Thee Gold Blooms were conceived in early 2012 when three work mates decided to finally put their money where their music mouth was, and form a band. “Three of us were working together at the same place for ages, and we’d been talking about forming a band for a while, and then one day it just happened,” Szymkow says. “We just had a bunch of songs that we jammed on, and there were a couple that we thought ‘that sounds like a band’, and we realised we were onto a 60s trip, so we ran with it.”
In addition to Jeff Goldblum – Szymkow even admits to an interest in Goldblum’s often-overlooked 1985 horror-comedy Transylvania 6500, and a desire to see The Tall Guy (I’m looking forward to checking that out on DVD at some stage, Szymkow laughs) – Thee Gold Blums continued the tradition of garage bands such as Thee Minks, Thee Oh Sees and Thee Headcoats using the mediaeval version of the definition article in its name. “The very first band that did that was a band called Thee Midnighters,” Szymkow says. “There was a band that had the same name, and instead of doing the hard work and finding a new name, they just thought ‘oh, well, we’ll add another ‘e’ – it was a simple solution to a funny problem.”
Influenced by the sounds of 60s bands like The Beatles, The Kinks and Beach Boys, as well as contemporary garage bands such as The Painkillers, The Black Lips and Thee Oh Sees, Thee Gold Blooms played its first gig at the Norfolk Basement in Fremantle. “That gig was pretty good, and went off without a hitch, and we followed up with some gigs at Northbridge,” Szymkow says. “Even though we were a bit sloppy in those first few gigs, we got a great response from the outset.”
While Perth residents will occasionally bemoan the death of live venues – the closure of the Hyde Park Hotel a few years ago generated considerable disquiet and concern for the longer-term future of Perth’s live music scene – Szymkow says it’s far from doom and gloom. “There’s a new venue that’s just opened up, and we played the launch there the other week,” he says. “There’s always an opportunity for a gig somewhere. And there’s always a lot of support from other bands – it’s a pretty tight-knit musical community in Perth.”
So far, Thee Gold Blooms’ recorded output has been limited to a few songs recorded and posted on the Internet. One of those songs, Katie Sue, appears to follow in the fine tradition of garage pop tunes exploring the whims and ephemeral wonders of adolescent love. In reality, it’s an ode to a favourite culinary experience. “It’s actually a love song dedicated to a soup,” Szymkow explains. “When we worked together, we’d go out and have that for lunch. So it’s a love song for that meal – it’s not about a person, just a beautiful deep-fried chicken meal served with rice!” Szymkow laughs. This week Thee Gold Blooms are undertaking their first touring foray outside of Western Australia, playing four shows over four consecutive nights (a touring equation that’s entirely consistent with the approach taken by the 60s bands who influenced Thee Gold Blooms’ sound). While national radio and the Internet provide opportunities to be heard outside of Perth, touring is just as important. “The Internet is useful to get your music heard, but if you don’t tour, you’re just another MP3 on someone’s iPod,” Szymkow says.
Next year, Thee Gold Blooms hope to release a full album; in the meantime, the band is aching to put out some tracks in time for the warm summer months. “We want to have some songs out in time for summer, because that’s really the time that we want our music to be heard – it’s summer music,” Szymkow says.
BY PATRCK EMERY
