Flatwounds – an Interview by Liam Sweeny

Flatwounds is heavy grunge. Being a teen in the nineties, I hear grunge and I get a warm fuzzy. I go through a lot of antacids. But Flatwounds is pretty sick, and I dig their sound. They have energy; they have pulse. And right here, right now, they have the spotlight.

We welcome Flatwounds.

RRX: How did you all meet? What was that first jam like? Did you know right away, like did it happen spontaneously or was it pieced together like the classifieds?

FW: The first jam was nothing really to brag about. It was just me (Colin, Vocals) and Matt (guitar) and our friend Ben in a garage in Troy. We didn’t really know which direction to take it. I didn’t even sing. It was essentially Matt noodling until I said “THAT’S SICK I LIKE THAT”

After about 2 of those sessions (if you even want to call it that.) We decided to bring in Wade (Drums) and our friend David (Bass) and it kind of clicked. We pumped out three songs in one rehearsal.

RRX: Let’s talk about your EP, “Down.” I see it’s been reviewed, but I don’t really mess with those. Broke’ll do that to you. So I’m going to let you review it. One thing; it’s got to be a real review. You have to talk at least some shit about it, even just one thing.

FW: We are all satisfied with DOWN. We think it definitely represents a maturity in our songwriting, and explores more complex themes with a darker,  sludgier tone. One thing we can all gripe about is the process it took to get it out. The process was definitely a headache. We took the approach of writing as we record. Which never really works well if you’re in a time crunch. Recording it in house has its ups and downs, the quality of a professional studio is something that you’ll always chase. Sometimes it is tough to get there. But overall we are happy with the results.

RRX: One of the things I liked about checking out your page was seeing people moshing. I’m definitely too old to be doing that shit, but I get the catharsis of it. Do you ever have any issues with venues and moshing, or do you only play places where it’s understood that people are going to mosh?

FW: We definitely promote moshing. To us, moshing is a form of expression. It represents the entirety of the “extreme music” scene. Colin (vocals)  frequently joins the crowd and starts the pit. Any venue that doesn’t do moshing, we take as an insult to artistic expression. Luckily we haven’t run into any issues with that yet.

RRX: Speaking of playing places, have you ever played anywhere crazy? I don’t mean that dive bar down the street; I’m thinking like a haunted warehouse or 2 a.m. in a Denny’s parking lot, pirating power from a street light?

FW: We’ve played a lot of spots. Basements, living rooms and such. But one that comes to mind is when we took a trip up to Maine. The show was in this office building. Like there was literally people getting their hair done in the salon that it housed. It felt like a scuffed dream. Like we could play the show then file our taxes one room over. We still don’t know what to make of it.

RRX: After doing these interviews a bit, I’ve come to realize that there are a ton of genres, but when it comes to metal, there are a million genres that constitute metal, or better put, “extreme music.” So you all are heavy grunge – would you consider yourself in the metal universe?

FW: Yes.  People can put us in any gate-keepy category they want. But at the end of the day we are just a hard rock/metal band. But you can’t stop people from labeling us and drawing comparisons.

RRX: This is where you answer the question I didn’t ask. Remarks? Comments? Educate, enlighten, emote – the floor is yours.

FW: Just wanted to give a big shoutout to the Albany scene.  Thank you to everyone who supports us and comes to shows. It’s insane how many people care for one another around here. We f**king love it.

Interview by Liam Sweeny.

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