ON THE RISE
For indie-pop artist SUNSCREEN, making music is all about fun and positivity that he can share with his listeners. This is on full display in his most recent track “MOVE WITH ME,” which has a punky, surfer vibe that is destined to be on your mind all day.
In “MOVE WITH ME,” SUNSCREEN wanted to capture the power of a group of people dancing together on the dance floor. The track is off the Nashville based musician’s brand new album called EAT SUNSCREEN. This is the first album SUNSCREEN has produced himself, and he plays every instrument aside from a little bit of electric guitar.
“It has a full band sound, but it is a solo project,” he said. “It has a bright, poppy, kind of surf rock sound that I was really wanting to chase. I feel like I went akin to Beach Boys, meets Footloose, meets The Cha Cha Slide.”
He referred to The Cha Cha Slide, as “MOVE WITH ME” is highly instructional before and after the choruses. There is even an official dance that is shown by SUNSCREEN and a group of backup dancers in a new music video.
“One, two
(Alright, alright)
Three, four
(We’re gonna move together)
Five, six, seven, eight
(Like this- celebrate!)
The video stars SUNSCREEN, dressed in some funky heart shades, a crocheted bucket hat and a pink leisure suit. His backup dancers “move with him” and get down with the new dance move that goes with the uplifting, flashy song that would have anyone moving.
EAT SUNSCREEN is a 10-track album that starts off with “MOVE WITH ME,” setting the tone hard with a catchy, uplifting ear worm of a tune. He began working on the album in January, making a song a month. It’s designed to exude joy, with each track touching upon glories of life including themes like love, traveling, and nature.
When SUNSCREEN writes a song like “MOVE WITH ME” he said he tends to get into a tunnel vision state and “powers through.” The next thing he knows, a song is there and he’s ready to rock.
“I kind of black out,” he said. “I have a creative focal point at the end of this tunnel. That song, ‘MOVE WITH ME,’ it’s pretty traditional rock and roll with drums, bass and guitar leading the way. That’s how I write a lot. This album sets the stage with these core rock and roll elements. The grand overarching theme is in the back of my head, but I won’t start putting it to lyrics until I get an instrumental vibe going.”
SUNSCREEN’s drive to make music goes back to high school in Waco, Texas, when he was an admitted “choir nerd.” He fell in love with the instrument of the voice, and this led to him wanting to learn to write his own songs, and create something positive for the world to hear.
“The spark that made me start wanting to write songs myself was placed in me sometime around high school,” he said. “I joined choir in my freshman year to check off a fine arts credit. I ended up loving it and kind of found my voice. It kind of took over as the ‘sport’ in my life for those high school years.”
It all started on a whim, and at the time it was the golden era of 2010s indie-pop rock. He loved bands like Foster the People and Group Love, and said his sound tends top reflect those days and the music coming from it. For the past year he has played under the moniker of SUNSCREEN, and he feels like he has really found his sound.
“I feel like I am the sum of my parts, which are my influences," he said.
SUNSCREEN has a goal to “unashamedly spread joy into the world.” He strives to bottle the joy found in the simple pleasures of life, and send a “serotonin blast of goodness” into the ears of listeners.
“There is a very distinct sound to all of my songs and distinct messaging in all my lyrics,” SUNSCREEN said. “If I can spread some light and focus on some of the goodness we can experience, I feel like I’m doing my part. Not to ignore pain, but there is so much positive to hone in on.”
Be sure to check out “MOVE WITH ME,” off SUNSCREEN’s album titled EAT SUNSCREEN, available on all platforms.
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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.
