The Colourflies Story & Interview
The Colourflies is an upcoming band who has been very active in idaho and washington state. They have gained notoriety when they were signed by an indie label and released their debut album "Been there, seen it, lived it, licensed it." The band’s influences range from the likes of The Posies, Dishwalla, The Lemonheads and the Meat Puppets. They were deeply influenced by the sounds of ’80s and 90’s Alternative. Indie labels like SST, Twin Tone and Sub Pop left a definite mark on the band as they absorbed all those subversive tendencies and made them their own.
The colourflies is definitely a band to watch out for as they make their way towards success.
Interview
1.Where are you from and how would you describe your city?
Matt: We’re from a quaint and little awful town called Postfalls in Idaho, but Devin and I moved to Spokane Washington, where I was born, the city with a river running though it. Benny And Joon and Vision Quest were filmed here, our claim to fame that we’re very proud of. The city itself is ummm how do you say? Not very clean and a bunch of bad people hanging around, but our downtown area is nice and hip and we wear leather jackets to feel tough so we don’t get mugged or killed.
2.Who has been your greatest support throughout your journey as a band?
Matt: Most definitely our label and label owner Scott Rozell. Most support I’ve ever gotten from anywhere and for them to scoop us up in our early twenties was amazing, and set a course for our musical lives.
3. At what age did you know you wanted to be a musician and how did you get started in the first place?
Matt: I knew I wanted to be a musician by age 15. I taught myself guitar after being into the Beatles and hendrix and Green Day and dinosaur jr and my friend Becca gave me the first foo fighters album at a Christmas party that Mayde and I both were at and I was like hey, esoteric pop jingles that rock? I can do this.
Matt: We’re from a quaint and little awful town called Postfalls in Idaho, but Devin and I moved to Spokane Washington, where I was born, the city with a river running though it. Benny And Joon and Vision Quest were filmed here, our claim to fame that we’re very proud of. The city itself is ummm how do you say? Not very clean and a bunch of bad people hanging around, but our downtown area is nice and hip and we wear leather jackets to feel tough so we don’t get mugged or killed.
2.Who has been your greatest support throughout your journey as a band?
Matt: Most definitely our label and label owner Scott Rozell. Most support I’ve ever gotten from anywhere and for them to scoop us up in our early twenties was amazing, and set a course for our musical lives.
3. At what age did you know you wanted to be a musician and how did you get started in the first place?
Matt: I knew I wanted to be a musician by age 15. I taught myself guitar after being into the Beatles and hendrix and Green Day and dinosaur jr and my friend Becca gave me the first foo fighters album at a Christmas party that Mayde and I both were at and I was like hey, esoteric pop jingles that rock? I can do this.
4.In your opinion who is the most influential and successful band in your genre and why?
Probably the Smashing Pumpkins. They did exactly what they wanted and had musical vision, no conceding to what was hip or current. I admire that a lot more than cashing in on what’s going on around one
5. How did all the members of Colourflies meet?
Matt: at high school. I heard of this cool rocker girl from my friends and in enters Mayde, and then I was like let’s start a band and you’ll play bass.
6.How does Colourflies separate itself from other bands?
Matt: not to sound cavalier, but the Colourflies care? Like it’s the most important thing in our lives in a lot of ways and has been for years. We don’t exactly put the band on like a shirt and throw it in the back of the van after the show, we live it always and it’s a part of our lives everyday, whether that’s how we can be better or working on our gear to achieve new sonic territory.
7. How do each of the band members stay motivated as musicians?
Matt: For me, I practice about two hours every morning. I take a bubble bath and then have some wine at about seven pm and practice for one more hour. The constant listening to music and old Beatles demos and outtakes as well as alternate mixes of songs from artists I like really makes for more understanding approaching the musical scope of an album. The band in the collective talks about music constantly when we’re together and we share new things that we like and we’re like it would be cool to do something like this, but also not like this.
8.What aspect of the music-making process excites you most and what aspect discourages you the most?
Matt: I love the idea of a blank canvas, musically you can go anywhere you want if you have the ability and the vision. I also enjoy other people’s interpretations of things that we write. I mostly like to put building blocks and puzzle pieces together for a song, whether that’s harmonies or arrangements or guitar stuff, and the sonic implications of making that as good as it can be. So using lots of vintage gear and new stuff to make something hopefully unique. What discourages me the most is probably like a lack of community or a rally behind good music, we are more fortunate than most cause people actually come to our shows, but the experience could be much richer if people cared, and cared about other bands around them, so I guess a bigger sense of community.
9. What was your inspiration behind your latest album ?"
Matt: Our single, Snails was pulled in an all nighter in a Portland studio called Stop and Start, it was a session with actually three songs recorded, Bejeweled and Bespectacled , a song for the album called Bestfuck, and Snails. Snails was a hopeful candidate for the album, but as the album process went on we decided it would make a good single instead. Love me Yesterday is just something I did in the studio with Ken Stringfellow and we needed a b side so viola there it is in all its 50’s and wah glory. AC commercial is actually something Devin made on GarageBand.
Matt: Our single, Snails was pulled in an all nighter in a Portland studio called Stop and Start, it was a session with actually three songs recorded, Bejeweled and Bespectacled , a song for the album called Bestfuck, and Snails. Snails was a hopeful candidate for the album, but as the album process went on we decided it would make a good single instead. Love me Yesterday is just something I did in the studio with Ken Stringfellow and we needed a b side so viola there it is in all its 50’s and wah glory. AC commercial is actually something Devin made on GarageBand.
10.if you can describe your fans in one word what would it be and why?
Matt: passionate. They are so passionate about music and our lives. They want to know every little thing, they call me at two am and ask about my day cause they’re on the other side of the world, I have about twenty messages every morning from fans asking me guitar questions, it never ceases to amaze.
11. How did the name "Colourflies" come about?
We’ve answered this question in just about every interview we do ha. Our friend nick named the band, because he thought we were pretentious enough to pull it off.
12. What advice would you give to upcoming bands who are trying to pursue their dreams?
Don’t get discouraged, save your money. Spend more time trying to be better. Like better people to your bandmates, and better friends to your guitars and basses. and always have something interesting to say.
13. Where do you see the band in 5 years?
Well if I’m not dead by then, ummm I think we will have made a lot of interesting music that is radically different from what you know us as now.
14. What Albums, latest releases or singles are available to your fans?
The snails single, which our label has tagged as an
EP(which it’s not) is out now. Limited physical copies that are selling like hotcakes and on Spotify and YouTube.
Comments
Post a Comment