BY SAM DESTEFANO
This month we had the privilege of talking to Flaural, one of Denver’s finest and most innovative indie bands. It’s impossible to put a finger on their sound and that is one of things that makes listening to their music fun. Each track takes you on a different musical adventure that is thoughtful, exciting, hooky and musically sophisticated. If you haven’t heard them yet, you should make a point to seek them out. And as a new fan you’ll want to catch up on the latest with these guys here. So enjoy!
How would you describe Flaural’s origin story? Where, when and how did it all start?
Flaural has originally and will always be the combination of Collin Johnson on bass and singing, Noah Pfaff on guitar and harmonies, Nick Berlin on drums and samples, and Connor Birch on a plethora of keyboards and noise makers. Our intertwining relationships stretch back nearly two decades. Flaural originated from the tail end of a few other projects; all four of us were playing in projects that disbanded back in mid 2015 (feels like such a different time to be in Denver) and serendipitously Collin connected with Nick, Noah, and myself.
It’s hard to pin down your sound. You’ve been described as psych-rock or psych-gaze and compared to bands like Tame Impala and Pink Floyd, but there seems to be a lot more to your sound. How would you describe it to someone who has never heard the band before?
Ahh, one of the least answerable questions a band can answer for themselves – well, we jokingly call it “mutt rock” because it feels like it’s birthed from many different micro-genres. Flaural has elements of sonic and structural experimentation with its art-pop moments. Similarly to how a mutt doesn’t easily identify with one breed, we try to pick and choose which genes of each genre we include and, hopefully, avoid being pastiche; these days if you’ve got guitars and synthesizers though, you’re a “Psych Rock Band.”
You guys walk the fine line of being experimental and yet still accessible. How do you manage to strike this balance and keep it in check on both fronts?
Honestly, I’m not sure we do, ha! There has never been this formal direction to write to what is accessible. I think we are constantly trying to write as experimentally as we can. Being experimental is a rewarding aspect of song-writing. In a lot of ways, our natural instincts as listeners and fans, of the kind of music we like, reels us back into something we’re all four happy with compositionally. Being something that we are all happy with, has always been the only real test for whether a Flaural song takes the last leap out into the world.
Every time a new band is born, they are instantly tortured by the endlessly daunting task of coming up with a name. In today’s information-oversaturated-universe it seems unlikely to come up with an original one. How did you crack the code? How did you come up with the name Flaural and where does it come from?
Honestly, we were tortured by the endlessly daunting task just up until we arrived at Flaural with some help from a friend. It’s pronounced just like you would say “Floral,” it isn’t spelled Flaurel – and yes we thought we were clever including aural inside our little word combination.
Having started Flaural in 2015, makes you guys seasoned vets at this point. What lessons have you learned along the way? How has the industry changed and how is the band evolving?
I don’t see us at all as “seasoned vets” we still have an endless amount of things to learn and ways we can grow. We’re in a completely unprecedented time, so we’re looking for ways to stay relevant without having to post Instagram videos of ourselves playing covers or filming live videos from our basement. One thing has always remained true about the industry though, and that is, you oughta be putting out your best songs and recordings.
In 2015 and 2016, you released your first EPs and it wasn’t until March of 2019 that you released your first full length album “Postponement.” Can you share a little bit of the behind-the-scenes and making of this record that came together over a three year period?
It feels like so long ago that we started recording pieces in Oakland, live tracks with our friend Andy in the “Animal Room.” Those were brought back to James in the very earliest iterations of Crown Lanes Studio. As we recorded more and more, the studio evolved and grew into the comfort zone that it is these days. This process spanned enough time that we dealt with both torturously hot and cold temps in the studio. Stereogum said “perhaps somewhat cheekily” we named it Postponement, but those 120 hours of recording took place in pieces over three years, not exactly a traditional approach, and something that I think played a significant role in the recording of the album.
What was it like working with James Barone, of Beach House and Tennis, who produced and engineered the record?
Well, we were all introduced to James after we had started making the recordings in Oakland and he really grew to be a good bud – close enough that the five of us are all members of a Honda based scooter group called The Scorchers. Follow us on instagram @scorchers_official.
The band has done extensive touring. Do you have a route you love to run or favorite places to visit?
The West Coast was where we toured the most early on and we’ve got a lot of special friends and memories there. Having said that, we went as far as Montreal and Nashville last September and it was refreshing to experience playing and visiting new cities again. I’ll attempt to list some of our favorite cities but speaking for us all, each city we visit is unique and special: but San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, Montreal top our list.
Everyone knows that touring bands have epic stories from being on the road. Can you share a few? You guys have supported some amazing bands along the way like Real Estate, Spoon, Built to Spill, Nathaniel Rateliff and so many more. Who were your favorites and why?
Every show is memorable to us, some favorites include – playing Red Rocks for Film on the Rocks, camping backstage at the Mishawaka after playing with Real Estate, hanging on the balcony at the Belly Up with Spoon in Aspen after the show, getting to know the Night Sweats guys, Sharing the Ogden’s stage for the first time with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, touring a handful of dates with Foxygen, Luna, Sugar Candy Mountain, et al. and some unexplainable combinations like a show with Jane’s Addiction and Third Eye Blind.
I assume you have canceled a lot of plans this summer due to COVID? How has the pandemic affected the band and what are you doing to keep at it during these ever so strange times?
Yeah, it’s a scary time to be a band but people are being creative with ways to stay afloat and we’ve got our sonar out there for new ways to move forward. It’s hard for us to get together as a whole unit right now which is how we have usually been writing, but it’s inspiring some individual efforts and collaborating in new ways.
What can we expect from you guys in the future?
We’ll have new music out this year, something we’re all very excited about, but unfortunately something that has been thrust into the cloud hovering above all of our heads, that is, uncertainty. It’s another collaboration with James and what really felt like a more orchestrated affair. We hopped straight into the studio after our East Coast tour in September and it includes some of those rewarding experiments mentioned above. For now we’re staying safe and scheming.
Thanks so much to Flaural for sharing their time with us! Until we get the new tracks, something online or we can see them live again, have fun digging into the many layers of the brilliant music they’ve already recorded.