Singer Bloom has been singing pretty much all her life. She made her first public performance at the tender age of four years. “It happened very early on,” she tells me “And then I didn’t start singing professionally until I was about fifteen and that was when I started doing the pub circuit and weddings and things like that. My mum used to come with me to the pub gigs because I was under age. You were allowed to do pub gigs if your parents came with you. So I’ve pretty much been doing it since then. I had a couple of years off in my late teens because they were the party years and pretty much since then I’ve been doing it, working around full time jobs but I’ve been a full time musician now for three or four years where I haven’t had a day job.”
While she has been singing ‘covers’ for many years, Bloom also now sings her own material and that is where the name change comes in. “I decided to have a different name for my original material,” she explains, “I’ve been doing covers for so long and when you work the covers scene, you sing a lot of different genres and you do a lot of different styles of music so it was hard for me to switch off as a wedding singer and now I’m writing my own stuff and so I decided to change my name when I do my original stuff as Bloom. I decided to do that at the end of last year and it just helps me get into my … I want to say ‘character’ but it’s probably the purest form of myself if that makes any sense. I write really personal songs and off stage I like to be Amanda (her real name is Amanda Canzurlo), just a normal down to earth person and then on stage, I use the alter ego so I don’t get too nervous singing in front of a crowd. It just makes it easier for me to fall into that character.”
“When I moved to Melbourne in February with this new EP in my hand, thinking I’m going to get the Bloom name out there and connect with an audience, I found that through my originals, there just still wasn’t the audience reach. I just wanted to sing to a captive audience; to people who would remember me. I wanted to sing more than just my originals. I wanted to go out there and make people feel something rather than just do the pub gigs where I sing to a drunken crowd and nobody would remember me the next day, singing songs that I didn’t really connect with. I did that for about a decade and I just got bored with it. So we came up with a concept where I would do songs that people have already got a connection to and they already love the music.”
This weekend, Bloom is doing two shows in Melbourne. Saturday night’s show at the Flying Saucer Club is ‘The Adele Songbook’ focusing, obviously, on songs by the singer Adele. On Sunday, Bloom performs ‘The Adele and Amy Songbook’ which features songs by both Adele and Amy Winehouse. “We’re just working with the venues to see what they want and apparently there’s already another Amy show that plays at the Flying Saucer Club so that’s why were asked to just solely do the Adele songbook for that night but ultimately we’re doing ‘The Adele and Amy Songbook’. ‘I’m trying to reach an audience and get Bloom’s name out there and sing songs that I love. I look up to both artists and I love their songs and I feel that, although my stuff is more electronic, I still write songs that are pretty personal and they are still sad songs about heartbreak and love lost, the same things that Adele and Amy both write about so I figure if they like theirs, they’ll probably like mine. Bloom’s band for these shows includes James Morley (ex Angels) and Stuart Johnstone (Jon English, Marcia Hines) and Amy Vee.
The singer is also very excited to be performing as part of Cruise ‘n’ Groove in October, a week long cruise that will feature entertainment from some of the country’s most popular artists. Bloom will not only be singing with James Morely’s band on this cruise but is thrilled to also be a part of ‘Six Ribbons’, a tribute to Jon English who sadly passed away suddenly in March this year and was to be one of the artists performing on the cruise. While she is sad that she won’t have the opportunity to sing with Jon, she feels honoured to be a part of the tribute, singing alongside such great performers as Peter Cupples, John Farnham and John Paul Young.
Bloom performs this Saturday 6th August at the Flying Saucer Club, Elsternwick and Sunday 7th August at the Spotted Mallard in Brunswick. For more information and to book tickets, visit Bloom’s official website.
Bloom will also be a guest on Libbi Gorr’s radio program on Sunday morning at 10am on Melbourne radio station 774 ABC Melbourne.
by Sharyn Hamey
Copyright © Sharyn Hamey 2016. All rights reserved
