Sacramento-based indie pop act Blooming Heads got their start in late 2018, after singer-songwriter Brianna Carmel (they/them) had spent the entirety of that year playing solo, and decided that they wanted to find a guitarist who they could trust to work with, in order to reach their full potential. They’d met Josiah Masteller (they/them) of little tiny knife, an indie folk punk band (formerly known as Wayne Jetski), in 2016, and the two of them had only grown closer over the course of those two years, so when Carmel was in need of a trusted friend to play music with, Masteller was at the top of their list, and they were more than up to the task.
After spending three years writing songs together, trashing songs that didn’t feel right, and writing some more, the duo had eventually written the three songs that would make up their first demo, “The Background EP,” recorded and mixed in Masteller’s apartment, and released exclusively on Bandcamp in January 2021. The EP has been described by James Perry, of Sacramento gothic rock band Ashes Fallen, as a “fantastic debut” with “honest, bare emotion,” and online radio show Life Elsewhere commended the band’s “smart ability to construct excellent music.”
Once the pair’s demo EP was out in the world, they spent a few years playing local shows with various local bands, while also sharing the stage with DIY music scene legends such as Walter Etc., Crywank, Hoity-Toity, and more along the way. By the time January 2023 came around, they had decided to take a short break from frequently playing live, in order to finally get around to recording their upcoming debut album, “Shed Old Skin.” While they are continuing to record in Masteller’s apartment, this time around, they are joining forces with Bay Area audio engineer Lucy Broom – perhaps most famously known for her collaboration with Lokeigh on a folk punk cover of My Chemical Romance’s “Thank You For The Venom,” in addition to playing banjo in Dandelion Massacre.
The lead single from the album, “Axis Access,” was released on all streaming platforms on July 28th, 2023. A music video for the single, directed by Sacramento DIY music scene legend Matthew Marrujo, was released on September 2nd, 2023.
