INTERVIEW: Bloods release new EP 'Seattle': "This EP kind of came together as a post-emotional-purge exercise"

Image: Lisa Businovski

Sydney trio Bloods, fronted by vocalist, songwriter and guitarist MC (full name Marihuzka Cornelius) have been releasing their fuzzy, jangly alt-rock since 2012 and today release new EP Seattle. Preceded by the singles the dark and moody ‘U & M E’ and the jaunty, cynical 10 Things I Hate About You homage ‘I Hate It’, the EP was appropriately enough recorded in the US city of Seattle, the birthplace of the 1990s grunge scene and home to MC’s childhood idols Nirvana. The connection to Nirvana and 1990s grunge is palpable on the EP; it was recorded at the studio of Nirvana’s former producer Jack Endino and saw the band use the very same amp Kurt Cobain used on Nirvana’s debut album. “We first came to Seattle about four years ago and we met so many amazing people. We got signed to Sub Pop Publishing, got played on KEXP, all this unimaginable stuff,” MC says. “It’s funny cos everyone involved in making this EP and supporting it and bringing it to life, with the exception of the band and our manager, are from Seattle so it’s kind of this love letter back to the city that embraced us.”

With bracing rock-pop to feminist anthems, including a reclamation of The Smiths’ classic ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ as a feminist flag bearer, Seattle has everything you need to wake up your isolation self as the world very slowly starts to return to normal. We recently spoke to MC to find out more about the creation of Seattle.

Hey MC! Can we start by chatting about your first memories of music and what role music played in your life growing up?
I was always fond of music from a really early age. My mum would always remind me that when I was a baby, she’d need to have a radio playing music for me to go to sleep or that she’d walk into my room in the morning and I’d be lying next to the radio.

As a little kid, I still remember my babysitter introducing me to Madonna. I would look at the tape she loaned me for hours, taking in every detail of the cover. Growing up, any pocket money I managed to save went straight into buying singles or albums. As a teenager my ears always had headphones over them and I would escape the excruciating awkwardness of my teen years by just listening to albums and making up songs on my bass guitar.

 Music has always consumed my life and been the driving force. It’s been the link to some of my greatest loves and friendships. I know if someone has my taste in music that we will likely get along just fine. I make music and work in music (as an A&R) for a living and in my spare time I like to collect and listen to music.

How did Bloods form?
We formed out of an old band that Dirk, Sweetie and I use to play in. We were all really close friends and didn’t want to stop playing together. We decided that if we were going to start a band, we wanted to start from scratch and learn new instruments. We all picked up an instrument we hadn’t played before - I’d never played lead guitar, as I was a bass player. Sweetie was a violinist and she decided to take on the bass and Dirk was a guitarist (much much much better than I) and he decided to learn drums for the band.

Since then, Sweetie fell in love and moved to a different state, so Mike, who we picked up as our incredible shredding second guitarist (he’s a seriously good guitarist) was forced (in true Bloods tradition) to pick up the bass - an instrument he’s never played in a band before. He’s nailing it.

Congratulations on the release of your new EP Seattle, it is brilliant. Was there a particular inspiration, or message you wanted to get across with this EP?
This EP came together in a really different way to our last album, Feelings. Feelings I had a really clear concept for. I wanted it to be an album of pop songs, all dedicated to different forms of love and heartbreak. This EP kind of came together in the wake of that as a kind of post-emotional-purge exercise. It was really challenging at times, because I wasn’t sure what it would be as a body of work, but it wasn’t until we were in Seattle recording it, hanging out with our friends there and taking in the city and enjoying our time together that it made sense to me.

This EP had come together in a really organic way and is the first thing we’ve done with the new line-up so I guess we wanted to get across the newfound energy and this new dynamic.

You recorded the album in Seattle surrounded by people connected to your idols Nirvana and even used Kurt Cobain’s amp in the studio. What was it like to go through that process which would have blown teenage MC’s mind?
It was really cool! We have always been looking over the pond at Seattle as this kind of beacon of all the things we love and to get the opportunity to make this EP the way we did was a total trip. We didn’t decide to call the EP Seattle until after we finished recording. It felt like a really great tribute to both this city that has inspired us since we were so young and also has been home to so many great memories for us.

One of the standouts on the album is ‘Girls Are Just Fucking Cool Like That’ which deals with the way society judges pregnant women and mothers. It is such a great message, and I think the music industry is really bad at celebrating both female pregnancy and being a mother – there is undoubtedly a myth that is perpetuated that a woman will no longer be a good, or reliable, musician if she has children. What are your thoughts in general on this topic?
That is 100% right and I have certainly experienced this from the minute I told people I was pregnant. I was basically pregnant throughout our entire first EP campaign and at a time where a lot of things were happening for our band. I remember being at our EP launch dinner with our record label at the time and the head of the label saying “oh well, I guess that’s it for the band then! You’ll see.” And that attitude was pretty much replicated throughout my entire pregnancy because I didn’t stop touring and playing shows back then until I was about eight months pregnant. Once I had Penny, my daughter, I took about three months off before I played a festival and those people changed their tune to “how do you do it all?” to which I would always just think “I am still me, you know. I am still a person who has aspirations and dreams”. It’s just such a weird attitude.

I wrote this song from my experience of being a woman of colour who is also a mother who is also over 30 in a business in that none of those things make you desirable to work with or be listened to. I actually have never cared what people make of those things because those things don’t make me. It made me think about all the other amazing women who get up every day in the face of whatever society thinks they should be, what genre of music they should be playing, where they should be fitting and just get on with it and kick ass. I wanted to write a positive song about that resilience and dedicate it to all these women.

On the same theme, there has been so much talk about gender equality in the wake of #metoo. What are your thoughts on the broader issue of sexism and gender equality in the music industry?
It is very real. It’s definitely getting better, but to pretend at a higher level that it’s not a boy’s club is naive. I think women have to put up with a lot of the scrutiny and bullshit that men certainly aren’t subjected to. I think as we stand up for ourselves more and tell our stories, point out our struggle, things change but this is an ongoing fight.

There is a strong feminist streak in your music, is it important your songs carry a message?
Yeah for sure, though it’s not deliberate. I am a feminist. I grew up in a household of four women and one man and was never held back or told I couldn’t strive for something because I was female. I am very lucky for that and I recognise that’s not everyone’s experience. My dad and mum always taught me to use my voice and stand up for what I believe in and I try to be as honest as I can. When I write songs I can only really talk about my experience so I guess that feeds into our music and ends up sometimes becoming about the struggles of being a woman.

What else is coming up for Bloods in 2020?
Our EP is being released today. Excited to finally get that out into the world. The world is a weird place at the moment, so all I am hoping for is to be able to get back into a room with Dirk and Mike and jam again. If we get the chance to do that and maybe play a few shows, that would be amazing!

Seattle by Bloods is out now. You can download on iTunes and stream on Apple Music or Spotify.

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