Spotlight: Kid Bloom Discusses the Meaning Behind the Title of His Debut Album, ‘Highway’
SITTING OUT IN THE CALIFORNIA SUN— in a halo of bright blue sky, is Lennon Kloser, musically known as Kid Bloom. He’s been around the block: with over 2 million Spotify listeners, he is the mind behind hit songs like “I Kissed a Girl, And She Kissed Me,” “Electric U,” and “Different State of Mind.” The singer-songwriter and producer has been releasing singles and EPs since 2016, but 2022 is finally the year of his debut 12-track album, Highway.
It’s a big year for Kloser. Following the LA-based artist's album release, he will also be on a national US headlining tour beginning Sept. 29 in Santa Ana, California. It’s a year of firsts for the singer-songwriter, but with it comes many emotions: excitement, anxiety, eagerness, stress. Despite it all, Kloser’s passion for music doesn’t wane. He has instead created a transcendent album, a blend of genres and sounds. His music is electronic, soulful at times — a mix of sounds that is indie, hip-hop, and more. In the words of Kloser himself, “It's just like everything put together and whatever the hell that becomes — that fruit salad of a situation. Let's call it fruit salad pop.”
Kloser’s “fruit salad pop” masterpiece is titled after an excerpt he read in the book Parallel Universes of Self by Frederick Dodson. Kloser shared that his title came from a discussion of parallel universes being likened to parallel highways, running side by side yourself at any given moment. The book says that, if you focus enough on one of those highways, you can then be on them.
“The way he kept bringing up these parallel highways meant a lot to me at that time because I was like, ‘Where am I in this whole thing and what am I here for?’” Kloser explained. “Essentially, what's kind of getting me there is just following this thing. It's not about the destination — it's totally about the now. It’s the highway.”
And nothing could embody more of how Kloser felt in his life when he started his album in 2020 than Highway. The artist described his album as a piece of him: a personal battle, a story filled with conflict. On one hand, he has music, his obsession and passion, and with that comes anxiety, pressure, perfectionism, and fear of the idea of the album — what it would be.
But Kloser worked through that. “I think this album is special to me because I've learned so much out of it,” he said. “I've learned a lot of what I really like to do or what I really don't like to do. And I would say that my favorite memory from this album is the overall umbrella memory — that I can take growth away from it. That even made me feel good to say that.”
In a way, Highway functioned as a vessel for Kloser’s growth and healing as a person and artist — even the song that resonates most with Kloser off the album is titled “Remedy.” “That [song] just feels like a release to me,” Kloser explained. He was inspired by a Bee Gees documentary, from which he was blown away by the feeling of their music. “I went into my room and just sat there and started playing around with this idea,” he began. “And [that song is] what came out. I like just being completely taken back to the idea of me seeing this piece of music, hearing this piece of music, seeing this energy in the documentary, and being like, ‘I would love to make something that feels like that.’”
Kloser’s music is inspired by all things. Whether it be the Bee Gee’s documentary or something else: “I think what is the most amazing inspiration to a song is to just sit with an instrument and just kind of get lost in that and then something comes out of that — that's the best.”
Though Kloser is a bundle of nerves and excitement about his debut album and upcoming tour, they both allow him to experience his favorite things about being a musician. “Two things — literally: it's the gratification from hearing something that is just like, ‘Oh, well, we did that,’ or, ‘I made that.’ And then the rush of anxiety that I get before going on to play,” Kloser said. But once he gets on that stage, all that pent up anxiety disappears “like a huge cramp has lifted.” In a way, it makes it all worth it.
2022 is a big year for Kid Bloom. With intentions to write more music this year, he shared a few of his goals as an artist. “Make as much music as I can, have as much fun as I can, tour as much as I can, and become the best version of myself that I can.”
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