ON THE RISE
Shortly after the release of Blast Havers’ debut track, the electronic dance number “Tested on Animals,” somebody told Ori Kawa, the group’s spokesman, that he liked it.
“So I just said, joking, ‘Yeah? How did it make you feel?’” he said, semi-quoting the song:
Does this make you dance?
Does this make you dance?
Does. This. Make. You. Dance?!
How does that make you feel?
And, when Ori asked his interlocutor that same question, “Their answer was, ‘Like an animal, to be honest.’ I had to laugh because, yes, that’s the fully intended purpose.”
The idea for the song came from a package of dog treats. The label said, “This product is not tested on animals.”
“That sparked the idea in my head that it should be tested on animals, and when you’re a DJ and you’re playing music, and when it’s new and different, that’s kind of what you’re doing, testing it out on animals.”
“People,” he added.
“So, we wrote the lyrics first, and then started making the music and it all started falling into place.”
Ori himself has done the band thing but when Covid struck, “the landscape changed,” and it was more difficult to keep a band going and performing.
He and Blast Havers produce electronic dance music with the idea of taking electronic house back to a time when it was just as energetic but slower.
“I went back to using just a laptop for production, and I got really into it, and when I did, I became more productive than I had ever been before, and that part kept feeding itself. You get a little addicted to productivity sometimes.”
The music was fun, he was having fun, and in the end, he created Blast Havers.
The first test, waxing satiric with the lyrics and production, is “Tested on Animals.”
The dance beat, the music featuring tech with animal noises, and the vocals, delivered deadpan “like you’re sitting on a couch with a therapist asking questions and taking notes,” have the power to make you laugh.
And dance: whole-body dancing at the club; hand-dance on the steering wheel driving to the store; feet dancing at the sink doing dishes; thumbs on the Trackpad.
Fun is the thing. That’s kind of the point behind the group’s name, Blast Havers.
“If you like to have a blast, then you’re one of us,” he said.
“I’m having fun with the whole process, too. The process of making music has become very enjoyable to me, to all of us in Blast Havers, and I want everyone to get in on the fun.”
Another purpose, stated in the group’s bio, is to “get back to the roots of electronic music.”
Ori, being the spokesman, wrote that and, asked about it, said, “Originally, I was referring to slowing down the music a little bit in tempo. Nowadays, everything’s got to be faster, with a harder edge. It’s got to be faster to melt your face off. Or whatever.”
As a technical aspect, he explained, the slower tempo goes back to disco, “which is the roots of all the stuff we electronic music producers do now.”
“Dance music stuff all comes from that. It was originally a little slower than a lot of the tech house that is out right now.”
Two more singles are coming out very soon, and then more later. An album, he says, is on their radar.
The ultimate inspiration for Blast Havers’ music is a song by Psychemagik, “Mink & Shoes.”
“It did all the things I thought slower music can do. It was funky. It still has a groove in it, if you’re in that mood, and you could really just lose your mind on the dance floor.”
That is a pretty fair description of “Tested on Animals.” The goal is bringing people together to have fun.
“That’s the main focus,” he said. “If you’re having a blast, then this refers to you, and all the other stuff doesn’t matter.”
Like the song says:
This product has been tested on animals
You are the animals
Dance, you party animals
Dance!
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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.
