Flickertail Release Debut EP “Hurry Up And Wait”

The wait is over for fans of Sydney’s Flickertail with the band’s 5-track debut EP, Hurry Up and Wait, dropping today via Golden Robot Records on CD and digital.

One could say this is a concept style EP: through screaming Les Pauls and thunderous drums, it tells the story of four young men with no money having a bloody great time watching Braveheart, sinking tins and getting thoroughly excited about EPL highlights. It’s also a rough collection of love stories, but that’s much less fun to talk about.

In the studio, the boys landed Steve Balbi and Tony Wall, the latter of which has worked with just about everyone from Olivia Newton-John to KISS. Naturally, as lifelong devotees of honest, in-your-face guitar rock, they were beyond thrilled to record the next “Xanadu”.

Everything the band love about music is on this record. There’s guitar lines like Thin Lizzy, AC/DC boogie, bits of Slade stomp, rich vocal harmonies, Beatlesy melodies, and make-a-cinderblock-cry sincerity. It’s raucous love songs, played loud and honest with no autotune or sampling in earshot.

Buy/Stream EP here:  http://smarturl.it/Get-Flickertail-HUAW

TRACK LISTING
Let There Be Love
Talk
Fade Away
Green Eyed Girl
Back Of My Mind

Flickertail frontman, Liam Whelan, frankly describes each track.

“Let There Be Love – This is a song about the moment your stomach starts working for Olympic gold in gymnastics because you’ve spotted someone too obscenely attractive for this earthly realm. It doesn’t ease you in at all. There’s no build-up or slow intro, just raw, real rock and roll – just like when love coshes you in the back of the head like a train robber. Also features my favourite Jonny Goldrick guitar solo, where he channels George Harrison via Pete Townshend.

Talk – This is a pretty, lilting melody about chronic emotional dysfunction. Have you ever loved someone where loving them feels like stepping on Lego in bare feet? That’s what this is about. It’s also about trying to talk said person out of topping themselves. You can tell there’s no doctoring on this record because there’s a moment where my voice cracks in one of the verses, right before the chorus kicks in.

Fade Away – I was listening to a lot of grime – Skepta, mainly – when I wrote this song, so the bouncing rhythm in the verses is something we definitely owe to Boy Better Know et al. If Let There Be Love is about the moment you fall for someone, Fade Away is about the moment where you realise that it’s all done between you. If you love somebody, you have to nurture your relationship. Love is a verb, not a noun: it’s a thing you do to, for, and about someone. Like an old pair of jeans: just because it’s comfortable, doesn’t mean it’s not getting worn out and broken. And possibly lowering your sperm count.

Green-Eyed Girl – The girl in this song doesn’t actually have green eyes: it’s a metaphor for jealousy. That’s a poetic technique that you use when you’re blessed with genius, as I am. I love the swinging rhythm on this song – Marcus’ finest performance on the record – because it reminds me of the Pogues. There’s a million and one songs about a bloke who cheats on his missus while he’s on the road, and asks for forgiveness and this is an inversion of that trope. The bloke in this tune is accused of infidelity, but he’s done absolutely nought wrong, despite ample opportunity to do so while living his nomadic lifestyle. Because this song sounds like it could be a sea shanty, I like to imagine him as a Viking or a pirate of some kind, but it’s far more likely he’s just a bog standard touring musician with curly hair and stunning good looks. They do say to write what you know.

Back of My Mind – the heaviest, riffiest tune on Hurry Up and Wait closes the quintet. It’s a ball tearer live and gets all the folks up and dancing (or stamping, depending on how you define it). One of my stronger vocal performances and lyrical deliveries, capped off with a cacophony of sound like peak-era Oasis at the end.”

Hurry Up and Wait is available across retail, including JB Hi-Fi, Sanity, the SFR Store (signed CDs), iTunes and GooglePlay, as well as Spotify and Apple Music.

FLICKERTAIL TOUR DATES

Sat, 17 Mar | Factory Theatre (EP Launch), Sydney
Sat, 31 Mar | Last Chance Rock n Roll Bar, Melbourne
Sat, 7 Apr | Old Bank Hotel, Dubbo
Sat, 21 Apr | Whole Lotta Love, Melbourne

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