BLOSSOMS and Bored At My Grandmas House have taken the ‘Under The Radar’ show awards for best single and album in 2024.
It was a London 1 & 2 last year, this year the imaginary trophies go to the north of England.
BEST ALBUM; BORED AT MY GRANDMAS HOUSE ‘Show And Tell’ 
Amber Strawbridge (aka BAMGH) is from Leeds and this is her debut album, a collection of dream pop/ shoegazey nuggets that have regularly found their way onto my show this year. I spoke to Amber last week…
UTR- Congratulations on being named ‘Under The Radar’ Album of the Year! Now the year is at an end how do you look back at it and the response to the album?
Amber – I feel very light after releasing the album, it feels good. It was a collection of songs that I had stored from a couple of years and it felt great to finally have a section of my life recorded as songs released into the world so yeah I feel lighter now! I’m super grateful for the response, it’s always daunting releasing such personal things, it feels raw and vulnerable but I’m super happy how it seems to have meant something to a bunch of people – that feels great.
UTR – I was surprised just how good it was and how you moved on from your earlier recordings. I know you used to record everything in your bedroom, how did you go about recording the album?
Amber – So I had recorded all the songs as demos in my room like I always do and then brought them to Alex Greaves in Nave Studios in Pudsey. It was a super fun & interesting process trying to hash the songs out and really think about the possibilities of them with another person involved. It was a pretty good educational experience to be honest in terms of making me think about specific things within the song that I probably wouldn’t have thought about if I’d just recorded them alone in my room.
UTR – You didn’t manage to tour the album properly this year but next spring you are touring Europe with Soccer Mommy. I’m excited about this so I don’t know how you must be feeling?! Any particular cities you can’t wait to visit on this tour?
Amber – Yeah I find touring quite daunting If I’m being honest. In the sense that performance/live shows have never been the main driving force of why I write and record so it doesn’t necessarily feel completely natural for me if that makes sense? But I’m really getting a grip on that now after taking time and chuffed with it! I am super excited for this tour, it’s a complete honour to be on the road supporting such a cool artist & is definitely a ‘bucket list’ moment for me. I also just love the idea of playing my songs in Europe for the first time in some beautiful venues, I’m performing the songs stripped back as a duo with my mate Chris on guitar so it’ll be a nice way to show off the album and I’m really looking forward to it! Super excited to play Switzerland as I’ve never been!
UTR – Finally, what plans have you for 2025 other than this tour? Can we maybe see a new song come out to coincide with the tour?
Amber – My plans for 2025 are to write and release as much as possible. I think my sound will probably change slightly but I think it’ll always change & im excited about that. I have been writing and recording lots already and feeling really good & excited about it so hoping to share something pretty soon!
Thanks and congratulations Amber. You can follow Bored At My Grandmas House here…
