The Flaws Of The Land
How do you solve a problem like following up a Irish Choice and Meteor Award nominated debut alum three years after the fact? According to The Flaws’ frontman Paul Finn, it requires a musical blackout, Sherlock Holmes audiobooks and the introduction of a little chaos
Craig Fitzpatrick, 30 Nov 2010
The Flaws have just re-entered the fray after some time away, armed with a second album, Constant Adventure, that builds on their assured debut Achieving Vagueness. It’s one of those rare modern albums without a weak link. They should be bubbling over with an eagerness to get the new material heard. So how does Finn feel on the eve of the launch?
“Unsure,” he admits. “I don’t know if we’re doing everything the right way, if it will all work out. We probably won’t know until about six months after the release. My one apprehension is that very few people have heard it – we haven’t gigged that much the past year.”
Finn is refreshingly honest throughout. Of Achieving Vagueness he says, “There were a couple of weak songs on it. We didn’t want that this time.”
If he’s hard on himself and his band, it’s an attitude that pays off in the creative process. Constant Adventure is self-produced, a fact that was mainly down to money.
“We didn’t have any,” laughs Finn. “So we thought we’d try it ourselves. We mixed it as well. I’m glad nobody else came in at that stage because I don’t think they would have gotten what we were trying to do. In some places there’s a chaotic element and I think they might have just cleaned that up.”
Alone in studio, the foursome were free to try new ideas and take advantage of improved technique.
“There’s a lot we did that we never thought we’d be fit to do,” Finn admits. “There was one harmony on the first record and that was it! We definitely started using the voice more as an instrument.”
To ensure they captured a sound that was truly them, Finn isolated himself from all other new music.
“I had a blackout of about six months where I didn’t listen to anything. I wouldn’t even have the radio on. I’d listen to an audiobook if I was driving somewhere. I went through all the Sherlock Holmes novels! I wanted it to be 100 per cent us."
If the musicianship stepped up a gear, they also wanted the album to have a cohesive lyrical theme – one of escape.
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