Gavin Kim has always been a musician first; now being in Blush Boy is a dream come true. 

Kim has been surrounded by music his entire life. Since his early days performing in the Broadway production of School of Rock, being in a band has always been the game plan. 

“I feel like the seed was kind of planted when I was in School of Rock,” Kim shared. “When I got to feel what it’s like to perform on stage in front of people, in a band, I just knew that was something I wanted to do.” Now, he’s doing it with people who are just as hungry for the climb up. 

It’s not weird to say Kim brought the band together. Their drummer, Jake Radano, was a day-one believer in Kim’s dream. They were childhood friends, trying to start something since their middle school days. Their bassist, Paul Luke Bonenfant, was a fellow School of Rock castmate whom Kim reconnected with through a mutual friend and a carpool drive to Yale. Lastly, their frontwoman and lead vocalist, Kenna Heim, is a fellow Rutgers Mason Gross student. 

“I just kind of found the right people,” Kim admitted. “I really wanted to be in a band and perform original music for people, but the people in it kind of come first. Kenna, Luke, and Jake are my best friends in the whole world. I probably would not want to do it nearly as much if they weren’t in it.” So after conversations and demo pitches, they started getting together and made it happen. 

Their first EP, Heartstrings & Other Things, was the product of ideas thrown together in the studio. “Some of it was just to have original music to play in front of people,” Kim explained. It was phase one—their first experience writing music together, trying to find their sound, and getting their name out there. 

Their next album, set to be released this summer, is much more personal. 

“I think we’ve finally found our sound, and I think we’re using this album to try and expand it,” he said. “I wanted the album to be something that really encompassed all of us, and to do that, I really wanted to make sure everything sounded different and reached as far as possible, in the ways we wanted to push our sound. I think it’s kind of there.”

This selection of songs is a cultivation of the individuals behind the sound: Yacht Rock for Radano, Pop and R&B for Bonenfant, the intrigue of video game sounds for Heim, and the musical theatre roots that gave Kim his foundation to start the band.

It is their inspirations, their connection to the music, and their friendship that make Blush Boy what it is. 

Image taken from Instagram/@tiffsflix.jpg | Interviewed on January 28, 2026