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Flipron
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Article
written by Mary B
Oct 8, 2006.
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Ipods, gravestones, Tom Waits and poisonous Berries. These are the things that make up the wonderful world of the amazingly talented Flipron (well they are not the only things but I like the sound of that sentence) Over a glass of the finest wine known to man, I delved deeper into the Flipron psyche, via that loveable gent/songbird and man of many instruments, Jesse.
SoundsXP: Man eaten by a pie. It's an interesting concept. Tell me about that song while we feast on pie and mash in a quality cafe. Tell me about people who you would like to be eaten by a pie. We have to be careful here because of libel (i'll use asterisks to cover our tracks) Personally i've always wanted a short actor who has an imaginary baby to go that way.
Jesse: It's about being consumed by something you wish to avoid, psychologically speaking. It's a silly song really. A cautionary tale about not facing up to that, about yourself, which you really rather wish you weren't. It's also an excuse to place a pie at the the centre of a pop song. Pies are almost entirley absent from pop music, which is a shame, as I find their wholeness, their contained, spatially compact nature makes them wonderfully appealing objects to enjoy not only with the mouth, but with eye & indeed the imagination. I was also attracted to the suitability of a pie as a psychological metaphor.... To try to contain something which is ultimately larger & more powerful that the pastry is rolled for is a dangerous conceit. A dangerously compact pie, alive with the seismic tremors of a repressed personality is an image that appeals to me. Pie as timebomb! Pie as a merciless, carnivorous item of home baking! I can honestly say that I would wish death by pie on none of my fellow human beings. To be consumed by that which you hate is a mortal horror.
SoundsXP: You have baffled the minds of the music critics out there. Tell me about your music. What do you want me, as a listener, to get out of your music?
Jesse: Well we have no political message. Politics already crawls through our lives on every level, nobody needs Flipron for that. But art communicates with you as a human being no matter what your politics. So I'd like the listener simply to find some enjoyment, chiefly, just as a person listening to some songs. To enjoy the melodies in their various moods, the noise of four musicians playing, the patterns made by the words & what the words may mean to you. I'm not being facetious. That's what I'd like.
SoundsXP: Talk to me about Biscuits for Cerberus. I notice that John the Baptist is on there. How does it differ to Fancy Blues and Rustique Novelties?
Jesse: The Fancy Blues sessions began as some demos. It didn't turn into an album until a little later. So Biscuits was fun in that we actually approached it as an album. It's a much lusher sounding record, & more considered. There are more instruments & it's longer. It took an age to record, but we really, really enjoyed making it. You learn so much when you have the time to experiment. Greg, who recorded it (& who now plays bass with us) was consumed totally by it's production. He lost a year of his life to it, ensuring every note was properly located in an appropriate position of tone & audibility. Like a Flipron coma. Indeed a pie. Poor Greg! His position of bass player has helped him on the road to recovery, but he'll never again be the man he was.
SoundsXP: Does Mike really dig a hole with his bare hands & bury his dinner "for later" because that's got to be a nightmare in a dinner party situation.
Jesse: How can I put it? -Mike lives in a very rural location. I wouldn't be so rude as to say that it is backward, but things are done very differently where he lives. My son, who is two & a half, has sensed this "otherness" that Mike has. When we go for walks in the woods & we tell him not to eat various poisonous berries & fungi etc, & when we explain that birds eat them, but people don't, he always asks "But does Mike eat these?" In his small child's mind he sees Mike as some kind of link between the animal kingdom & homo sapiens. The useful part of this is that Mike can sense earthquakes minutes before they happen. He leads Flipron to safety every time.
SoundsXP: I love the song Raindrops. It's the kind of song that Tim Burton would sing if he was a music artist (in fact it should be on a soundtrack for one of his films) Do you believe in ouija boards or anything supernatural?
Jesse: No. Not at all. But in spite of myself I am a little superstitious. It would be fun to live in a world full of magic & spells. But I think you have to find magic in a different way, become more aware of what's around you & the possibilities of what you can find. There are wonderful things hidden everywhere.
SoundsXP: What motivates you as a group/individuals?
Jesse: I think peoples' interest in what we do motivates us most. The fact that what we do matter to some people is the very lovely carrot. Our disastrous band finances play the part of the stick, beating us from behind without mercy or remission. I'm weeping.
SoundsXP: My thorough research of you all has revealed that there are wine drinkers in my midst. White or red? Any label in particular. Who can hold their alcohol? Who falls apart after one glass? Have you always felt an urge to crush grapes with your feet or is that just me?
Jesse: I confess that I'm the wine buff. I am passionate about wine (& drinks in general). Red, white, rose, sparkling, fortified, aromatized.... I love it all, as long as it's GOOD wine. Just give me the best bottle you can find. Mike & Greg are real ale men. Joe however, has a weakness, & I shall call it that, for sweet, creamy, sticky cocktails. Joe & our manager Phil make the most disgustingly sickly beverages together when the rest of us just want to sleep. If there are any cream eggs & a bottle of creme de menthe lying around, they'll blend it all into some kind of nightmarish cocktail, drink half of it, then add some Guinness, then more creme de menthe. Garnish with a Curly Wurly, if one is lying around. They can all easily drink more than I can, except when it comes to wine. Wine makes them fall over, but I have developed a professional tolerance for wine. Or so I tell myself.
SoundsXP: Do you think that Tom Waits has got your album on his ipod? What do you think about ipods because I don't think Tom and your good selves would indulge in such contraptions. Surely old record players with dodgy needles are the way to go?
Jesse: Somebody wrote that in a review. Flattered as I am by this notion, I suspect that they are wrong. I'm sure Tom Waits has never heard of us. None of us has an ipod. If we could afford ipods we could afford to get some of our instruments repaired. Joe, however, has an old wind-up gramophone & some suitably bonkers old 78s to play on it. We've long cherished the notion of releasing our work on 78s. We'd need a considerably larger fan base to make it feasible, though...
SoundsXP: You are men of instruments but did you use the triangle at all on your album? Now and again I think that I can hear it in your work. Pray tell me that it's true.
Jesse: No triangle I'm afraid. We have a fear of regular polygons ever finding their way into our music. We don't trust them & it won't happen. Period. Please don't mention it again. I know a good band that uses a triangle. I can direct you to their myspace profile if you wish.
SoundsXP: You have lots of influences but I am going to narrow down your choices entirely because I can (sticks tongue out) You can only choose one musician and one person outside of music who you feel has in some way moulded you.
Jesse: OK. The poet Kenneth Patchen & Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band. Patchen was a writer of extraordinary invention & great heart. A conscientious objector, pacifist, anarchist poet whose work was marked by a raging, passionate vision that mankind was on the brink of destroying itself through the brutality of our collective outlook & that we'd better start living with kindness & love for our fellow human beings. His work first emerged in 1930s depression-era America, where he was initially regarded as some kind of proletarian poet. His love poems are amongst the most beautiful ever written anywhere, & all his work has an imaginative, generous & surreal sense of humour running through it. A great human being. Robin Williamson is a man whose approach to playing has encouraged me to pick up any instrument that I happen upon & find a way to make music with it. I think he plays about 40 different instruments. A great, original songwriter, too.
SoundsXP: What would be on your gravestones? (to anybody else that is a morbid question but they love it!)
Jesse: Exquisite lichens of various subtle hues & textures, obscuring the letters of our names, our dates & the listed things we didn't achieve. Moss of extraordinary thickness & lushness growing at the base of the crumbling Flipron monument & spotted around the lower third of its form. You did ask.
SoundsXP: So where to now Flipron? I am expecting you to set the world alight (not literally you understand)
Jesse: We've got lots of things going on at the moment which are top secret. I couldn't possibly reveal even the slightest whiff of any of it. We CAN tell you that we have another single coming out in the new year. We're starting to rehearse some new songs, too.
Phew! I am mentally exhausted! I do believe that Flipron would win Battle of the bands' brains (University challenge style game - look out for further interviews on this) if one was ever hosted. Go buy their albums. Fill your life with Flipron today...
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