touring and the importance of documenting your history. Dive into the chat below.

Bloom are the kings of Melodic Hardcore and they are ready to unleash their sophomore album on the world. The Light We Chase is coming soon. Today Wall of Sound are joined once again by Jono Hawkey and Jack Van Vliet to have a yarn about the new album touring and what's next for Bloom. Welcome back guys.

Jono: Hello, thanks for having us.

So, let's get into The Light We Chase. I'm still digesting it myself to gather my full thoughts, but after a few listens I'm a big fan. It's got the heart wrenching lyrics and the really impassioned instrumentals. They all coalesce to create such a unique listening experience that feels incredibly cathartic. I’d love to talk about the themes of the album. I want to hear what you guys got the most out of writing about when it comes to the emotional scope of The Light We Chase.

Jono: For sure. One of the main concepts that it's really rooted in is the growing up that we experienced together. Songs like ‘Belrose’, ‘Glen Street’, the references in ‘Keep You’, those are places that we grew up and a lot of where our formative years were spent. I think when we first approached the idea of album tours, we kind of wanted to write it almost in a way as a love letter. Towards our childhood and our upbringing. These are all places where we have a lot of shared experiences. We don't live in Belrose, we don't live in that area anymore, but every time we come back it feels very familiar and safe and homely.

I think the title, The Light We Chase kind of encapsulates the wider scope of the album as well, which is looking ahead towards something, trying to push yourself. The influence that your upbringing has on you and how you have shaped yourself as a person and all the way through to the things that you're aspiring for.

That general feeling of helplessness that comes, that being in the middle of looking behind you and looking ahead of you and just that feeling of being a bit lost.

Jack: I think the context of how we're making the album's also a big part in how all the themes and how the writing really came together with it. When we first discussed it we were talking about things that Jono was talking about with the love letter to the past and stuff like that. With the place that we grew up and all the people that we were. But when we're coming into the studio writing it, we'd just come off of a giant tour and we're just about to go on another giant tour, and there was all of these things that were happening that felt like it was pulling everyone in so many different directions. It's almost like we were using the album, focusing on the past as a way to cope with all of the things were going on in all of our own lives and how we were digesting them and being able to sort through them.

The album itself is also kind of like using the nostalgia and like using your goals and what you're striving for. These coping mechanisms for how frantic and stressed or how helpless that we feel and these moments where it feels like everything's out of our control. So it's trying to put that control in something else.

So the period, the act of even writing about it itself even feeds into the album, like almost like a loop. I think that that's where a lot of the enjoyment was. A lot of making the record was about trusting your instincts and writing about what's important. Getting someone in the room and be like, what is the thing that's important? What are we all feeling like right now? How are we gonna relate to ourselves? How do we relate to who we were and how do we relate to what everyone wants to be in this shared goal? How does that make everyone feel?

Getting that down on paper was a very cathartic experience.

It's just as cathartic to listen to it. We're all human and we all go through such crazy things in this journey that's life. To take the growth, the trials and tribulations that you've had individually, but shared as a band and a group of friends at the end of the day, to put it all down into some music is really impactful. Maybe In Another Life was a very conceptual album whereas this feels more like a mishmash of like really diverse music from all these different experiences that you've all shared.

Jono: There was more intention this time around as well. We did Maybe In Another Life and we kind of wrote it as a written album; It has a narrative that flows through the entire record. I think when we approached this album, we didn't want to do another concept record. We love Maybe In Another Life, but we felt we kind of said what we had to say with that release, and I think for this one, it made more sense to speak to something that was very true to us. I think the lyrics of this album compared to Maybe In Another Life are probably more in line with In Passing than Maybe In Another Life was. I think they're very “this is the emotion that I'm feeling. This is the thing that is on my mind. These are me trying to wrap my head around why I feel the way that I feel. This is my frustration, my anger towards this thing that's happening in my life. This is my feeling of being lost in this thing in my life.” It all fits under the umbrella, The Light We Chase. And in a way it sort of all speaks to a shared concept, but it doesn't have that same conceptual protagonist that you follow throughout a story.

I was thinking of how a lot of the musicians I talk to, there's the need to experiment with all your sequential releases to just further creativity and make the music you're happy with and put it out into the world. That evolution is present in all of your work. But more so in The Light We Chase. There’s a lot of experimenting and a more getting into the different emotions, the different themes, and really expanding upon them. Each song is so unique. I wanted to gather your thoughts on the challenges of experimentation. You still have the core essences of Bloom. You still have that really emotional, gripping lyricism, but you also have really new sounds. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the challenges of, getting those newer or different sounds into the album.

Jack: I think it was a lot of thing of not leaving any stone unturned. Especially 'cause we knew we weren't restricted in the bounce of a whole concept album where it needed to follow something through the whole time. It was like, “if we can make a really good song, then we can make a really good song.” If that song is taking an inspiration from a Lizzie McAlpine acoustic song, or if that song's taking inspiration from the Cocteau Twins or Silverchair, there's no reason not to pull all of these things in and still make it us and still make it how we make music. I don't know if it was really a challenge.

Jono: It felt very natural. I had the same thought. I think the experimenting was almost the fun part. We went into this record more confident than we were on previous records. Obviously you put so much time and energy and focus into your debut. It is the only thing you want to ever think about. Everything needs to be done to the highest degree of perfection. 'cause you only got one shot at a debut. With album two obviously we wanted to write something that was incredible. But I think we also wanted to let the leash a little bit looser and spend a bit more time experimenting, trying different things. It was also the first time we'd recorded with a different producer. Sam Bassal was who we did the record with, and it was exciting because we spent more time focused on Atmos and soundscape, like sonically, how are we building these songs up? We kind of had more fun with it. In the song ‘Act II’, there's a blade sample. There's a knife shing, we kind of just got to spend a little bit more time playing around with it.

Obviously the source material, the lyrics, they're not super happy lyrics, but I think the enjoyment really came from that experimenting and there was a lot of joy in the recording process also being recorded between two tours. We went into the album process invigorated. We were already simmering in the Bloom sauce. It wasn't like we were starting from completely cold. They weren't challenges that stand out to me with experimenting. I guess there's a fear of like, “what if everyone hates it?” But I don't think it really ever crossed our minds.

Jack: Yeah there were more challenges in the logistics of making it than was in actually making the record.

Like you mentioned, you didn't have a lot of time at all, you were in and outta the studio in just a few weeks. Between the relentless touring and the really heavily concentrated studio time (shout out Sam Bassal) what are some of the biggest lessons you've learned either personally or as a band?

Jono: Pre-book your luggage! The biggest lesson is probably is probably more true in hindsight; A lot of those times, a lot of those tours, a lot of that recording really flew by and a lot of it is blurred together. I think in hindsight I need to take more fucking photos. I need to take more videos. Because looking back on that time now, it really just feels like a bit of a blur. We're so focused on what we were creating and what we were doing and the tours that we were doing that now in hindsight, I'm looking back on it, I can't believe that happened. I don't have a lot to show for it from documenting it.

So I think the lesson that I've learned is I need to take more photos, take more videos, and capture more. Because now looking back on it, it's, it's a crazy blur.

Jack: Say what you mean is a big one. There's a song that's directly about it that Jarod (McLaren) wrote which is ‘Tongue Tied’, the acoustic track. I think that that's also kind of a permeated through the whole thing. It was kind of challenging for all of us to be in a room and writing a song where it's essentially pulling back the curtain on all of the feelings that come from being in a band that is doing all of these things and how it's not always super good and it felt like that it could be almost alienating, but because it's so important and because it felt like it was so universal where it's like you get everything you wanted and it's not what you expected, it felt super necessary to put on the album. It's just kind of the same thing as talking to each other. When we're on tour and talking to other people when we're on tour, don't keep anything in, say what you mean when you can because otherwise you don't get another chance to do it.

That direct approach is always good. Thinking about how everything's a blur, I was going through your Facebook page 'cause you can expand all the photos that are on your page. And I was just wanting to do a little bit of research a bit more about the tours and activities you've got going on. A lot's happened in the time that I've been listening to you guys. I've been listening to you guys since I saw you guys at CVLTFEST and that's when I fell in love with your live performances. In particular I've been witness to your performances on stages in Albury at Beer Deluxe, or the Lansdowne in Sydney, as well as huge performances in the Forum. Can you name any favourite memories while playing live, either Australian or overseas?

Jack: My one that I thought of straight away was when we headlined Tokyo this year. I think that was one of the best shows I'd ever played. It was awesome, it was packed, kids were moving, it was in Japan! Yeah it was awesome.

Jono: A few come to mind. One would be we played a venue in Cologne in Germany called Palladium earlier this year, and that venue is stupidly large. It was by far and away the most amount of people we'd ever played to. It was the sheer scale of like, I cannot see where the people end. It was a true feeling of like, “oh my God”. Obviously that's not our crowd. That's Silverstein's crowd full credit to them. But they still got in early. They still watched our set. I think as well, more recently we just did a couple of headline shows for ‘Withered’. A lot of our headline shows have been rooms that we're very confident that we can either sell out or get very close to. These ‘Withered’ shows in Sydney, we played Oxford Art Factory. For me and I guess for the rest of the band.

We all grew up in Sydney. We all saw a lot of bands at Oxford Art Factory. To be on that stage and to have that room full of people that are coming to see our band, we're not the opening act – this is our show. There's just a special energy that you only get when you headline.

The people putting on the phone lights felt like I was playing at Wembley. It was so special and maybe it's recency bias 'cause that's the last time we played. That's the one I'm clinging to. But I think that show in particular will always be a very special show because it's a venue that I have wanted to headline for so long and we finally did it.

I'm glad you guys could tick Japan and Oxford Art Factory off your bucket list. After The Light We Chase comes out, you guys are gonna be busy as hell. You're going to the US with Silverstein and you're part of the Australian takeover of Europe with Thornhill and Ocean Grove. Back to Australia though, apart from Hellbound what does 2026 hold for Bloom? What comes to mind for me, is an album headline tour in the works? Surely it can't be long until you headline Hordern Pavilion, right?

Jono: Yeah we've got holds at Hordern and Qudos. (One day!) We’ve got an album headline tour in the works. If ‘Withered’ was us testing the water in bigger rooms this album headline is us taking a full crack at it. It's gonna be our biggest headline to date in terms of where we're playing and the venues that we're playing in, we're super excited for that. So that's gonna be next year. We get home on Christmas Eve, so we're gonna take January off to have a little bit of a sleep, but after that we're hitting the ground running.

Awesome. I'm really looking forward to it. My final question I have for you guys; this is the first Bloom album with vocal features. With this in mind, who would be your dream guesties on the album? You've got some awesome people on the album as it is, but who would be your absolute dream guesties to collaborate with?

Jack: I feel like as a collective, it would probably be like Hayley Williams.

Jono: Easy for me. It would be Frank Ocean.

Jono: It was cool doing features this time around. We hadn't really done it in the past. Mikaila (Delgado) is a really close friend of ours. Jack Bergin's a really close friend of ours. So to have them two on it was super cool. And then Pat (Miranda) from Movements was like, the song that he features on was written. The working title for that song was Daylily. So it was written with, you know, “man, it'd be awesome if we could get Pat on this song.” So that one was almost unbelievable that it came to fruition.

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It’s a really stacked album with a lot going on and I'm really keen for the world to experience it. I'm really keen to see what goes on the live setlists. Stay tuned to Wall of Sound for our thoughts on The Light We Chase. Thanks guys for stopping by Wall of Sound.

Jono: Thank you very much.

Jack: Thank you.

Interview by Tyler Lubke @huntsman421

The Light We Chase is out October 31st via Pure Noise Records. Pre-order here.