While live music and touring were on lockdown, fans as well as artists were going through some major withdrawals. We wanted to come up with something fun to help bridge that distance between fans and artists. What we came up with is something called The Lockdown Lowdown and it’s a Q&A session with fun questions for artists to answer. We cover artists from all around the globe and these are not your typical interview questions, so this gives you a peek inside of the artists themselves. We’re big music nerds here at I’m Music Magazine and we love learning things like this about the artists that we love. We’re pretty sure that you’ll get a kick out of these, so we hope you’ll take the time to read them. In this installment, we sat down for a fun Q&A session with Flush.
1. How have you been doing during the pandemic and how are you spending your time?
Things are slowly returning to some kind of normalcy here in Finland, but there has been a lot of time spent at home for us. And we’re not super rich living in enormous mansions (yet), so it’s been pretty boring and non-inspirational. But we’ve been healthy and got some new music done, so cannot complain too much.
2. Have you been working on new music?
Yes, we have! We recorded four new songs this Spring and are releasing those as an EP in early November. The EP is called ‘Conspiracies, Threats and Chaos’, and the first two singles, ‘Entertainment’ and ‘Weak and Wrong’, are already out. These songs are a little heavier than those on our debut album from 2020 and we are very pleased with how this self-produced EP turned out. We’ve also put in effort into proper music videos, so make sure you check out our Youtubes too!
3. 5 albums that changed your life
By the way, this is Lasse (vocals, guitars) responding on behalf of the band, and these are my albums. First, I have to go back to that time in my childhood when I truly and wholeheartedly gave my soul to rock’n roll. There were a few big names and albums, but the one for me was WASP’s ‘Inside the Electric Circus’. Dangerous and raw rock music that made me want more. It feels like a different era, but only a few years later I found punk and alternative rock. Bad Religion’s music – and for this I will pick the album ‘Generator’ – gave me the direction for my own music. Soon followed Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’ and grunge taking over the world. A slight detour into slacker with Pavement’s ‘Crooked Rain Crooked Rain’ gave me the confidence and freedom to do music without worrying about everything being technically accurate or correct. Finally, at number five, we have Biffy Clyro with ‘Puzzle’. This Scottish band single-handedly restored my faith in rock music that is raw and fierce, melodic and catchy, and twisted and intense. But I could easily give you five more albums that are just as important. And then five more. And so on.
4. 5 artists that influenced you as a musician.
Most were already mentioned above. Bad Religion, Pavement and Biffy Clyro are in that five. But I’ll also add Sonic Youth and the Swedish band Kent, which once upon a time was a huge influence on me and the band. Again, I could easily list 20 or 30 artists here… starting with Tom Waits and finishing with Run the Jewels, but rules are rules.
5. Your 5 favorite live albums
I am not a huge fan of live albums, to be honest. Biffy Clyro’s ‘Live at Wembley Arena’ is really good and I was there! Pearl Jam have tons of solid live recordings as they have released pretty much every show in the last 20 years, but I own ‘Live on Two Legs’ and I really like it. I really liked Against Me!’s ’23 Live Sex Acts’ and love the band. Hüsker Dü’s ‘The Living End’ is a good representation of the band and their catalog. For number five let’s go with Rage Against the Machine – insane live band – and what I believe is their only proper live album ‘The Battle of Mexico City’. I could be wrong, and maybe they have other live albums too, but this is the one I remember.
6. Life on the road; 5 of the craziest/funniest/scariest tour stories
We’re too small and coming from a small country, so we haven’t done any of those long tours where you live in a van or bus for weeks or months. But we’ve obviously had all kinds of accidents and stories happening to us. Only problem is that we are often either too drunk or then just simply so ecstatic and excited, that we don’t really remember the bad stuff. It ranges from amps starting to burn on stage or microphones giving out-of-the-ordinary electric shocks, to missing lodging reservations making us carry our gear across the city in the middle of the night on cobblestones, or my favourite accident of the drumstick splinter the flew into our drummer’s mouth and got stuck in his palate almost choking him. Talk about bizarre random accidents!
7. 5 favorite movies
Star Wars (let’s just count this as one), Pan’s Labyrinth, Finding Neverland, Delicatessen, and Space Balls. I like good stories and don’t mind it being somewhere between fantasy and reality. And I like comedies, parodies, and even the absurd stuff.
8. Best and worst advice you ever heard.
Wow, tough one. I don’t keep track of advice… I remember from my childhood how one of the school guidance counsellors advised one of my classmates to start smoking so that she could maybe make some friends. That is pretty terrible advice. I am not a religious person at all, and I think religions have done more harm than good through the times, but most religions have some wise things to say too. The one guiding principle I have taken from learning about religions is the one that tells you to treat others – or “do to others” – as you want to be treated. I think it’s solid advice, regardless what your position on faith is.
9. Strangest thing you ever autographed
Any autograph is strange to me. We don’t do them that much. That said, just last weekend in the bar some guy came up asking for our autographs after learning that we (our bass player Eero and myself) were in the band that was played on the bar PA. He had a piece of paper that was torn from something or somewhere, and just wanted our autographs. This does not happen often. Or ever.
10. If music was over today and you had to go into professional wrestling, what would your wrestling name be?
Great question! I think I would want to be ‘The Surreal Experiment’. This is a song on our debut album, and I think it would be an appropriate name for my ventures into the world of wrestling!
Download/stream Conspiracies, Threats and Chaos by Flush
Connect with Flush:
