Amsterdam’s indie darlings Pip Blom have just announced details of their third album, Bobbie, due on 20th October via Heavenly Recordings. Carefully crafted on computers and synths, the album marks a departure in sound, but as ever, their knack for colourful and vivacious pop shines through. Latest single, ‘Is This Love?’, featuring Franz Ferdinand’s, Alex Kapranos, gives fans another taste of the band’s upwards trajectory. Their most funky single yet follows previous earworm ‘Tiger.’ Watch the witty video for ‘Is This Love?‘ here:
Speaking of their latest single ‘Is This Love?’ they said, “The nice thing about working with Alex… was that we both had quite different perspectives. Whereas I am a bit more rock by nature, Alex is a lot funkier. And that turned out to be the perfect addition to this song, both in the verses and completely in the chorus. Never before has such a funky Pip Blom song appeared, and we all absolutely love it.“
For their third album, Bobbie, Pip Blom the band’s namesake and main writer, decided to rip it up and start again. After making her name as one of the brightest indie rock singers around through two albums and a lauded live show honed over gruelling years of touring, the new album sees her and the band take a delightful left turn into thumping, carefree synth pop.
While admitting to the cliché of a guitar-orientated band ‘grabbing the synths’ for album three, this new direction had a real and genuine draw for Blom and foremost in her mind was cult 2010s English pop band Micachu and the Shapes. On her previous albums, Blom wrote songs on the guitar, hoping that the studio process would then allow her to live out her pop dreams through final flourishes added during the recording process. “But we were always then running out of time,” she remembers, “and they ended up as just guitar-y albums.” For Bobbie, work with synthesisers and computers began from the very beginning, and she recruited producer Dave McCracken in a co-writer role to make sure the vision was fully realised.
Despite the huge strides taken on album three, it appears to confirm that Bobbie is only the next step in Pip Blom’s journey, and far from a final destination. “I wanna start again,” she and the band sing together to send the album off, revolutionising their sound in the most thrilling of new beginnings. So, so much more is sure to come. The album can be pre-ordered HERE
Pip Blom have just announced a run of U.K. headline shows in February ’24 together with a Blur support slot in Amsterdam. and a number of festival appearances over the summer and their current confirmed dates are as follows:
Live Dates
June 2023
23rd – Tomavistas, Enrique Tierno Galvan Park – MADRID
27th – Ziggo Dome – AMSTERDAM (Blur support)
July 2023
15th – Readipop Festival – READING
September 2023
2nd – Bruis Festival – MAASTRICHT
December 2023
7th – Melkweg – AMSTERDAM
9th – Rotown – ROTTERDAM
15th – Tivoli Vredenburg – UTRECHT
20th – Vera – GRONINGEN
2024 Live Dates:
February 2024
5th – Castle & Falcon – BIRMINGHAM
6th – Academy 2 – LIVERPOOL
8th – Grand Social – DUBLIN
9th – Kasbah – LIMERICK
10th – Ulster Sports Club – BELFAST
12th – Oran Mor – GLASGOW
13th – Crookes Social Club – SHEFFIELD
14th – Canvas – MANCHESTER
16th – Lantern – BRISTOL
17th – Academy 2 – LEICESTER
19th– Junction 2 – CAMBRIDGE
20th – Chalk – BRIGHTON
21st – Heaven – LONDON
23rd- Le Point FMR – PARIS
29th- Yuca – COLOGNE
March 2024
1st – Molotow (Skybar) – HAMBURG
2nd – Badehaus – BERLIN
Tickets for the U.K. February 2024 run go on general sale at 9am Friday 2nd June 2023 a HERE.
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