ON THE RISE
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With his new single “Big Girl,” a rocked-out father-daughter dialogue…John Beyer continues having fun in his new career as a singer, songwriter and producer.
“It’s about a father-daughter relationship, a story that’s been told before, but not in this drama pop, rock ballad way that we have going on here,” he said.
John, of course, sings as the dad in a baritone voice that can easily hit the tenor range:
Gave you everything on a platter
Visions that I had for you
They just shattered
Always wanted to be such a big girl
Mia Gentile rocks out as the daughter:
I needed my own identity
I look in the mirror
And it’s you I see
I had no choice to become a big girl
Both star in the compelling music video.
The song comes from a story he told Benjamin Hey!, his collaborator on the song and in John’s music company, John Beyer Music.
“This is when my daughter was 13, 14 years old, and she was being a teenager, you know, staying out late, and one day she said something very disrespectful.” Anybody with a teenage daughter — can fill in the blanks.
“And then she ran into her room and slammed the door. I said, ‘Open the door.’ And she wouldn’t.”
I broke through the door with nothing but my bare hands.
Almost two decades later, John told this story to Benjamin Hey!, an accomplished singer, songwriter and producer and John’s right hand collaborator in JBM.
“And that story inspired him to write this song based on the feelings that I felt back then. Feelings of anger, disappointment, frustration and disrespect from the father side. But it was also important for Ben to give the daughter in the story a voice as well. So, then we took Ben’s demo and constructed a stronger production.”
We reached out to our guy, Arthur Pingrey, who is a co-producer on the song and a “sick” guitar player I have to add. That’s his guitar playing on “Big Girl.” Arthur has worked with artists such as Sting, Sia, Willie Nelson and Norah Jones.
“And now he’s worked with John Beyer and Benjamin Hey!,” stated John.
John’s formal career is in moving and storage in New York, but he has always loved music. He sang at weddings and was writing a play about addiction (and now is 38 and a half years sober), but needed help. A longtime friend introduced him to Benjamin (also known as The Captain) who is an accomplished singer/songwriter/producer who writes songs daily.
Under the JBM imprint, they also write and produce pitch songs for other artists as well as songs for themselves. They have now released six songs together, 4 under the John Beyer name and two under Benjamin Hey!.
“Almost everything we’ve released was created together. We’re great collab partners!,” John said.
John said his goal is this: “I’d love to be driving down the road and hear JBM songs playing on the radio. I’m looking forward to when that happens.”
He has come close with “Love You More,” a single of his own released last year. It has reached No. 50 on the Mediabase chart and is getting national radio airplay. That is another song to his daughter, who now has a daughter of her own.
It is a pop-rock tune with some vibes from 1950s crooner songs and early ’60s rock.
“Yeah,” he said. “A little Beach Boys sound too.”
“When you look at these songs that we’ve done, they are incredibly varied,” he said. “You have R&B, you have hip-hop, you have pop, you have drama pop, you have some adult contemporary & rock. It’s a very varied group of music, and it’s just what comes out of us.”
He and Benjamin get together and talk about ideas, start bantering back and forth and from that emerges the message, the melody and ultimately the song.
He says that, for him, the concept and the message come first, “and then we build a hook and a rhythm around that.” Fathers and daughter dynamics in “Big Girl” and “Love You More,” addiction and recovery in “Powerless,” a song he wrote for his play that led him Benjamin Hey!
Next up for them is “YOLO FOMO MOFO,” a pop/hip-hop song coming out around the end of the year. They are also planning a showcase in Manhattan next year featuring him and The Captain. Mia Gentile and other artists will also be there.
“”YOLO…” is a short, fun song that talks about how you have to live your life. I live my life with a sense of urgency to accomplish and do great things.”
“Big Girl,” released in the last month, has gotten more streams “out of the gate than any song we’ve done so far.”
John comes from the time of Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Billy Joel and Barry Manilow. The Captain comes from the world of hip-hop, pop and R&B.
“We come from different walks of life, but we have a synergy here, and it’s working,” he said.
Connect to John Beyer on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts, and help drive “Big Girl” onto the airwaves. It’s worth it.
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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.
