
FLUSH – interview
- by eternalterror
- Posted on 19-01-2025
Introduce your band, and describe your latest release:
Hey, we are Flush, a community rock band from Helsinki, Finland. We released our second full length album on November 30th 2024, it’s called ‘Noises’, and it has 13 songs about life, love, anxiety, heartbreak, society, death, substance abuse, and space satellites.
What’s the hardest part about being a band in this day and age?
Universally, one of the biggest issues is the failed revenue and commercial models. There is plenty of money in the music industry, but it’s not cascading down to the creative grassroots where new music – and art – happens. Those who think of music as an industry are doing fine and making plenty of money, but those who think of music as an artform, are not. This jeopardizes creativity and my worry is that 10-20 years from now, new music will be mostly created for commercial and revenue making purposes. Those who care about the artform will have had to find other sources of income. It’s just really hard to justify being in a band when there is so little to gain from it financially.
When did you realise that your project had the potential to be much more than just a fun idea?
Not sure we still have, to be honest! We’re in this for that fun idea of doing music together, writing songs about life around us, and sharing the experience with those who want to listen to us. Not sure about the potential of this concept, hence, we also want to keep it fun for us.
Tell us about your latest release, why should we check it out?
‘Noises’ is our second full-length album and for a band our size and status, it’s been quite the effort to make. In fact, we recorded it twice because the first version sort of… disappeared! The album nicely represents what we are about as a band. The songs are about what we feel and see around us, be it environmental and social, or something very personal. Some of the songs, like ‘Stella’ and ‘Accelerate’ are wrapped into metaphorical stories about multi-universe taxis and space satellites, whereas a song like ‘We’re Not Yet Alright’ is a very straight forward plea to not yet throw us out from the bar. All the songs are about real emotions and real events, and it’s our way of welcoming our listeners into our community, where everyone should experience a momentary relief from the hardships of life today.
How does a song typically come together for you?
Our singer Lasse writes the music and lyrics, and we then jointly arrange everything. Some songs can be quite raw when we start to work on them and some songs are already fairly finished when Lasse brings them to the band. There is no one single approach to how the music is made, instead, we rely on the fact that we know each other and how we play, and regardless of where the idea comes from and how it’s presented, it will end up sounding like Flush when we are finished with the arrangements.
How would you describe your sound to an unfamiliar reader?
Sonically, Flush is a blend of punk rock, alternative rock, grunge and metal. Many would place us firmly into the first half of the 90s, but we do listen to a lot of contemporary music too so it’s not just a trip backwards in time.
What do you want listeners to take away from listening to your band?
Hopefully we can provide relief, a feeling of comfort, or a sense that the listener belongs somewhere. You are not alone, and when you see us live it’s OK to not be in the mosh pit and be just as present as the those in the pit.
Where would you really like to tour that you haven’t done so yet, and why?
There are so many places… but since we can wish for anything here, let’s say Latin America! Based on all evidence, the crowds are lively and people still go to see shows, so it would be amazing to tour there.
How would you say that the sound of your band has progressed over the years?
We started off sounding a lot like Bad Religion and were firmly in the punk rock category. Nowadays, we can be labelled alternative rock and compared to anyone from Deftones to Placebo and from Against Me! To Biffy Clyro. We like to play around with song structures to some extent and our average beats per minute is definitely not above 200 anymore!
How excited are you for 2025, and what can fans expect from you?
We definitely want to play the new album live! Let’s see where it takes us and if there is also some new music in the works. Making the album was such an effort that we’re somewhat still recovering from that whole experience, before putting in new energy into 2025. But it won’t be long until we’re on the stage and on the road!