Pip Blom
After making her name as one of the brightest indie rock singers around through two albums – 2019 debut ‘Boat’ and 2021 follow-up ‘Welcome Break’ – and a lauded live show honed over gruelling years of touring, the new album sees her take a delightful left turn into thumping, carefree synth pop.
While admitting to the cliché of a guitar-orientated band “grabbing the synths” for album three, this new direction had a real and genuine draw for Blom. Foremost in her mind was cult 2010s English pop band Micachu and the Shapes, led by the effervescent Mica Levi. Across four studio albums and a number of artist monikers, Levi’s band made colourful and vivacious pop music that burst outwards from a grounding in indie music. On ‘Bobbie’, Blom makes similar jumps and blows her own musical landscape wide open.
Also on hand to help her achieve her longtime vision were a pair of collaborators that contribute to two of the album’s highlights. Blom’s partner and vocalist of fellow Dutch indie band Personal Trainer, Willem Smit, joins her on the duet ‘Kiss Me By The Candlelight’, a song lifted from an unreleased project from the pair that recalls Metronomy in its minimal, funky disco pop.
Elsewhere, McCracken helped her push through initial shyness to reach out to Alex Kapranos of former Pip Blom tourmates Franz Ferdinand, who hops on the album’s giddy highlight, ‘Is This Love?’. “He made such a funky chorus,” Blom beams of her collaborator, and ‘Is This Love?’ is the album’s purest shot at pop gold, seeing two indie artists live out their shimmering pop star dreams. It’s an utter delight, with Blom and Kapranos pushing each other higher and higher.
Line Up
PIP BLOM Based in Amsterdam, 20 year old Pip Blom writes, records and releases her own indie-pop tunes with a twist. Although she only started releasing her raw guitar power with catchy melodies early 2016, she has already received acclaim from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Huw Stephens, BBC 6Music’s Steve Lamacq and massive support from American tastemaker radio station KCRW. Besides that Pip received raving reviews from media like DIY Magazine (“A gem”), The Line Of Best Fit (“A gigantic dollop of catchy pop pep”), Fingers On Blast (“An exceptionally talented lo fi rock monster”) and The Most Radicalist (“Hipnotically lo-fi and brilliantly simplistic”). Looking at the stats, besides her own The Netherlands, America and England are important markets for Pip’s music with Amsterdam, London and Manhattan as major cities. The songs have been featured in influential Spotify playlists as New Music Friday, Fresh Finds, Indie Songs For Slackers and Absolute Alternative with almost 500.000 plays as a result! In 2016 Pip released the double A-side 7” release Truth / Hours on the Norwich based Grunt Grunt A Go Go label, the 3 track EP Are We There Yet on Toaster Records and limited edition 7” Working On It on the Paradiso Vinyl Club, the talent label of the prestigious Amsterdam club Paradiso. In februari 2017 Pip will release the single I Think I’m In Love, another catchy rocking tune, this time produced by Raven Aartsen from Mozes And The First Born. In april Pip and her band will tour the UK for the second time. Listen to Pip’s music on for example Bandcamp: http://pipblom.com/album/are-we-there-yet
