The final member of our 18 for 2018 club is Amsterdam-based songwriter Pip Blom. Not only does Pip Blom have probably the most fun to say name of the year, she’s also something of a regular on 6Music and KCRW, not least her superb latest single, School. That track, alongside its fabulously titled flipside Babies Are A Lie, were the latest in a growing catalogue of notable releases for Pip, including numerous singles and the excellent EP, Are We There Yet?

With a sound that melds the worlds of fuzzy, raucous noise and effortless catchy melodies, Pip seems to be an artist pushing her music in a variety of directions and finding out she’s very good at almost all of them. A young musician with a huge amount of talent and ambition, and seemingly no limit to where her songwriting could take her, perhaps more than anyone else in the 18 for 2018 list, Pip Blom looks like a star in the making.

Celebrating being the cherry on top of our top tips for 2018, Pip was kind enough to answer our questions, discussing self-producing, the Dutch music scene, and just what 2018 has in store for Amsterdam’s most exciting new songwriter.

FTR: For those who don’t know, who is Pip Blom?

Pip Blom is a band. We’re from the Netherlands and we make indiepopsongs.

FTR: As one of our tips for 2018, what are your plans for the year ahead?

We’ve got a lot of plans for 2018! We want to release a few singles and an EP. And we’re also going to play a lot of shows in the Netherlands, but also in the UK and hopefully a few in the rest of europe.

FTR: You’ve self-recorded your music in the past, do you enjoy the production side of music? Is that control important to you?

Yes, and no. I do really like to find a sound that I like. For example, the guitar sound on our track Hours. Or the sounds of the guitars on our new track School. But, I hate getting lost in sound options. When you work in programmes like Logic, anything is possible – and that can be a pain in the ass. You can spend years trying to find the perfect sound. I don’t want to do that. I try to limit myself by not using all the plug-ins. Just keeping it simple. Otherwise, I’d go crazy!

FTR: It seems to be a good time for Dutch musicians, how is the Amsterdam music scene? Is there anyone we should be listening out for?

I really like the music scene in Amsterdam at the moment. But not just Amsterdam, the Netherlands as a whole is doing really well with cool bands. You should check out Kieff, Steve French, Baby Galaxy, The Homesick, Korfbal, Canshaker Pi, Petersburg Orderer & The Mighty Breaks.

FTR: What are your aspirations for your music? Do you see music as your career?

I started making music because it’s something I love. Of course it would be great if we can turn it into our job for a few years. But that’s not something I want to focus on too much. That being said, I do have two ‘goals’: playing Glastonbury and touring Japan.

FTR: You’ve been working with Nice Swan Records on recent releases, how did that come about? Will you be continuing to work with them in the future?

Alex heard us on BBC6 and send us a message. We met him when we were on tour in the UK and we felt it clicked. He started speaking German haha, that was a lot of fun. So that’s kind of how it started. He told us that Nice Swan would love to release one of our singles and we really liked that idea. We will definitely continue to work with them. There’s a single and an EP planned.

FTR: Do you have plans to play in the UK this year?

Yes! I can’t really tell which shows we will be doing (because a lot of them have not been announced officially). But there will be a lot of them.

FTR: Do you prefer playing live or recording in the studio?

I like both. It’s nice to switch between them. If you play too much, you can get very tired. But if you record too much you can go crazy. So the right mix works best for me. I love playing shows. They can give you a lot of energy. But I also really like working on writing songs.

FTR: What’s next for Pip Blom?

We will be playing Eurosonic soon. Really looking forward to those few days. I love it when an entire city fills up with people who love music.

Click HERE for more information on Pip Blom