[Photo courtesy of Megan Young]

By Morgan Eisaman, Columns Editor

Blush, an all-female supergroup of Athens-based musicians, brought their red and black attire and alt-pop and rock energy to the ACRN Media’s 2024 Battle of the Bands. The group consists of guitarist Sophia Butler, bassist Jenelle Fauber, drummer Caden Primmer, guitarist and bassist Emma McGowan and bassist and keyboardist Ella Franks. All five members are vocalists and have ties to popular acts in the Athens music scene such as Blue Collar Queer, Roman Candle, Split and The Laughing Chimes. I had the opportunity to chat with the group a few days before the show, discussing their music, friendship and advice to other aspiring local female musicians.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

Morgan: What inspired you all to join Battle of the Bands?

Ella: Well, I did it last year. I was in Split last year and we won, actually. 

Emma: I was in Roman Candle. We didn’t win.

[Laughter]

Ella: But yeah, that was a really fun thing last year. I was like, “I want to do it again.” I think that was our motivation to really get ourselves practicing. We were like, “Alright guys, we’re doing this.”

Emma: And it’s a fun little competition.

Sophia: It’s a really fun show. When you’re in the crowd, it’s a lot of fun. I’ve never played Battle of the Bands before, but I love the energy that it has. Everyone’s really excited and you just want to be a part of it.

Morgan: It’s definitely exciting! You all recently played your first show at The Union during Halloweekend. How was that experience for you?

Emma: It was so fun! The energy in the crowd was insane.

Jenelle: We got to play the night of the Block Party with Six Flags Guy, so that was pretty fun. They’re awesome.

Caden: It was kind of a surprise gig for us. We kind of planned on Battle of the Bands being our first gig, and then it was like, “Well, what if we also did this one?”

Ella: I’m glad we did it, though, because then we were able to start preparing earlier and actually lock something in.

Morgan: I’m glad you guys had a good time! I’m curious, where does the name Blush come from?

Ella: I was listening to a podcast in the car and I heard the word “blush.” I was like, “Wait, that’s a really good band name.” Also, when I was in high school and middle school, my face always got red and it was always something embarrassing. I mean, it still does. I feel like it’s something people do where they’ll point out your face and be like, “Oh, you’re blushing,” and it’s like, “What’s wrong with that?”

Sophia: It’s kind of taking the power back from it and being like, “You’re not going to make me blush, I’m going to make you blush.” As a fem-friendship band, I feel like that’s something we’re passionate about. You know, making our voices heard when sometimes they can be drowned out in the loud, loud world.

Ella: Yes, and the male-dominated music scene.

Morgan: That leads into my next question pretty well. Your band is making history as one of the only active all-girl bands in Athens. What advice do you have for female-identifying folks who want to dip their toes into the music scene?

Jenelle: It’s going to be scary, and you might feel like you’re not the most welcome at times, but just keep going to shows. You’ll meet great people, and when you meet those great people, you’ll find other people that maybe want to start a project.

Sophia: That’s how we found one another.

Ella: Don’t let people diminish your talent. When I started, I didn’t feel like I was good enough or whatever, but then I started playing with people and I’m like, “You know what? I am good! I am good enough to be here. I shouldn’t be feeling that way.”

Sophia: Comparison is your worst enemy. It’s awful. Just because maybe you can’t do something that someone else can do doesn’t mean you’re not good at what you do. It doesn’t mean you can’t work at your craft and continuously get better. And I think we all push ourselves to be the best versions of ourselves.

Ella: Also, if any female musicians want to collaborate with us on a song, I’m always like, “Hey, come sing a song with us!”

Sophia: We love collaboration!

Morgan: Who are some of your musical influences?

Caden: I mean, right off the bat, Dazey and the Scouts, Bikini Kill, riot grrrl.

Jenelle: Girlpool, Bratmobile.

Sophia: Maybe a little bit of Indigo de Souza. Yeah, like a mix of riot grrrl and alternative pop rock type stuff.

Morgan: What’s your songwriting process like?

Sophia: Caden and Ella have both written a song for Battle of the Bands, if you guys wanna talk about that process.

Caden: Well, it’s basically been like one person will kind of flesh out an idea, and then have something to share. Then we kind of all iterate on it, at least musically.

Ella: I wrote mine that we played last weekend in an hour. It was like God bestowed me some power and it just all came out. I was like, “Whoa.” You definitely have to be feeling and going through something to be in channel with your emotions when you’re writing a song. I feel like, before that, I never even locked down a full song. I called up Sophia and Jenelle and I was like, “Hey, I wanna try to do harmonies and stuff on this.” We started building on that and then we brought it to everybody.

Sophia: If you try to force yourself to write, it’s never going to work. I feel like it’s just supposed to hit you. And I feel like the stuff that we’re going to be singing about, a lot of people can relate to, which I think is cool. I hope that people can find their own voice in the stuff that we’re putting out.

Morgan: Going forward, do you want to focus more on original songs or continue playing covers?

Jenelle: I’d say right now, we’re kind of 50/50, but leaning a little more cover-y. But we are working on more originals

Sophia: It’s all been moving very fast, so I think we haven’t had time to do more originals, but we really want to.

Caden: I mean, at the rate we’re cranking them out…

Ella: Yeah, we’re kinda cranking them.

Morgan: Definitely, you guys are just getting started but you’re already moving along! Where do you hope to see yourselves and your band in the future?

Sophia: Still jammin’.

Emma: Touring the world in our red and black.

[Laughter]

Ella: I mean, it would be awesome to get a big enough following to do something in Columbus, and I’d love to record some originals if we get more under our belt. Who knows?