The Flatliners. Photo: Katie Hovland, courtesy of Fat Wreck Chords
At a time when most teenagers were pondering post-high school plans, The Flatliners were cutting their teeth in the Toronto punk scene, skipping school on the regular to play shows in front of anyone that was willing to listen. By the time the band members reached the age of 20, their feats – including signing to Fat Wreck Chords and touring alongside notable acts such as Bad Religion, Anti-Flag, No Use for a Name and countless others – were cause for any aspiring punk musician to be jealous. Earlier this year, The Flatliners released their fourth studio album, Dead Language, a follow-up to 2010’s heralded record, Cavalcade. We caught up with frontman Chris Cresswell to chat about the new album, his grandma’s Flatliners t-shirt and the celebrity he would like most to see his band live.
Be sure to check out The Flatliners live at an upcoming show near you. Tour dates can be found here.
It’s been a hell of a busy year for you guys. You released Dead Language, played several festivals and had a string of tours. How are you feeling about it all?
I feel good, man. It’s one of those things where at the moment you’re smiling about it because it’s been the best year of your life but then when you get some time to think about everything you’ve done, it makes you winded almost. But yeah, I think it’s been the best year for the band yet. Everyone’s been really sweet about the new record and people have been telling us they really like it. It’s great seeing the reactions when we play the new songs live – it’s really exciting. For us, the fact that people are requesting new songs at shows and singing along and everything – it’s just awesome, man.
Does burn out ever kick in for you guys?
Yeah, everyone once and a while, sure. Everyone’s human, you know? Especially if some of the guys smoke weed in the morning and are toast by lunchtime (laughs). But other than that, yeah, we tend to go on a pretty relentless touring schedule and stuff. We just think of it like there are places to go and people to see and we may as well do it while we can, you know?
Let’s talk about the new album for a second. It’s a great record. I’d say the songs that really stood out for me initially were “Drown in Blood” and “Caskets Full.” What can you tell me about those songs?
“Drown in Blood” is one of the interesting ones because I inadvertently wrote the lyrics over the course of about three or four years. Some of the lyrics pre-date our last album, Cavalcade, and I just kind of found them in a notebook and picked up where I left off, which is weird (laughs). I think at that point I was at a time where I was watching personal relationships and other things in my life shift. It was part and parcel to being away so much and how that affected those relationships. Then four years later, I had this fresh perspective having learned from the things I saw approaching back in 2009 when I started writing that stuff. It was interesting to put it all together in the end. So yeah, that one is basically just about…like learning from your mistakes, you know? Everybody says that to bleed really cleans the wound, so that was kind of the metaphor I was working with.
For “Caskets Full,” that song is basically just about fair-weather friends and people that just want to be your friends because you’re in a band or people that just use each other for personal gain or whatever. Things can become pretty ugly when there are a bunch of friends at the table.
What’s your favorite song on the record?
Oh man, that’s a tough question. I don’t know, I think “Birds of England” or “Tail Feathers” maybe, but it changes. We’ve been playing a lot of the stuff live and it’s interesting to see what works and what feels good. The answer could change every week.
Anyone ever told you that the album art resembles the cover of the latest Less Than Jake album?
Oh really? No. We were worried that people would think it looks a lot like Exister, the new Hot Water Music record. The same artist did that one and ours and the new Less Than Jake. His name is Richard Minino and he’s a fucking brilliant artist and a good buddy of ours and he has such a distinct style. I feel like when several bands work with the same artist, the style really comes out. I think its interesting ’cause it’s like his signature, you know what I mean? Like I said, he’s a good buddy of ours so we’re totally stoked that he worked on the artwork for us. And, I mean, if we’re in that kind of company visually, that’s cool because we love those bands.
Fat Mike has taken you guys under his wing over the years. He’s a colorful character, but what can you tell me about what it’s like working with him, aside from the party guy most of us see on stage?
He’s, honestly…I’m probably gonna burst some bubbles, but he’s far more normal than a lot of people want to believe (laughs). He’s definitely quirky and a big music geek in the best possible way. He just always knows about cool new bands and, on tour, he’d always tell us about old, wicked bands from the ‘80s that we didn’t know about and shit like that. He’s got his pulse on several decades worth of punk rock music, which is awesome. It’s like this punk rock almanac thing going on with Fat Mike, which I like.
Yeah, I mean, he’s kind of a mellow guy. I mean, he’s the singer of this huge punk band, of course, but there were so many times when we were on the road with him for a couple years where we would just sit around after the show, drink beer and geek out about bands and shit. We’ve done crazier shit than that too though (laughs). But yeah, he’s a sweet dude. He’s generous and always willing to offer advice. Like you said, he definitely took us under his wing there for a while and took our band on tour wherever he could.
