Emo Nite host Morgan Freed was proud to welcome THE BLOSSOM this week to the show.
Los Angeles-based, Sydney-born artist Lily Lizotte began songwriting during their pre-teen years (Lizotte is gender non-binary, using they/them pronouns), and just released their debut six-song EP, 97 BLOSSOM, last week.
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Following up their successful single "HARDCORE HAPPY," which was featured as an Audacy Alternative Pick of the Week last month, Lizotte says dropping an EP rather than separate tracks "feels like a forceful little collage," not because it was smashed together, "but because I think it's quite a big punch in the face and a kick in the shins." Adding, "I think it's a hurter and a healer. I say that because for me this whole project is an amalgamation of a lot of my joy and a lot of my pain. It just kind of came about, this little tied up bundle now. It's not mine, it's now everyone else's."
For Lily, exploring issues of "gender-dysphoria, anxiety, depression, growing pains" on this project, they say, music became "a language for me to express all of this kind of internal inventory that I have and to tell my story in different forms and different shapes. It's really just my feelings, reimagined."
Making music has always been where Lizotte's heart was set. "I actually wasn't very good at anything else," they admit. "I really failed in school; I was pretty dissociated with applying myself to anything that's academic."
This was kind of my outlet, and it's always been my outlet," they say. "Elliott Smith was my favorite artist, my first love affair that I had with songwriting, and that was really my gateway into writing."
As for their new songs on 97 BLOSSOM, "I think I just really honored all of my influences and really carved out spaces for all these sounds," they say. "Where it be Rap, Hip Hop, a lot of Grunge, Pop-Punk, Indie stuff, Shoegaze. I really wanted to re-contextualize all of my influences. So it's like, how can I be influenced by these genres and these sounds of the '90s and early 2000's but also reimagine them in my own way? I really honed in and focused on that idea and applied it to every song."
THE BLOSSOM's 97 BLOSSOM is on shelves and streaming everywhere now. Check out the track listing below.
CONFETTI
HARDCORE HAPPY
SMOKE
SHAPESHIFTER
BLACK EYE
CLOVES
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