There's a sort of limbo period for any band at a certain level that can prove to be difficult to take initially, and it is the downtime that comes when a tour recently let out and it isn't yet time to record another album or head back on the road again. For The Flatliners, that time is now; with Cavalcade, the band's second full-length album for Fat Wreck Chords, now out for almost exactly five months and the first stretch of tour promotion complete, the band has come home for a bit of rest and relaxation – they're just trying to figure out how to do that. “Between the last tour and our next one coming up, we'll have been home for about five weeks,” explains Flatliners singer Chris Cresswell of what's been happening with his band lately. “We've still got a few days before we leave for tour again, but we are doing shows while we're at home; we did some shows with Black Lungs around Ontario so it's kind of like being at home and being on tour all at once which is kind of funny and very strange. We're also all doing our own things at the same time – like some of us are working here and there, having band practice and catching up with friends and family and everything, but t we're also playing shows all the while. At least we're all staying busy."
It sounds boring and Cresswell is loathe to admit that it is a little frustrating to feel stagnant. "Some of us will have a day where we literally do nothing," laughs the singer, wanly. "That happened more immediately after Warped Tour because none of us left the house for a week and enjoyed sleep and enjoyed air conditioning and enjoyed drinking water out of a tap rather than a can but, after getting home from a tour, if feels pretty good for a couple of days, but then the nomadic tendency starts to kick in and you can't help but feel like you're supposed to be somewhere else."
Indeed, it all sounds incredibly bleak but, happily, business is about to pick up for The Flatliners very soon and in a very, very big way.
The exposure that The Flatliners have received over the last four months courtesy of both Cavalcade and the band's stellar live shows has generated a buzz and opened the doors on more opportunities; like an opening slot beside Teenage Bottlerocket on the new tour for ska-punk institutions The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Sparks of excitement immediately begin to radiate from the singer's voice at even the mention of the tour and they only get brighter the further the conversation goes. "Heading out with The Bosstones should be really great, and the fact that we're going to do it with Teenage Bottle Rocket makes it even better," exclaims Cresswell, almost seeming to vibrate through the phone. "All of us have been fans of the Bosstones since high school so it's really cool that we're going to get to play with them and the guys Teenage Bottlerocket have become friends of ours since we both sighed to Fat Wreck so I think this tour's going to be a lot of fun, and it's really just the beginning. After that, we're heading out across Canada with Against Me! in September and we're going to do CMJ in Brooklyn in October, and Riot Fest in Chicago in October and I'm really excited about all of it. While we're out with Against Me! too, we're going to be releasing a new seven-inch. It's a single for “Monumental,” and it's coming out on September 28 th on Fat Wreck Chords. The A-side will be “Monumental” from Cavalcade, and then the B-side will be two songs called "Christ Punchers" and "Cut Your Teeth" that didn't make Cavalcade – so they've already been recorded and we love the songs – they just didn't make the “record cut,” so to speak – and we wanted to get them out so we did a sort of throwback thing that bands used to do all the time with a single, which should be cool."
As the excitement grows in the singer's voice, so too does the talk of other future plans. While Cresswell dolefully admits that the songwriting happening within the band has tapered down a bit while they run on and off the road, the talk and planning for a follow-up to Cavalcade has begun, and the bandmember have begun assembling their own ideas individually to get a headstart on when rehearsals begin. "The songwriting hasn't been moving quickly yet or anything, and we're not saying that we're saying that we're writing a new record right now and we're going to record it by the end of the year or anything, because that's not gonna happen," explains Cresswell very carefully. "With our band, there's never really a clear intention regarding what we're going to do 'with this next project' or whatever, but some of the songs on Cavalcade are about a year old to us now though – if not older – because we started writing it a bit while we were on tour and then came home and started recording it, and then we went back out on tour, and then finished recording Cavalcade and went back out on tour. It was a really weird revolving door of duties but, now that we've got a chunk of time while we're at home, we've started jamming out some new songs. We wrote a song the other day – and it's pretty cool and fast – but we're taking our time with it because there's no rush on our end to put out a new album."
Artist:
www.theflatliners.com/
www.myspace.com/theflatlinerstoronto
Tour:
Flatliners upcoming tour dates.
Download:
The Flatliners – "Monumental" – Cavalcade
The Flatliners – "Carry The Banner" – Cavalcade
Further Reading:
Ground Control's Flatliners pre-release Cavalcade interview.
Ground Control's Cavalcade review.
Album:
Cavalcade is out now on Fat Wreck Chords. Buy it here on Amazon, and and the Monumental 7'' comes out on September 28, 2010 on Fat Wreck; pre-order it directly from the label here .
