INTERVIEW: WILSN releases second album 'Bloom': "We've been sitting with these songs for a while and it's just really exciting to get it out."

Interview: Shalane Connors
Image: Rosie Cohe
Published: 17 October 2025

Shannon Busch, who records and performs under the name WILSN is one of those artists who, on first listen, will stop you bang in your tracks. With an incredible voice that is just everything - powerful, raspy, tender, nuanced - teamed with smooth soul-jazz-pop her music is something that is instantly recognisable and connective as well as having the unique WILSN stamp that makes everything that much more exciting.

Honing her craft over two years in America with Grammy winning songwriters, her debut single was released in 2019. The following year she was invited to join The Teskey Brothers on their 2020 tour of Australia, Europe and the UK, playing to sold-out crowds. In 2023 she released her debut album Those Days Are Over, and over the past few years she has achieved acclaim not only for her solo work, but as a songwriter for other artists, most notably penning the Jessica Mauboy 2023 hit ‘Give You Love’, for which she won the prestigious Vanda and Young Global Song Competition.

Today she releases her second album Bloom, produced by Stephen Mowat (Jessica Mauboy, Matt Corby, Gretta Ray) and Billy Aukstik. The album was recorded live to tape at Hive Mind Mind Recording in Brooklyn, New York, and featured top of the range musicians who had previously worked with names such as Mark Ronson, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Jalen Ngonda.

The 14 tracks continues the soul-pop-jazz sound she has excelled at throughout her career, however on Bloom she leans more strongly into the 1960s soul sound, with hints of Motown and gospel scattered throughout.

“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. This is how a WILSN record is supposed to sound. 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.”

The album opens with the first single ‘The Way’, which was her first new music in over a year when first released in May. It is a glorious, uplifting way to kick the album off, a rousing soul-pop track shot through with bursts of jazz and funk that celebrates love and finding that one person that brings you joy.

Title track ‘Bloom’ has an addictive Motown soul sound and in many ways symbolises Busch’s arrival with her ‘dream record’: ‘Some days it feels like baby I should give up / But I know you’ve got to go through the dark night / To be ready when the sun comes ups / And I’m ready,’ she sings in perhaps her finest vocal performance on the album.

‘Girl’ starts with an acoustic-rocky guitar before sliding into a slinky, pared back R&B tinged soul track that celebrates the power of female friendship, while ‘Our Love’ has a truly classic, vintage soul sound complete with blasts of saxophone that explores the pain of trying to rescue a relationship. ‘I’d do anything baby to make you stay.’

‘6 Feet Deep’ also explores a broken relationship, but this time it is Busch who is fully in control of the situation, firmly closing the door: ‘I’m not the kind of woman to turn a blind eye so easily….There ain’t no way I’m gonna let you keep on fooling me.’ The track has a deliciously moody feel, with Busch’s vocal taking on a darker, more fiery tone with every note dripping with anger and disdain.

‘Without You’, the second last track on the album, is somewhat of a sonic outlier on the album, a lush, dreamy ballad with Busch’s vocal majestic over a pared back soundscape. A song of an intense love that make you feel you cannot function without the one you love, it pairs splashes of country with soul.

The album ends on ‘Love You I Do’ an upbeat perky soul tune with the occasional heavy electric guitar mixed with brass instrumentation. ‘I’m gonna love you my whole life through’ Busch sings in a continuation of the theme in the preceding track ‘Without You’, this time with more gusto and swing, ending the album on a joyous high note.

Bloom is Busch at her absolute best, and the passion, love and sheer joy of making her “dream album” shines through in every note. She has a voice you could listen to for hours, and when it is teamed with such gorgeous, life affirming music it makes a collection of music that is simply mesmerising. Busch just keeps getting better with each release, and we recently sat down with to chat all about the creation of Bloom.

Hey Shannon! We are here talking about your second album, Bloom, which is out today. How does it feel to be getting a second album out into the world?
It feels really exciting. It's been two years since my last album, so there's always that feeling of getting over your first project and really, really wanting to get your next one out. So I'm really pumped to have people listen to it, because we've been sitting with these songs for a while. It's just really exciting to get it out.

Is it just as scary as the first album?
Honestly, I reckon it's a little scarier, because you've got that comparison between the two now.

And probably a much bigger audience waiting to hear what you come up with, so there’s pressure! We're used to your modern soul pop jazz, which you studied at university, but you describe this new album as late 60s soul. Talk to me about that.
Yeah, that's the kind of music that I grew up loving and learning how to sing from. It's just my favourite type of soul music. So I've tried to blend more current sounds with that retro 60s soul sound, it's like pop, retro soul

You recorded this in Brooklyn, in New York, one of the original soul hubs. How did that opportunity come about?
Obviously, the music that I love started in America, so there's that, but the group of people that I recorded it with, the musicians, are part of this record label and group of musicians called The Dap-Kings or the Daptone record label. They play for people like Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Mark Ronson and even Amy Winehouse back in the day. We met them a few years ago, and just struck up a friendship with them and kept that going over the years, and when it came time to produce this album, they were the first choice for me. We asked them, and they said yes! I got to go to their studio in New York for two weeks, we smashed out the whole album in two weeks, it was the craziest experience, and I got to walk away from those two weeks with an album!

You recorded mostly live in the studio, is that right?
Yeah, most of what you hear on the album was played live recorded to tape, and they would just play the song from start to finish, live, all the musicians together in the same room. So no putting instruments in after the fact and that kind of stuff. They were so good, they just played it all together, all at once, which was inspiring to watch.

That's amazing. It's like super old school approach, but it's also the real musician approach.
It would feel wrong making that kind of music without doing it that way. So we just took a really classic approach to how we recorded it.

Did you need a lot of prep time then before actually recording?
The songs were already written, I wrote them all back in Australia and I worked with them with my producer in Australia, Stephen Mowat. So we had put the songs together in demo form, and the musicians in New York, had those to listen to as a reference. They would then just put their flavour on it, rehearse the song a few times, and then we'd just record it. There was a bit of prep, but also lot of it just happened in the moment in the room. It was definitely daunting, because we had a small amount of time, we just had to get it done. I couldn't let the daunting-ness take over and, like, freak out. You had to just get it done in those two weeks.

How many musos in the room?
We had four in this really small studio in New York, it was kind of cramped, but I think that made it even better, because they were so close to each other. It was cool. We had three horn players as well, and a percussionist.

Looking back to your early days in music, were you playing live from a young age before you moved into recording?
Yeah, I've been doing music and singing and playing piano since I was a very young girl, it's just something that I've always done. I do still get nervous, but I wouldn't ever stop doing it for that reason. I love it too much to stop doing it. But, yeah, I've just been doing it since I was very, very little.

Yeah, you can hear that. We need to talk about your voice, it's incredible. It's so rich. It's got so much character, and your vocal runs are insane. Who were your vocal influences growing up?
My big number one main one would be Aretha Franklin. I was obsessed with her, but then I also had much more current soul R&B influences like Alicia Keys and Mariah Carey. When I started out listening to soul, it was definitely more Etta James, Aretha Franklin, the classic 60s soul queens. They're still my faves to this day, but I feel like my voice has a mix of more modern and classic sounding soul in it. Amy Winehouse is a huge influence also, Amy's one of my biggest influences.

It's amazing how you can sound similar to another artist, but in absolutely no way derivative, you're definitely your own thing.
I really try hard not to just flat out copy, because that just seems not genuine. The way I go about it is by mixing all of those influences together, and then it just turns out as a completely different thing. Aretha plus Amy plus Alicia Keys, and then you've got this whole other thing.

Was there ever an alternate career path for you? Was it always music?
Well, it's gonna be a boring answer - no! There was no alternative career path!

I knew the answer before I asked the question! Honestly, listening to your voice, I'm like, yeah, she's been doing this since she was in nappies!
My mum did make me have a backup when I was applying for universities, as parents always do. She's like, just in case you don't get in to this course, you have to have a backup. And my back up was psychology, but, I didn't want to do that!

Did you have music in your blood, in your family?
Yes and no. My older brother is really musical, he plays blues guitar and blues piano and is an amazing singer. My parents weren't that musical, but they were the ones that played soul music and jazz to me as a kid. They were musical in the sense that they loved music, but they didn't play any instruments or anything. They raised two kids that were like way into music, so something happened along the way that made me and my brother have very similar singing voices. I don't know how that happens!

So they've been quite supportive of your career?
Yeah, mum and dad are both very supportive. As a kid, I was always going to lots of choir sessions, piano lessons and singing lessons, and they both did a lot of the ferrying me around to all of that. They were very supportive.

Is it hard to find support within an industry that's so competitive and so hard to get out above the noise?
Yeah, especially in the genre of music I'm in, soul music. Being from Australia, there's not the biggest soul scene here, there’s more of an audience in the US and UK. So in that sense, I would say it's hard to be heard in my own country, but that just means you have to look elsewhere, which is what social media is for!

And you've been doing, the first single off the album, ‘The Way’ got radio play on the BBC in the UK, obviously you have a support network in the States where you recorded the album. Is Australia just not ready for soul? Is that about to change?
There is a small soul scene, it's just not as big, and sometimes can be pretty cliquey. There is a soul scene in Melbourne, for sure, there's Northside Records and all these cool record stores that are really pushing soul music. Triple R and PBS, the community radio stations, they always push soul music. But other than that, there's just not much audience for it. I will say, though I supported the Teskey Brothers on their Australian tour, and I was so excited and shocked to see those venues full, packed to the brim of soul music lovers. So they are out there in Australia, it's just getting to them is kind of hard.

I reckon you're about to get to them. Have you got any tour dates lined up?
I have an album launch coming up on November 7. It will be a live, full band with horns, backing vocals we'll be playing through the whole album. Basically a party!

Heck yes! You've had a super busy couple of years since your first album release. You won the AIR Award for Best independent Soul R& B Album, nominated for theAustralian Music Prize, and also just won the 2025 Vanda & Young Global Song Competition as a write for ‘Give You Love’, which is performed by Jessica Mauboy and Jason Derulo.
That was the craziest thing to happen to me recently. That was huge.

Your songwriting is incredible. It's super cool that you can write for yourself and also for other artists. Is that something you do much of?
With ‘Give You Love’ I actually originally wrote it for me. It was a few years ago, and then I decided that that song didn't really suit the WILSN project, so it was sitting in Dropbox folders for years, not really doing anything. And then it found its way to Jess Mauboy. I was stoked because I wasn't going to use that song anymore, so I was beyond stoked that she liked it and wanted it.

I have started to write more for other people with that as the actual purpose, not writing for me. It's kind of scary and fun at the same time, because the artist is sometimes in the room with you. You have to do it in front of them, and that part of it's scary, but then when you hear them singing something you've written that's the reason to do it.

It must feel super weird as well, almost like giving your babies to someone else.
Yeah, it was weird when Jess was interested in ‘Give You Love’, because I was like, Oh, maybe I do want to keep it! But then it was like why would you say no to Jess Mauboy?

Actually, I really like that, and I want it back!
You know, there was a split second of that, but then she killed the song, she smashed it. So I wouldn't have changed anything.

Your album is just so much fun, start to finish. I cannot wait to see the soul music collective growing in Australia as a result of your album, I think that's going to happen. What are you looking forward to the most with the launch?
Thank you. I'm just excited to launch it. I'm just super pumped, ready to get it out there. It’s time!

Bloom is out now via Mushroom Music. You can buy and stream here.
Follow WILSN on Instagram and Facebook.