Introducing: Indie Artist Flores Blue
FLORES BLUE
SHARES HER DEBUT 4-TRACK EP ‘ENTERTAIN’,
RELEASED ON NO ROADS RECORDS, 30 AUGUST 2024
NEW SINGLE ‘STATION’ DROPPING 26 JULY 2024
‘A TRUE TRAILBLAZER’ – JAKE PEACH, BBC INTRODUCING
Debut indie artist Flores Blue shares her 4-track EP ‘Entertain’, released on No Roads Records, 30 August, with new single ‘Station’ dropping on 26 July.
Flores Blue is the artist name of rising star, singer-songwriter Emma Sampson from Essex. Emma’s first self-produced track ‘Rain’ was picked as a ‘weekly vibe’ on BBC Introducing in 2023. Host Jake Peach called her a ‘true trailblazer’. Early listener Tom Doyle from MOJO praised the track, noting its ‘Elliott Smith via Boygenius vibe’.
Her debut single ‘Cold, Hard Running Ground’, a beautifully crafted dark bruise of love song about hiding old wounds from new lovers, has received support from both BBC Radio and Amazing Radio.
Flores’ songwriting on ‘Entertain’ similarly transports us between ‘dark and light, dreams and nightmares, hopes and fear’. ‘Station’, written after she found herself ‘crying in a petrol station after running out of money’, explores the idea of ‘breaking free from things that hold you back’. ‘Iris’, inspired by failing to find the ‘perfect pebble’ to remember a perfect day out with friends, examines the sense of never being ‘good enough’ in relationships. ‘Entertain’ was written in a burst of hope at sunrise after a long, dark night in the recording studio.
Flores’ voice is beguiling and dreamlike against a wall of guitar, echoing influences such as Soccer Mommy and 90s alternative rock. Both feral and lullaby in tone, it draws comparisons with Tanya Donelly and Phoebe Bridgers.
‘Entertain’ is produced and mixed by Keane bassist Jesse Quin, from his Old Jet recording studio on an abandoned US airbase in Suffolk. Quin says: ‘With the sheer number of songs in the world it’s really difficult to write anything that feels new but that is also instantly memorable. Emma has that gift.’
The EP is released on Old Jet’s independent record label No Roads Records on 30 August, alongside Mt Desolation, Quin’s alt-country side-project with Keane’s Tim Rice-Oxley. It is supported with a music video by creative director Lydia Cooper, who has worked with Esme Emerson (Communion) and Sarah Kinsley (Verve/Decca).
GIGS: Britten Pears Arts, Snape Malting – 29 August 2024 Hunter Club, Bury St Edmunds – 7 September 2024
SOCIALS: @floresbluemusic @noroadsrecords
IMAGES: Nick Ilott/Lydia Cooper
Bio:
At Old Jet recording studios, out on an abandoned US air force base in the wilds of Suffolk, residents still tell the story of the unexpected arrival one summer morning of singer songwriter Emma Sampson, known as Flores Blue.
The studio is owned by Jesse Quin, bassist in Keane. Finding the studio shut on her first day, Sampson rang Quin to find the key.
It was 6am.
Emma Sampson, 22, might present with an endearing offbeat shyness, but when it comes to making music, she had no qualms about waking up a member of an iconic British band currently on a sold-out world tour. That’s because when it comes to music, she is a force to be reckoned with – a ‘true trailblazer’ says Jake Peach from BBC Introducing.
The compulsion to write her cascading, dreamlike songs about the hidden, complicated moments of being human started so early, Emma can hardly remember not doing it.
‘I think I was about six when I wrote my first song,’ she says. ‘I heard songs on the radio and always wanted to copy them. So I was writing about love and other things I didn’t understand - that’s why they had weird names like…’ she laughs… ‘Enlightenment of Meanness.’
Sampson was nine when her mother bought her a guitar and tutorials at a boot sale, and she began to immerse herself, and then perform. A song about a relationship break-up she performed at a school show left her primary school boyfriend in tears. ‘I had to explain it wasn’t about him – that I was just showing off,’ she smiles wryly.
Sampson rode out the complications of secondary school by being ‘quiet’, walking the corridors alone wearing headphones that blasted Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ and Eminem’s ‘Curtain Call’ morning to night, their emotional rawness offering her sanctuary for her own teenage angst. She began quietly to write poetry. A new love affair began with the songs of Elliott Smith and 90s grunge.
It was the pandemic that led to a twist of fate. Forced to shelve her plans to travel after school, Emma tried to enroll on an Animation course at the Colchester Institute, only to find it was full. Music Technology, however, had a place. Immediately she felt at home. Her tutor told her she had talent. She formed a band and started gigging, her lullaby tone a disconcerting contrast to the driven guitar of the beguiling dark fairy tales she was now writing about buried memories and interdependence.
Emma’s talent shone early. Her first self-produced track ‘Rain’ was picked as a ‘weekly vibe’ by BBC Introducing. A support slot for She’s In Parties’ EP launch in 2023 led to journalist Cameron Poole describing her as ‘an exceptionally gifted indie singer-songwriter’.
Emma applied successfully for the highly selective industry development programme at Jesse Quin’s Old Jet recording studios, that provides ‘tools’ for talented local musicians entering
the industry. Work began to write and learn industry ropes. Quin would go on to produce her upcoming EP ‘Entertain’ and release it on Old Jet’s No Roads Records.
The crunch point came for this talented and driven singer-songwriter when she applied for an admin job to fund her new life as a professional musician.
‘They asked me where I wanted to be in five years’ time and I was thinking, “Pyramid Stage, Glastonbury”,’ she laughs.
You can guarantee she’ll be the one at the gate at 6am asking for the key.
