ON THE RISE
With a combination of skits and a powerful soul sound, Olivia Toliver, known on stage as “livinthemomnt” weaves a story of a woman as she makes the decision to break away from her the every day and live her dream in her new album, “Ready to Liv.”
The album features three short skits and seven songs which each tell their own story within a story in this album.
“The whole album is essentially telling a story,” Toliver said. “Act 1 starts off with someone looking for Liv. You know she’s at work and someone’s looking for her. The second skit, ‘Shallow Al’ if you listen to the song ‘Make a Move’ it’s kind of a dance song so she’s in the club and she sees someone and tells them to make a move, so you hear that in ‘Shallow Al.’ Someone asking do you work here, do you come here often?
“The third skit is resignation which is her finally quitting her job and going to pursue her dream, which is essentially what the album was about. The story is told like you’re seeing it through the eyes of someone in a relationship and having to go to work every day and the struggles of the relationship and going to pursue her dreams.”
Toliver said the album is based on experiences she’s had in her life, although some parts have been exaggerated.
She said she plans for “Ready to Liv” to be the first act a three act story which will be told in two subsequent albums. Toliver said as a whole, the message from this story is one of empowerment.
“I want people, when they listen to it, I want them to feel empowered,” she said. “I want them to know that no matter what you’ve gone through in life and no matter where you’re at currently, whether it’s a relationship or work or just anything in life, that you can go out and pursue your dreams and do what it is you want to do.”
Toliver said “Ready to Liv” is her debut album and the realization of a dream she’s had since she was little.
“I’ve always loved singing, I've always enjoyed it,” she said. “It’s always been something I've been passionate about. I started off doing talent shows in school and just local stuff. I did America’s Got Talent when I was in middle school, I went and auditioned for that. It’s been something I've always been passionate about.”
She said she plans to make videos out of two of the songs in “Ready to Liv” and push this album to its maximum before working on her next project.
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ON THE RISE
Blossoms caught up with NME to discuss competing with The Beatles and Johnny Marr for this week’s Number One album. With ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ in the running, the band also explained why making things themselves remains such an important part of their work as AI becomes more common.
The Stockport group put out their sixth album last Friday, October 2. By the midweek update, it was sitting at Number Two, between The Beatles’ expanded edition of ‘Rubber Soul’ and Johnny Marr’s latest solo album, ‘The Age Of Everything’.
“It’s mad, to be honest,” singer Tom Ogden said to NME about the chart race. “Liverpool on one side, Manchester on the other and Stockport in the middle. If you’d told us this 10 years ago, when we were releasing our debut, I wouldn’t have believed you. But I mean, we’re in good company aren’t we?”
Discussing the stories behind the album, Ogden described ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ as “about being married and all the everyday stuff that comes with it”. He married Katie Donovan, the sister of Blossoms drummer Joe, in 2021. Married life has since given him a new appreciation for what he describes as “the extraordinary ordinary”.
“Saying the wrong thing in an argument, losing your wife’s no claims bonus, crying at the Kardashians, it’s all in there,” he explained. “The album is named after Stockport Town Hall, which everyone round where we live calls the Wedding Cake, and it’s where I got married, so it couldn’t be much closer to home.
“The last album [‘Gary’, 2024] had a song about a stolen fibreglass gorilla, which everyone loved, and that gave us the confidence to bring the same playfulness to this one, just with more personal subject matter this time.”
Alongside tracks that came out of writing sessions with Declan McKenna in a hot tub, the album reflects the band’s desire to stay involved in every part of the creative process.
“It started with the recording,” Ogden explained. “We made the album with Shawn Lee, playing live straight to tape, and once you’ve done it that way you can’t really go and fake everything else. We sat down as a band and picked the colour palette, and everything visual followed from that. We had body scans taken of ourselves and cake toppers of the five of us 3D printed, put them on a real cake and photographed it. I’ve directed and edited the videos, and the sets are all built by hand, no green screen. For the pop-up shop on launch weekend, a local artist hand-painted the album cover for the sign outside.
“It’s more work, but you end up with a world that’s yours, and I think people can tell when a band’s had its hands on everything.”
With AI tools and digital effects becoming increasingly widespread, that approach feels particularly relevant. For Blossoms, though, the motivation is simple: “the fun is in the making”.
“Tape doesn’t let you cheat and neither does a real cake,” Ogden said. “If a set’s a bit wonky, it’s because one of us or our mates built it. I think the more stuff gets generated, the more people want to know a human being actually did it. We’ve been in this band together for over 10 years, five lads from Stockport, and that isn’t something you can ‘prompt’.”
Maya Jama also appeared in the video for the album’s first single, ‘Meet Me In Love’. Her appearance came shortly before the UK launch of Celebrity Traitors, where she took on the role of a traitor alongside a cast that included Richard E Grant and James Acaster.
“She was brilliant,” Ogden recalled of working with Jama. “We’d met her at the MTV EMAs in Manchester a couple of years ago, so we took a chance and sent her a DM …and she said yes. Next thing she’s in a theatre in Cheadle miming my vocals while a load of people dressed as me serenade her. She got the idea straight away and was a proper laugh about it.”
The conversation then turned to whether he thought Jama could take home the win on Celebrity Traitors.
Ogden joked: “As for Traitors, she spent a whole day pretending to sing my song and I almost believed her, so I’d say she’s got every chance.”
Fans can listen to ‘Songs From The Wedding Cake’ now. In November, Blossoms head out on a UK arena tour with The Royston Club. Tickets and further details are available here.
Before the tour begins, the group is also scheduled to appear on SNL UK on Saturday, October 24.
