Beginning before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Glaswegian band Flair began as a casual project among some musician friends. Despite releasing some music, nothing really happened for the band at this time. After the pandemic, the members decided to take the project more seriously and enlisted two new members that has drastically altered their sound and got them playing live.

Vocalist Tony Collum and bassist Johnnie Wilkie discuss the project, their unique sound, their debut self-titled EP, their gig in Ireland, getting a shoutout from Jay from The Inbetweeners, and more

The first thing I was going to ask, quite simply, was a little bit about the background of the band. My understanding is that Johnnie, you were in the band from the beginning; Tony, you joined a little later. So, how did the project initially begin, and for yourself, Tony, when the band was in full swing… – well, not full swing! But when it was already starting – …what made you want to jump on board?

Tony: [To Johnnie] You tell the start, there.

Johnnie: So, me and Jonny [Donald], the guitarist, we were just talking – he was actually in a different band – and I was talking about how I wanted to get into music and how I’ve always been interested in it, and he was kind of being a bit coy and wasn’t telling me that there was a place in this band, and I was like, “Oh, yeah, OK!” So, a few weeks go by, and I was kind of like, “Oh, I want to be in a band,” and he was like, “Oh, I’ve quit my band!” I was like, “Amazing! Great!” And, from there, we kind of just went, and it was really, really slow. We just didn’t really get anywhere. So much so that, when Tony joined, it was about two years later. [Laughs] Two years had gone by and nothing had happened!

Ah, to be fair, there was a pandemic.

T: Yeah.

J: Yeah, that is very true! Yeah. But that nearly killed the band, too, man. That pandemic was brutal for us. [Laughs]

Yeah. Actually, how bad were the lockdowns in Scotland?

J: Eh, well, I didn’t find they were that bad.

T: It was as bad as anywhere else, I’d say, in a way.

Fair enough.

T: We’ve got a lot of fields over here, so there’s a lot of walking done! But when I joined, so, basically, at one point, I was just really bored with my life, and I needed something new to do, so I started looking for any bands that were looking for a singer, like, online and stuff, and it was Callum [McArthur], our drummer, who got in touch with me, and then ignored me for a couple of weeks, and then got in touch with me again! They, basically, just brought me down to the studio where they were auditioning and stuff, and then, it was pretty smooth sailing from there on out.

J: Yeah.

T: But, even though they kind of knew each other, they still hadn’t gigged yet before I joined…

J: No, no, no.

T: …so, it still felt like a bit of a start-up from when I came in. So, it felt natural, I’d say.

Did you know the lads beforehand or did you only meet them through this project?

T: I just met them through this project, except for Louis [Collum], because… – he’s one of our guitarists – …he joined after me because he’s actually my little cousin!

Oh, yeah, yeah!

J: That’s called “nepotism,” man! That’s what it is!

It’s like, “Do you know a guitarist?” “Yeah, I think I know someone!” Tony, when it came to starting the band, what were the musical overlaps between what you wanted to do and what the other members wanted to do? Also, what were the contrasts? What was the stuff that you were bringing that the other members weren’t really into, or anything like that?

T: Well, personally…In terms of overlaps, I think that goes for probably every individual member, really. We have a lot of stuff that we like but we all have stuff that we really disagree on! [Laughs] We’ve all got some pretty mainstream things and then some really niche things that are pretty individual to us. But, what I brought into it…I’ll be the first to hold my hand up and say, I’m not a great musician and that; like, I know a couple of chords and stuff, but I back myself with lyrics, usually. That’s what I’d say I bring to the band.

J: I think, before Tony and Louis joined, we were like…I don’t know the best way to describe it. It was kind of like mod rock, and, for me, I was just like, “I’m not a big fan of it but everyone else likes it, so I’ll keep going.” And I think it was Louis’s first session, and, like, Louis is like…[To Tony] How do you describe Louis in one word? You can’t, really.

T: Eh, you can’t describe him in any amount of words, I think!

J: Yeah, like, you could give the whole English language, mate, and you can’t really figure him out! He just started playing this stuff, and we were like, “This is really cool!”, and then he was just like, “Yeah, so that’s just a song I wrote,” and then we were like, “Oh, my God! That’s perfect! That’s better than anything we have!” So, yeah, after that, we put him, like, point-first. We were like, “Yeah, you just go with it, man, and we’ll just follow you!” So, he’s kind of saved our sound, I think! [Laughs] I won’t give him credit for that, so, nah.

T: Don’t tell him! Don’t tell him we said that!

Yeah, because I think when you listen to the music, obviously, something that’s been written about your band a lot… – it was very apparent to me before I even started diving into the writing surrounding you guys – …is that the musical contrast between the guitars, in particular, it really makes it something very special and unique. What would this band be if it were just the initial drums, single guitar, and bass?

T: Very different.

J: Not this far ahead, I don’t think! [Laughs]

T: I think the way that we want to write songs and make music, it would sound really empty. Like, hollow.

J: Yeah, I feel like…Tony’s right, in the sense that, we used to…So, individually, we’d all write a song and then come in and go, “OK, play this,” and it all felt a bit disjointed, but, now, it’s kind of like, I can come in – or Tony can come, Johnny, Louis, Callum; whoever – and it’s like we all go, “OK, I know what I want to do here,” and we all kind of tweak each other, slightly. The sound we have, I think it’s just completely bipolar, in the sense that it goes from one extreme to the next, and we can write a really dark sound… – Say with “Rituals,” it’s kind of a dark song – …but then we’ve got other songs that we’ve not recorded yet that are really, really light and kind of happy and not really us. [Laughs] You kind of get that mix with it, d’you know what I mean? But, yeah, I think that’s just how we do it. We used to just do it individually, but now, it’s like, nah, I think we need to, each, come in with a core idea and we go, “Right, you go and do this bit, and you do this bit,” and then we’ll kind of throw it together. It kind of works out that way, but, sometimes, it doesn’t always work out. [Laughs]

Yeah, and, generally, how do you find the reception has been? Because, if I’m correct, you’re in Glasgow, right?

J: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That’s sort of like the musical epicentre of Scotland, I think would be fair to say. So, you know, plenty of venues, plenty of support slots, plenty of opportunities. How have you found actually introducing your music to the city has gone?

T: I think, like with anything, it’s got its ups and downs – you know, you’re not going to knock it out of the park every time – but, I’d say, overall, the feedback we get, even from complete strangers, is mostly positive, so it’s pretty encouraging, but, then again, if everyone was telling us that we were rubbish and we should pack it in, we’d probably still keep going, I think! [All laugh]

J: I think the best review that I’ve received was, we did a gig in Nice N Sleazy, which, for us, is the best venue in Glasgow. Like, it’s amazing, right? And, after it, I just had to go to the toilet. A guy beside me who, obviously, was absolutely steaming, decided to stand next to me at the urinal, and I was like, “Oh, God. What’s this going to be like?”, and he was like, “You guys were really, really good tonight, mate!”, and then he said something that I probably shouldn’t say on the air, but, you know, we convinced him to do something that night because we were that good, apparently, [Tony laughs] so I thought, “You know what? That’s a good review! I’ll take that! That was nice of you, mate. Thank you.”

It must be weird meeting fans with your cock out, but I don’t know. [All laugh]

J: That’s how I meet all my fans, mate!

T: That’s what he’s known for, really!

And that’s why the band is so popular!

J: Yeah, exactly, mate! Yeah! We don’t actually have any music; we just have an OnlyFans!

On OnlyFans, you can get your new EP! It’s self-titled. What was it about these three tracks that you felt worked together, when putting together a larger collection? Because your music is so diverse. Of the songs that were released so far, each one is so different and it doesn’t necessarily give you an indication of what’s going to come next, in a good way. So, was it preplanned, like, “We’re going to do an EP,” or was it kind of like, “Oh, these three songs kind of work together,” or how did it come about?

T: I think it all really started with “Run Away,” which was a song that we had released as a single before, anyway. So, we put that into the EP and all three of these songs…No, sorry, “Run Away” and “Saccharine” had been in our catalogue for a while, and then “Swan” was our fairly newer one, and we knew we wanted to do something with “Run Away” and “Saccharine,” anyway, because they were kind of more of an indication of the sound that we were looking for, going forward, and then, when we wrote “Swan,” everyone was like, “This fits, perfectly,” and then, when I was kind of looking at the three of them, I just felt like, “In a certain order, these tell a pretty decent story.” Like, the sound, they contrast each other a lot, but, like you said, they work well together and, I think, lyrically, as well, in that order, they tell a decent story. A tragic one, if you will. [All laugh]

As the lyricist of the band, do you think about the connectivity between songs, or is it all just writing individual songs as their own piece, trying to tell a story in the three minutes or however long allotted?

T: I think some of it can be coincidental, but a lot of the time, there’s a reason why I’m feeling that way, and I try to get…Like, if there’s a strong emotion then I think it’s a songwriter’s duty to express that as much as they can while that feeling’s still there. So, there’s, like, coincidences between them, but there’s also a pattern to them, too.

Do you find when you’re writing, it’s all just what’s on your mind, a kind of stream-of-consciousness, just getting it out, or is it very well thought out, very well reedited, kind of trying to express exactly what you’re thinking, or is it more kind of natural?

T: Oh, like, if you see, like…I usually have a little book that I write my lyrics in, and if you looked at that, you’d think, “This guy’s deranged! What does this even mean?!” [Laughs] So, I kind of just vomit my words onto a page, sometimes, then try to piece it together, but, other times, they’ve already written the music and I just think, “Oh, this will go nice with that,” and it’s a bit more linear, but, mostly, just my own deranged ramblings.

Do you actually like having to condense your thoughts to the parameters of the music, itself? Because, obviously, when you’re trying to write to music, there’s considerations for the amount of syllables you use and for how things fit on the melody, and, you know, you have to kind of keep editing to get the thoughts through that you’re trying to get across but, also, make it fit within the song itself. So, do you enjoy that?

T: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Like, the music kind of gives you more of a challenge to be creative with your thoughts and not just saying whatever for the sake of it; you’ve got to really be careful and creative with how you’re saying things and, like, “What’s the most important thing to get out of here?”

J: I think, for us, we listen to the songs sometimes, and, like, I know myself, if we write a song… – and I don’t mean this in a bad way towards Tony – …but, I don’t think I fully listen to the lyrics because I’m kind of too focused in trying to do my own bit. But there were times where we were on stage and I’m listening to it and I’m like, “Oh, my God. That’s a really good lyric,” then I kind of go, “Oh, my God! Is he OK?!” [All laugh]

As long as you don’t say it into the mic!

J: Yeah, you’re like, “Oh, my God…”

T: This is why he’s not allowed to have a back-up [mic]!

I like the idea that you’re looking at the band, and then the bass player is just like, [Mimes concernedly looking around to the other members for a reaction]. And, also, recently, you guys have been touring around the UK; actually, you were over here in Ireland, quite recently [Editor’s Note: When writing this up, I realise that this might read like I’m erroneously saying that Ireland is in the UK. Not my intention; it just reads strangely because of how I spoke. I live here, I know it’s not. Thank you]. I was wondering, what it’s like, now that people outside of Glasgow and outside of your friends and family and all that are listening to your music?

T: Oh, it’s brilliant. I love, like…even in a non-musical or professional sense, like, just being able to go to different things and meet all these different people and just interacting, I’ve loved it. It’s probably the best one for us all, for the band, I think.

J: Oh, yeah! Like, we went to Dublin, as you were saying, and it was really weird, because we were sitting there, talking with our manager, and we’re all having a conversation, and then a boy approached us and we were kind of thinking, “Oh, maybe we’ve got an Irish fan.” Turns out, he was a Hibs fan from Edinburgh. [All laugh] So, like, not Celtic, not Rangers; he was a Hibs fan from Edinburgh! We were like, “Oh, OK!” Hopefully we converted some people in Dublin to fans, that night. Hopefully. Tony’s right, in terms of going down and you kind of…Like, I think in Glasgow, you kind of end up playing with similar bands every now and then, which isn’t a bad thing – we all get on – but, when you go down south or you go to Ireland, and you kind of meet all these different people, it’s not, necessarily, tons of different sounds, but there’s tons of different people and atmosphere. I don’t know how to describe it; it’s like everywhere kind of works slightly differently but not too differently, and you get that nice experience of, “OK, well now we know what it’s like to go over here. Now we can get into this.” So, hopefully, the future will kind of stay like that, where we can keep finding new things out but not have the same issues we’ve had everywhere else. But, no, it’s been good, man. As Tony said, it’s probably the best month for the band.

Yeah, I mean, do you find touring… – as you were alluding to, there – …it kind of opens up your perspective, maybe gives you new things from a songwriting perspective, to kind of have reference points from places that are far from your immediate vicinity?

J: Yeah, I’d say so, man. As Tony says, he writes the lyrics, but I think we all, in our own personal time, will kind of write songs and stuff like that. We tend to give Tony lyrics because, obviously, he’s got to sing them, so it’s fairer to let him have his own take on them. But you’re right, like, you kind of…We went down to Liverpool, and I’ve never been to Liverpool, myself… – I’ve been to Dublin tons of times. I’ve been to other places tons of times. Newcastle tons of times – …but going down to Liverpool, you can tell that music is part of their culture, because, obviously, of Beatles and stuff like that, but it’s a massive part of what they are, as their identity. Glasgow’s got a lot of things, like religious intolerance and stuff like that, [All laugh] but, in Liverpool, it was all about the music and you did feel a little bit like, “OK, this is a really big thing for them.” And, in Dublin, because, obviously…So, what we did was, we saw Fontaines the night before we went to Dublin, and we’d seen so many folk…Like, it was really weird because you’d seen so many folk… – well, I did, anyway – …like, the bohemians in a Fontaines t-shirt, or the hipsters, sorry. Tons of them, tons of people just being kind of like thingy, so it felt kind of similar in Dublin, in that sense, where it feels like music is a big deal here, and you do get a nice feeling off it, where you feel kind of welcomed in a sense, if you know what I mean.

T: Another good thing is, it really puts you out of your comfort zone, doing these other cities, because, when we’re in Glasgow, we know there’s going to be friends and family in the crowd and that, so you know you’re going to get good support, whereas, I was in Dublin, looking at the crowd, I was like, “No one here has any reason to be nice or just support me for the sake of it. I’ve got to put on a show.”

I get what you’re saying about when you’re playing a hometown show, a lot of people are people you know. Do you find it strange, or does it even show your reach, when you start seeing people turning up to local shows that you don’t know? Because I’ve been in that situation, as an audience member, going in and feeling like I’m crashing a private event or something. [Laughs]

T: Well, for the last headliner we did…[To Johnnie] Was that at The Old Hairdresser’s, yeah?

J: Yeah, mate. Yeah.

T: Aye. We done that, and we kind of found out after that there was a few people who kind of just came in to see us but didn’t know us and they hadn’t seen us before. So, I hope they don’t feel like they’re crashing a private event! I want as many of them there, as I can! But I want to be able to deny my mum! “Mum, sorry, we’re sold out! You cannae come in!” [Laughs]

[Laughs] “Pay the entry fee, like everyone else!” [All laugh] And one other thing I wanted to ask was a little bit about how you guys record. So, do you record in bulk or do you do songs one at a time?

J: Typically, for a single and stuff, we’ve done it one at a time, just because it was easier and we didn’t really have…I wouldn’t say we didn’t have a plan, we did have a plan, but I don’t think we were kind of…I think Tony is right, in the sense that…So, originally, when we did the EP, it wasn’t “Swan,” it was another song we have, and then, as Tony said, we kind of finished “Swan” and said, “This is a better fit.” I think, for us, we’d probably do more EPs and stuff, but I would always kind of…Again, with the whole bipolar music thing, it’s kind of like we kind of write too much different stuff. We’re kind of like, “Oh, nah, that doesn’t work with that,” and then it’s like, you don’t want to totally reject it, so you’re like, “That doesn’t really fit in there, so we’ll just release that on its own.” But the song originally on the EP, we’re going to release that as a single, possibly next or at some other point, just on its own because it is kind of similar, but it’s different, as well. It fits in with other stuff we have. So, I think, overall, we’d probably like to do more block stuff, but it just, sometimes, makes more sense to do it on its own, d’ya know what I mean?

Yeah, totally. Is that something you have for consideration? If you had another EP or a full-length album, even, would it be like you have to make the songs work together, or would you be happy just to sort of go, “Eh!”, as long as the overall record is good”?

T: It’s probably gotta be a mix.

J: A mix, yeah.

T: Like, you want to get as many of what you think are your best tunes out there, but, at the same time, you don’t want to be like, “Oh, here’s a punky song and here’s a small ballad right next to it!” I think you want to have a good mix.

J: I think the biggest issue with that is that we all kind of…What’s the best way to say it without saying we hate each other? We will argue about the songs that are going to go into that album or EP until the day it comes out, probably. So, that’s the biggest issue, man, is getting everyone to go, “[…] This is it.”

T: And if a song doesn’t make it to the album but we still like it, we can always just do a single.

J: Oh, exactly! We can always just do a single! Aye.

[Laughs] Or a B-side.

J: [Laughs] Exactly, yeah.

Do you find, actually, when you guys are playing live, the setlist gives you a sense of what an album could be, or does the set change much, gig-to-gig?

T: I think it can do. Like, we’ll do a certain order for a while of our songs, and if it feels like things are getting a bit stale, or people aren’t really feeling this song or whatever, or maybe we’re not even particularly excited about playing a particular song anymore. So, it changes from time to time. We try to keep it in a rough order, in terms of we always want to start strong – we usually start with our song “Ritual” and we usually end with “Unwind,” another song that hasn’t been recorded or anything yet – but anything in the middle, really, is interchangeable.

Yeah, I think that’s an interesting thing, gauging crowd interaction with certain songs, and, also, because you’re gigging so much, you do get a sense of, “OK, this has durability,” because, I don’t know if you guys have this, but I’ve talked to other artists who talk about recency bias with their music, in the sense that they tend to favour the new stuff they wrote and they kind of fall in love with that and some of the older stuff goes by the wayside, but it’s kind of hard to tell, “Will this have longevity?” So, I think it’s good to kind of actually pace them out a bit and stick with them and see if they have legs, you know?

J: You’re completely right, mate. Our first single, “Come and Get It,” the one we released, I can honestly say that playing that live, I despise it. I don’t like it at all. I just hate playing it, man. I think we’re all at that now. To put it into context, we’ve been playing that since the first iteration of the band, so that’s been there since 2019, so I think now, I’m just like, “It’s five years of this song, and if I have to listen to it, I’m going to crack.” But you’re right; I feel like every new song we write, we kind of go, “Oh, that’s better than the last one. That’s better than this,” and you’re right, your brain kind of jumps, and once that song’s finished, you’re like, “Oh, no, that wasn’t really as good as this one.” It is weird because you kind of get that buzz off of it, and then you sit for five minutes and go, “OK, maybe not.”

Sometimes, bands stop playing songs in their set, and then they bring it back, like years later, and it sounds fresh again. So, maybe you just need a break from it, because I think it’s a great song. It was your debut, and I think it was a really strong indication of what the band was. One final thing I want to mention – I just thought this was funny – I was looking at your socials…

T: Oh, no! [Both laugh]

…and you had a Cameo from James Buckley – for those who don’t know, he’s Jay from The Inbetweeners – he was kind of just half-heartedly going, “Yeah, I think you should check out this new song. They thought it was a good idea to get me to do a Cameo. You should listen to it. I’m not going to listen to it!” [All laugh] Do you find you got your money’s worth from that Cameo?

J: The best part was, man, we didn’t even ask him to do that. I think our guitarist Louis had contacted him and just put a really generic, you know, “Shout us out,” basically…

T: “Can you promote our song?” Or was it a gig?

J: No, it was…

T: Oh, it was a song! It was “Run Away.” It was “Run Away,” yeah.  

J: So, he just sent that in. I was in work at the time, and I watched it five times. I was like, “This is perfect!”

T: He was slagging us off, though!

J: “It is amazing! This was the best thing we could’ve asked for!” And I think one of the boys asked, “Should we post it?”, and I was like, “Oh, my God! Yeah! It’s so mean! Like, he’s just taking the piss out of us! Just go for it! Who cares?” Because, originally, I wanted to do Dean Norris from Breaking Bad. I just really wanted him to do it. And then, we were going through it, and Dean Windass was one of the options, as well. We didn’t know if he could actually say half of the words we put in the thingy. [Tony laughs] And then it was like…oh, there was somebody else! I can’t remember! But we saw James Buckley, and we were like, “That’s kind of perfect.” But, yeah, he was a good sport! He helped us out a wee bit, so…!

T: Aye! He replied quickly, as well, so cheers, James!

J: Yeah, cheers, James!

I love if a label was to pick you up, you’d have to have a budget for your albums for just Cameo requests! [All laugh] It’s actually good PR!

J: He didn’t have to do that, man. He just done it all, himself. Like, cool! Right!

The final things I’m going to ask, plans for next year, coming into the new year. It’s almost Christmas, now. Merry Christmas, by the way. So, coming into the new year, what’s the plans?

T: So, right now, we’re applying for a lot of festivals in the summer. Trying to, you know, get really into that circuit for the summer. That’s our main focus, I’d say, as well as working towards getting enough songs out and, possibly, working towards an album, but, if not, then definitely more music, anyway. So, January/February, a lot of that, we probably will get a couple of gigs in, but we’ll mainly be planning, and practicing ,and writing, and stuff like that.

J: Yeah, I think, now that we’ve had this year, where we’ve had management and we’ve actually taken it a bit more professionally, I think instead of just going for…Basically, before, if we got a gig offer, we were like, “Yeah, OK, cool,” and we’d go and do it. Whereas, now, we’re like, “If we plan this…,” as Tony says, “…plan festivals out, plan in lots of time where we can go record, gig for a bit, maybe try get a festival,” we do have more a linear, “Right, we need to manage our time perfectly,” if you know what I mean. I’m not saying we do that, because we don’t really do it, but we’ll try our best to do that. So, yeah, no, it’s looking good.

Do you find it easy to tour around with everyone’s schedule and stuff? Because, obviously, it’s a five-piece band, so is it difficult to kind of corral everyone and get them on the road?

T: Absolute nightmare.

J: No, absolute nightmare, mate.

T: Like, I work a nine-to-five job, so I’ll always sort of be available after work, but every time I’m free after work, [Pointing at Johnnie] you’ve got the night shift.

J: Yeah, like, I’ve got football, and I’ve got night shift, and I’ve got something. Tony…to be fair to Tony, Tony is usually pretty flexible. Louis works in Manchester, like Monday to Wednesday, or he used to. I don’t know if he still does?

T: Oh, no, he’s back up here, now.

J: Oh, good!

T: He is. But he likes to go down to London, every weekend, though, just for…[Inaudible]

J: His missus moved to London, that’s why he goes down; he’s not just galivanting to London every weekend.

T: Sometimes, one of us will just be like, “I’m in a bad mood! I’m not coming!” [All laugh]

J: We’ve had that excuse. Not from Louis, but from probably all of the band at some point, “Ah, I can’t be arsed, boy. I’m in a bad mood. I’m not coming tonight.”

That’s good because you don’t want them just, like, sulking in the corner, you know? [All laugh]

J: That is true!

T: We’ve had that! It used to be me sulking in the corner!

“I’ll play but I’m not looking at the crowd!”

J: Oh, yeah! We’ve had some horror showcases! The last gig we’re playing this year is at The Poetry Club at the SWG3. We’ve only played there one time before, and I decided that, for a confidence boost, I was going to down a ten-pack of Tennent’s. My God! The night we had that night was not so good!

Yeah, even when you say that, I’m just like, “That sounds like a bad idea,” without even really knowing you. Whoever said that to me, I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s a bad idea!” [Laughs]

J: I blame the…I blame the….[Laughs]

T: [To Johnnie] I blame you! [Laughs]                    

J: I blame the guys who brought the rider, because they just went, “Here’s a ten-pack,” and I was like, “Alright!”

“That’s for me!”

J: I did hand out one, I think. So, I shared one that night.

So, you just got into music for the riders? [All laugh]

J: Yeah!

I actually have to say, I’ve been doing this for probably about four or five years now, and I think you’re the first band I’ve talked to about the rider, actually, so, congrats! One final, final thing is, you were mentioning doing festivals and stuff. I assume your primary focus at the moment is getting your name out across the UK, but, in general, are you looking to Europe and other locations as potential for gigs? And, not to get too political, but does Brexit affect that in any way? I’ve been talking to acts from Scotland, and England, and Wales and stuff, and they all kind of say, “Yeah, Brexit’s kind of put a stall on some of our ambitions in Europe.”

T: We’ve not ventured far out for that to have affected us, yet, but we know that it will.

J: Yeah.

T: But, in terms of appealing outside of the UK, wherever’ll takes us, man! If we become Hungarian superstars, then I’m all for it!

J: My pal, he was in Spain at the time that we released the first single. He had gone over to visit some friends, and when it came out, he played it, to get rumblings from people in Madrid. And, a week later, my dad showed me Spotify stats for us and it was like 100 and [The full figure was cut off by Zoom’s noise gate] plays in Madrid, and I was like, “Oh, my God!” I don’t think that’s enough to constitute a gig, but, you know, if it does one day, yeah, I’ll go to Madrid!

T: I remember once, I was checking my Spotify [for] Artists, and, like, when our song went up by a thousand in one day, I was like, “All of these are from Brooklyn! What happened?” [Laughs]

Yeah, no, it’s mad. When people look at the heat maps and stuff like that, it’s always just like, “We’re really popular over here, for some reason!”, and they have no fuckin’ clue why!

T: I always look for it, when there’s like one guy in Chad that’s listened. I don’t care about the areas where everyone is listening. I was like, “Shoutout to that one guy in Honduras!”

Yeah, you’re always looking for the 00.1% or whatever.

J: Spotify’s brilliant, man. With the Wrapped last year, I went on my pals’ stories and stuff like that, and it was like, “Your listening countries,” “Your listening places,” or whatever. Like, Madrid, all these places. “Dundee.” I was like, “Great, my listening experience is in Dundee! That’s phenomenal, isn’t it?”

T: Looks like we’re never getting our Dundee gig, now! [All laugh]

Flair’s debut, self-titled EP is on all streaming platforms now. You can find the band’s music, live dates, social media accounts, and more through their Linktree.

Aaron Kavanagh

Aaron Kavanagh is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Post-Burnout. His writing can also be found in the Irish Daily Star, Buzz.ie, Totally Dublin, The GOO, Headstuff, New Noise Magazine, XS Noize, DSCVRD and more.