cd tracklisting
questions & answers
This week LoneBoyStore is featuring our very first band, they are the fantastic 'Flare' from Bergen, Norway and their amazing debut album 'In Search of Fame'. Check out what Chris, Baz and Tiam had to say to LoneBoy.
CHRIS STAR - Bass, Guitar & Piano
If you could duet with anyone dead or alive who would it be?
Alive: The girls from t.A.T.u or Tom Keifer from Cinderella, Dead: Bon Scott
Who are your musical influences?
Kiss, Entombed, The Police, Slayer, Kate Bush, Beck, Divine Comedy, Bloc Party
How do you write your songs? Do you start with the music or the lyrics?
I tend to start by programming a beat/rhythm & then record whatever comes out on top of that. Or I might start out with a great title.
Can you play any instruments if so which ones and do you have a favourite.?
Bass, guitar, piano… I wish I could play drums
How did you get into music, was it from an early age?
It was Kiss & I was six years old
Do you have any musical training?
A lot of playing along to records.
Which of your songs are you most proud of?
It’s always the latest one
Where were you born, and do you still live there?
I was born in the east, now I live in the west
Where would you like to see yourself in five years time?
In Rome, living off royalties
Six words that best describe you.
Chris, ravishing a universe for love
What’s your favourite of all of your songs?
I think it’s Torch To The Blood from our new record
How long did it take to write and record your debut album?
3 years too long at least
Whats the best Live / recording moment you ever had?
Touring China was pretty chaotic and exciting, “Flare in Shanghai” has a nice ring to it.
Where was your first public performance
Check our website www.flare.no, it was January 15th, 2000
How did the band get its name?
Must have been the singer’s idea
In Search of Fame
1 In Search Of Fame
2 Farewell Amore
3 This Is The Sound Of Good Music
4 Beautiful Songs
5 Tupolev's Daughter
6 Brotherlover
7 Malsterious
8 Nine-Six-Five
9 Star
featured tracks - flare
Chris - I would choose Tupolev’s Daughter. There’s just something about that track for me.
Baz - “This is the sound of Good Music” is a catchy one
Tiam - The title-track is very Flar’ish. It is potent, melodically composed, pompous, advanced and have lyrics that catch the eye and are easy to remember.
Baz Owen - Drummer
If you could duet with anyone dead or alive who would it be?
I want to do a drumming duet together with Chester Thompson (Genesis) J
Who are your musical influences?
a-ha, Madonna, Mew, Muse, Kiss, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles, Genesis, etc.
How do you write your songs? Do you start with the music or the lyrics?
Sometimes I’m starting with a cool beat. FLARE usually start with the music, the lyrics at last
Can you play any instruments if so which ones and do you have a favourite?
I’m the FLARE drummer and own 3 different drumkits, my Premiere Signia kit is my favourite one
How did you get into music, was it from an early age?
I began listening to music early, but bought my first drumkit quite late J I have now been drumming for about 14 years in 5 different pop/rock bands.
Do you have any musical training?
A friend of mine who went to professional musical training, teached me playing the drums.
Which of your songs are you most proud of?
I like all FLARE tracks, but I usually like the newest ones best. “Belong to someone else” from our forthcoming album is my favourite at the moment
Where were you born, and do you still live there?
I was born in Bergen and still live in Bergen
Where would you like to see yourself in five years time?
Hopefully a rock star.
Six words that best describe you
Good looking, rough, hard-playing, brilliant, funny, creative.
What’s your favourite of all of your songs?
“This is the sound of good music”
How long did it take to write and record your debut album?
Far too long, I’m not quite sure
Whats the best Live / recording moment you ever had
Live: Cox’s Yard, UK tour 2004 and several gigs at the China Tour 2007
Recording: Our second album, Feitaboogie Productions Studio 2007-2008
Where was your first public performance?
My first public performance with FLARE was as support for the headliner “Autopulver” at Hulen, Bergen 2000
How did the band get its name?
I don’t know really, ask Tiam
Tiam Dee - Singer
If you could duet with anyone dead or alive who would it be?
I usually prefer male singers but wouldn’t choose to duet with one of the strongest voices in the business. I’d rather duet with one with a cool sound or way to use his voice. Examples could be Billy Corgan or the singer in Mew. Maybe Bjork from the “Play Dead” era, if it had to be a girl.
Who are your musical influences?
I don’t have a favourite band any longer; nowadays I think it’s very hard to find bands that deliver 10 strong tracks on their records. But there are many bands capable of delivering at least one or three strong tracks like; Aha, Smashing Pumpkins, Suede, Mew, Duran Duran, Killers, WASP, Lorraine, Keane, King Diamond… and many more.
How do you write your songs? Do you start with the music or the lyrics.
We have 2 songwriters in Flare; Chris and me. Chris creates his songs from scratch in studio. He just walks in, brings on the piano, some rhythms and builds instrument by instrument. After a couple of hours he has written a gorgeous idea for a song. I’m always amazed! There is always a lot of potential in his songs, and I start right away to process his demos in my head. I complete his vocal ideas and maybe compose a new mid-eight part. Then Baz spices up the rhythms and abracadabra we have the Flare sound.
I have a totally different way of writing my songs. I often hear melody lines swirling around in my head when I’m walking in the Norwegian mountains for instance or when I’m sleeping. Then over the next couple of day’s instrument by instrument pops up in my head, rhythms, second voices, cellos, explosions and amazing guitar sounds… Then when I finally have the complete song finished in my head it’s straight to our studio and try record what I created in my head… And it’s always impossible…
So in the end Chris & Baz have to help me getting my songs as close as possible to what I was hearing in my head. When we are finished, they have added some of their own style to the songs and it suddenly sounds like Flare.
Can you play any instruments if so which ones and do you have a favourite.
I’m not a very good musician. I can play the guitar and bass decently. And I know how to use my voice. But luckily we have ProTools and Cubase... They make me able to play xylophones, cellos, harps, drums, pianos and even female voices (if I want) through the fantastic midi-system.
How did you get into music, was it from an early age?
I have always loved music and have always dreamt of being a pop star. My father had a cool electric guitar which I “stole” every day so I could pose in front of the mirror pretending I was Paul McCartney or George Harrison. The guitar was twice as big as I was!
Do you have any musical training,
All is learned by trying and failing. You learn a lot by just listening to your heroes.
Which of your songs are you most proud of?
My favourite composition is “Where will you be this Christmas?”. It is simple and beautiful. In my opinion it has the potential of being a classic some day in a new recording. Maybe next Christmas? Time will show.
Where were you born, and do you still live there?
I was born in Bergen and still live here. I love this city.
Where would you like to see yourself in five years time?
Hopefully we have released 3 new critically acclaimed albums. And in exactly five years from now we are having a sound check for a gig in Stoke (maybe).
Six words that best describe you..
Annoying, likable, perfectionist, dreamer, realist, (and number six is a Norwegian word that I don’t know the English word for…)
What’s your favourite of all of your songs?
That changes all the time. Right now it is one from the forthcoming Flare album; “Danced All Night”
how long did it take to write and record your debut album
Some of the songs on this album were written in the very first days of Flare. (Good music, Brotherlover & Star). So to write and record the album took about 5 years! We also used 3 different producers for the album. One in Los Angeles, one in UK and one in Bergen. Time just flew.
Whats the best Live / recording moment you ever had
The best live moment for me was on our release gig for “In Search Of Fame” in Bergen. Every song just sounded great and the audience was enthusiastic. However the “Save The Earth”-show we did in China last year was also extravagant.
Where was your first public performance
The first Flare gig was in January 2000, Garage, Bergen. We provoked a whole city…
How did the band get its name?
We had a list of about 1000 potential band names suggested on a party. We couldn’t use a single one of them… Then one day I was looking through my English dictionary searching from A-Z. Under the F-letter, I found Flare and I didn’t have to look any further. I just thought, wow, that’s exactly what my band should sound like. And it was not a drawback that it only had 5 letters, it could easily be transformed in to large shimmering stage logos!
Artist
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