Introducing… Flowers

Indie-pop is alive and well

London-based indie-pop trio Flowers are a band with the potential to jump right to the top of their chosen genre

Names: Rachel Kenedy (bass and vocals), Sam Ayres (drums), Jordan Hockley (guitar)

Location: London, England

Style: Sparse and delicate indie-pop that becomes fuzzy on stage

Look out for: Debut album Do What You Want To, It’s What You Should Do is out now

ndie-pop is alive and well. Though it never really went away, the glut of acts that have taken Tallulah Gosh, Tiger Trap, The Pastels and Young Marble Giants as more than just casual influences is at a height and its creativity is ripe. London three-piece Flowers are one such act who are in bloom, and who are beginning to make a name for themselves with their sparsely beautiful recordings and gleefully fuzzy live shows.

Having started by virtue of the time-honoured ad tradition – with guitarist Sam Ayres explaining, “I put an ad out for someone that sounded like early Madonna, but through a broken tape recorder” – it was a love of lo-fi pop that fired their creativity. “When things sound bad it sounds good,” Sam continues. “When you can hear everything, whether the band want you to or not, that’s what I love.’

This love of a lo-fi approach to writing pop songs was born from parental influence. As Sam points out, “For Christmas one year my parents got me a Nirvana box set that just had all the b-sides on it. And I just liked it so more than their other stuff, and in that boxset is a list of bands, Young Marble Giants, The Pastels and they all turned into my favourite bands.” The band’s inspiration is a little closer to home now though, with Sam saying “Nowadays it’s our friends that are influencing us.”

Last September they released their debut record Do What You Want To, It’s What You Should Do, which features the excellent single Forget The Fall. In the vein of the delicate and beatific pop of The Sundays and The Softies, the record was produced by one Bernard Butler. It wasn’t just his presence, though, that helped to shape the sparse and stripped-down sound… poor health also played a serendipitous hand. As Rachel explains, “It was really unexpected to be working with anybody, because we’d always recorded on our own. But he got in touch and it was great. Sam was really ill and had forgotten how to play guitar, so we had to make it really minimal.”

Do What You Want To, It’s What You Should Do was one of the most well received indie-pop records of last year, but don’t think that Flowers will be stopping there. As Rachel says, writing is a part of their everyday life. “We’ve got loads of songs because we write music every day. We like the idea of EPs though because they’re shorter, sharper and capture a moment much better – and there’s less pressure!”

This spring brings a tour with Luna, with festivals to follow in the summer. Unsurprisingly the band are stoked about 2015, with Rachel saying “we’re really looking forward to this next year.”

For more about Flowers visit their Facebook page. Below, you can watch the video for Forget The Fall

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