Blooming sounds emerge from 2020

IN celebration of their debut album’s release, Ballarat psychedelic-rock presence Apex Bloom are set to play a launch show at Volta late in February.

Titled Yesterday’s A Universe Away, front man, singer and songwriter Kaine Hansen said the album was a collaborative effort between all five members of the band.

“Our original plan was to release it in July, but then COVID happened and allowed us to actually take our time with it,” he said.

“In some way, it was a bit of a blessing, we were able to sit and really listen and make adjustments… the sound ended up being kind of modern, psychedelic, progressive and also alternative.

“The concept is there’s a person noticing how crap the world is or was. I was writing songs during the bushfires and things like that but I also I felt like there needed to be some resilience and hope at the end.”

Although the album was predominantly produced throughout 2020, Hansen said they have been working on some of the songs for almost four years.

“Tim, the bassist, and I started jamming five years ago and eventually BJ came along and we were under a different name for a while called St Ivory,” he said.

“We decided to change out name last year. Over the last two years we’ve acquired Jack the guitarist and Griff the drummer.

“In June 2020, we announced the new band, it’s been good to start fresh but carry over some of the things we’ve learnt and songs we wrote over the years.”

After applying and securing a Ballarat Arts Foundation grant to finish and release an album, Hansen said the funding allowed them access to professional recording equipment and a studio for the project.

“The grant ended up being $3000, we went down to Newmarket Studios in Melbourne and that was in the middle of February right before COVID, so we got most of it done then,” he said.

“It was amazing, we wanted to do it right.

“The rest of it was recording in COVID, so I lived in Melbourne at the time and the rest of the band were down here, so it was a lot of Zoom calls and recording separately.”

Having played in and around Ballarat since he was 16, Hansen said it’s been interesting to see how the region’s music scene has grown and developed over time.

“It feels like we go through phases in Ballarat where live music is a thing and then it dies down for a while,” he said.

“I’m hoping with Ballarat growing, there will be more of a focus on the arts and that we see another renaissance of people getting into live music and creating new music again.

“I’ve always had the belief that when you support local artists and local music, it inspires more people to do it. It develops a whole ecology of artists and art work.”

To listen to Apex Bloom’s new album Yesterday’s A Universe Away, visit bit.ly/3nUgclj.