A Q&A with Flush

Punk-Metal-Grunge crossover from Helsinki…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Our second full-length album Noises comes out November 29th. It’s almost two years of effort wrapped into 13 songs of what we like to do: Stories about real life, accompanied by guitar riffs, surprising hooks, and sing-along choruses. We actually recorded the album twice (the first version got “lost”), so to finally have it coming out feels like a huge relief and accomplishment. It captures what we are about as a band; flavours of punk rock, metal, alternative rock, and grunge; and stories that people should be able to connect to and feel a sense of belonging and comfort.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
Well, we had to do it twice, so that was definitely the hardest part! Once we were able to let go of feeling pressured about timelines and commitments, there was a sense of relief when we decided to take the time, spend a week in an isolated recording studio, and just do everything all over but better and together. So I’d say the awareness of time can be a real enemy to the creative process, and once we decided to ignore that, we were free to do our best work.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it? If you produced it yourselves what do enjoy most about producing your own material?
We produced it ourselves but could not have done it without our sound engineer Owe Inborr at Wolfthrone Studios. We’ve learned quite a bit from our first album and the EP in between, so I’d say we know how to write and arrange songs. Doing the album twice also meant we had the most thorough pre-production we could ever imagine, and we utilized that to re-create some of the materials. Personally, I love the process of re-imagining and arranging songs and using odd references to inspire sounds and arrangements. You won’t hear it anymore, but there are songs that were “Bon Jovi westerns” and “Bad Brains chaos.” It’s fun to play around with how a song can transform but still sound like Flush.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
We want there to be a connection that provides some emotional response. Maybe it’s through a song like ‘One Short Moment,’ which is about the anticipation of death and grief, or maybe it’s through ‘We’re Not Yet Alright,’ which is a plea for the bar staff to not send us home yet as we’re not yet healed by the “drinking process.” We hope people connect, whether it’s at a live show or when listening to the songs on their own, and in that sense become part of our community. Then we are together, and that is always better.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
Usually, I (Lasse) bring the ideas to the band. Sometimes it’s a fairly ready song with arrangements, sometimes it’s just loose ideas looking to take shape in the practice room. I used to start with music first (riffs, chord progressions, and melodies), but recently have paid much more attention to lyrics, and nowadays it’s quite an even mix of lyrics first versus music first. I compose with the guitar and often do some demoing by myself, but the songs then evolve quite a lot when the band gets involved. I write lyrics in all kinds of situations and always have tons of notes written down waiting for the right moment to turn them into lines and stories.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Originally, it was Bad Religion. That is where we started. But during our evolution, we’ve been inspired by all kinds of rock and metal, and there are way too many to mention. Recently, we’ve shifted more into the Deftones space, not forgetting our roots in alternative rock a la Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. We all really like how a band like Biffy Clyro grew to stadium size by kind of doing what Nirvana did, but bigger.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
We haven’t toured enough internationally to be picky on location or venue. We prefer clubs where we can connect with the audience and where you can sense that they really care about music. We really care about local venues as they are essential for the whole indie and grassroots music culture. Without small clubs, there won’t be new bands, and without new bands, there won’t be new music. Support your local venues, folks!

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
Picking your favourite child out of 13 is always a tough one, but let’s go with ‘We’re Not Yet Alright,’ which will feature on the new album coming out November 29th. It’ll also have a lyric video, so it’s easy to get our message of community building. It’s one of our simpler songs.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
We want to keep writing new music and playing for people, in other words, connecting with people. We don’t have quantitative goals of revenue, streams, or audience sizes, but every new connection is valuable to us. We’d be happy to be able to play our music live, see new places, and release new material every now and then.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
The world can be and feel pretty terrible at times. Music is one of the best therapy forms, and there is nothing better than seeing some local act in an intimate venue bleed their heart out on stage. It makes the world better.

For more info about Flush, visit flush.rocks