Blush. Are Still Figuring It Out, And That's the Point
Blush.. Photo credit: Kate Bartley.
There's a particular kind of band that forms not out of ambition but out of proximity. After finding each other at work and discovering everyone played instruments, Victoria’s Blush. decided to see what happens. Their second EP, In the Grey shows that the best kind of origin story that can be produced is something that sounds unforced.
Consisting of Anton Wilson (vocals/guitar), Eric Josephs (Drums), Renata Baldwin (synth) and Rosie Said (bass), the four piece’s brand new EP opens with a loose, lived in energy. The band is not lo-fi for aesthetic reasons, it’s lo-fi because these are still people who are still learning the ropes of the instruments they play. “I stopped playing guitar out of necessity, we needed a drummer,” Josephs shares, “Rosie is an incredibly talented fiddle player, but we eventually threw a four stringed instrument at her that wasn’t the fiddle.”
My favourite song off of the EP is the lead single, “Seasons” which floats in a completely different direction than the rest of the record. “Seaons was a standout moment for us, it was softer and almost a curveball as a single. It isn’t super indicative of what the rest of the EP holds,” Wilson shares. The song’s accompanying music video was shot on a camcorder during the band’s road trip to Calgary’s Sled Island Music and Arts festival. “The footage was never intended for any formal purpose. It was just a bunch of videos for us to look back on as friends in like five years and be reminded of the time we ripped down to Calgary and back. We had so much fun!”
The title came with difficulty, as these things tend to. The band wrestled with it for a long time before landing on something that had been sitting right in front of them: a track already on the record. But the name carries weight beyond the obvious. "It means not having all the answers," Wilson says, "and still taking part in life and those experiences, and making the most of it." There's also something geographical about it. Living on Vancouver Island means "gray skies six to eight months out of the year, cloudy and unknown." The title earns its place.
What is beautiful about In The Grey is how well it captures a band mid-becoming."It feels like a big project of growth," Josephs says, "in who we are as a band, a big chance for us to grow sonically, but then also just in the transition of our lives." The songs were jammed weekly, played live, recorded in September 2025, and immediately started changing again afterward. "Songs never really end," Anton reflects. "You always keep changing them or play them a different way."
The songwriting is anchored by Wilson, with nods toward Elliott Smith and Alex G in its quieter moments, then opens up into something louder and more distorted. Talking about the themes and inspirations around the EP, Anton shares that, “We wanted to capture a time and a place. There is no main theme throughout the whole EP. It’s a journey and there are so many different waves and sonic styles. We’re all getting older and going through different life experiences. Like a time capsule to capture what we are going through at this time.”
One moment from the recording sessions tells you everything about who Blush. are: they found a Hot Wheels track on the side of the road, reversed the car to retrieve it, and listened from the basement as their engineer got cheerfully scolded by his wife for hauling it home. It's a small, ridiculous, completely human detail, and it fits a band whose best quality is that they've never once tried to be anything other than exactly themselves.