© Samuel Tooker
Blossom closed out 2018 with an energizing performance at Decadence Arizona’s fifth edition of the New Years celebration. The Arizona native had a huge year, with releases on AC Slater’s Night Bass with her single, “Go” and collaboration on “Expert” with other Arizonian BIJOU. She closed out the year with adding two more solo tracks to her growing discography with bass house banger “Dangerous” and ominously undertoned “Call Me”. We got to see a darker side to the girl behind the neon pink bob, check out our review of her set and the rest of Decadence Arizona here.
After she set the stage ablaze, we caught up with Blossom to talk about her latest releases, working with the Night Bass crew, going in a new direction with her sound, and more.
RR: Welcome back to Decadence, this is your second time here right? How does it feel to get to come back and play?
Blossom: So I played two years ago at the local stage and this is my first time at the main stage, so it was pretty awesome. It felt amazing, except I get so nervous before you know? Like the whole day can be total stress mode, getting into it. But once I’m up there, I’m totally fine. I just have to think of all the things that can possibly go wrong and be prepared so I can feel there, in the moment.
RR: Your set was totally infectious and got the dance party started for the weekend!
Blossom: Thank you! Yeah, I try to plan something that would be festival ready. I have played some UK house sets that are a little less heavy, so I thought this would be perfect for the crowd. And I really like the heavier stuff so, it’s nice to get to play it.
RR: You just released, “Call Me”, which takes on a darker house feel compared to earlier works. Is this something you plan to delve deeper into?
Blossom: Kind of. It’s like every time I go into making a new song, I’d love to have them all come out with that dark vibe. But sometimes you just want to go with a happier vibe, with a happier melody. I do have a couple songs that have that darker feel that are coming out next year. So yes I would love to but it doesn’t always happen creatively.
RR: What’s the driving force for looking into that direction musically?
Blossom: I just really like that Night Bass sound. Just that in-a-small-club vibe that it sets, you know? That you just want to be surrounded by, that dark vibe. I love it. That’s what I would like to get more into and play more of that. I love setting that mood, but for a festival like this you want people to be amped up and not so much in a dark zone. That’s more for club shows.
RR: Anything that you are hoping to bring to your sound in particular?
Blossom: I’m just excited to keep learning stuff. This year was my first year to focus full time on my music and production. I’ve been doing it for about three years now, but just tinkering. I went to school for it, I was at ASU for the last two years and this is the first year that I graduated while working on my music career. I’m excited for this year in production because I know I’m just going to progress even more and dedicating a whole year to just completely working on music, I have grown so much as an artist. Next year I don’t even know what’s going to come but I know I’m going get to better at what I’m doing, I’ll refine my sound. That’s what I want to do. I think I’m getting there but it just takes time.
RR: What was it like working with BIJOU on his Super Phat EP for Night Bass?
Blossom: It was cool! It was my entryway into Night Bass and Ben’s been a mentor for my whole career you know? Really early on he took a chance on messaging me, helping me, always answering my questions. It was really special to get to work on that because I also love Night Bass and have always wanted to be apart of the family. That collaboration being my first thing was a special moment, all these things finally aligned. And also to work with your mentor on a song together is pretty special in itself.
RR: Do a lot of Arizona artists try to work together on tracks or mentor each other?
Blossom: I guess it depends. I’m really lucky Ben reached out to me. It’s a pretty supportive community here. I try to mentor a couple other girls that are out here just because when I was trying to get going there weren’t a lot of other girls doing it in Arizona specifically. So it’s nice to have a helping hand. It’s kind of different as a girl getting into it. It’s nice to have a buddy or just someone that gets it. It can be hard to navigate as a girl sometimes.
RR: What is something you wish someone told you when you started concerning being a female in the field?
Blossom: I read this interesting article where it says we’re taught as women in the industry to think that other women are your competitors. That you’re fighting for that one spot to be the one female artist. It just doesn’t have to be that way. All the boys aren’t competing to be the only boy on something. You don’t have to compete like, ‘the first one to do it will open the doors for the rest of them to do it’. It doesn’t matter, you’re not competing with each other. Teamwork versus competition.
RR: Let’s collab not compete.
Blossom: Exactly! I think I have tried to do that here just with the two girls, Hailey and Emily. Just give an open hand, you know? You don’t have to be competing with everyone. And you know everyone is in their own lane so what I’m doing is much different than the next girl.
RR: What are some of the challenges you have experienced working your way up? Any amazing moments?
Blossom: You know it was definitely hard when I was in school trying to produce. For the last year, my super senior year, I did like five and a half years, haha. It was tough to produce and spend time on it. I had to really put music aside so I could focus on school. It was challenging to see all my friends start to make some moves and just have to wait and work on school because that is important to me. It was tough just having to wait, knowing that I could be getting better but not having the mental or emotional capacity to take on producing in my spare time. But this year has been kind of a breeze, once I started focusing all my time on it. I already had done networking in the past couple of years, trying to show up, meet people. I did internships with labels and network that way. So when I got to this year, I had already built a base. So it was nice getting into it that way.
Highlights I would have to say would be with Night Bass. It’s crazy how that even happened. I had been a fan for so long and I knew at the beginning of the year, I had talked about it with my manger Daniel. He asked, ‘what label do you see yourself on?’ and I said, ‘Night Bass for sure!’, not thinking at all that it would even be in kind of in the ballpark, like the discussion wasn’t even happening. Then Ben asked me to work on the song (“Expert”) together and that dream came to fruition. It’s been really cool to experience all those wins from that. It opened a lot of doors for me in itself and having my first original song on the label for the Freshman EP was crazy. Now getting to play their L.A. show, it just feels so surreal. From all the times I opened shows where no one is there, feeling totally like, ‘I’m never going to move up’, it feels good to finally be here and enjoy the fruits of my hard work.
RR: Exactly, that’s awesome! I would have been like, ‘Night Bass, wait what?!’
Blossom: Yeah, so surreal! To get to start with Kendoll and Flava D, and to be some of the first females on their label. Some labels, it’s just all boys and I think there’s a huge need to embrace more female producers. It’s exciting to be part of Night Bass since they’re so ahead of the game.
RR: Any advice you would give to someone looking to start her own DJ career?
Blossom: Don’t listen to anyone. If you like it, do it. When I started, I didn’t even know girls were DJing. I just saw boys DJing at frat parties and thought, ‘Oh, I like this music, why am I not doing it too?’ Just don’t even think about it that girls can’t do this. Just go do it. The only thing stopping you is you telling yourself you can’t do it. Just go! Never taking no for an answer has helped in my own mind, never telling myself no.
RR: Do you think you will ever try a new color outside of the bright pink?
Blossom: Never! I love pink, I’ve always loved pink. My bedroom at my parent’s house has pink walls, everything is pink. I always thought I was going to go pink as a joke when I went blonde in college. Then when I decided to do it, I thought it would be for two weeks but here I am three and a half years later. I can’t imagine another color. Maybe I’ll add a purple undertone, kind of look like jam or jelly, haha.
RR: We also loved that personalized Blossom from the Power Puff Girls in your visuals today, that was awesome.
Blossom: I got to see it a little bit this morning but just on a laptop screen, so I’m really excited to see the pictures. My manager found Aaron and Shauntay that VJ for a lot of Relentless events and I love them and told me they were going to work on mine. I was so excited and they sent me the ideas with all the Power Puff stuff, which is my dream. I always wanted that, never thought it could happen, and here I am with my very own Power Puff girl.
RR: Of course we have to ask, what are you New Years Resolutions for 2019?
Blossom: So I listen to this interesting podcast that basically said, ‘You are what you eat’. Watch what you’re consuming in terms of media, social media. You need to treat your mind with more positive thinking. I want to listen to more positive podcasts, I’ve been going to yoga a little bit. I feel like when I’m listening to all this negative media, I just get in such a cyclical mindset where I just have all these angry and negative thoughts going in a circle all day. And that’s not great for me being creative. If I go into the studio with that mindset, it’s hard to be creative when I can’t stop thinking about other stuff. So if I just treat my mind a little bit better and watch what I’m consuming, I can go in with a fresh mind. Maybe it can be me putting on blindfolds but I just don’t need to consume all the time. Watch what I figuratively eat.
RR: Best moments of 2018?
Blossom: This whole year has been dedicated to music, so all my music wins. This, today, Decadence. It’s crazy to look back at the last pictures I had here. I had a broken wrist, side stage. One of the CDJ’s was busted, it was like a nightmare. Then getting to do this today was like the glow up, it feels good! So that’s a great feeling. And all the Night Bass stuff, I can’t say enough it’s my total dream. It’s a dream come true to be apart of it. So I would say those are my biggest wins.
We thank Blossom for taking the time to speak with us. Keep up with the rising producer in 2019 through her socials below.
Connect with Blossom:
https://facebook.com/officialblossomdj
https://twitter.com/blossomdj
https://soundcloud.com/blossomdj
http://instagram.com/blossom.dj
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