Fortuna POP! - 7" Vinyl
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Visit product page →Coloured Vinyl 7 Ltd to 500 copies.
The first single to be taken from the Flowers' album Do What You Want To, It's What You Should Do is Joanna, a song about someone suffering from a depression so deep that has become part of their identity. Joanna was the second song recorded in their sessions with producer Bernard Butler but the first where everything just clicked and the band knew they had a working creative relationship. He made it sound full of vitality and excitement, says Rachel, Flowers' lead singer. We were thrilled with the results and couldn't wait to get back and record the rest of the album with him. Flowers are Sam Ayres (Guitar/Synths), Rachel Kenedy (Vocals/Bass/Synths) and Jordan Hockley (Drums), brought together by Sam's advert for a singer to make music like "Madonna through a broken tape machine".
Drawing a line between the joyous fuzzpop of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and the minimalist brilliance of Young Marble Giants, the reception at their live shows has been nothing less than rapturous, with audiences blown away by their intensity and compelled by their sparse beauty: Jordan a physical yet inventive presence behind the drum kit, Sam a constant blur of kinetic energy on guitar and Rachel utterly still. It is this dynamic that has been captured over the fourteen deceptively simple pop songs that comprise Flowers debut, Do What You Want To, It's What You Should Do out September 8th via Fortuna Pop! (UK).
Most of the songs weigh in at less than three minutes, a deliberate strategy for a band that seeks strength in simplicity. Our songs tend to be quite short - if there's something that doesn't need to be there, we take it out. Hoping for just the best bits, explains Rachel. We love all kinds of things, Ramones, Madonna, The Misfits, Iggy & The Stooges, Joy Division, all sorts! The album doesn't sound too much like any of those, but the songs are short and simple pop songs, and all those artists we love write songs like that. Indeed, Flowers' genius is in their ability to convey a remarkable amount of emotion with minimal instrumentation.
Rachel possesses one of those beautiful pop voices to die for, with echoes of Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins), Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star) and Harriet Wheeler (The Sundays), whilst Sam's guitars chime and churn with an incredible intensity and Jordan's drums rip right through with urgency and precision, resulting in a beautiful album that conjures up a strange and entrancing sort of magic. Haunting, mesmerizing and intense, Do What You Want To, It's What You Should Do is an impressive calling card from a sensational new band.
Tracklisting:
A: Joanna
B: Rachel's Song -
Sold outVisit product page →London trio Flowers return with a new single via Fortuna POP!, the last to be released on the label, singer Rachel Kenedy's ethereal vocals and Sam Ayres textured guitar are, as always, backed by the powerful, metronomic beat of drummer Jordan Hockley. Rachel told us a little bit about the genesis of the recordings:
'Sean from Fortuna POP! is sadly moving on to greener pastures in Japan and ending the label, but he asked us to do one last single for him, as we owed one for his Jukebox 45s Singles Club. We don't know where we'll end up next after Fortuna POP!, so rather than looking forwards for this single we decided to be nostalgic and do something that, for us at least, is classic. For the three of us in the band, "Flowers" has always meant our live performances and our home demos, of which Sam and I have produced hundreds and hundreds (we write them every day), and most of which will probably never be heard by anyone except us, our dog and our long-suffering neighbours. "Say 123" is one of these home recordings. The best bit is at the end.
The b-side, "Rhodes", was recorded at Big Jelly Studios, where we'd gone to record an EP. We realised after recording the songs we'd brought with us that we'd made a mistake, as the songs weren't quite right or ready yet. But while we were there, we fell in love with the sound of the Fender Rhodes in the corner of the studio. With about half an hour left before the van arrived to take us back to London, Sam quickly played me some chords on guitar and hummed a melody for a verse. I got out a pencil and paper and somehow by the time all our gear was loaded into the van we'd written and recorded this song (we did it live and used one take).
In keeping with the old-school Flowers theme for this single, we decided to hand-stamp the artwork onto each sleeve and vinyl label. We used to hand-make all of our artwork, making paper sleeves for CDs we burned on our laptop with random selections of home-demos on.
These songs aren't from a forthcoming album or anything, but we really hope you enjoy them.'
Tracklisting:
Side A:
Say 123Side B:
Rhodes
