Pip Blom: Exiting The Motorway
Credit: Bibian Bingen
Pip Blom, eponymous frontwoman of the brash Dutch rockers, meets me over Zoom, an Aladdin’s cave of guitars and recording equipment providing her background. Instantly warm and affable, she appears effortlessly cool – an image she laughingly dispels.
“At one point, I realised that so many people I thought were really cool were musicians, and I wanted to be cool as well. At first, I wanted to be in a band because I thought bands always look nice, and they’re always friends. But I couldn’t find anyone that wanted to be in a band with me and make kind of the same type of music. I had asked my brother, many times, if he wanted to be in a band with me, and he always said no. Then at one point, when we were flying back home from a holiday, we had this massive turbulence, and I was really afraid. And my brother said, “I’ll be with you in the band, don’t worry, we’ll be fine!”
The imagined peril of a turbulent flight home gave birth to an early incarnation of Pip Blom, a band whose changing line-up has always revolved around that central sibling relationship. Forming a band with your brother would have proven a recipe for disaster for millions of squabbling siblings around the world, but Pip and Tender Blom bucked the trend with their warm friendship.
“My brother is my best friend.” Pip expands. “It’s really nice to do something that we both feel very passionate about together. And being able to travel the world with your friends is always really cool. He is also the person I fight with the most in the band, but it’s not really bad fights, because we’re family. And it’s really nice because I usually share a hotel room with him when we’re on tour. When we’re in a room together, I feel like it’s fine if we don’t say anything to each other for a couple of hours, after talking to so many people day in day out. That kind of stuff just makes it feel more like you’re at home. And I like being at home.”
“If I don’t feel very well, I can’t listen to music, because then it’s just too much”
Since the band takes Pip’s name, it can be easy to assume that you’ll be getting an earnest young singer-songwriter on stage, rather than their brash, eclectic energy as a fourpiece. “Pip Blom now feels more like that’s the band’s name, and my name’s just Pip.”
She muses on the issue. “That’s one of the reasons why I’ve always felt very strongly about posing with everyone that’s in the band, with all the videos and all the pictures, because it’s quite easy to think it’s going to be just me.” The community and friendship at the heart of Pip Blom is palpable, providing a buttress for the fierce emotions that being part of a band can bring. “It gives you so many emotions! And I think that’s always been one of the reasons why it’s very important to me as well. If I don’t feel very well, I can’t listen to music, because then it’s just too much.”
The result is their energetic, affectionate brand of indie-pop. Combing through a diverse back catalogue of influences, their music incorporates elements of genres like blues and rock ‘n’ roll, branding each with their trademark dynamism and celebratory touch. The band’s first album, ‘Boat’, was excitedly received, and led to extensive touring – but as the inevitable consequence, the end of 2019 saw feelings of burnout and exhaustion, as they finally exited the motorway.
“We played, I think, 120 shows in lots of different countries.” She remembers. “Playing 120 shows in the Netherlands is one thing, but playing them all over the world means you’re going to have to travel a lot. We had done so many cool things, but I also was thinking that I needed a break for a bit, just to be home. That’s always a bit difficult though, because when the record has been out for a year, you want to follow it up quite soon with another record. So I started writing straight after we came home from the last tour. I always work with deadlines, so I set myself the goal of writing twenty songs in two months, something like that. I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was quite a bit too much basically. But then I could leave for holiday and just feel completely relaxed, not having to stress about having to write lots of stuff.”
Credit: Bibian Bingen
The result is ‘Welcome Break’, a record that wraps up these tired, melancholic feelings in belting indie rock. An ode to the service stations that litter the UK and provided the band’s respite during their time touring, the album commemorates the meal deals that they subsisted off. “In terms of service stations, they’re always quite good.” Pip declares. “They’re not the best you can get, but pretty nice, pretty decent. If we’re in the UK we go to the service station every day to eat lunch or to try and buy the most healthy option. Which is quite a challenge. It’s quite a fun surprise as well to see what they’ve got because sometimes you really crave a Gregg’s vegan sausage roll, and when you arrive, there is your Gregg’s. And then it’s a source of happiness.”
Freshly returned from holiday, Pip was ready to launch into the studio, but the world had other plans. As the coronavirus pandemic broke over the horizon, neatly formulated plans were thrown into disarray. Sticking with the decision to record in the UK, the band was quarantined as part of the recording process. “It’s always intense to be inside for 14 days, but especially if you’re working really long hours. And then you’re also living in that same building, which isn’t really big. It can be nice to go outside and just walk around without anyone else around. In the end, it was fine because you’re also very busy, so it’s quite easy to forget about wanting to do anything else. But the general stress levels were influenced a lot by COVID happening.”
Maybe the process would have been less stressful if the band had been less self-sufficient; not one to shy away from challenges, they made the decision to self-produce the album too. The process proved a learning curve, but one that distinguishes the band with real flair and a sound sense of autonomy. “It was really fun, but also quite intense. You have to be very sharp with all the decisions that are being made. It was quite a challenge, I would say, but a really fun one. And it’s always funny because it’s both with this album and the first album that you end up with a product that in the end sounds so different compared to what you think you’re going to end up with at the beginning. But I think that’s one of the fun bits about recording an album, it’s like the whole process is full of surprises. And that’s always nice. It’s good to have a bit of an eventful process, I think.”
“At that point, there weren’t a lot of Dutch bands. Now, there’s this huge wave of young bands from all over the country – not just Amsterdam, the whole Netherlands”
This was certainly an eventful process. The final result of all this hard work is well worth a listen, equal parts buoyant and contemplative. It brings us back to that first remembrance of a young Pip, yearning to get up on stage with her friends and embody the image of the cool rock star. She would undoubtedly be proud. “When I was younger, I always went to gigs with my mom.” Pip closes. “At that point, there weren’t a lot of Dutch bands. Now, there’s this huge wave of young bands from all over the country – not just Amsterdam, the whole Netherlands. It feels really good because I really missed that when I was younger when it felt like there wasn’t as much of a scene as there is here. In the UK, it’s almost like you’re born and then either you’re going to be a football player or an actor or be in a band. In the Netherlands, music is more of a hobby. But it’s getting a lot better, and I really like that, especially after this year with no gigs or any live music. It’s just such an important thing for me personally, but I think for a lot of people to go into a venue and just hear music really loud. It’s so much fun.”