THE EVOLUTION OF LUNAR BLOOM

Many My Pop Choir singers will be familiar with the folk trio, Lunar Bloom. The group performed as special guests at the Big Sing in December 2024 and the connection doesn’t end there.

Kelly McNamee is the co-owner of My Pop Choir along with husband, Alex Fiddes, as well as being an actor and filmmaker.  Musician and teacher Jocelyn Regina is a My Pop Choir music arranger and former director.

Actor, writer and filmmaker Brittany Robinson is the third member of the group.

The music of Lunar Bloom reflects their three personalities, which are as distinct as their voices.  But they speak as one when it comes to their friendship.

“Our music really represents that friendship and how the three of us come together and are able to support each other musically and emotionally,” says Kelly McNamee.

“Lunar Bloom has a very strong foundation,” agrees Jocelyn Regina. “Our friendship is a huge part of it and the intimacy we have as friends allows us to work well creatively.”

Brittany Robinson describes the trio’s development. “The group grew organically and has evolved over the years as our friendship has deepened and we’ve gotten very close in the process.”

The trio first met in 2008 at Sheridan College in the Music Theatre Performance program. In the years after graduating, Brittany spent time in Australia and Jocelyn in Scotland, but their friendship continued until they were all back in Toronto.  In 2017, it was Kelly who sent out a text that read "Do you want to start a band?"  And Lunar Bloom was born.

Their initial goals were very relaxed, according to Jocelyn. “We all had different job schedules, but we decided to meet once a week to sing together and to write our own music. It felt good and easy right away.”

Collaboration is key to Lunar Bloom.  “At first we had to learn how we create together,” Brittany explains, “and how to mould what we wanted to say.”

“The only parameters we set out, besides our weekly meetings, were to write our own songs and to focus on lots of harmonies,” says Kelly.

When it came to the name of their group, all three wanted it to suggest femininity.

“We toyed with themes,” says Jocelyn. “We wanted something floral, connected to nature.”

When they came up with Lunar Bloom, it just felt right according to Brittany. They decided to try it out for their first gig and it never changed.

Unlike many new groups starting out, that first gig just fell into their laps. Jocelyn was invited to appear at a show presented by The Haliburton Folk Society and she suggested that the trio appear instead. “It was just a couple of weeks into Lunar Bloom,” Jocelyn recalls. “It certainly gave us something to focus on!”

“It just snowballed,” adds Kelly. “Opportunities came to us.”

She continues: “A year or two in we decided to really commit to it a bit more seriously. We attended folk conferences and we released an EP with five songs.”

Over the years, the three women have regular gone on retreats together, a creative necessity given their very busy lives outside Lunar Bloom.

“Plus, it’s a way just to spend time together,” says Brittany, again emphasizing their focus on friendship.

In 2019, they created their website (www.lunarbloomband.com) and started actively pursuing shows.

Then came Covid, which curtailed their performances, but gave them time to begin grant writing. “It was a huge learning curve,” says Jocelyn, “but it helped us distil what we are trying to achieve.”

In addition to grant writing, Kelly notes that “we began doing all the things that musicians do in Canada – finding who we could work with to produce music, touring – it was a very organic evolution. But we didn’t start with the goal of let’s play all these venues or make a lot of money. It was let’s create together.”

Currently, Lunar Bloom is on hiatus as family life takes precedence. But that hasn’t stopped them from creating musically.

“We have no firm plans for touring again,” says Jocelyn, “but we have been writing a lot of music for the last year and a half, so we have a lot of unrecorded material.”

Brittany adds:” We might be on hiatus but we’re not gone! We have so much more to create. Now we are going through new transitions and we’re essentially growing up together.”

Their current plan is to record at the beginning of 2026 and then line up shows and consider touring opportunities. “We will come back because it’s not only integral to who we are as musicians but to who we are as people,” says Kelly. “We see our musical relationship as a lifelong partnership.”

Jocelyn agrees: “Our dreams have gotten a lot bigger, but the main goal for me is just to keep doing it. Even if it’s just for us, it doesn’t have to be huge and grand.”

Lunar Bloom’s focus is clearly on the storytelling. “We have a very clear vision of what we do,” says Kelly. “We hope that what we write is important to other people, that they can see themselves in it. For us the personal is universal.”

Brittany expresses their philosophy: “The thing that I love about folk music is the stories and the heart and the intimacy.”

To stay in touch with Lunar Bloom, buy their music and watch their videos, visit www.lunarbloomband.com or find them on Facebook and Instagram.