In Conversation with Liv Bloore

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by Rebecca Tregaskis

Singer-songwriter Liv Bloore released In Heaven, After Hours last month. The debut EP combines dreamy folk sounds with poetry-like lyricism, submerging the listener entirely. I caught up with Liv to discuss her work, her evolution as an artist and where she goes from here. 

Photo Credit Liv Bloore

The London-based singer picked up music young, starting piano when she was just six years old. Her love for music grew from there ‘I just loved writing lyrics and poems. Even now I go on a walk and write a poem and then put it to music’. Liv also talked about her journey with performing ‘I also grew up doing musical theatre and performing. So I also just love performing…I just want to perform on stage with as many musicians as possible.’    

In Heaven, After Hours took four years to make, with a total of four tracks. Opening up about the journey Liv said ‘I am a perfectionist so by the time I put them out they were actually perfect…I’m glad I waited. Giving yourself that amount of time to perfect the vision is important.’

Photo Credit Liv Bloore

Echo: Your EP ‘In Heaven, After Hours’ released the 17^th April, can you tell me about the EP and the stories within it? 

I started writing it four years ago. The songs are in chronological order of how I wrote them. I have a lot of songs all swirling around all the time and I play them at gigs to gauge whether people connect to them. Often there are songs that come and go from my set but these ones stuck. All of them had different reasons as to why I wanted them…there was a journey in my life reflecting in the four songs over four years. One for each year. Most of it is themes of happy, sad feelings. I love nostalgia and yearning and reflection and feelings about religion. It’s hopeful and sad at the same time - that is what I wanted to be the main theme.

In Heaven, After Hours for me is an oxymoron because you’re in heaven but then it’s after hours so you’re like sneaking around after curfew or something’s forbidden. Something that isn’t allowed to be fully in the light of day. I feel like there’s a lot of things about keeping emotions locked inside and themes of queer identity. You’re in heaven but you meet with someone after hours when you’re away from where everyone else can see you. 

Your Ep features the song ‘A prophet for a sin’ – on your social media you talk about how it revolves around outgrowing religion but still holding onto it just in case, could you tell me a little more about this story and what made you decide to tell it? 

In rural Suffolk I went to a religious primary school and in uni I sang in a chapel choir which was amazing. I hadn’t done anything like that before. It was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. We got to travel around the world singing this music. When I was singing I was like ‘wow I do really feel religious because of this music right now.’ But then actually logistically I thought about the practicality and the impact of religion in a negative way. I was like ‘I’m not sure.’ But then you also think about it in a positive way. I feel like a lot of people will not believe in God but then at your lowest point you will pray. I talked to my partner a lot about religion. There’s this one bit where I say ‘when we talk about religion I don’t believe a word you say’. I’m like ‘I don’t believe this’ but in sad moments you really hope it's real.

Your music has a real ethereal feel to it, how did you decide that sonic identity was the right match for the stories and emotions in your lyrics?

A lot of it is the artists that I love. I’m a big fan of Ethel Cain and her production. She was the first artist that I listened to that made me want to become a producer because of the soundscapes she makes. Some of her songs are nine minutes or even longer and she really takes her time with the arrangement and sums up this mythical world. There’s so much storytelling. It emphasises the lyrics when you’ve got a production that reflects the message. 

My songs started off as very folky demos and then I really wanted them to become cinematic and ethereal. I’m a big fan of Wolf Alice as well and shoegazing rock cinematic production. I wanted to tie the production sound to the lyrics directly. Like Her Flowers they’re quite sweet lyrics and quite sad. I didn’t want them to be overpowered but to have this foundation of sound. 

You stated you’re a ‘control freak’ when it comes to making music, how was it letting other people into the EP process? 

I do love producing with other people but I'm very much a control freak in terms of songwriting. I don't thrive in co-writing sessions with people I don't know. I know the industry very much wants you to just be in a room with this person, that person and co-write, co-write, co-write. Going to a session with someone I don't know and trying to write something really heartfelt, just doesn't work for me at all. So I write everything myself. 

But when it comes to production and arranging the song with people, I just love that. 
I love playing instruments with people. I'll admit I'm not a good guitarist and I can't play drums. I can fudge my way through the bass. It's just so great making music with talented musicians. 
My friend Jack, he helped me produce this. So I really just enjoy that part and performing live with them as well. 

My flowers is the one I did produce completely by myself. 
But I did still get some friends to play on it as session musicians. That was really fun, kind of me trying to articulate how I wanted the drums to sound, having not played the drums. It was quite a funny situation. My friend Jack is an amazing guitarist, and an all round multi-instrumentalist. I would give him the style that I wanted to riff or maybe sing something that I think he could kind of emulate on the guitar. Then he would make something up even better and he would just be able to layer. 

I would then record all my vocals and everything else in this bedroom. We've actually got like a piano in our flat so I was literally just sticking a mic on the piano. It was all recorded in a bedroom studio. Every vocal on the EP is on this mic. Also I had the most amazing mixing person called Amy Sergeant. She's so amazing that I just knew whatever I record in my bedroom she'd make it sound great. That was also what gave me a lot of freedom with the production because I knew I had the safety net of this phenomenal mixer. Mixers are so underrated in terms of the textures they bring to the music. 

Photo Credit Liv Bloore

In April you put on your first ever headline show with a full band at the Lower Third – all without a manager, label, or promoter. What was it like to achieve a sold-out show from that?

It was so great. I work at a label in my day job but I don’t work in live music. I realised there’s actually so much logistics. When it actually came to it I wasn’t nervous about my set at all. I was nervous about if I had booked it on the wrong day or if the sound guy’s gonna turn up.

I had been to that venue so many times. It’s where I met one of my friends Ella who supported me and she’s such an amazing musician. I’m really familiar with it. It was a really full circle moment to have it in that venue. It was just so heartwarming to see everyone turn up. Having a full band was so much fun. That was the best thing ever. When you’re playing a guitar in a pub you can’t exactly let loose in your performance so that was the most fun I had performing in years. Streaming figures can distort your ideas of success. In a world of comparison, putting on a gig and physically seeing people there is so rewarding. 

How does it feel now your project is out in the world and how do you think it will shape you moving forward as an artist? 

It kind of feels like the build-up is everything. I have to constantly remind myself this is just the start. I have to keep promoting it, I have to keep being excited about it. This is the beginning of my music now I’ve released my debut EP. Now I have music out I hope it’s easier to play live shows and if people see me at shows they have something to listen to. I was gigging for a year and a half, maybe two years without any music out. There’s a lot of ideas about waiting for a label or waiting for a manager to put music out. Now more than ever with social media and streaming, if people like it they’ll come to you, but people do need something to connect to in the first place. So, I am really excited about that and seeing people connect to it. 

I can work on other music without feeling pressure to put it out so people have something to find. I’m making demo’s and I’m now like ‘I’m not keen on that so I’m just going to wait.’ There’s no pressure now. I’m glad it took four years to make. I’m just really proud of it. I think I released them at the right time. I’m really happy with them, really proud. I also want to see more people to connect with it. 

Check out Liv Bloore’s debut EP In Heaven, After Hours here