Blushing share new single/video ‘The Fires’

Blushing return with the brooding new single, The Fires. The release is the final taste of what’s to come on the group’s ‘Possessions’ album, which arrives on February 18 via Kanine Records. On The Fires, Blushing reaches into some of their darkest tonal territory, delivering a track and visual that weighs heavy with haunting vocals and monochromatic imagery. In many ways, this track serves as a counter strike to the bright single that preceded it, Sour Punch. While Sour Punch flirted with 90s indiepop and the imagery of golden-era MTV, The Fires reaches into Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Michelle Soto’s (guitar, vocals) goth, post punk and cold wave influences. Watch the video clip via YouTube below.

The entirety of the Possessions album is mastered by Mark Gardener of Ride, but “The Fires” is a unique track in that it is the only one that is also mixed by Gardener. Michelle Soto explains the protracted process that played out in this collaboration, “We knew Mark could bring a special element to The Fires. However, just as the mixing and mastering process was wrapping up in February 2021 we lost all power and water for over a week due to a freak blizzard that devastated much of Texas. It caused a most unexpected delay in our ability to communicate back and forth with Mark about the track, who expressed concern for the band’s well being as news of the storm reached all the way to the UK. Eventually the snow melted, lights and internet returned and what we received in the final mix was a punchy, glimmering track, a perfect balance to the dark, brooding tone of the song.”

Possessions was announced in October alongside the release of the immersive introductory single Blame, which featured. Miki Berenyi of Brit Legends Lush. This single also saw Blushing reunite with fellow Austinite Elliott Frazier, of Ringo Deathstarr, who produced their self-titled debut album (Wallflower Records, 2019) and returns for ‘Possessions’.

The band recently announced an April 2022 west coast tour. Ticket links and further info, here. Blushing are joined on all dates by Letting Up Despite Great Faults.

Blushing West Coast Tour 
4-16 Austin TX – Hotel Vegas
4-18 Ft. Worth TX – Main At Southside
4-19 Kansas City, MO – MiniBar
4-20 Denver, CO – Lost Lake
4-21 Salt Lake City, UT – The DLC
4-22 Seattle, WA – Seagaze Festival
4-23 Portland, OR – The Fixin’ To
4-24 San Francisco, CA – The Knockout
4-25 Los Angeles, CA – Peppermint Club
4-27 Phoenix, AZ – Linger Lounge4-28 El Paso, TX – Love Buzz

Blushing features two husband and wife duos consisting of Christina Carmona, Noe Carmona (guitar), Michelle Soto and Jacob Soto (drums). The band’s roots start in El Paso, TX, where Jacob and Noe grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners. The pair moved to Austin around 2009, meeting their wives there coincidentally at the same bar (Side Bar) and “naturally all four of us became close friends.” As Michelle was learning guitar, her natural talent to write music started to emerge, creating vocal melodies and guitar parts in her bedroom. Christina, already a classically trained singer, was recruited by Michelle to lend her vocal talents and soon grabbed a bass, taught herself to play and joined in to help solidify the songs. Soon Jacob and Noe began to notice how much potential this material had so they joined in on a practice session to help flesh out guitar, drums and vocals. From there the husbands never left the group, and Blushing was formed. Their natural chemistry and like-minded musical influences helping to solidify their ongoing writing process.

On ‘Possessions’ they present an album of patience and perseverance. This is a record that the band is incredibly proud of and amazed at its sheer existence. From the earliest tracking sessions of 2019 through the stop-start of a global pandemic, a production break while Frazier welcomed his second child, and the blackout resulting from the freak Texan winter storm of February 2021, the completion of ‘Possessions’ has been a true journey of making sense of a changing world. When everything was finally complete, what revealed itself was an album that emerged from new depths, heavier in some ways and lighter in others. Embracing the spectrum of life and relationships while understanding the need for escape, whimsy and that dirty word, pop. The album title ‘Possessions’ is an observation of the frenetic time in which it was created. A frenzied world possessed through fear or ideals but also with the objects, or possessions so desperately searched for and collected. 

‘Possessions’ tracklist

1. Bed
2. Sour Punch
3. Blame (Feat. Miki Berenyi)
4. Ours
5. Surround (With Love)
6. Gel
7. The Fires
8. Possessions
9. Waster
10. Lost Cat
11. Weight
12. How It Ends

‘Possessions’ is out on February 18
Pre-Order Vinyl Here