The Conscience Pilate are in Full “Bloom” on Their New Music Video [Premiere]

For a band that took a 25-year break like The Conscience Pilate, “Bloom” is a pretty ideal title for a comeback single. The Toronto indie rockers are officially back with this new song and accompanying music video. It’s the follow-up to “Army of Devils,” which marked the band’s big return. Now they are keeping things moving with plans to release a new single every month for the remainder of 2023.

Discussing the song and the band’s return, guitarist Neil Leyton comments:

“When I told Edward (Pond) that we should make another album, that we had unfinished business, and we agreed to start writing songs again, that sense of purpose, being on a mission, the way I felt at 23 years old back when we had the original TCP lineup together came rushing back immediately. We don’t waste time, Pondy and I, we don’t hang around.

“He immediately assembled some of our longtime mates, Mick McKenzie on guitar and production, Juice on drums, and our second guitarist Stacy Stray back in the fold for ‘Bloom.’ This single is the epitome of what The Conscience Pilate was about; it is a life-affirming song with a sense of purpose. We are, once again, on a mission.”

Interestingly enough, the idea for “Bloom” began with the title. Leyton and his songwriting partner Edward Pond have been big fans of Brian Eno for decades. They are also avid supporters and users of Eno’s music app Bloom. Bloom is a generative music app created by Eno for iOS that plays a low drone while touching the screen and adds different tones which play in a loop. The song’s title began as a tribute to Eno but then transformed into a story of fractured and passionate relationships.

Both Pond and Leyton identify as old school fans of rock n’ roll, so it’s not surprising to hear how they decided to reform The Conscience Pilate. Pond had been storing about 300 of Leyton’s vinyl records for the last decade when Leyton moved to Lisbon, Portugal. Eventually, Leyton returned to Montreal, bringing a few suitcases to reclaim his record collection.

With those piles of records on the floor and old memories shared about music and time gone by, they decided they just had to make another record. That night they wrote the aforementioned “Army of Devils,” they were suddenly back in the game. Inspiration can come in the most unusual of ways, and fortunately, in this case, it all worked out the way it should and Pond and Leyton are back to doing what they love.

The Conscience Pilate “Bloom” single artwork