There is nothing better than randomly discovering a band that make you go, “Wow, they have got something special”. I came across Blush supporting Mothers recently at the Green Door Store and their beautiful grungy surf-pop sound utterly captivated and left the room thinking, “Who is this local act?”. So much so that I had to find out more about them. I met up with Alex, Asya, Joseph and Naomi for a swift pint ahead of their support slot for Sunflower Bean to find out more about this emerging act.

What kind of music were you brought up on?
Joe: A lot of 60s music, Bob Dylan.

Asya: A lot of Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Coldplay and Norah Jones. My dad then got me into music like Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

Naomi: My dad introduced me onto guitar music which made me want to play the guitar.

Alex: The same for me really, my dad played a lot of prog-rock too.

Can you remember the first album you brought or owned?
Naomi: One of mine was Snow Patrol.

Joe: Mine was a Gorillaz album, not on CD but on tape.

Asya: I can remember buying a few on my birthday and being so excited to have CDs. There would have been Avril Lavigne, Green Day as well as the Sugarbabes and Atomic Kitten.

What was your first influential album?
Asya: The first album that I owned that was actually important for me was a Velvet Underground compilation of unreleased recordings that my parents gave me – it was the first CD that I thought, “This is good.”

Naomi: I think it was Nirvana. When I was 12, I heard In Utero for the first time then tried to learn all the guitar parts of it.

How was Blush formed?
Asya: It started with me putting an advert on the BIMM Facebook page. Alex was first to reply and then our old drummer.

Naomi: We were out on my birthday and you asked me to join the band. We didn’t really do much until we had to do an audition at BIMM and the pressure of that made us practice properly.

Asya: We then thought “Actually, this is really fun” and decided to take it more seriously.

Alex: We met Joe about a year ago at a Beatles tribute night.

Is there a story behind the name?
Asya: It took so long to think of it. We exhausted every way we could think of a name, going back to basics of albums and songs we like.

Naomi: We liked how it sounds. But, we have found out that there is a Korean pop group called Blush too so we may change it.

Do you prefer writing music or performing live?
Asya: It used to be the writing but now that has become more of a coping mechanism, when performing live is just so much fun. When you get better at playing live and better at performing together, it becomes such a nice thing. We all work really well together.

Naomi: When we started performing together, we were all very nervous and wouldn’t really let ourselves go, whereas now we just relax into it and enjoy it.

Alex: It’s definitely a lot more enjoyable now.

Asya: We all get on so well too, so much so that I don’t really feel any anxiety about anything when I’m onstage now.

What has been a musical eye-opener?
Naomi: The first time I fully appreciated Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. The first time I heard it I just didn’t get it, so I left it quite a while and started getting more into that kind of music then it suddenly clicked.

Who would be in your perfect supergroup?
Joseph: I would have Miles Davis and then Lars Ulric on drums. You couldn’t go wrong with Mozart on piano and then James Brown singing. James Jamieson would have to be on bass.

If you could work with any artist, in the broadest sense, who would it be?
Alex: It would be cool if the Quentin Tarantino or the Coen brothers would make a music video for us.

If you could give a musical award of the year, what would it be for and for whom?
Alex: I would give it to Joe for carrying around his cymbals everywhere.

Naomi: I would give an award to our manager Liv. She does a lot for us and to organises us.

Asya: There are lots of things we don’t know about when it comes to being in a band and she helps us out a hell of a lot.

If you could have made any song or album ever, which one would it be?
Asya: For me it would be ‘Paradis Circus’ by Massive Attack – I think that is the most perfect song.

Joe: Joni Mitchell’s Blue, as it is such a beautiful album.

Alex: Mine would be Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.

Naomi: Darklands by The Jesus and Mary Chain – it’s one of my favourite albums and it is quite underrated as well.

What music are you listening to at the moment, any recommendations?
Asya: I’ve recently be listening to Etta Bond. Malibu by Aderson .Paak has been the soundtrack to my last five or six months.

Joe: I’ve been listening to Flake Music, the first band by James Mercer from The Shins

Alex: There is this 70s blues rock band called Little Feat, who are really good and have an amazing slide guitarist.

Naomi: I recently started listening to Sunflower Bean – they are so good!

Do you get to go to many gigs?
Asya: Not as many as we should. I saw this amazing act called Cousin Kula at the Two Three Four Festival this year, they had every bit of my attention and were really cool – at one point, one of them pulled out a trombone and then played a bit of piano before going on to a trumpet. I saw Abattoir Blues play for the first time there too and they were great.

What are your future plans till the end of the year and after?
Asya: I like the way things are going at the moment, things are getting better and better and more fun – so just to keep the momentum going at the moment.

Alex: We want to play festivals next year…

Naomi: And release an EP or some tracks.

Facebook: facebook.com/HiBlush