On February 19th the ladies of the band Plush delivered a blistering set to the rock n’ roll faithful inside Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY. Plush may have been opening the show for Disturbed, but they put on a show like they were seasoned headliners. By the end of the band’s 30-minute set, they had the crowd eating out of their hands.
After their show, members of Plush were gracious enough to sit down with me to discuss the band’s evolution over the past few years, as well as their brand new EP, Find The Beautiful. We hope you enjoy our conversation with Moriah Formica, Ashley Suppa, and Faith Powell of Plush. After checking out this interview, be sure to pick up your copy of Find the Beautiful and your tickets for the Plush headline tour which kicks off next month!
TMR: So, I absolutely love your band. I had the chance to see you when you guys opened up for Slash in 2022. And at that time, you guys were great. What I just saw out there was like next level. I want to talk about your journey and how you have grown over the past couple of years. How do you feel over the past couple of years, how has Plush grown as a band?
Moriah Formica: Oh man, we have grown in so many ways. How we’ve grown musically, I would say, cause we’ve grown in so many ways, I would say musically now we just gel quicker. It’s not like a task to go…we kind of just know each other’s energies. We know how we play. And so we come to practice now and we bang it out. And then obviously, we’ve become a lot more comfortable with our live shows too. Just really trying to tighten it up and develop our sound, stuff like that. I would say that’s how we’ve grown a lot musically.
TMR: You’ve talked about musically, but as performers too. The road, I mean, I’m sure it’s got to be grueling and it’s not easy. It’s not the glitz and glamour that everybody thinks it is. How have you grown as a musician and as people doing what you’ve been doing over these past few years?
MF: Oh my gosh, so many ways. We were just having this conversation the other day. I feel like it’s, when you do this when you tour, it almost makes you, it kind of forces you to, I feel like, mature at a faster rate. I feel like we hit the road, we just grow because you have to. You don’t have a choice on the road. You gotta get stuff done. You gotta be, even if you aren’t in good spirits, you gotta try to be. There’s a lot of little lessons, even in little things like that. I think we’ve grown a lot as people in the sense, I can speak for myself as far as, I’ve grown a lot in getting thicker skin, of course, and just kind of realizing, hey, everything’s gonna be okay, no matter what.
I used to freak out if I thought my voice didn’t feel, I still freak out, but like, I’m not gonna be like, oh my gosh, we can’t do the show at all. And I used to have a lot of those times where like, if I felt the slightest bit of thing, I’d be like, oh my gosh, I can’t sing, you know? I think that I’ve grown a lot as a person in that sense, too, realizing, hey, everything’s gonna be good. It’s all gonna be okay. All you can do is just go out there and give your 100%. That’s definitely a notable growth for myself, personally, that I’ve noticed.
TMR: But like you said, so many bands don’t get that, because so many bands have gotten the opportunity and they have blown it, let’s face it. You know, one record, they’re gone. I really want to make sure we have time to talk about your new record, the EP, Finding the Beautiful. The songs have grown so much. Tell me your reaction to this EP and how you feel about it now that it is out.
MF: I’m definitely, I personally a lot more proud of the EP than I was of the first album. Just because of the growth and obviously, it’s new songs, you know? And I think that there are a lot of new songs where we experiment with different things and different sounds, different writing styles and like, you know, “Left Behind,” and “Hope it Hurts.” Those are songs that I love. We all love them, I think those are some of my favorites. It was really great working with The Four Horsemen who we wrote those songs with and they produced them and you know, working with Johnny K again. But I would say, I don’t know. I’m just excited about the EP. It’s exciting. I guess my overall feeling is I’m just happy to put out something new, you know? Because it was a long time coming and it was just time to put out something new. And now we get to play new songs live, which is always fun.
Ashley Suppa: Yeah, I was really excited about that. When I heard we were recording new music before we were out on the road with Disturbed, I was super excited to be playing new music live. It’s always exciting just playing new songs, and seeing people’s reactions, and hearing it for the first time live as well.
Faith Powell: Yeah, the reaction part’s so interesting. It’s cool too to see over the course of the tour people start singing along more to certain songs. It’s really inspiring to us and it motivates us to do what we do even more.
TMR: That’s cool. I love being a fly on the wall at shows. Like tonight, watching your set, I’m shooting but at the same time, I’m watching. The first couple songs, obviously with the opener, people are kind of like, you know, got their arms folded. But two or three songs in, man, the horns were up and people were getting into it. And then I was waiting on you guys, like at the merch, I saw people coming up buying Plush shirts. You don’t plan on going to buy the opener shirt. I mean, maybe you do, a lot of people do, but like, that says a lot. Have you guys felt the embrace of new fans since this tour started? When you’re 15 dates or so in, have you felt it?
Plush: Definitely. Absolutely. Yeah.
MF: Absolutely. We always talk about it… it’s weird talking about, or thinking about just how many people are there when the show starts, because like you said, I mean, nobody’s coming for the opener, you know? So when you see, because usually, the arena for the opening-opening band is… maybe it’s a quarter full or something like that. I know that that was the case a lot of the time when we did the Alice in Chains tour, which was amazing, it was so much fun. But I know it was that type of situation, you know what I mean? Which is understandable, but this tour is a lot different. I think that it has shown our growth throughout the years and it also has shown people’s interest. It’s really, really nice and very rewarding and humbling, and just, it’s crazy. We’re very, very, like, shocked, and pleased at the response so far.
TMR: So I’m curious…with the record, you have some songs on there, like, “Hope It Hurts,” probably my favorite track on the album. And then you’ve got this beautiful song, “Find the Beautiful,” the title of the album. Why did you want to name the album, “Find the Beautiful?” Because you could have gone with these cool metal names, like “Hope It Hurts,” that’s a cool album title, right? But you chose something positive. What was the thought process of that?
MF: Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with, I think, personal journeys, but also the time that we are in the world right now. I feel like it’s easier than ever to because we have so much technology, we have the internet, which is an amazing thing, but it’s also a really terrible thing at the same time. There are so many things in this world that are so easy now, especially nowadays, to find the negative all the freaking time, find the ugly, no, literally, like, find the negative, find the ugly, find the ugly. Because everybody in the world can go through stuff, goes through a lot of heavy stuff, and it’s easy to focus on that. But let’s also try and find the beautiful. I feel like there aren’t a lot of messages out there like that right now, and people, I just think that people need it. People need that message. And it’s so hard to find the beautiful. I feel like you can spin it in so many different directions, not even just the world. It’s sometimes hard to find the beautiful in yourself, you know what I mean? A lot of people hate themselves. A lot of people have self-esteem issues. They can’t find the beautiful in themselves. That’s why the song is very much like, hey… this is how I feel. It’s really dark, and this and that and the other, but I’m gonna choose to do this.
TMR: So when you’re not on stage and you’re not recording… when Plush is on a break, how do you, each of you, how do you find the beautiful in your life? What do you do to find the positive?
MF: Oh, that’s a great question. I don’t know, I’m gonna think about that for a little bit. What about you guys?
AS: I spend a lot of time outdoors. I like to look for little things outside, I know that sounds funny, but like, insects, animals…I love to find those kinds of things. It reminds me of why we’re here. Yeah.
FP: I’d say my answer’s pretty similar. I love nature. I love hiking. That’s what I love about touring so much, too. You get to see so many cool places that you would never see if we weren’t touring. And there are so many things you find on tour, you would never see just at home. When I’m at home I go to the same places and the same hikes, but then when you travel out, you can see so many more new and cool places. It’s just the beautiful in life, like, the outdoors and everything. Yeah. I love that a lot, too.
MF: And I would say a very similar thing, I love to fish, I love nature, I’m always fishing whenever I’m home. That really is my number one peace-bringer, you know? It brings me sanity, and it’s my number one passion. So I fish a lot. I love animals, as well, I love to hang out with my animals. That really does help me find the beautiful.
TMR: I get it, you can see my dog fur on here. Man, I truly appreciate you guys so much. Plush is going to be in Cincy on your solo tour in June, and I can’t wait to tell everybody about how great you guys are.
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