The Beat Surrender

The following is an extract of an interview that took place with Flipron before a gig they played at the back end of last year (reviewed elsewhere on these pages). We join the conversation part way through as people are beginning to arrive for the gig. Ian’s already getting on well with the band, having seen them do their sound check and introduced himself as a Beat Surrender representative.

FLIPRON:…We want to develop a better show so it’s more than just “a band playing”

IAN: You want to be more theatrical?

FLIPRON: Not necessarily, no. Throughout the year we’ve been playing lots of little random places to sort of create the illusion that we’re everywhere. The plan is just to do what we do properly wherever we go so that everyone gets the full benefit of what we’re capable of.

IAN: It’s a great new album, we love it.

FLIPRON: Oh good.

IAN: It must be a weird feeling to think that your music is being played all over the place and yet you don’t know.

FLIPRON: Yeah! Because we’re on MySpace we get people in places like Canada and Boznia-Herzogovina-

IAN: “Ve LOVE You!”

FLIPRON: Ha, yeah and that’s the interesting thing about MySpace when you’re played on a radio somewhere you don’t expect, somewhere like Holland or America or wherever, you suddenly get a load of people from these places wanting to chat. It’s great. The weirdest thing is being playlisted in Top Shop; I got a call from my sister in law saying “I’m in Top Shop and your song’s playing” and they were playing the video as well.

IAN: Oh, I didn’t know you had a video.

FLIPRON: Yeah, it’s great, it’s a cartoon video like a sort of surreal Popeye/Betty Boop style kind of thing made by this great film director called Alistair Campion. It’s something we couldn’t begin to afford. We got this great video but realised we needed to be promoting the new album , rather than the old one, so we did a double A side with “The End Of Summer”.

IAN: D’yer know, that’s one song I’m not that keen on.

FLIPRON: Yeah, it is bizarre that everybody likes and dislikes different tracks; like when you read reviews and each one has a different “stand out track of the album”, or people come up to you after a gig and say “Oh, you didn’t play so and so”. It’s enjoyable that people are getting different stuff from what we do.

IAN: Well, I like the first one, “Cerberus”, I’ll be singing along tonight to that.

FLIPRON: Good. I think it comes across on the album that that one is fun to play.

IAN: Right – I’ve got a couple of questions to ask you…hang on… “I’m at a loose end with a few pound in my back pocket. Why should I come and see you lot – rather than nipping to the offie, and stopping at home in front of Corrie in my undies?”

FLIPRON: (LAUGHS) Er…pass? Entertainment.

IAN: That’ll do. Entertainment. Next – “How easy is it to replicate what you’ve recorded when you play live?” Actually, I already know you can do this, as I’ve already heard your sound check today.

FLIPRON: It’s the other way around; the reason the record sounds quite big and posh is that we’re trying to replicate the sound we get live on the record.

IAN: Okay. “What sort of gig would you prefer – a dark smoky pub, a club or a music festival? How about a stadium?

FLIPRON: Not a stadium. We love small clubs with atmosphere or a nice summer outdoor festival.

IAN: Have you ever played Coniston Festival?

FLIPRON: No.

IAN: Oh, it’s a fantastic festival, it’s only little – about 500 people-

FLIPRON: We did the Buck Free Gathering which is a small festival down our way which is all solar powered

IAN: -Yeah, it’s like that, everybody loves each other – it’s a proper festival.

FLIPRON: Yeah! It’s a proper festival. Just people getting together to enjoy music.

IAN: Where do you actually hail from?

FLIPRON: We all live in Glastonbury, we’ve been more or less Somerset based for a while

IAN: So do you mainly play local gigs then?

FLIPRON: There’s various spots in London we’ve played.

IAN: Next question then. “I hear good things about the people at Tiny Dog records – how are they treating you? Do you ever meet up with any of the other bands on the label?”
FLIPRON: Yeah, they’re real cool, a sort of laid back company. They’re a small label, but hard working –

IAN: – They’re not trying to make a load of money, they’re just trying to get the music out there?

FLIPRON: Yeah – oh yeah. They work exceedingly hard, they’ll try everything, but they’re still friends. It’s a great relationship.

IAN: How did you get with them originally?

FLIPRON: We recorded our first album “Fancy Blues And Rustique Novelties””and we just put a search on the web for independent record labels, saw Tiny Dog and thought “that sounds like a nice name”. We sent them the demo, they really liked it and it sort of went on from there.

IAN: You don’t make any money out of it really, do you though?

FLIPRON: Yeah and no. We’ve just about broken even but I don’t think he’s broken even at Tiny Dog….I think it’s great because he’s got quite a long term vision. It’s quite old fashioned in a way; instead of chucking a bit of money about, he’s keen to try and develop a band over the course of a few albums which means that we can really dig down deep into it.

IAN: So it’s more like a nursery?

FLIPRON: It is, yeah.

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