A Load Of Flap!

The Melbournian quartet Flap! have made themselves of many disparate things. Citing influences from 1920s jazz to English folk and all the way to Trinidadian calypso, the band have just released their second album, A Great Day For The Race, and don't look to stop doing what they do.

“We find influences and musical solutions from the sounds around us,” trumpeter and vocalist Eamon McNelis begins. “It just so happens the sounds around us happen to be pretty strange by most people's taste. I think that's part of what it means to be a musician – to be fascinated by all the varied sounds around you.”

“New Orleans and trad jazz are the unifying musical influence for all of us,” fellow vocalist Jess Guille adds. “It's kick-arse music for celebration, grief and everything in between. As to how it [all] melds together, I guess it just does! These aren't conversations we have; we just do what we do! Every person will describe the same thing slightly differently. We find it difficult to describe our own sound anyway, so it's up for grabs! People have a deep need to classify things by genre and whatnot, so whatever people come up with is fine with us. Lately, it's been tropical jazz, or New Orleans-calypso-gypsy-brass-folk-dance. We don't mind. If people like it, we're happy. It's kind've nice that people are forced to describe the feeling the music gives them, rather than its classification.” 

The band's new album continues in that vein of being teasingly undefinable. A melange of sounds and influences still, it's nonetheless always about the music and their passion rather than deliberate experimentation.

“We spent more time on it [this time around],” McNelis explains, “and [we] recorded it on more expensive gear. It's a better album than the last, and we're really proud of it and the positive reception it's had.”

Referring to the oddly singular 'race' in the album's title, Guille adds: “[It's about] the human race! [The title's taken] from a line in the song Rock In Space I wrote, about how remarkable it is to be alive. Being a band of agnostics and atheists, to look at how this planet works, how we've evolved, how enormous everything is, how bloody amazing and remarkable it is to be alive right now, right here, with the incredible odds against everything alive, every day is a great day for the race.”

“Thematically,” McNelis agrees, “there's ended up being some strands of death and 'the end of things' [on the album]. I think the fact that things end is an important motivation to live as much as possible while you get the chance. It's a happy little existential statement.”

As to how much the band's developed since their debut effort, both Guille and McNelis approach the subject with the mindset that they're very much still growing, together and as individuals.

“We're all better musicians,” McNelis begins, “and hopefully we're all getting better every day. Our songwriting is getting better, our band's sound is getting stronger and we're getting better at working together.”

“Certainly no diss to all involved in the first one,” Guille agrees, “but we've all learnt things and met folk and thought about things in the three years since recording the first one. We're really happy with the way we did it and feel that we've done the best we could do.

“[On this album] there's love, heartbreak, the end of the world, and chickens. I feel folks can see how we've grown up a bit from our first album. That certainly doesn't mean we've mellowed - quite the opposite.”