Tidal Bloom buzzing following BBC 6 Music session showcase
Three University of Huddersfield music students showcased their budding talents when their group, Tidal Bloom, performed live in session on BBC 6 Music’s Cerys Matthews Show.
Elena Esteban Ortiz, Maria Goncalves Barreira and Finlay Farmer, who met each other when starting at the university two years ago, recorded their session at the famous BBC studios in Maida Vale.
The Sunday morning programme, presented by the former Catatonia singer, attracts an audience of around one million listeners and has an excellent reputation as a showcase for emerging artists.
“The experience was genuinely fantastic, and we are all still buzzing from the whole day,” says the band’s bass player and guitarist Maria. “To be playing at the legendary Maida Vale studios while still at the beginning of our journey as artists is really special and has given us a taste of the future that we want to build.
“The studio engineer and staff were outstanding professionals, allowing for a great environment and seamless show which only added to the amazing experience we had. We’d also like to thank the university for their support.”
The trio’s love of soul and funk is given a Hispanic twist on tracks such as Carinho, and had already earned them airplay on 6 Music as well as on Gary Crowley’s show on BBC London.
They have also garnered over 40,000 plays so far on Spotify for their eclectic music, which reflects their varied backgrounds with Elena hailing from Spain, Maria from Portugal and Finlay coming from Birmingham. Finlay and Elena are studying Creative Music Production, while Maria is also in the third year of her Popular Music degree.
“I just thought ‘wow!’ when I heard Carinho,” says Chris Damms, Tidal Bloom’s song writing module tutor. “I thought Cerys Matthews would love this song and it would be the ideal place to get it played, so I sent it to her producer. She responded back within half an hour and they opened the show with it.
“Elena, Maria and Fin needed to get their heads around how the industry works, there is a learning curve which I am trying to explain to them. Fin is a fantastic multi-instrumentalist, and the girls have these great melodies. They are a really nice unit, very natural and instinctive, but they also know music theory very well too.
“I really hope this will get them some traction because it is difficult to get started in the industry at the moment. Some of my students are not that familiar with radio, they get their music through Instagram and elsewhere, so it has been a learning curve both for them and for me.”
