Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today we’d like to shine the spotlight on the driving, frenetic soul-punk supergroup from Madison, WI The Flavor That Kills!
Delivering a mix of rock, soul, melody, and a dash of classic psychedelic sensibilities, The Flavor That Kills recently released their edgy genre-fluid album Book of Secrits (purposely misspelled).
The Madison, WI based unit is Ryan Corcoran-lead vocals, guitar, and piano, Educational Davis-guitars, synthesizers, bongos, Christian Burnson-bass, vocals, synthesizers, and Eric Hartz-drums and synthesizers.
The band’s third release, and first with guitarist Davis, was delivered in early 2024 on Shortwave Records, and engineered/mixed by Beau Sorenson (Bob Mould, Superchunck, Death Cab for Cutie).
Book of Secrits is a concept album about the alien origin and possible destruction of human civilization. On the album The Flavor That Kills blends genres and delivers rock grooves with strong hooks and backbeats. “Given that all four of us have different tastes and musical backgrounds, I hope the listener comes away with a sense of how organic this music is. Each one of us lends a piece to the melting pot” says Burnson.
When asked about the songwriting, vocalist Corcoran shares, “In all truth, without analogy, it is something I needed to get off my chest. Without getting into profane details, I have carried a series of disturbing impressions from parts of my earliest recollections with me since my childhood through adolescence and adulthood. These are things I repressed, ignored, and convinced myself were nothing, yet when I would ask my mind’s eye to look, this set of events, mental images, sounds, and impressions of difficult emotional states are vivid. These things seem like dreams, yet they are more articulated in my internal perspective than any of my waking memories. Then there was internal discord that turned into external discord, which turned into addictions, jail time, ruined relationships, and a bitter loathsome unhappiness that became the rotating misery of my life. As time passed, it led to an intersection where either I could go down a road of delusion and destruction or turn down a path where I was to survive for a time longer”.
Drummer Hartz chimes in, “The album to me is a journey of serendipity, we tried to record this during the pandemic, but it didn’t work out, so we stopped. We revisited it once things calmed down and started over. I produced the album with Beau Sorenson, we recorded it live, and pretty much had to build a studio in the basement of a Madison recording studio called Coney Island to get it done right. I think part of the reason the songs turned out raw was that Ryan was in real pain when he was writing them. I never knew the lyrics until I forced Ryan to give us the lyric sheets, on the surface, I thought they were thought-provoking. What I didn’t know at the time was the struggles Ryan was going through in his life, maybe that’s why the whole thing came together. I felt a real emotional connection to the record when it was finished”.
Davis concludes, “This album is a window into a world of manic rock n’ roll chaos reflecting the times and individuals who produced it.”
We recently sat down for a short, but fun Q&A with the band!
Every superhero and villain has an origin or backstory and an artist is no different. Well, minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. What’s the origin of The Flavor That Kills?
Eric-This is the latest incarnation of four guys in Madison from a bunch of other local bands who all believe giant aliens roamed the planet and ate humans like chickens. We have all been in bands and met through mutual acquaintances, but none had such a strong belief in the Alien deconstruction of our civilization. We say that with the sincerity of being able to hang around each other and have a real conversation about things like that.
Tell us about your new album Book of Secrits, what was the writing and recording processes like for you?
Christian – The writing took some time as we had fair number of songs and originally planned to record this over the pandemic, but that didn’t work out and then we ended up with even more songs. Many of the songs were written from the bottom up. We try and start with a bass riff and drums and build on top of it. There are some exceptions to this when we write a song based on a guitar riff. “Nerve” comes to mind as it’s a song that was originally an idea that came from our guitar player Farren, who moved back to Ireland. I personally like the challenge of maintaining a tight rhythm section with Eric. When we have a new idea for a song, we loop it so that Educational and Ryan can find riffs and sounds that interest us. I could loop a song for hours if they let me.
This album was one where we were able to spend some more time adding overdubs and using more instruments. There are a lot more layers on this record and more instruments than in previous records. More percussion, more synths, organs, piano, acoustic guitar, etc. Most of the songs were either written or the initial idea for the song was developed before the pandemic and before Educational was in the band. As the pandemic waned and we began to regroup, we started diving into our demo recordings and working on some of the ideas we liked best. It was nice having Educational in the band because he pushed us to resurrect some of the ideas that were buried in the files.
We heard that Book of Secrits is a concept album about the alien origin and possible destruction of human civilization. Please elaborate.
Ryan and Eric – The album is influenced by alien origins and civilization, specifically the human race and themes of courage, good vs evil, reputation, and heroism. It intertwines these themes to ask ourselves (as humans) questions about things we deal with in life like; love/lost, healing, anger, and a sense of wonderment. Are they part of who we are, or what we’ve become as a species on this planet. There are some biblical references in songs like “Snakes”, but there are also references to Wars in American Dream and Furburger. Songs like “Nerve” and “Richard” have overall themes of abduction. “Testicle” is about bio-generics and giants that used to walk the earth and eat the first humanoids. Other songs like “Home,” “Right to Live,” and “Burn the Bridge” are about choosing sides, being the underdog in the Universe, and abandonment.
These human feelings and emotions seem out of place to us in the context of who we are and what role we have in the universe. If you look at things from a different perspective, we could feel this loss of belonging (not of this world) because we aren’t actually from earth, and we just came here to burn it down.
On the new album Book of Secrits you have blended a lot of different Rock genres…can you each share with us your musical tastes and backgrounds.
Eric Hartz
Self-Taught
Influences: Herbie Hancock, Iron Maiden, Curtis Mayfield, Sun Ra, Black Flag
Ryan Corcoran
Classically Trained all instruments.
Influences: Canadian Indie/Rock music like: Our Lady Peace, The Tragically Hip, Sloan, April Wine, and Loverboy
Christian Burnson
Self-Taught
Influences: Jonathan Richman, Emerson Lake, and Palmer, Yes, Victor Wooten, Brahms
Educational Davis
Self-Taught
Influences: Bo Diddly, Blue Oyster Cult, Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees
How do you think your individual styles impacted the making of the album?
Ryan – If we were a basketball team, we would focus on fundamentals like passing the ball and getting the ball to the open guy to take a shot, as well as practicing good spacing like the triangle offense.
Some artists cite when they heard a specific album or saw a band live as when they knew music was going to be their life. When were you bitten by the music bug?
Eric – We all grew up on music as kids, listening to the radio was always an important discovery method for me, but some live shows like seeing Bad Brains in Milwaukee and Fugazi before they stopped playing had a big influence on me.
In addition, Educational wanted to be in a band but when he was young, he listened to shit like Van Halen and Ozzy, which had incredibly awesome guitar players, so he figured he didn’t have a chance. Then he listened to The Clash and realized he could at least play as well as Joe Strummer.
You have spent a good part of your life as a band playing live. Do you have a favorite show story you can share?
Eric – We played a show in the middle of a cornfield and right before the show our previous guitar player from Ireland got deported. Educational Davis happened to be in the crowd and was lit up on fairy dust and came up on the stage to play the set with us, that was his band audition.
If The Flavor That Kills were a cocktail what would be in it?
A Highball, the members collectively agree.
Connect with The Flavor That Kills online:
