Blousey Are Well And Truly Here To Stay … And They Aren’t Afraid To Tell You.

London’s rising stars Blousey grab you by the scruff of your neck and throw you around the dance floor, with winding sax solos, pretty violins and crashing vocals that leave you speechless in the best of ways.

Their debut EP ‘The Precipice’ crashes into your ears and stays there. It makes a home, pulls up a chair and has a cup of tea while it’s at it. You can’t do anything, but sit with it. Listen to what it has to say, what they have to say … the way the instrumentation ebbs and flows and the lyrics that have you thinking for days after the first listen. 

Sometimes you come across music that reminds you why you love it so much. It might be for the diversifying genres that Blousey covers or it might just be the effortless aura of the band who makes the tracks, but there is something there that has you wanting more. This EP brought me back to being twelve, spending hours burning CDs for my family, or meticulously learning the lyrics to my Dad’s favourite songs, so I could sing them in the car with him.

There is something wholly nostalgic about Blousey’s music, reminiscent of 60s garage rock with a Nick Cave twang, whilst still maintaining a sense of excitement and newness that has you wishing for more.

‘The Precipice‘ isn’t just a collection of songs; it’s a carefully curated snapshot of Blousey’s current identity, whatever they choose for that to be. The EP delivers on the promise of their live energy: a potent blend of their signature sound, punctuated by loud, catchy exhilaration and unexpected experimental flourishes. The band described the creative process as simply hand-picking tracks they were “excited about” from their existing catalogue. 

The EP’s sound champions classic rock and pop’s knack for catchy melodies, Blousey emphasising their love for writing “actual songs and melodies with a real chorus” that aims to “trim the fat and give you the goods in a digestible way that doesn’t leave you bloated.” The band’s unique approach to instrumentation, with an upfront violin and saxophone, is a deliberate subversion of current trends. Rather than using those instruments for mere atmospheric purposes, Blousey employs them almost like a “lead guitarist” to create intricate, hook-heavy lines that are integral to the song structure, adding another layer to their multi-faceted sound. 

A standout track for me is ‘The Dog’. It pulses with this real sense of urgency and passion, almost begging you to follow it. I don’t know quite where you’d follow the song to, maybe some seedy club down a side street in London, or maybe out to the countryside. A shout into the void with a crashing instrumentation that knocks you over and quite frankly, doesn’t care if you get back up again. It’s bolshy and outspoken – it’s everywhere all at once, but more importantly: it’s Blousey. As bassist JJ Denham shared, “The Dog combines everything we kind of want to do, in a fun six-minute tune. It’s loud and catchy, while also having an experimental sort of side to it.” It’s the kind of song you don’t ordinarily find on a Spotify doom scroll through your Release Radar; it feels more hidden but entirely electric – like discovering your new favourite secret and I wholeheartedly believe that with Blousey you would have.

When our call connects, Luca Centro and JJ Denham are sitting beneath my favourite David Hockney collage, calm and composed. They had this effortless thing about them that immediately drew you in, just like their music. Like many great bands, Blousey’s roots are in friendship and a shared creative spark, something that as artists, we are always seeking. 

As Luca recalled, “It all started very naturally. It was just us writing songs together and then jamming with other people.” What began as a “three-piece glam rock band” in May 2021, soon organically expanded to include a violinist, keys player and finally, a saxophone player named Rosie; who seemed like the final piece in the Blousey puzzle. 

Blousey believes that the most authentic art comes from expressing your “truest self”. This shows on ‘The Precipice’, a collection of songs that are all different, but do the same thing: share a piece of Blousey with the world. They aim for their songs to be catchy and memorable (which I can tell you, they 100% are), while lyrics often emerge from the subconscious, reflecting deeply personal feelings.

It’s an EP where anyone can walk away taking something from it, and that’s what’s so beautiful about Blousey. They are for everyone. 

Their passion for their art is clear: they are about making music they genuinely love first and then hoping others connect with it. As JJ stated, “We’re quite lucky in that the band is whatever we want it to be. There’s never been a thing of like, oh we’re a rock band or we’re a punk band.” Their music simply “sounds like Blousey.”

The current London music scene, while thriving, tends to become repetitive after a while. They lamented how many bands offer great live energy, but leave you unable to hum a single tune afterwards, when you’re with your friends in the smoking area, sharing cigarettes and dreams of how you want the night to continue. 

This mentality extends to our shared passion for the UK’s grassroots venues, which are currently facing threats. As many face threats all over the UK, Blousey happily addressed the ongoing threats to places they play in, expressing their frustration with noise complaints from new residents in central London suggesting: “Go live in the suburbs then!”. There was a shared agreement amongst us that London’s cultural history is at risk if these places continue to be boarded up and thrown away, and their passion for these spaces was palpable. “We’ll just set up gigs wherever we can,” they shared. Although with this being said, they still remain optimistic for a change. Proving that by playing in whatever venues they can, the “scene is healing” and they are very much a part of it. 

As for what’s next, Blousey’s ambition is clear: “Gigging as much as possible, really.” Dreams include a full tour and making an album – “the whole shebang”. They’re eager to revisit a “big backlog of tunes” from earlier days and hope to book extended time to record, not only their debut but even a second album, just to keep everyone really on their toes. The usual band stuff, yes, but for Blousey, it feels anything but usual.

This EP truly showcases why Blousey are here to stay and I, for one, am not mad about it at all.

Written by: Meg-Ivy Brunning

Find Blousey on Instagram: @_blousey