Travelling under the banner of Sydney’s own indie supergroup, Fashion Launches Rocket Launches is the brainchild of Jono Ma (Lost Valentinos), Kirin J Callinan (Mercy Arms, Jack Ladder), Julian Sudek (Mercy Arms, Danimals) and Daniel Stricker (Midnight Juggernauts).
Formed as a loose collective of artists whose aim is to explore the limits of a traditional band – in a both a musical and practical sense – FLRL are a rarity in Sydney’s music scene, where so often qualities such as originality and passion are overlooked in favour of polish.
Their music is borne out of a freedom to experiment without boundaries, to have a band where the line-up can change from show to show, where musicians can join and leave freely as they please.
With the band (this time round it’s Jono Ma, Julian Sudek, Ivan and Pavle Vizintin from Ghoul, Paddy Harrowsmith from Ghostwood and one of the drummers from Megastick Fanfare) set to play Cabin Fever Goes Mental at The Abercrombie this Saturday, FL caught up with Jono Ma to get to the bottom of this twisted experiment.
You’ve stated that as a band FLRL follow a mission statement designed to break down the – œfundamental flaws’ of all bands – what is that supposed to mean?
When we say flaws, generally, we are referring to the idea of rules and disciplines in a band, not to say that we have no rules or disciplines, but we have created rules and disciplines that aim to abolish rules and disciplines…. make sense? The main experience that lead to the conception of the band was trying to recreate the feeling of doing your first gig when you are completely under-rehearsed and don’t know what you are doing but have loads of fun regardless.
Are there any constant members?
There are definitely recurring members but nothing constant.
Aside from the obvious, how does FLRL differ from your other musical pursuits?
Well, an FLRL gig always involves a communal meal, cash in hand and moments of mess and moments of clarity. FLRL is a creative bonfire for anyone that loves playing in bands but wants to try stuff that they couldn’t normally try in their ‘main’ band.
How would an artist go about joining the collective? Do they need to be invited or is it a free for all of artistic expression?
There’s no ‘invitation’ – all performers are welcome but if they suck then they had better be really good at sucking. Generally we do encourage our friends and other musicians that we know to join in but randoms are welcome too.
With no set songs or anything, how much planning goes into your live shows?
There are always lengthy discussions before a show… generally at dinner or moments before the performance. Last Sunday we performed at OAF and our preparation and planning was to rock up with no musical instruments only tool belts and what we found on the way. Things like that keep us and the audience on our toes and mean that no matter how busy we are with other commitments we can still keep performing as the FLRL.
The project seems to me to be very much rooted in live performance, do you have any plans to record?
Yes. We’ve been recording stuff since day one. 99% of it is recorded live at our shows – we have hours and hours and gigabytes of material – most of it is so indulgent that only we would enjoy listening to it, but rest assured we are sifting through the ocean of noise to find those rare moments that others would love to hear too. Once we have done that expect a release!
There’s quite a bit of support for FLRL here in Sydney, why do you think that is?
People like to be free and people like to see people being free and people like to see people seeing people being free. Some people would rather see people being free even if they suck a bit. So if people see people being free and not really sucking then people have fun.
What can we expect from the show on Saturday?
I have no idea yet, you’ll just have to come down to The Abercrombie and check it out.
Fashion Launches Rocket Launches play The Abercrombie Hotel on Saturday 24th October.
