Absolutely Flawless

Flawes are back ‘Higher Than Before’! Since hitting the ground running in 2016, Flawes have been going from strength to strength, gaining a reputation for projecting positivity in the world. We caught up with the band to talk all things ‘Reverie’, making music in lockdown, performing live and their incredibly beautiful new single.

For our readers who haven’t heard of you before, what’s FLAWES all about?

Huss: Firstly Hello! We’re JC, Freddie & Huss, a 3 piece alternative pop band called Flawes. ⅔ of which are from Yorkshire and ⅓ from London (even though we’ve adopted him as a Yorkshire man now). We make uplifting pop music and playing live shows put a massive smile on our faces.

Your songs consistently deliver positivity - which is exactly what the world needs right now - is this important to you as a band?

JC: Yes definitely, we’re pretty optimistic guys. The music industry is a crazy place and throws so much at you so you have to be super resilient. I think without even thinking about it I naturally gravitate towards positive and uplifting themes when writing lyrics, always looking for the positive in any situation.

You’ve released a brand new single ‘Higher Than Before’ which features Mali-Koa, what’s the idea behind it?

JC: We are big fans of Mali and knew her voice would sound amazing on ‘Higher Than Before’ so we were so excited when she said yes. The song is all about giving a relationship a chance and looking at things in a more positive light. The chorus hook “You’re taking me Higher Than Before” centres around the realisation that being with them has vastly improved my life; life is a lot better when they are in it.

Speaking of, your EP ‘Reverie’ is out on February 26th, what can we expect?

JC: We’ve tried to create a whole world with this EP for people to escape in. The word ‘Reverie’ itself is defined as ‘a state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts; a daydream.’ We love the idea that anyone can get lost and join us there for half an hour. There are songs about love, hope, second chances, achievement and resilience. The uplifting, positive vibe will hopefully leave people ready to take on the world. We hope it’s empowering.

Have you been influenced by any other artists whilst writing the new EP?

Freddie: I’d say that we took some inspiration from the 80s as a decade rather than any specific artist. I used a lot of chorus in my guitar sound which was a really popular effect back then and JC used some iconic retro synths like the Juno! Having Mali collaborate on ‘Higher Than Before’ was awesome too and that definitely brought another colour to the music. We’ve all been fans of her music for a while now so it’s been great to work with her!

What new albums have you enjoyed this year/have inspired your sound that dropped in 2020?

Freddie: It came out just before 2020 but I’ve really enjoyed Sam Fender’s debut album! You can really hear how much of an influence Bruce Springsteen has been for him (which is no bad thing - Bruce is an icon haha). ‘Calm’ by 5 Seconds Of Summer has been another favourite of mine. I feel like they’ve really developed their sound as a band and I love the direction their music is taking. ‘Wildflower’ is a standout track for me. ‘To Let A Good Thing Die’ by Bruno Major has also been listened to a lot!

What’s your creative process been like during lockdown?

JC : We always try not to put any rules on the creative process and try to keep it as open as possible. All three of us use Logic so it’s quite handy to pass projects back and forth between us, especially so during lockdown when we haven't been able to be in the same room. Sometimes it will be a vocal melody and a few chords that I come up with and send to the boys to develop and we’ll go from there, or a loop Freddie has come up with which I write a vocal melody on top. Other times we’ll start from the bottom up with a drum beat huss sends over.

How important is performing live as a band?

Huss: To us, it’s everything. It’s the main reason we do this. There’s nothing we love more than to be together on stage, seeing the crowd move and sing back the lyrics to our songs. It’s something we’ve all been deprived of over the last 12 months but when it’s safe to do so again, it’s going to be hard to get us off the road.

I know everything is so uncertain at the moment with live music, but do you have any plans for live shows in the pipeline this year?

Freddie: You didn’t hear it from me but there are some dates in the diary... Although I don’t want to get anybody’s hopes up just yet as we saw how last year played out! We’ve been making the most out of the situation with an online series called ‘The Isolation Sessions’ where we perform covers remotely. That’s sadly been the nearest thing we’ve had to playing together for a long time now. We’re so excited to finally get back out there! It’ll be worth the wait...

You’ve worked with leading producers, earned ‘Record of the week’ at Radio 1, have an EP out next month, that’s pretty mental! What’s next for the band?

Huss: Haha thanks, well we’ve continued to write new music all through this year, and have a nice bunch of songs piling up, so hopefully some new music soon! We can’t wait to get back on the road and just tour our socks off. We have so many future plans, and have so many plans that were cancelled last year that we still need to do! We just need the world to open up again so we can get out there.

The all new single ‘Higher Than Before’ is available now on all major platforms now. (If you haven’t listened to it yet - where have you been?!) Their EP ‘Reverie’ which is full of the positive escapism we so desperately need is out on February 26th make sure you check it out!

www.flawes.com

Article By Jenn Foster