First
off, nobody in the band is Larry, where does the name come from?
Larry was
born on a frigid hollows eve in the year 2003. It was kind of an alter ego our
drummer Jamin created for himself. Don't ask me why we stuck with the name, it
just happened and here we are now!
What
is more important – Larry or his flask?
Definitely
the flask!! And whatever may be inside of it!
This
band combines together so many different styles and sounds, how did you figure
out this was the music you would be playing?
The sound
was simply born out of taking six dudes and throwing all their influences
together and seeing what happened. We all grew up with punk rock and the local
scene really inspired us to start playing. We never really planned our sound,
it just kind of naturally came out. The only thing I would say was conscious
was our energy. We knew we wanted to throw everything we had at the crowd every
night. But other than that, it's still a crapshoot every time we sit down and
work on something new. Which keeps everything really fresh and fun.
With
so many of you, how did the band come about?
Larry and
his flask started, like I said back in '03 with our bassist Jesse, our drummer
Jamin and another guitarist who is no longer in the band. Shortly after the
inception I joined. We were pretty much just a shitty local punk rock band
playing the local scene every weekend. But things progressed and we lost
members, gained members then lost members again until we just said "fuck
it!" And went totally acoustic, adding as many members as possible(at one
time we had 11 or 12 members!!) and took it on the road. The members you see
today is what the lineup got whittled down to and we're still goin' strong!
Oregon
has been giving the music world a plethora of good bands over the last 5-7
years, where does Larry and His Flask fit into that?
Nowhere!
Haha. I'm kidding. We're from a couple of pretty small towns in the middle of
nowhere. Bend and Redmond. For a long time we kind of avoided Portland due to
its over-saturated scene. We focused on the places like we came from. Small
towns that deserve to have a music scene. Don't get me wrong, we love Portland,
but with so many bands, it was hard to make a splash if you know what I mean.
Now it's much different. We just go fucking EVERYWHERE!! But as far as being
from Oregon is concerned, we're proud of that.
Your
live shows are simply amazing. When you get off stage each night, how exhausted
are you or does the adrenaline never wear off?
The
adrenaline does wear off eventually. Exhaustion does catch up with us. We're
not super-human, We're just always down to party!!
Are
you really having as much fun on stage as you show off or is this another day
in the office for you?
We're
grateful for everyday that we can spend doing what we love. How could we not be
having fun?
After
four albums and two EP’s, you are still a new band to most people. Do you
consider yourself to be a “new” band now?
Relatively.
We kind of feel new still. We're still winning people over every night. When it
gets to a point when we're not trying to do that constantly I think we might
not feel as new. But on the other hand, with every album you kind of feel new
in a way. Showing people new songs takes the same attitude.
Is
a new full-length in the works?
We're always
working on new songs! We have almost a whole albums worth of songs for the next
one. We're hitting the studio in January to pound it all out. We're all pretty
excited about the new stuff. It's a little different but still very Flask.
Can't wait to record it!!
Recently
your toured with Frank Turner and Jenny Owen Youngs, at the final show of the
tour, all of you were praising each other and banding together like a family.
What was it like being on the road with all of them?
AMAZING! We
all dubbed it the "Friendship Tour". I can't say enough good things
about Frank and the Sleeping Souls and Jenny. Lets just say we all made some
lifetime friends on that tour.
When
I first reviewed you guys, I said “The band, which there is only one to
describe is if one things of Mumford and Sons taking a ton of HGH and then
doing massive lines of Coke and going on stage, that in a nutshell, is Larry
and His Flask.” Do you agree with that assessment?
Ha, I guess.
People have described us in so many different ways. Some of them massively
in-depth and intricate like yours(some more so). But the most common reaction
to what we do is the word " Ridiculous!". Which I like. It's simple,
and it's so loaded. It's open for so many interpretations. But I guess I'd say
our show is a lot like 6 guys getting up on stage and loving what they do!
