ON THE RISE
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ESSEX, England — The 1960s music of Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Woodstock left a deep impression on English singer and songwriter Kayleigh Walker, and those influences pushed her to produce her debut single and video, “Psychedelic.”
Released in August 2023, “Psychedelic” is steeped in the color and vibe of an era when music was changing and the world was changing from more black and white to a wild array of colors and emotions.
“I love the 60s, I love that whole psychedelic era and how everyone got pulled together and I wanted to write a song that represented how that music makes you feel without the influence of LSD and other substances,” Walker said. “I wanted it to be about how music makes people get up and makes you feel good. When I was writing it I was reflecting on how I was growing as a person in the music world and how I felt like a little bit of an outsider.”
Walker said she wasn’t alive in the 1960s, but documentaries and videos of that chaotic time inspired her soul and creativity.
“I watch a lot of documentaries on Woodstock and I liked the whole 60s vibe with the live instruments,” Walker said. “I wanted to do something that was kind of relevant to everyday music that we have now in this generation but I wanted to reflect on when music was at its highest where people were being themselves. When I was writing I also had that vision from day one that it needed to be that 60s psychedelic meditation of a higher self and that's what I wanted to create. I had a vision of while I was writing the song of what I wanted the video to be like.”
Walker lives in Essex, a county northeast of London, and started her music career in a cover band before branching out on her own. She has talent, style and showmanship she puts it all on display with a 1960s kaleidoscopic video to go with “Psychedelic.”
“When I was younger I always wanted to be in front of the camera or I wanted to be a singer,” Walker said. “Growing up I was doing a lot of musical theatre performances, local ones. I knew that singing other people’s songs never felt quite right for me. I always wanted to go off and improvise and do my own style on it. It wasn't until I was in my late 20s that I realized I kind of wanted to write my own songs but I wasn’t sure how to because I don’t play any instruments.
“In between that I was doing a little bit of modeling, thinking I might go down that route, but everything led me back to the music. It was definitely during the pandemic that I realized I could not put the pen down, I was just writing and writing and writing, getting melodies in my head and then taking them to the producer.”
Walker said the song is getting great traction and people are starting to notice her more and more. She’s working on more songs and an album to come out later this year and she’s looking forward to performing on stage.
“I’m a bit of a storyteller, so my songs are more story-based rather than love stories,” she said. “When I’m writing it’s like very poetic and I like to really live in a fantasy when I'm writing as well as reality. I’d really like for people to know I don’t follow music trends, I do what shows my heart’s purpose and my life’s purpose. I’m not everyone’s cup of tea but I enjoy what I do and that's what makes me me. I want more people to be like that, to think outside the box and don’t follow trends and be more unique.”
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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.
