Irish-Australian guitar-fuelled rock and rollers Flickertail went and wrote a song in a rehearsal room bathroom in Salford, Manchester. Out now as a new single, somewhat ironically it goes by the handle of ‘Contact Sport’.
“I wrote all my sad songs in Aussie summer – it took a week of Mancunian rain to finally get something more hopeful out of me,” revealed lead vocalist/guitarist Liam Whelan. “To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, we were living in the gutter, but looking up at the stars.
“It’s one of the barest arrangements we’ve ever done – I barely play guitar on this song at all. We also left my vocals really dry and untampered with – what you hear on this track is a single take, warts and all. The song is about imperfection and being vulnerable, so it makes sense that the recording is a lean, mean, unshaven beast of a thing.”
And, he had quite a lot to say on the subject.
“There’s been a lot written about infatuation and butterflies. Not too many people look at the banal, dirty reality of ongoing love. Some people are afraid of how boring it is and they invent things like affairs – real or imagined – to maintain that excitement. People don’t get that it’s thrilling precisely because you’re allowed to be boring, or not your best self, on some days. You don’t always have to be the best dressed first date guy. Some days you get to eat pizza in your trackie-dacks.
“This is true in a broader context than just romantic love – as it applies to friends, families, communities, even on a spiritual level – when you commit to loving something or someone, you’re opening yourself to the possibility that you’ll hurt someone you don’t want to.
“You’re opening yourself to the possibility that you’ll get hurt. God knows my love of Liverpool FC has taught me that.”
Least we forget, the song also rocks…
“It also features a sizzling riff and my favourite of Jonny Goldrick’s solos. The Mancunian gets to have his finest hour on the song we wrote in his hometown.’’
‘Contact Sport’ is available on Spotify and Apple through Golden Robot Records.
From the booze dens and backyards of Australia’s Eastern coast to international support slots with the likes of Supersuckers, Living Colour and The Who’s Zak Starkey, Flickertail play loud and honest with no autotune or sampling in earshot.
For more on Flickertail at RAMzine click here and here.
