WILSN

“I think I’ve had enough life lessons, I’m ready for the flower to bloom,” sings soul powerhouse WILSN AKA Shannon Busch on the title track from her second album, Bloom. It’s a fitting lyric for this new record. Where her debut, 2023’s Those Days Are Over, focused on saying goodbye to the past and starting anew, this follow-up sees WILSN blossom into the fullness of her musical vision.
“This is such a dream record for me. I’m still pinching myself that I got to record it in New York with a bunch of my favourite soul musicians,” Busch says. “Literally every time the band played through one of my songs for the first time, I was like: this is what I came for.”
WILSN’s vision for Bloom was unwavering. While her mastery of different genres – modern soul, pop, jazz and Motown – won her the AIR Award for Best Independent Soul/ RnB Album for her debut, with Bloom, she wanted to bask in her preferred genre: late-60s soul.
“Since I was a kid, I’ve been captivated by soul music - the emotion, the power, and the stories woven into every note - and I always strive to create music that not only reflects my own truth but also pays tribute to the stories and voices that built the foundation I’m standing on,” says WILSN. That meant going to the heat-source of soul – Brooklyn – and recording as live as possible.
Luckily for her, she knew the perfect guy to call. Several years earlier, WILSN had played a show at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel, supporting Charles Bradley, a soul singer signed to her favourite label, the Brooklyn-based Daptone. Bradley’s trumpet player and music director, Billy Aukstik, watched WILSN’s set from side of stage and was impressed by the singer’s formidable vocal range. Through the friendship that developed, Aukstik came to co-produce Bloom (with WILSN’s longtime collaborator and Melbourne based producer, Stephen Mowat).
At his own Hive Mind Recording studios, Aukstik put together a dream team of musicians who had played with the likes of Mark Ronson, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and modern soul superstar Jalen Ngonda. To capture the classic sound WILSN was after, the band took an old-school approach to the sessions, recording to tape with everyone playing live in the same room, feeding off each other’s energy and vibe. “We recorded this amazing rhythm section live
to analogue tape, instruments bleeding into each other's microphones,” WILSN says. “When you have players this good, it’s that bleed and spill that can actually glue the whole thing together.”
It was exactly this attention to detail that WILSN wanted. “We really wanted to stay true to the era of those classic albums from Chess Records, Aretha Franklin in her Atlantic years and the Memphis soul sound of Al Green & Willie Mitchell,” Busch says. “The day before we were set to record horns, Billy called me and said, ‘We should get a second trumpet player and have four horns to give it a fuller, brighter and more powerful sound’. Like we were all so focussed on getting every detail right.” And together - Busch, Aukstik, Mowat and this incredible band – they nailed it. “This is how a WILSN record is supposed to sound,” Busch says.
“I want people to dance to the album, drink some wine and have a good time,” she smiles. “I hope they listen to the whole album from start to finish, old-school. Vibe-wise, there’s a nice flow through all the songs.”
With the first single from Bloom, ‘The Way’, being added to rotation on the UK’s BBC Radio 2 and 6, it bodes well for a singer so enamoured by British soul icons such as Amy Winehouse, Busch thinks it’s high time that soul has a full-blown revival in Australia.
“It’s always been hard as a soul artist in Australia to break through on the radio, but the Teskey Brothers have broken new ground, selling out massive venues,” she says. The band won her legions of new fans, too, when she supported them on their extensive Australian tour in 2023, with frontman Josh Teskey going on to duet with Busch on the WILSN single ‘Hurts so Bad’.
Bloom could be the album that really takes the Australian soul revival to the next level. Single ‘Keep Walkin’’ is a defiant break-up anthem with classic call-and-response girl-group backing vocals. The girl gang also has WILSN’s back on ‘Six Feet Deep’, where they build a wall of fury behind her missive: “There ain't no way I’m gonna let you keep on foolin' me”. Busch puts her voice through the athletic runs on ‘Miss You’ and reaches incredible heights with title track ‘Bloom’. She closes the album with Aretha-style belter ‘Love You I Do’, leaving the listener on a guaranteed high.
Lyrically, Busch explores the power of female friendship on ‘GIRL’, “the kind that runs deep, the ride or die kind, she says. “It’s about checking in, showing up, listening and loving your friends through the chaos of life, even when words don’t come easy.” And on ‘Big Star’ she skewers an ex and big-noting musician who’s still sleeping in his childhood bed, driving his dad’s car and having all his meals cooked. “The lyrics are a bit spicy,” she laughs.
Seeing her older brother Austin play Melbourne’s blues and soul clubs years before her was a big inspiration. In fact, family has played a big part in the WILSN origin story. Dad loved Aretha and the jazz greats like Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan, while Mum favoured soul and gospel. Oh, and a guilty pleasure.
“Mum loved anything with a massive female vocal, like Celine Dion, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston – those kind of epic 90s ballads,” Busch says. Occasionally you’ll see WILSN on TikTok, demonstrating a devilishly difficult Carey run just for fun. “I learned to sing listening to those
songs. I’d try and copy their vocal runs, just rewind and rewind. I think every singer into soul and R&B would do that.”
With Bloom, WILSN is about to inspire the same fascination in a whole new wave of talent.