St. Alban’s quintet Floods have been steadily working away to get their name out into the music scene, be it through touring relentlessly or constantly working on material. They’ve played numerous shows and appeared at festivals such as Hevy; they’re surely making a name for themselves as they extend their arms further out in the UK, bringing their edgy, raw and gritty post-hardcore/punk music to everyone.
But this year, everything changed for them. After becoming part of the Small Town Records family, Floods released their self-titled début album after three years of patient waiting and, with it, a video for single ‘98’. Having recently finished a tour with Hey Vanity, they are getting ready to hit the road in November with Attention Thieves.
Already Heard caught up with Floods vocalist James Power to take about their latest album, being part of Small Town Records, and their plans for next year.
Already Heard: Can you introduce yourself and your role in Floods?
James Power: I’m James and I do vocals.
AH: Floods is part of Small Town Records. Why did you join Small Town Records?
JP: I’ve been a fan of their roster for quite a while, I remember buying the Flood Of Red EP when it first came out. When our first EP was released we got in touch with them, and although I probably had unrealistic goals for that particular EP, they were remarkably friendly to us and have been in touch ever since.
When we did the festival season last year they were at a fair few of them with the guys in While She Sleeps and The Hype Theory, I guess we must have impressed them so we sent them the demo version of our album and they were nice enough to release for us.
AH: How does it feel to be on the same roster with bands such as Devil Sold His Soul, Shadows Chasing Ghosts and The Elijah, to name but a few?
JP: So far really good.
As we’re a small band from the arse-end of nowhere we never expected to sell a million records with our début but I was humbly surprised to walk into a fair few HMV’s on the tour we were doing around the release to find they’d sold out.
I’ve not read a bad review yet either which is refreshing. As a fairly negative person, I’m always expecting the worst, so to hear so many nice things that people think about us puts a big grin on my face.
AH: Why has it taken three years for the album to come together?
JP: Rome wasn’t built in a day my friend haha. We had a number of setbacks that were completely out of our control. Vocalist left, festival season came (I know that might not seem like a setback, but it writes off the majority of one summer when put with touring), we weren’t happy with some of the songs we were going to release, drummer left, guitarist left etc…
It was one drawback after another, which although annoying, did set the tone for the released album.
AH: What inspired your material for the ‘Floods’ album?
JP: As a person I bottle up quite a lot of heavy thoughts and annoyances on a day to day basis, and although big things piss me off, I can bottle them up quite easily and not let them affect me, but I’m awful when it comes to bottling up the smaller things that annoy me more often. The albums based around those small things that shouldn’t matter to me but do.
Oh, and one songs about a time I watched a woman get beaten till she stopped moving.
So yeah, it’s the sort of album I imagine mums and grans will love.
AH: How was the recording process?
JP: Actually pretty smooth.
Our new drummer Toby (Houghton) smashed it just through listening to them demos, he didn’t even have a practice with us.
The rest went really well as well.
I got a throat virus half way through so we had to delay the vocals on that front for a week or two, but nothing major.
AH: You recently finished a tour with Hey Vanity. How did that go?
JP: Yeah really well – as a smaller band it’s rare to do an entire tour and have people there to watch you at every date and for none of the dates to fall through.
It also helps when the band you’re touring with are on the same page as you, the guys in Hey Vanity are lovely lovely people and really easy to get along with, I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about them.
AH: Now you’re getting ready to hit the road with Attention Thieves in November. What’s the atmosphere like in the Floods camp?
JP: We’re buzzing to go back on the road. We all work full time jobs in between the band, so every second not on the road is a second in a boring monotonous atmosphere we don’t want to be in.
We love having an excuse to hang out and play to people so to be able to do that with a band as great as Attention Thieves is awesome.
AH: About a month ago, the music video for ‘98’ was released. How was the recording process for the video?
JP: It was really quick and easy, our good friend Lawrence Hardy did it, he always knows how to handle us as people an how to get the best out of us, even if I am wearing mentally stupid short shorts.
AH: For those who haven’t seen your live shows before, how would you describe them?
JP: We try and pour a lot of passion and energy into our live shows. I’m not happy unless I’m practically collapsing from exhaustion afterwards. We always have a higher aim to be more and more energetic though, coming from the same area as Enter Shikari, Your Demise and Gallows means you’ve got a really high benchmark to meet when it comes to a live show
AH: You’re well known for your live shows. How does it feel when you see fans pour into your shows?
JP: It’s great to see people that have come to see us, it hasn’t really hit home to me yet that people would pay money to come and watch us play, but it’s awesome that they do, it genuinely makes everything we do and all the stress that being in a band can cause worth it to know that people actually enjoy what you do.
AH: What do you hope to achieve in 2013?
JP: I’d love to do the festival circuit again, and I’d like to tour as much as we possibly can. We’re always working on new material as we speak so hopefully that’ll surface next year.
I want to keep the ball rolling and see how much we can achieve.
‘Floods’ by Floods is available now on Small Town Records.
UK Tour with Attention Thieves:
November
21 Derby – Victoria Inn
22 Southampton – Avondale House
23 Corby – Ex Servicemens Club
24 Worksop – Frog and Nightown
25 Bristol – The Croft
Floods links: Facebook|Twitter|Tumblr
Words by Jessica Tagliani (@JessTagliani)
