Flycatcher frontman Greg Pease reveals Atwood what’s beneath the hood of his band’s new-and-improved debut, ‘Wrench.’
Stream: “Down” – Flycatcher
Most bands want a complete lifetime to complete their first album. For Flycatcher, it took two full-lengths, one buzzy EP and 7 years of retooling to reach at what’s now their official debut.
“It’s humorous,” says frontman Greg Pease from the passenger seat of the band’s tour van. Throughout our video chat, Pease is fast to elucidate simply how a lot Flycatcher has modified since work on Wrench technically began in 2018. Right here although, he pauses, as if nonetheless struck by the belief. “Flycatcher turning into twangy, folky, down-the-middle rock is how we ended up touring with Oso Oso. I assumed it might’ve been the alternative.”
Pease and his three fellow highway canine in Flycatcher fortunately reside between Asbury Park and Jersey Metropolis. However up till now, staying near their roots was clipping the band’s wings. “I used to be holding on actually tight to the emo stuff,” he displays from behind darkish sun shades.
Tonight’s present has led them to Austin, Texas, practically 2,000 miles from his hometown of New Brunswick, again the place the preliminary lineup fashioned close to and pricey to the style’s revival. “I assumed I may reverse engineer our songs so we’d match into that field.”
To be honest, it’s not like Flycatcher weren’t profitable when following the blueprint. Their first two cracks at a full-length confirmed sufficient promise for the scene’s chief producer Will Yip to signal them to his label. However Wrench makes good on the band’s potential by breaking the mould.
“The rationale we referred to as it Wrench is that my relationship with music was very strained,” explains Pease. When requested how he untangled these knotty feelings, our dialog traces again to his past love. “What made me like music within the first place is listening to my dad play these loud, vibrant, thrilling information,” he recollects, occurring to quote The Kinks, Prince and Californication. “Wrench is the sort of album that I need to hear. I wished it to really feel enjoyable and stress-free. I wished it to really feel like rock music.”
Wrench grips it and rips it with out scrapping the entire influences that constructed Flycatcher’s already stable basis.
You’ll be able to hear traces of a youthful Citizen buzzing beneath “Dissolve,” a pop-punk speedster that’s muscled by Jack Delle Cava’s hard-driving bass line. Nonetheless, by eradicating these self-imposed guardrails, the band have actually opened up their songwriting engine. Pease could envy the sensible expertise of his “Brother,” however he and fellow guitarist Justin VanNiekerk are locked in even when buying and selling greasy licks.
“These songs really feel actually intentional and deeply written, extra so than our unique stuff,” Pease acknowledges. “As a substitute of taking part in a sick riff and pondering that the track was achieved, I spotted that I wanted to deal with melodies, the lyrics, totally different chord progressions and preparations.”
The upgrades beneath Flycatcher’s hood are so shocking that the band as we’ve come to know them are virtually unrecognizable. “Down” feels like Evan Stephens Corridor ditched Pinegrove to entrance The Wallflowers, a comparability that Pease humors with a “hell yeah.” “I feel it’s only a pure development,” he continues. “I’m 28 however was 19 once I began Flycatcher. For a band, that’s a lifetime.” Wrench buffs any residual rust from emo’s fourth wave with power-pop’s elbow grease and spit-shined Americana. “Fault Line” doesn’t swing a lot because it crashes via the fences like a wrecking ball swept up in a stiff Southern breeze.
“I’ve had that factor bouncing round my head for thus lengthy,” Pease sighs when returning his consideration to the album’s crunchy opener. “There was one thing in regards to the verse that wasn’t connecting with me.” As a substitute of hemming and hawing like regular, he waited till recording was effectively beneath means for the track’s hook to seem like a sunbeam from behind his psychological cloud.
Don’t need to fake like I’m any person else/ And I don’t acknowledge myself.
* * *
“If I used to be attempting to be extra exact and just a little bit extra managed, then I in all probability would’ve mentioned the track wasn’t prepared and that we wanted to work on it extra,” he figures. “However regardless that I wasn’t certain the place it was going, I needed to inform myself to belief that it was going to be cool.”
Essentially the most vital enchancment on Wrench required extra fine-tuning. “When Flycatcher began, I didn’t actually have a voice,” Pease admits. “I’d like how I sounded on one track however not one other.” That tracks; his vary has run the gamut, from Midwest emo’s light reassurances to indie’s collected cool and Title Battle lite shouting. He’s now discovered the best lane, because of Yip’s steering. Dialing up the vocal fry brings out a heat crackle that sticks to the twangy melodies like syrup. “After we obtained via two or three songs, I lastly discovered how you can sing,” he laughs.
Humorous sufficient, he turned the nook on a track that wasn’t deliberate for the album. “That was a giant one for me. It felt actually particular,” he remembers about assembling “Fact” days earlier than the band pulled into Studio 4. Incoming drummer Matteo DeBenedetti punches into its refrain like an empty freeway, however Pease’s gravelly timbre yields knowledge that’s as hard-earned as it’s open-ended. You discover peace when you let it go / Or is it one thing that you just’ll by no means know?
It’s becoming that Flycatcher underwent an intensive overhaul to achieve this level. ” I feel it’s the one means we may have achieved this.” As Pease lays out, Wrench grapples with every thing that he can and may’t management. “This album is me attempting to course of band members leaving, relationships ending, graduating from college, shifting jobs.” He surveys New Jersey’s shifting panorama on “Water Hole,” which falls away as simply as sand via an hour glass. We oughta reside like we’re gonna die, warns “Flood,” solely to let previous misgivings over his profession path move like water beneath a bridge.
“These songs come again to the concept life’s going to take you in all totally different instructions. All people goes to react otherwise and that’s okay.” Wrench hinges gracefully on Pease’s levelheaded method. As a substitute of beating himself up over a fumbled relationship, “Tremendous Bowl” accepts his shortcomings regardless of ending the album with a guitar solo that flies like confetti over the shedding workforce. “I feel that’s why I write. It’s a means for me to develop and grieve sure adjustments.”
Maybe it’s not in spite, however because of the bumps within the highway that Flycatcher have wound up proper the place Pease wished to be all alongside.
With Yip pulling the strings, who else however Brianna Collins of Tigers Jaw fame ought to accompany “Man on the Run.” Her softly piercing harmonies function the proper foil, holding up the mirror to his dirtbag blues.
“It’s been an actual privilege to hang around and play with individuals who had been our heroes and at the moment are our friends,” Pease says, trying off digital camera. His bandmates are calling him in to soundcheck forward of opening for The Frights. “It’s loopy. I’ve gotten additional than I ever thought I’d.”
Wrench comes out this Friday, October 24 on Reminiscence Music. Catch Flycatcher subsequent month in the course of the band’s first headline tour!
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:: stream/buy Wrench right here ::
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Man on the Run Tour
November 8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool
November 9 – Baltimore, MD @ The Undercroft
November 11 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
November 12 – Durham, NC @ Rubies on 5 Factors
November 13 – Greenville, SC @ Swanson’s Warehouse
November 15 – Orlando, FL @ Vans Warped Tour
November 19 – Nashville, TN @ The East Room
November 20 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bishop
November 21 – Chicago, IL @ Downstairs at Subterranean
November 22 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Little Large Studio
November 23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortlieb’s
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Stream: “Flood” – Flycatcher
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