As stories about how bands formed go, I would say that our story is pretty unremarkable and somewhat mundane. Liam, Anna, Joakim and myself (Tom) all met at different points around Berlin through the Summer of 2016 and we decided after 1 year of studying together, and after much deliberation, we would officially say that we are some kind of band.
Before I met The Flavians, Liam and Joakim were already fighting about who was sleeping in which bunk as before they had even realised that they were going to be studying at the same university for the next 3 years, they were sharing the same dorm in one of Berlin’s numerous hostels. As days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months, the pair had still not managed to navigate through the labyrinthian German rental market and so still stick in the hostel having no escape from themselves, they had started to realise that they had a bit in common.
By early 2017, the pair were starting to write together. They later asked Anna to join once they met in a park sharing her favourite Czech vodka and, 6 months later, after every other bass player they knew said that they were too busy, they asked me. We officially got it together in November 2017 and by March 2018, we had blagged our first support slot opening up for fellow Berlin songwriter Ryan O'Reilly. In the months that followed we’ve played numerous bars, showcases, street corners, living rooms and even once live on the radio in Bremen.
One of the things that made us click as a band was our love for the weird and fantastical side of life. And Berlin, with its hedonism, debauchery, frivolity, 4 day weekends and professional party people, gave us plenty of fresh inspiration to draw from. You don’t have to spend 30 hours in Berghain with a dog collar around your neck and a plethora of multi-coloured pills in your gut to meet the ‘weird’.
You can encounter similar absurdites in a supermarket queue, in a bank and almost without fail, on the U8 on any given morning. The freaky vibrations and the constant buzz of the city soon permeate into your very way of being. And, upon leaving Berlin, you’re always left feeling like a washed out, confused, extraterrestrial that’s managed to crash his spaceship into a barn in Arkansas. Compared to many cities, Berlin might as well be on a different planet.
On The Radio, which is a 3-minute story about a schizophrenic who calls into a drivetime radio show while speeding through a red light, is our first single and the first release from our upcoming debut album 'Ordinary People in an Ordinary World'. The concept behind the album is to tell true (and sometimes fantastical) stories from everyday life through our music and lyrics with themes touching on subjects like mental illness, alienation, bad dancing and heart attacks. We’ve tried to walk the tightrope between the surreal and the mundane while staying grounded and focused on writing accessible, melodic, yet experimental songs. We’re big fans of the music from the 60s and we especially love The Beatles, Grateful Dead, The Band and The Beach Boys. With the way the recordings are coming along, we’re probably going to sound like some kind of dreadful hybrid, tribute band. But that's ok, we can blame the producer.
The next year will see us recording our album and hitting the road to play shows around Europe in a desperate attempt to make people like us. I suppose this is pretty normal for bands.
As well as this, we will be trying to learn German (as we’re actually from Sweden, the Czech Republic and the UK), finish our studies and buy a van to actually play these gigs around Europe.
I hope you enjoy our first single as much as we enjoyed releasing it.
And, thanks for sticking with me while I’ve rambled on about spaceships and shit.
Links To The Flavians
WEBSITE: http://www.theflavians.com/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/theflavians
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/theflavians/
Lots of Love, The Flavians