Flatwounds get the 90s tag a lot. Helmet, Alice In Chains, Fahrenheit 451 — people hear the thick riffs and the groove and they reach for those names. The band doesn’t fight it, but they also don’t think about it much. “At this point, it’s just noise to us,” they say. “At the end of the day it’s just rock music. People are always going to call it something, so we try not to pay too much attention to it. The labels don’t really have an influence on our writing process. We place more value on the energy of the song rather than how it’s perceived.”
Their debut EP “Chain Of Command” is out March 20th via Blue Grape Music. Five tracks. The lead single “Emulator” already has a video out. The whole thing sits in that zone between hardcore and grunge where the riffs are heavy but nobody’s in a rush — there’s groove, there’s space, and there’s a weight that comes more from restraint than volume.
The band describes what the EP does as “controlled sporadicness,” which sounds like a contradiction but makes sense once you hear it. “There’s this overarching sense of uneasiness that is briefly broken up by the more melodic sections, but it always stays consistent throughout the songs.” The tension-and-release thing runs through everything. It wasn’t mapped out on paper — it came from the band getting better at reading each other in the writing process.
By their own pick, “Emulator” and “Inertia” are the core of the record. “They seem to capture a lot of the same themes of the whole project while taking two different approaches to get there,” the band says. Both tracks work the same territory but arrive differently. “Inertia” needed more adjusting in the studio — they had to pull back some of the chaos in the verses and make the bridge punchier. “Stuff like that only comes out when we really sit down and think about it from a bird’s eye view.”
The writing itself is pretty informal. They go in with broad themes, not blueprints. Once a direction sticks, they follow it, but the real decisions happen when everything’s laid out and everyone can weigh in. “Everybody has the opportunity to chime in and say ‘maybe this doesn’t fit the way we think it did’ or ‘let’s add a layer here.'” The 90s thing isn’t a conscious choice — everyone in the band just listens to that stuff, or listens to bands that came up through it. “We don’t put a lot of specific intention behind our writing. We just try to keep it energetic and impactful.”
The EP is built around confrontation — a take on what the band calls “the complacency of humanity.” They want people to feel uncomfortable after hearing it. Not shocked, not provoked, just unsettled enough to sit with something. “All art should challenge the consumer,” they say. “If you can relate to that then it should make you feel a little uncomfortable. There should be some reflection within it. Sometimes it’s hard to portray that sentiment at a live show. It’s something more personal.”
Flatwounds see “Chain Of Command” as a starting point. There was older material before this, but the EP feels like a reset — more composed, more aligned with where their heads are at now, driven largely by the reaction they’ve been getting from live shows. “We’ve definitely changed our mindset when it comes to our energy. We feel like we are writing with more of an attitude, and with that comes writing with more of a purpose,” they say. “That’s not to discredit our older material, but this EP definitely feels more composed and aligned with our mindset. It’s definitely a turning page for us.”
Their orbit right now includes Take Steps, Excide, Sunbloc, Soul Blind, Mkultra, Angel Du$t, Higher Power, Lip Critic, and Halo Bite — “the list could go on forever.”
“Chain Of Command” is out March 20th via Blue Grape Music. Catch the band live at the following stops:
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Apr 9, 18:00 — The Wood Shop, New York City, NY
May 25, 19:30 — No Fun, Troy, NY
May 26, 20:00 — The Rockwell, Somerville, MA
May 28, 19:00 — The Garrison, Toronto, Canada
May 30, 22:00 — Beat Kitchen, Chicago, IL
Jun 2, 19:00 — Hi-Dive, Denver, CO
Jun 4, 18:00 — Kilby Court, Salt Lake City, UT
Jun 9, 20:00 — Polaris Hall, Portland, OR
Jun 13, 19:00 — Zebulon, Los Angeles, CA
Jun 14, 19:30 — Valley Bar, Phoenix, AZ
Jun 17, 20:00 — 29th Street Ballroom, Austin, TX
Jun 18, 20:00 — Dada Dallas, Dallas, TX
Jun 20, 19:00 — The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA
Jun 21, 20:00 — The Pinhook, Durham, NC
Jun 23, 20:00 — Bottlerocket Social Hall, Pittsburgh, PA
