[EXCLUSIVE] HypnoticAsia’s Interview With Girl Group BLUSH!

The pan-Asian girl group BLUSH have an exclusive interview with HypnoticAsia.com!

The girl group consists of 5 members – Alisha, Angeli, Jihae, Nacho and Victoria – from different countries coming together to create the talented BLUSH.

Following their hit, “Miss Out,” Blush is continuing their momentum in pop music with their upcoming release, “Electric.” Working in collaboration with professional artist and director, Pat Lee, and famed producer of Golden Harvest and Panasia films, Lloyd Chao, Blush shows off their imaginative side in this anime-style video showcasing a fun and fascinating visual experience. The upbeat love song mixes cool electronic beats and harmonic melodies. Lee, who has worked on such titles as Star Wars and Transformers, creates a fantasy world with his artwork and gives life to the lyrics of “Electric.” The video and single will be released at the end of October and is sure to be another hit for Blush.

Through this interview, you’ll learn a lot about the members and how they’ve become a group. The girls talk about How the group was formed, how the name came to be as well as who they’ve worked as. Also, they’ve answered some fun questions about what kind of music video they’d like, how they are during recording sessions and even what they like to do on their free time.

Check out the interview below and be sure to follow them on their Twitters (listed below), as well as liking their Facebook page (listed below).

1.    How was the group formed?

We all auditioned for Project Lotus, the talent search in Asia to find the one girl from each of our 5 countries to be put together as the first pan Asian girl group. After 2 months of working together, watching our friends get eliminated and sent home, on the finale night, the 5 of us were announced as the 5 girls coming together as Blush.

2.    Who or what inspired you to try out for the talent search called “Project Lotus”?

We all have different stories about what led us to audition and try out for Project Lotus. We were all following our dreams of making it as world class singers and this was such an amazing opportunity for an Asian group of singers to finally get recognition in the global music industry. It came at the perfect time for each of us.

Alisha’s story is quite interesting as the auditions came just after she finished high school. She begged her parents to let her take a gap year instead of going straight to college. An idea, which they weren’t too keen on, so they made her prepare a plan to show how she would spend the year. Luckily these auditions came up, the perfect opportunity to make the most of her time taken to try to reach her dream, and the rest as they say is now history.

3.    Who thought of the groups name BLUSH and why?

FarWest Entertainment, our management, created the name because it is universally understood to be feminine, sweet, and easy to remember. We like the name because we like to make people blush when we sing to them!

4.    What was it like working with Snoop Dogg on your single “Undivided”?

Honestly we never would have expected to say this ourselves, but Snoop Dogg was amazing to work with as he really is the consummate professional. The director never even has to say anything to him or direct him really, Snoop just knows what to do each time the camera is on – and always different and unique and it was fascinating to watch him – he really is so talented!  And a great guy as well – so nice and fun to talk with!

5.    How did it feel to open for Justin Bieber as your first major performance?

This was the moment our girl group started to feel real. Up to this performance we had been working hard and practicing in the studio, and in fact we did have a big debut to 50,000 rugby sports fans before this, but to have this as our first major performance to music fans in an arena really made the fact we were starting this journey as a pop group sink in. The whole set up was so professional, and to open to such a massive and excited crowd was a feeling that is unbeatable.

6.    What went through your minds when you heard you were number 1 on the charts with your 2nd single “Dance On”?

We were all saying, “are you serious??!!!  #1 !!!” And lots of screaming and jumping up and down for joy!

7.    If you can choose one artist to collaborate with (that you haven’t already), who would it be and why?

We listen to a wide variety of music from  Wisin y Yandel, Alicia Keys, Joss Stone, Lil Wayne to John Mayer among a long list of others. But if we were to collaborate with someone in the future we’d love to collaborate with Bruno Mars, One Direction, Maroon5 and Pink.

 8.    How does it feel to be working with such diverse group members? Are there any language or cultural barriers? How did you or are you overcoming these obstacles to work together as a team?

 Actually we have created our own “Blush-speak” which is a combination of our languages and English, but our primary language is English.  We love being a multi-cultural group and actually we don’t stick to our 5 cultures at all, but instead we also explore Thai, Vietnamese, Australian, French, etc…we love experiencing all the cultures of the globe!

9.    What is it like traveling the world and performing in different countries?

When traveling the world, we get to meet many talented and amazing people…and eat lots of amazing food! And of course we love that we get to share our singing and dancing with the world…

10.    If you could choose one venue as your dream venue, which would it be and why?

Madison Square Garden – once you have performed there to a sell out crowd, you know you have made it. But we also would love to perform in any Olympic Arena because the Olympics bring people from all over the world together which is what Blush is all about.

11.    Any stories you’d like to share from your recording sessions?

It’s funny looking back from our first recording session to the ones we currently do, we are so much more comfortable now. We nap from jetlag…we eat…we are just so used to it. It makes us laugh remembering the old times where we would be so nervous and unsure of things, like how close to the microphone we should stand, and how the headphones would work etc. Our recording sessions can be pretty messy – food everywhere, laptops, and nail polish 🙂

12.    This past May, you released your debut EP “Undivided”, how do you feel about the response you received from your fans?

The cool thing about our EP is that is has a variety of songs and because of that we have gained a lot of fans that have different tastes of music; some prefer the slower ballads like ‘Together We’re Greater’ and some prefer the more dancey songs like ‘All Stars’. Another aspect of our album that turned heads was the slick-hair album cover. We wanted to go for a bold choice that stands out and really allows people to see us for our music rather than the “typical girl band glam” look.

13.    You recently performed in New York at the Chuseok Festival alongside K-POP artists Dal Shabet, Norazo and M.I.B, how did it feel to share the stage with artists from Korea?

It was really enjoyable to be at the Chuseok festival because it was warming us up for our 2nd trip to Seoul in Korea. The fun thing is that many people incorporated PSY ‘s Gangnam style into their performance as did we. We rocked out his signature moves on the last part of our radio hit song ALL STARS and had so much fun – the Korea crowd were gangnam styling along with us and had a good laugh.

14.    Who comes up with your wardrobe concepts for each single?

We work with several different teams, depending on where we are filming the video for the single. We all get involved in discussions and look at the different concepts. We want something that is different and we feel is right for the feel of the video. This is an area we all enjoy getting involved in, we really love the whole process of the production.

15.    Favorite performance and why?

Actually it’s so difficult to pick a favorite performance, especially for us! We have performed at so many different events in different countries that they all are special for different reasons to us. What is great though is when we get to go back to our home cities to perform, to go back with Blush, especially when we know our family and friends are in the audience.

16.    Is there a memorable gift that you have received from your fans?

We were very lucky to be back in Manila recently to perform for the NBA and got to meet fan’s that have been messaging us on facebook and twitter. A fan assembled a scrap book for Blush with letters from fan’s all around the world!  That was so sweet!  In Singapore we have fans who always greet us at the airport with food – those girls mean so much to us!

17.    What do you girls do on your free time? 

– Alisha browses random stuff on the internet to do with makeup, fashion, and shoes.
– Angeli enjoys reading.
– Jihae likes to surf Korean websites.
– Nacho likes to Instagram.
– Victoria likes replying to our amazing Blushies on Facebook and Twitter and cooking for Blush.

18.    If you had an unlimited budget, what kind of music video would you have, who would be in it, who would direct it, etc…?

Alisha’s dream is to shoot a video in outer space! It would be such a cool experience to see the world from that angle (we are all so jealous of Austrian freefaller Felix). Another idea that we think would be perfect for our multi cultural group, would be to shoot in every different country and have all the major landmarks in the background. That would be so cool!

19.    Where do you imagine yourself in 5 years?  

Our dream is that Blush have opened the door for music to travel across from the East to the West and for Blush to have become a globally successful name in the industry. We will have won our Grammy’s and be touring the world on a sold out arena tour!

20.    What are your future plans/releases as a group?

We will either release a 2nd EP or a full album this year, and for sure we will release 2 more singles before year end – one of which will be our first Holiday single! For performances, we want to perform more in the USA as so many of our performances end up in Asia so we are working on a tour here. 20.    What are your future plans/releases as a group?

21.    Lastly, please say something to the readers of HypnoticAsia!

Thank you all for taking the time to read this article. We love people getting in touch with us, so if you have any other questions please write to us on twitter;

@blushalisha
@blushangeli
@blushjihae
@blushnacho
@blushvictoriac

Also please like us on facebook.com/blushgroup to keep updated with our world. We hope to inspire you all with our music and story – and remember to KEEP BLUSHING!!

Subscribe, like, rate and comment on their official YouTube channel at blushvideo.
Check out their official site http://www.blushband.com/ and follow their group Twitter @blushgroup.
The group also has an official TUMBLR, be sure to follow http://blushgroup.tumblr.com.