MojoRepublik: How did the name, The Voom Blooms come about?

George: One night at 3 AM, I got a text from Thom saying “We are called The Voom Blooms”. I thought great! Now we have a name for a band, all we have left to do is to go out and find the other members of the band.

Thom: I was watching a Japanese film and during the climatic ending, the lead character who was the last man standing shouted something in Japanese that sounded like “voom bloom”.

MojoRepublik: How long has the band been together? Tell us about your early demo and how different you approach is … in terms of how you got to where you are today.

Craig: We started the band about two years ago and the big thing back home is the DIY stuff where bands virtually go out and make their own demo. Two months old, we looked in the Yellow pages and found a studio behind our house in Leicester. It was convenient, local and cheap. We then recorded, mixed and produced our own demo and we’ve been going back there ever since as the quality is great.

George: One thing I want to add is that I like to hear recordings that aren’t over-produced. It should be like any form of art; it (the recording) should be somewhat raw and simplistic. With limited financial resources, in retrospect, our demo production actually came out the way we envisioned it should be, raw and not polished.

Craig: Yes, Politics & Cigarettes was recorded in raw form because at that time, there were only 3 of us and it made sense from an economical standpoint to do it that way. We had no idea that Universal Records in England was to be involved. Essentially, they heard our first ever demo “Politics & Cigarettes” and release it as a single demo on vinyl with A side B side.

Craig: Answering how we did things differently, we had a firm plan right from the beginning. We had a plan to play many short sets and to actually go out and get really good support slots rather than the conventional way which was to just play local venues for a long time. With our single out, all of a sudden, Steve Lamacq of ‘Radio 1’ picked up on it. Within a week, our single sold out. With radio airplay, all of a sudden we had monies coming in and we started touring with really good notable bands like the Horrors and Babyshambles.

Politics & Cigarettes … that sounds intriguing.

George: The story behind that was taken from a film called “My Way Home” by a Scottish Director, Bill Douglas who a made trilogies in the 70’s. It’s like an autobiographical film about a guy from a small Scottish town who went away to war. He had really nothing in life, no wife and no children. All he had was one friend and between the two, all they had was their great conversations about politics over cigarettes.

MojoRepublik: Define your influences.

George: I get a lot of inspiration from folk songs and artists like Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. I’ve been inspired by The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” and of course, Brian Wilson.

Craig: Our influences are vast … Radiohead, Libertines, Interpol, Kanye West etc.

MojoRepublik: Bob Dylan and Nick Drake are great storytellers. Is there storytelling in your songs?

George: We’re influenced by films and stories. Coincidentally, our 3 latest songs, Nine Ships, By the Seashore and Aboard the Albert were all taken from a story I wrote in Germany called “Aboard the Albert”.

MojoRepublik: What was it like to be named “Best New Band” and “Top 25 Bands” by Rolling Stone?

George: We had been already recognized as “Best new Band” and when we were on MySpace and we received an email from a fan about Rolling Stone naming us “top 25 bands on MySpace”. We were blown away, to say the least. That’s the power of the Internet.

MojoRepublik: How has the Internet impacted the soundscape?

Craig: The Internet is immense and it enables bands to do what they want. There are a lot of resources available today via new technology. We can make a track and get our music out, go listen to tracks and make direct contact with our fans and venues. Before, we were managing ourselves so the Internet helped us immensely. Rolling Stone found us through MySpace. Much research and information can be shared from anywhere in the world. We met our Manager, Brandy Vinyl over the Internet and we cut a deal prior to coming to the states. In fact, we just met her in person a few days ago when we landed.

George: I remember when Thom and I went out to see the Arctic Monkeys and at that time no one had really heard about them. We found them on MySpace and the songs posted on the site got them the exposure to sell out shows virtually everywhere. I have never seen anything like it. It was like the Beatles. They did it all from their demos online and that inspired our approach greatly. We said if they can do it, we can also.

MojoRepublik: Brandy, you found the band online?

Brandy Vinyl: My job is to seek out the best new talent. I heard them online and immediately I knew they had something unique. We communicated via email for 6 months. I became their Manager and got them into South By Southwest of which they were one of the first bands to be accepted. SXSW is going to be huge for the band and already there is serious interest within the recording industry.

MojoRepublik: How many albums have The Voom Blooms put out and what are your plans for the future?

George: Right now we are focused on this tour. We are going to San Francisco and Seattle next with shows, radio interviews, video shoots then to SXSW with 3 show including interviews, parties etc. We’re busy soaking up the moment. Remember, we just landed a couple of days ago and it’s oh so overwhelming. Last week, we were four guys from England and now we are in the states. It’s just great.

Craig: We have not recorded an album yet because we are still an unsigned band. We’ve done everything ourselves and we really have only released only a few songs. A Japanese label release an album of songs but that is really a compilation of our songs rather than a planned album. Our plan and ultimate goal at the moment is to make the best album that we could possibly make when we get a deal. Meanwhile, we’ll go doing what we’ve been doing one or two songs at a time with a possible EP with 5 new songs forthcoming soon.

George: We’re in no rush. When we get the right label with the right deal, we’ll be ready to make the best album possible.

MojoRepublik: Phenomenal. I know you have to play in a few minutes. We wish you the best of luck on all your endeavors.

Photos by Richard Rasner.