By Kourtney Gierke, Staff Writer

The five piece femme group, Blush, brought it all last for the last day of ACRN’s 2025 Lobsterfest. The band features all members as vocalists, with Emma McGowan on bass and guitar, Caden Primmer on drums and keys, Ella Franks on bass, guitar and keys, Sophia Butler on guitar and keys and Jenelle Fauber on bass and guitar. After an incredible setlist featuring their own originals and some star-studded covers ranging from The Cranberries to Britney Spears, I had the chance to interview Blush about their origin, music and future.

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

Kourtney Gierke (KG): Great job today! How do you feel about your performance?

Ella Franks (EF): It went good considering we didn’t have much practice.

Sophia Butler (SB): We had one full practice together, and it was our first acoustic set, so you know, gotta roll with the punches.

Caden Primmer (CP): That’s the best some of those songs have ever sounded.

KG: How do you all prepare before a show? Do you have any pre-show rituals?

SB: We make a setlist last minute.

CP: I don’t know, we just put it all together last minute.

SB: We always have a practice before shows. We usually do that so we feel good going into it and get our sillies out.

KG: How did you come to form as a band?

CP: Me, Soph and Janelle wanted to do something like this, and had done a few practices together.

SB: Then, Ella had the same thought around the same time, and we were friends through the music scene. We were like, ‘Oh we should do that and it’d be super fun, and then we were like, Emma!’

EF: Me and Janelle went to Emma’s party and that’s when the idea came about. We were like, ‘Do you want to join our girl band?’

Emma McGowan (EM): We just wanted to bring something to the table that was not really seen in Athens yet.

KG: What is your favorite part about being in Blush?

EM: I love the silliness of it. I like the realness of our songs because a lot of the written ones are about things in our lives. I think it’s really fun hearing them play out and also getting our energy out.

SB: And the community we’ve built. It’s kind of crazy to see how people will come to the shows wearing their red and black in such a short time, and it’s exciting. The whole point of this is we want to be people who can show others that they can do whatever they put their minds to, and hopefully find community and girlhood. It’s been cool to see how people have received that. And the shows are fun.

KG: As an all femme band, what do you think the importance is of having an all femme community in the Athens music scene?

EF: It’s not really seen around here and it hasn’t been in a while. I think letting other girls know they’re able to do this and not to be intimidated by the music scene here is important because it is so male-dominated. I think just making it seem more open and friendly is important as an all female band. We’ve all been in very male-dominated bands as well.

SB: I just think it’s important that we show that to people and they see that and they’re inspired to do it themselves. I know a couple people have come up to us and told us they’ve started something now and we kind of pushed them toward it.

EM: And the community around it too. There’s a lot of places where people wouldn’t come to shows because they were just unsure of who’s playing. I think hopefully we’ve done enough to make people more comfortable to go out of their way and maybe come to The Union or go to some random little shows.

SB: That’s our biggest thing: comfort. I think as a woman sometimes you can be labeled different things or feel uncomfortable in places. So, why not take the step to be up on the stage? We’re all just doing what we love and that’s the point at the end of the day.

CP: I think our focus on creating that community and focusing on girlhood and what that means lets us play a really eclectic mix of music. Even if it is stuff that might be popular, like Britney Spears, I feel like we get to do something musically that we don’t hear around here.

SB: I feel like where the world is right now, it’s very important that we do things like this so that we have a voice and can be a voice for people who may need support, including us ourselves, you know? It’s very important to put something forward and say, no way, I’m not gonna let you bring me down.

KG: You guys have performed a couple originals, what is your writing process like?

CP: It’ll usually be one of us will come up with 70% of a song and then we’ll show it and then that last 30% will just get added on by other people adding their ideas.

EF: Especially with mine, because Caden always adds the perfect drum part. So yeah, normally it is a 70% done song and then go from there. That’s the way it’s been. I would like to do more full, collaborative, start-to-finish songs. But, we’ve been so busy with shows and just practicing for those.

KG: What is your favorite song to perform?

CP: It might be “Baby.”

EG: “Baby” is so fun. I like playing it at The Union because you can really get the crowd going.

SB: I like “Wet” too. My hand hurts a little bit when I do it, but that’s not an issue. The crowd gets really hyped for that one too, and they’ll scream with us.

EF: I love when people can sing along.

SB: I think we’ll be bringing that one back, so stay tuned.

KG: All of you have previously been in other bands and projects. How do you distinguish Blush from your past projects and what makes Blush stand out?

EF: Personally, I haven’t really had as much as a writing role in my other bands. They’ve been existing projects that I kind of join and are also male-dominated and literally all men except me. It’s nice to have a community of women and be able to play girl rock songs and stuff that I can’t play with a band full of dudes. It’s fun to play more feminist type songs that really doesn’t make sense to play with a group full of dudes.

SB: For me personally, I guess I just have more of a voice. We always make sure to check with everybody if they’re okay with it, instead of throwing somebody into a position. I love the songs we get to play because where else would you really get to play those, right?

CP: Blue Collar Queer is very different from Blush. To have a much more active, collaborative process for writing, that’s just how the whole band feels.

SB: We switch off with vocals too; it’s a very collaborative thing.

KG: What can we expect next from Blush?

SB: Hopefully some more originals.

CP: I don’t want to say anything too soon, but hopefully recording.

EG: A crazy awesome show on April 17.

SB: That’s our last show of the year.

EF: I feel like we’ve had some opportunities come our way, but we haven’t had time for them.

SB: Keep an eye out for Blush dropping an EP in the future.