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07/04/2010 12:00 AMFlatliners played Warped Tour and Madison's Douglas Levine caught their show when the tour stopped in New Jersey.
They may be called the Flatliners, but onstage, they are anything but dead. Despite the heat, there was a good turn out for their show at the Warped Tour. Equally as entertaining as their music, were the faces of bassist, John Darbey and drummer, Paul Ramirez, who were constantly sticking their tongues out.
Lead singer and guitarist, Chris Cresswell put on quite a show interacting with guitarist, Scott Brigham. Many of their songs will appeal to people who listen to any type of punk, from Goldfinger to Offspring, because they are right in the middle of the punk rock spectrum. This band should definitely be on your list of bands to watch.
Listen to the interview below or in the link to the right.
What prompted your decision to move away from ska and more towards punk?Chris Cresswell: It wasn't really a planned decision. When we wrote the songs on our first album we were 14 and we recorded them when we were 16. By the time we got to the next album it was four years later and we had written a couple of punk songs and decided we could do that too and branch out. But we all still love ska and reggae to death. We've kind of always just wanted to do whatever we want.
There have been reports that your drummer Paul wishes to quit the band to become a professional sleeper. What is your opinion on this?CC: Paul is just wild when he's asleep. He makes the most insane the noises and he never closes his mouth. I think it's just wild to be around him and hear the noises he's making. I think he's a better drummer than sleeper but if he decided to explore that avenue I think he would do really well.Your new album Calvacade came out recently. What inspired you to write this album?CC: I think everything that you experience from being away from home, kind of serves as an influence after a while when you let the music engulf everything that is your being. We love what we do and we've made a lot of great friends and accomplished a lot, but we're human too. So we have our bad days and sometimes we just want to go home. So there's that whole disconnected feeling wrapped in with how the world is full of faults. As far as the artwork goes, it's meant to look depression era and old and weathered, because that's how we feel. The whole music business takes a lot out of you but you also get it all back.If you could play with anyone live or dead who would it be?CC: Joe Strummer with out a doubt. As far as bands go, other than the Clash because I feel like they and the Beatles are the only two bands that have really ever mattered in rock music, we would all like to play with this band Rocket From the Crypt, which is basically really awesome rock and roll with horns.
Listen to the interview below or in the link to the right.