This week, we are venturing out of the sporting territory we have occupied so far and sitting down for a chat with up-and-coming Scottish band, Flood of Red.
These guys have got an exciting couple of months ahead of them, what with their tour now gaining momentum and the long-awaited release of their second album, ‘Throw’, just a few short days away on June 30th.
About time we sat down and got to know them a bit better. We’ll let them do the talking.
Tell us a bit about yourselves and your musical journey as a band so far.
Hello! We’re Flood of Red, and we started out in Airdrie, Scotland in the last years of high school. We originally met through our mutual love of skateboarding, and starting a band seemed like another fun thing to do; right from the beginning we took the band seriously – even missing exams just so we could play some gigs in London.
In our final years of school, we put our Christmas money together, along with other savings, and bought ourselves our very first van, it was an ex-police van. We toured constantly up and down the UK, month after month, meeting new people and making a name for ourselves. Since then we’ve taken our music all over Europe, Australia and recorded our debut album in Baltimore.
We released this record, ‘Leaving Everything Behind’, on our very own label “Dark City”.
Last year we recorded our second album, Throw, this time releasing it through Superball Music, we’re delighted to be working with the label and we’re pleased to announce the new album will be out on June 30th.
What do each of you do in the band?
Flood of Red has six members. Graham Griffith on the drums, Dale Gallacher on keys, drums and everything nice, Sean McGroarty and Ross Taggart on guitar, Johnny Snee on bass and that leaves me, Jordan Spiers. I sing over all of the noise and like to pretend I’m really good on the guitar.
What do you hope to achieve this year?
We would absolutely love to sit down with Meatloaf and headbang to our new record together, but I know this isn’t going to be a reality, so we’ll settle for touring everywhere we can with our new record as well as getting involved with creating the next one.
What is the ultimate goal for Flood of Red?
The ultimate goal for us as a band is to be able to keep putting out records and playing together for as long as we can. Making a living from the band would be a bonus, we’ve struggled a lot over the years but we always seem to pull through.
What events of note have you got lined up in your diary for the rest of the year?
We have just finished up a run of UK dates and we will be heading out for a headline tour starting on the 24th June, beginning with a show in Aberdeen. It’s my birthday that night, too so I may have a few beers at my feet. We’ll be on tour when the Throw is released, which will be incredibly exciting.
What is your biggest achievement as a band to date?
This is a tough one, I’m positive that our new record will be our biggest achievement to date, we’ve been trying out some of the songs during our live performances and the response has been overwhelming. We’re so incredibly proud of this record, and we’ve already got big plans for the next one.
How much time do you spend writing and rehearsing?
We spend as much time as we think we’ll need. We’ve been writing together for years and when a song clicks together we all know. We’ve written a song in five minutes and others in a year, we don’t tend to rush anything as much as we used to, we just let the songs grow with us.
It’s been a few years since the last record, but I can assure you that it won’t take that long for the next one… don’t tell anyone, but we’ve already started it.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
When we get back from playing shows, we all like a little down time. Although usually it’s not long until we want to know what each other is doing, so we all end up just hanging out.
Describe your personalities in a few words.
Scottish, loud and proud.
Who inspires you in life?
If I’m honest, we all inspire each other. We’ve worked really hard on this record and there were times where we had to push each other, so we didn’t abandon it. There was a point when we had no idea if we were going to carry on but deep down we knew it wasn’t the option for us. Other than ourselves, Meatloaf is great.
What is your most memorable moment?
My most memorable moment is the first feeling we all got when we stepped into our van before going on our first tour, not knowing what we had ahead of us. It was the most exciting time of my life and I’ll never forget it. That feeling always comes back the minute before we all leave for tour, it never goes away and I’ll always live for it.
‘Lashes’, the band’s first single from the new album, is available to download or stream for free here: http://www.superballmusic.com/specials/for/
Flood of Red tour dates 2014
