This week, Flip Top Head released I Can’t Wait Until I’m Old – the second single taken from their forthcoming EP Up Like A Weather Balloon. We caught up with two thirds of the band last week at Presuming Eds to get the low down on the EP, starting with where the title came from:
Bertie: We had our only ever band meeting at the Walrus – and looked through all the lyrics and there was nothing really gelling but I had those words on a notes page
Bowie: I remember you saying them and us all going like “yeah”. But it doesn’t have anything to do with any of the songs.
Track One: I Can’t Wait Until I’m Old
Bowie: It’s about how the feelings about becoming old change from when you’re younger and you can’t wait to be old and to be able to go on all the rides or stay up late and stuff like that, to when you get to a point when you slowly don’t want to age. I was thinking about that kind of idea, and juxtaposing Can’t Wait To Be Old with old things like shaky hands.
Track Two : Weightlifter
Bertie: The lyrics came from a poem I’d written after a long shift at work where I’d met an ex bodybuilder and I saw when reaching for his pint that his hands were so calloused from years and years of lifting weights. And clearly that hand is no good any more, and it’s his own fault because of the weightlifting.
Ollie: I was at Bertie, Bowie and Alfie’s house and I was playing a whole load of different parts but didn’t know how to put them together. Alfie got us to number them and then he sat down and said “this one here and then that one there and then this there and that one there”. And then we were done – As easy as that. Sometimes when we’re playing that song we’re looking at each other and thinking how did we do that?
Track Three : Marie’s Interlude
Bowie : Marie’s Interlude does exactly what it says on the tin, transitioning effortlessly into the EP’s first single. It’s a bass line Marie has had for a while now and we love the way it slots in between Weightlifter and So Much for Mole Catching; although written completely separately and without intent to do so.
Track Four : So Much For Mole Catching
Bertie: It’s a fun pop song. In my head I was like How are we gonna write a fun happy song but have it still have our sound? But it came together was pretty naturally and somehow it was like “oh, we can do this, this is really cool”
Bowie: The lyrics are based around a sob story. We were living on St James Street and it was Pride weekend, so obviously it’s stupid busy St James Street, and our flat was a good people watching spot. I saw this girl sat on the pavement – she looked upset so I decided to go and have a chat see if she was OK. She’d lost her partner so we invited her up to our house, got her some some water, calmed her down and got chatting to her. She charged her phone and she managed to tell her boyfriend that she was here, so he came and they ended up staying at ours for hours, just chatting – and they were telling us about how his father was the Somerset British Molecatcher of the Year. It got me thinking about those interactions where you meet strangers – because I could have just chosen not to go and speak to her or maybe I might not have even seen her at all if she hadn’t sat outside our window – Certain chains of events lead to something like that.
Ollie: And it was Somerset Mole catching originally. I remember being in the car, and someone was suggested changing it to “So much”, and it just clicked.
Track Five : Parish Cafe Meetings
Ollie: I went to school with a girl whose dad was a vicar, and he had no nails – They were just all gone. I remember going around to play piano and thinking “why does that dude have no nails? What’s his story?”. And then one night, me and Bowie were off super late, and it came up in conversation and she said “That’s gonna be a song”. And then it was.
Marie: Yeah. It used to be called No Nail Vicar but we changed it, but I think I’d never be able to call it Parish Cafe Meeting. It’s still “No Nail” on our set lists
Track Six : Jesse Paints The Houses
Bowie: It’s probably one of our oldest songs and to this day it’s still my favourite song to play and to listen to. Alfie wrote it, and it brought that cinematic element that we ended up going for, and the stuff we’re writing now, post EP, is similar in that sense. It’s one that we hold close to our heart.
Marie: We have some gigs where everyone gets really quiet when we’re playing Jesse, and everyone’s just listening
Bertie: the best time that happened was when we played Brighten the Corners Festival in Ipswich. Five minutes before we went on stage that room was completely empty, but when we walked on the room was full, but was properly silent for the quiet bit.
The EP was produced by Theo Verney who got the occasional mention here as a Brighton Based guitarist around ten years ago, but more recently has been producing, including being behind the desk for some of Lime Garden’s singles. He approached Flip Top Head and was the first person the band had worked with who hadn’t been a friend, but very quickly gelled with them, helping them figure out how their songs needed to sound.
There are three launch gigs for the EP, in Brighton, London and Colchester, where the band first started as a three piece of Bertie, Bowie and Harrison. Although Alfie is Bertie’s brother, he didn’t join the band until they had relocated to Brighton.
As with a lot of Brighton acts, some members of Flip Top Head also play in other bands. Alfie plays on the EP, but has just left and joined Goodbye (although that wasn’t the reason he left)
Bertie: things just happened at the same time. He didn’t enjoy playing trombone or just want to play guitar solely in a band, and it happened that he found his people around the time he left Fliptop.
Ollie: I wanted I think it suits him better as well. When I saw Goodbye, I realised that he deserves to be a dude in a band that can play guitar really well and then occasionally dip in to do a song of his own too. That’s perfect for him. Because even in the Famous People, a bit of why that ended was was because Alfie didn’t want to sing all the time. So he can play guitar and sing, but not all the time. And he doesn’t have to touch trombone!
Ollie and Marie are both in Atticomatic (playing at the Rossi Bar on 23th November).
Marie: Fliptop was my first band ever and I joined Attic later on
Ollie: I was in Atticomatic, and then I joined Fliptop. It was from playing together, I guess, because we knew that Attic’s bassist was gonna leave. And then I saw Marie in sound check when both bands played at Prince Albert together and asked if she wanted come to a practice. It’s good to have a homie in both because it’s easier when you have commitments with the other band.
Bertie: I drum for Ideal Living, and every now and then I play in Freddie J Watt’s band, who Bowie also does backing vocals for sometimes. But that’s a part time thing – Ideal Living is full time.
Bowie: The thing with an kind of creativity is that because it’s hard to do it can become a little bit competitive, but the Brighton Music Scene just isn’t like that. It’s so lovely. Everyone helps each other, everyone in, everyone’s fans. It’s like it’s just nothing but – I don’t know – It’s love.
Brighton Music Blog 