Formula Indie Sessions _ Interview with Flamingos
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
My parents are both big into music, and there was always music playing around the house when I was a kid – Linda Ronstadt, the Rolling Stones, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, and above all else, the Everly Brothers. All that stuff is burned into my brain and still when I listen to it today it takes me right back. Aside from my parents’ tape collection (kept in a bunch of purpose-built briefcases – remember those?), my dad and my uncle sing beautifully together (inspired by the Everly Brothers, of course) and would always sing seas shanties around the dinner table (they’re both avid sailors, and English, in case that helps explain it). It embarrassed the hell out of me at the time, but I miss it now, and I still have a soft spot for that music and the harmonies, especially Stan Rogers, who was a legendary Canadian folk singer and songwriter whose music my family loves.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I was always into music, but I got really obsessed when I was around 11 or 12 when the whole grunge thing hit big, so of course I had to learn how to play guitar. I kept playing through high school, going through the usual classic rock phase, but it wasn’t until I was like, 22 and almost done university that I started making my own music. Me and friend started a project and made an album of weird dub music, for lack of a better description, and after that I was hooked. I’ve played in bands ever since, and as much as I love playing live, I also love recording and really crafting something.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
When I moved from Vancouver to Geneva 12 years ago, I left behind my band, which I had been writing all the songs for. I started playing in cover band as soon as I got to Geneva, which was cool (and still is!), but I always planned to start a new band for original music as soon as I could. Finding people to play with proved to be tougher than expected though, and before I knew it almost 10 years had gone by! I’d still been writing sporadically and stockpiled a few songs over that time, but I think I’d lost confidence in myself and my material. One night I was over at my friend JJ’s place and randomly picked up his guitar and played a few tunes for him. He loved them and was like, “Dude, we have to start a band to play this stuff”, which kind of gave me a confidence boost. We looked for a drummer and after a couple of bad auditions ended up finding the perfect drummer right under our noses: our friend James. After that, it was like the songwriting floodgates opened and all of a sudden, we had a bunch of material and started booking gigs right away. JJ ended up moving away and we had to find a new bassist, but we posted an ad and by some miracle we found our current bassist, Sam, who couldn’t be a better fit, both musically and as a friend. So for me, after going so long wanting a band and not having one, Flamingos is really a celebration of being in a band and the joy of playing our own music and rocking out with my pals.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
ROCK N’ ROLL!!!
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
I’m fascinated by the creative process and I’m always reading interviews and books by other artists, and one thing that comes up all the time and has really stuck with me is the idea that you can’t just wait for inspiration to strike, you’ve got to put in your hours of writing and coming up with ideas, even if you’re not necessarily feeling it at that moment. There’s a thing I read that Annie Clark (St. Vincent) said, that captures it perfectly, something along the lines of: “writing a great song is like getting hit by a train – BAM! it just hits you. But if you want to increase your chances of getting hit by a train, go stand on the tracks every day.”
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
I’m going to give you a boring answer, but for the creative process, the actual songwriting, I have three essentials: a guitar (usually an unplugged electric), a notebook for lyrics, and my phone for recording ideas as voice notes. There’s obviously a whole pile of other gear for playing and getting cool sounds and stuff, but that’s a whole other thing.
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
There’s so much awesome new music these days, but if I have to pick one, I’ll go with Julianna Riolino, who just released an amazing album called Echo in the Dust. We got the vinyl like, last week, and it’s been on heavy rotation since then (my 7-year-old daughter is obsessed with it).
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
Well, my songs are sometimes inspired by personal experiences, but also by things that I read or see – movies, visual art, other music, etc. I think the music I see live, in particular, has a huge influence on how I want our music to be experienced and the impact I want it to have on whoever’s listening or watching. In terms of artistic vision, I just want to write songs that are honest and that I like. I’m really fucking serious about how much I love music, but at the same time I don’t want to take the whole thing too seriously.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
For me, the most important thing is that people have some kind of emotional connection to the work. Not necessarily in a deep way, but it has to make them feel something, even if it’s just head bobbing or foot tapping, hearing a line they like, or a melody that gets in their head. I mean, that’s why we listen to music, right? to feel something? All my songs have specific meanings and emotions for me, but I don’t care if listeners pick up on the specifics or not. If a misinterpretation of something leads to them liking the song, well great! I think the best songs, even though they might be super specific in some ways, have some kind universality to them so that able to mean different things to different people.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
The importance of being open—to new music, new experiences, new sounds, new people, new ideas—and existing in the moment. This is super important and obvious when you’re jamming and playing music with other people, but I try and carry this mindset over into other areas of my life.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
Oh man, there’s so many amazing venues I want to play! I’ve always been super into local venues wherever I live and I’m kind of obsessed about playing the ones where I’ve seen the most epic shows over the years. So, in Vancouver, where I’m from originally, it’s the Commodore Ballroom. In Geneva, it’s the Usine. And for a festival, even though I’ve never been, my bandmate James will kill me if I don’t say Glastonbury!
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
I like the idea of working with a hands-on, collaborative producer who can bring some cool sonic ideas and help make things a little weird, in a good way. Daniel Lanois and Chris Schlarb are both high on the list.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
They can find our links to all the platforms here: https://flamingos.submithublinks.com/
IG (flamingos_geneve) is where we’re most active with updates and for music we’d love people to buy it from our Bandcamp page, but really we’re happy if anyone listens anywhere! We’re on all the platforms.
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
Well, we’ve been working on recording a bunch of new songs for the last year, and they’re very close to being finished. So my super achievable dream is to get the new music out soon! But beyond that, we want to keep enjoying what we have, playing bigger and better gigs, maybe opening for some bands that we love, getting more fans and just keep having awesome new experiences – onward and upward!
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
That they love our music!
