The Return of Harper Bloom
Photograph by: Michelle Pitiris
This name may ring a bell to you. After a two-year creative break, Harper Bloom has returned with new music. The queer indie-pop artist had some great indie-folk hits that audiences loved throughout 2021, however, Bloom has come back with a more curated sound in her single ‘All The Kids’.
Chatting to Harper felt like catching up with a friend. Just out of a rehearsal for her release party, we chatted about our favourite spots in Melbourne and the anticipation for her first live show back.
Along with all of this anticipation, we dove straight into the latest single ‘All The Kids’ and the backstory behind this single. Harper shared how she ‘grew into herself, confidence-wise” and in that process “trying to figure out who I was and my place as a queer person”. Feeding into her inspiration towards the single, she found that working with co-writer Tim Cox and producer Charlie Westropp allowed her to “level up the sound and feel a lot more confident” within herself and her music.
In the beginning of 2022, after releasing her EP ‘Faith, Sex and Skin’, Harper found that her music didn’t resonate with her as much as she thought it would. “I sort of had to think about, oh, hang on, why is, why are these tracks not resonating the way that I feel like they should?” And from there she took a two-year break. “I sort of didn't write anything for a while because I was really confused” but working with Tim and Charlie, “I started figuring out my sound and that's when I was able to hone in on the nostalgic indie-pop music that I wanted to make.”
Accompanying ‘All The Kids’ is a nostalgic music video, created by Lawrence and Matt Wallace from Recliner Films. “They took the song and were really excited by it”. Shot in a large shared house in Carlton, Matt’s housemates were keen to be a part of the video and recreate the song and the vision they had in mind. It was one of those chaotic nostalgic house party videos like “someone patting a dog and people kissing in the corner and dancing.”
As mentioned before, ‘All The Kids’ was recorded in London with acclaimed producer Charlie Westropp (Maisie Peters and Gabrielle Aplin). After writing the song with Tim, Harper got demos together to pitch them to Charlie which led to her working on the whole EP with Charlie in Hackney. Bloom shares how Charlie “brought a real nostalgic emphasis to it” that Harper had been looking for all along whilst “mellowing the tracks out to make the EP cohesive”.
Despite the two-year break, Bloom is back and better than ever. With an EP, some singles and a whole new live show on the way, Harper is excited about the new era she has built. And coming out of rehearsal for the live show before this interview, she shared that we can expect “a lot more movement rather than being behind the acoustic guitar and hiding” and is excited for what’s to come after the release of this EP. Make sure you keep an eye on Harper’s socials and listen to ‘All The Kids’ now.
