Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover
Flaw's Career is Anything But...
2002-10-16
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How is this for irony: Flaw's career is progressing flawlessly. Since they released
Through the Eyes in October of 2001, Flaw has toured with bands like Sevendust,
Static X, Mudvayne and Drowning Pool, they've been named one of "30 Bands
To Watch" by Metal Edge Magazine, and Sully Erna (Godsmack) hand picked
their song, "Only the Strong" for the now-gold Scorpion King
soundtrack. Somehow, in the midst of all of this, Chris Volz, Flaw's frontman,
found the time to field questions about the band's philosophy, the people they've
worked with (including an ex-porn director) and how they once recorded an entire
album for $68.
What distinguishes Flaw from the hordes of other nü-metal bands out there?
Probably the fact that we're really diverse. We have really heavy stuff and we have really light stuff, but we always focus on melody and harmony. I think that there are too many metal bands that are just doing one thing for the entire 60 minutes of an album. That gets really stale, and there's too much of it out there.
What do you find is the inspiration for your songs?
Basically, all the songs are written about life. What I went through as a kid, confusing myself growing up, trying to find a way, different stuff like that. It just basically turned into exactly what I wanted to get out lyrically. It's one of those things where I just wanted to have everything relate to life. There's too much ridiculous stuff. Not so much music, but ridiculous lyrics out there. Things don't matter, things don't make sense, people have to say their own name in their songs.
Can you give me some examples of how your songs break the "meaningless lyric" trend?
The song "Whole" [the band's current single] is a good example. I wrote the lyrics about my mom's suicide when I was younger. And "Best I Am" is about my daughter and the responsibility that I feel to not do to her what was done to me as a child. So, I don't know. I mean, I could go on and on about it, but the basic gist of it is that our music and our lyrics reflect life.
When you recorded Through the Eyes, you worked with David Bottrill. How did he, as a producer, contribute to your particular musical vision?
He was awesome. It was a dream come true for him to choose us as a band, especially since he's worked with Tool and Peter Gabriel. We learned a lot from him in just the short time that we spent with him. He taught us how to break the music down into its subtle form and then build it back up and how to look at it in different perspectives. It was definitely a pleasure to work with him. I don't think there is a producer out there who could have made our album sound better because he's so focused on dynamics, and he also loves melody and harmony. He just basically took our best and made it better.
Speaking of records, I heard that you guys once made a record for $68. How did you pull that off?
Well, we needed to record an album and we didn't have the monetary funds, but one of the guys in the band had a credit card. So, we ordered all of the equipment from Musician's Friend. We ordered everything we needed to record the album ourselves from mics to cables to mixing boards and all that shit. We used it for 25 days and then sent it back saying that we were unsatisfied with the equipment, so all we had to do was pay shipping and handling, which ended up being like $68. Even though the sound quality and professionalism wasn't there, it was still the first thing that we cut down to CD, and we were still able to get it to concert promoters and radio stations and all that. That was actually the first Flaw music that was ever played - it was played on a local radio station in our hometown.
Recently you've put out two videos, one of which was directed by an ex-porn director, right?
Uh, Gregory Dark, yeah.
How did that come about?
Basically, we had a list of producers we wanted to work with, so we sent them the song and they each wrote a treatment for it. Then we read the treatments, kind of compared them with the vision we had ourselves and just chose off of that. It was great to work with him. That guy was incredible. The fact that he used to be a porn director was almost like a novelty for us [laughs]. I'd never seen any of his stuff before that, but then after finding out what he used to do, I went into a couple CD warehouse places and checked 'em out. Damn.
You recently lost one of your original members [Jason Daunt - guitar / keyboards]. How has that affected the music - particularly your live sound?
I think we've gotten better. The sound has definitely gotten tighter. We used to have some discrepancies about the way the two guitars mixed on stage, but we don't have that anymore. We're not even going to audition or hire anyone else. We're mixing better on stage. We've got more room on stage. The overall attitude of the band is much better as a four-piece.
On that note, what is your philosophy for the live show?
I just like to focus on honesty. I know that people aren't stupid, and they can tell whether you believe in what you're saying or not. I want them to see that we are an honest, heartfelt band that gives 110 percent in everything we do musically. That includes being sometimes very aggressive but then sometimes very emotional. I think that we do that very well live - what we have to. This is our life and we don't want to do anything half-assed.
What distinguishes Flaw from the hordes of other nü-metal bands out there?
Probably the fact that we're really diverse. We have really heavy stuff and we have really light stuff, but we always focus on melody and harmony. I think that there are too many metal bands that are just doing one thing for the entire 60 minutes of an album. That gets really stale, and there's too much of it out there.
What do you find is the inspiration for your songs?
Basically, all the songs are written about life. What I went through as a kid, confusing myself growing up, trying to find a way, different stuff like that. It just basically turned into exactly what I wanted to get out lyrically. It's one of those things where I just wanted to have everything relate to life. There's too much ridiculous stuff. Not so much music, but ridiculous lyrics out there. Things don't matter, things don't make sense, people have to say their own name in their songs.
Can you give me some examples of how your songs break the "meaningless lyric" trend?
The song "Whole" [the band's current single] is a good example. I wrote the lyrics about my mom's suicide when I was younger. And "Best I Am" is about my daughter and the responsibility that I feel to not do to her what was done to me as a child. So, I don't know. I mean, I could go on and on about it, but the basic gist of it is that our music and our lyrics reflect life.
When you recorded Through the Eyes, you worked with David Bottrill. How did he, as a producer, contribute to your particular musical vision?
He was awesome. It was a dream come true for him to choose us as a band, especially since he's worked with Tool and Peter Gabriel. We learned a lot from him in just the short time that we spent with him. He taught us how to break the music down into its subtle form and then build it back up and how to look at it in different perspectives. It was definitely a pleasure to work with him. I don't think there is a producer out there who could have made our album sound better because he's so focused on dynamics, and he also loves melody and harmony. He just basically took our best and made it better.
Speaking of records, I heard that you guys once made a record for $68. How did you pull that off?
Well, we needed to record an album and we didn't have the monetary funds, but one of the guys in the band had a credit card. So, we ordered all of the equipment from Musician's Friend. We ordered everything we needed to record the album ourselves from mics to cables to mixing boards and all that shit. We used it for 25 days and then sent it back saying that we were unsatisfied with the equipment, so all we had to do was pay shipping and handling, which ended up being like $68. Even though the sound quality and professionalism wasn't there, it was still the first thing that we cut down to CD, and we were still able to get it to concert promoters and radio stations and all that. That was actually the first Flaw music that was ever played - it was played on a local radio station in our hometown.
Recently you've put out two videos, one of which was directed by an ex-porn director, right?
Uh, Gregory Dark, yeah.
How did that come about?
Basically, we had a list of producers we wanted to work with, so we sent them the song and they each wrote a treatment for it. Then we read the treatments, kind of compared them with the vision we had ourselves and just chose off of that. It was great to work with him. That guy was incredible. The fact that he used to be a porn director was almost like a novelty for us [laughs]. I'd never seen any of his stuff before that, but then after finding out what he used to do, I went into a couple CD warehouse places and checked 'em out. Damn.
You recently lost one of your original members [Jason Daunt - guitar / keyboards]. How has that affected the music - particularly your live sound?
I think we've gotten better. The sound has definitely gotten tighter. We used to have some discrepancies about the way the two guitars mixed on stage, but we don't have that anymore. We're not even going to audition or hire anyone else. We're mixing better on stage. We've got more room on stage. The overall attitude of the band is much better as a four-piece.
On that note, what is your philosophy for the live show?
I just like to focus on honesty. I know that people aren't stupid, and they can tell whether you believe in what you're saying or not. I want them to see that we are an honest, heartfelt band that gives 110 percent in everything we do musically. That includes being sometimes very aggressive but then sometimes very emotional. I think that we do that very well live - what we have to. This is our life and we don't want to do anything half-assed.
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