Meet Blessa, our Spotlight 1 year champions!

Having been crowned Spotlight champions by our panel of music industry judges earlier this week, we saw only fit to catch up with Sheffield five-piece BLESSA for a bit of a chat. This year has seen them support the likes of Big Deal, Beach Fossils and Algiers and garner much support from various tastemakers and music publications. Their conflating mix of 1990’s and early 2000’s influences like My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins, Interpol and Yeah Yeah Yeahs was an instant hit with us back in December and we’re eagerly awaiting the next chapter…

Congratulations on being crowned the inaugural winners of the Spotlight Award! The judges were very complimentary about your track ‘Open Fields’, it must be nice to receive praise and especially from those working in the industry?

Thank you, we were pleasantly surprised to be nominated in the first place! It’s always great to get some detailed feedback on the tracks, whether from within the industry or otherwise. We’re just glad to have piqued people’s interest from a fairly early stage, and think that people will see a huge progression on the next few tracks.

We featured you on our Spotlight blog way back in December, and by the looks of things you’ve been pretty busy since. Can you fill us in on what you’ve been up to?

We’re due to go into the studio this weekend (13th/14th) in Leeds with a producer who we’re extremely excited about working with. It took us a while to work out the sounds and reference points we wanted to follow for the latest songs, and have written and scrapped various songs before arriving at this point. Once we’ve got the tracks finished we’ll see if there’s a label interested in putting them out but either way we’re just psyched about people listening to them.

We’ve noticed that you’ve been getting a fair old bit of press coverage, including mentions in NME; does it feel like things are starting to come into fruition? People are taking more of an interest?

The coverage we’ve been getting has been much appreciated; especially as a lot of it has come during the time we’ve not been sharing new songs or playing too many shows. We’re more than aware that every new band or new song has its time span, but we seem to be in a slightly privileged position in that people are still interested, so we hope we can repay people’s faith soon!

We all know that there’s no such thing as an overnight success and it takes a lot of hard work to get any sort of recognition and presumably that’s the case with you guys? How long have your been grafting away together?

Our first shows as Blessa were around March 2011, but it was only when a few of us had graduated in July last year that we were able to apportion the necessary time and dedication into consolidating our sound and started writing songs we were vaguely happy with! We’ve had a few delays and false starts, especially recently, but we’re more than comfortable to wait until everything is perfectly balanced before taking the next step.

Have you had to think about bringing people in, managers, PR etc? Or are you still doing most of it yourself?

We’ve recently had a manager come on board, who has had to exercise a zen-like patience with us while we’ve been perfecting the set and playing our first regular run of shows before everything’s ready for the debut release. We’ve had a discussion about bringing more people on board, and a few people have contacted us with a view to work with us when we’re ready. Up till this point we’ve dealt with getting our own shows and a fairly cursory form of PR but there’s only so far we can take it ourselves so we’re very much looking forward to working with people who can bring some professional knowledge and experience to the table.

You’ve also been playing a few support slots recently haven’t you? Have you relished the opportunity to play to slightly bigger crowds?

Getting the opportunity to play with bands that we would probably go and see anyway has been the most rewarding part of the experience. On the train home from shows in Leeds or Manchester we always talk about specific details we liked about the other band’s live show and what we can do to improve ours. Getting the chance to play support shows for Now Wave in Manchester has been hugely affirming, as they’re the kind of promoters who really get behind bands from an early stage.

With so many new bands cropping up all the time, how hard is it realistically to get gigs, coverage and the like?

Well, on the one hand there are a lot of bands coming out with amazing tracks and getting due attention off the back of it, but at the same time we have enough faith in ourselves and the material we have now to plot our own path through the trees. We feel it’s ultimately in our own hands for the time being, and that the music is central to that, but at some stage we’ll need the bit of luck necessary and there’s nothing else we can do but concentrate on what it inevitably boils down to, which is the music.

Can you offer any advice to anyone in a band looking to make some sort of a breakthrough? What should they prioritise?

As much as we may not be in a position to prescribe, it’s kind of essential to feel your way into writing a set that you’re proud of. I would say firstly to keep sets short and make sure that you’re completely comfortable with each song you’re playing, and secondly to recognise how intensely people will interact with their own creation, so seek external feedback wherever possible, ideally through demo-ing ideas but also from playing live.

What’s next on the agenda for you guys? Do you have any sort of plan as to where you’d like to be by the end of the year?

Once we’ve got the new tracks recorded and ready, we’re hoping to start connecting with people across the UK, hopefully have a tour underway and get a full EP written and recorded. Simply, we would very much like to be able to make the band a full time job.

Listen to & find out more about Blessa here:

www.facebook.com/BLESSABLESSA

www.soundcloud.com/blessa

www.blessa.bandcamp.com