KRAAK FEST 2025 HIGHLIGHTS: Seraphim Blush
Seraphim Blush’s music feels something like being the only person in a large crowd getting repeatedly struck by an erratically flickering strobe light. Yorkshire-based Theia Greenaway (who is also part of the equally enthralling experimental electro duo Gullet Obvs) assembles a twisted digital version of a singing bowl meditation, alternately granting and denying the listener access to the ethereal virtual realms from which she draws her sounds.
When and how did you start to make music?
>>> I started the Seraphim Blush project about 4 years ago. At the time I had started to become aware of how much shame I had built up towards my obsessive thinking. I started allowing my brain to want what it wants and that led to music, particularly to aspects of repetition and tactile sounds. The name of the project refers to feeling shame around endless repetition and obsession. Overtime I integrated more things that I was ashamed of being obsessed with, like computers and objects, and it's become an important kind of therapy for me.
We saw a picture of a cat on your desk! What does your set-up of your sound collages usually look like? :-)
>>> That's my cat Lentil, she's learnt to be very patient with some of the noises in my studio! The technical part of my process is based around a compositional framework that I have built in Max MSP, which allows me to manipulate live sound in various ways, whether that's sound from a tape player or a microphone. I'll take recordings I've made and improvise with them, recycle that recording back into the patch again and again until it's something I like. The patch I've built makes it possible for me to use a computer for music and it feels like play.
Do you often hunt for trinkets that have specific sounds, or do you mostly work with objects you already have lying around?
>>>> I'm more of a gatherer than a hunter. I'm a very sentimental person so I prefer to gather things that already have significance to me and see what they make, which is also how I put recordings together. It lets the project feel personal and autobiographical in a sort of abstracted way that's nicer for my brain. I am a hoarder though, my studio is a complete mess.
Do you have any good-luck charms?
>>>>The older I get the more faith I have in myself, but it doesn't feel tied to objects. I had a ring which I wore everyday through some really tough years and I knew it would break one day because it was thin. It broke last year and I felt ok about it. It means I no longer need it.
You’re also part of the duo Gullet Obvs. How did this collaboration come about?
>>>> Me and Kathy have very compatible brains. We met while working at a diy music venue in Leeds. I love her other projects Mia La Metta and Nape Neck. We did a one off show a few years ago and made it a solidified project last year. She brings a lot of experience that I'm still building up, plus we can spend 10 days in a van on tour together and not kill each other - true friendship!
Seraphim Blush just put out her EP rot fungus animorph on Bandcamp. You can also find her on IG + website
Seraphim Blush will play her first continental show at KRAAK Festival 2025 March 8 at Het Bos, Antwerp. Last ticketjes here!