Roll of the Dice: 8 questions with The Flavor That Kills

Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.

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Since releasing The Book of Secrits in March, Wisconsin’s The Flavor That Kills has been, well, killing it. That’s why TGEFM was so eager to speak to the band regarding the record’s concept, their history and what the future may hold.

Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the
amazing reception of “Book Of Secrits.”  What can you tell us about
yourself and your sound for readers just discovering you?

(Eric Hartz)-I co-produced the album and play drums on the record, I try and stay in the pocket with the bass player Christian. This album came together in a chaotic way, and that all came through in the final product. The fact we were able to capture all that chaos is credited to Beau Sorenson, the other co-producer and Engineer. It wasn’t easy, or necessarily even fun but the tone of the album isn’t really something to celebrate, it’s more something you should be kind of scared about.

(E. Davis) besides the normal bass guitar drums, this album is an instrumental smorgasbord of synths, piano, organs, shakers, tambourines, bongos, horns, and acoustic guitars to add the textures we all dream of.

(Ryan Corcoran) We are like alligators. Ancient creatures who were around during the times of the dinosaurs, didn’t evolve, appear horrifying in sunlight, and are so difficult to digest that we would rip open a python’s stomach when devoured. We also have small brains and can be bested by a house cat. We move remarkably slow, however, yet people never see us coming.

(Christian Burnson) Our songs are built from the bottom up. We usually start with a bass riff and drums and then let the guitars let loose on the top. I feel that all of our song ideas come out of the ether, and we try and just keep vigilant until the Great Being manifests a hooks and we take it for a ride.

What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do” Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?

(Eric Hartz)– Kiss, The Descendants, and Cheap Trick. My high school band opened for Fugazi, that was a real eye opener for me, especially because we had no business being on that stage with them, but I kept at it.

(E. Davis) Hearing Gang of Four made me realize that anybody can play guitar if they just bang it in time with the drums and bass.

(Ryan Corcoran) For this record “Operation Mindcrime,” “Kid A” “Downward Spiral” “Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness” “Mothership Connection” “Dark Side of the Moon” “The rise and fall of Ziggy Stardust” “Sgt. Peppers” “Tommy” and “Stonehenge.” Concept records make the song writing flow; however, the concept can ruin the songs. It’s a tightrope walk. Story wise we just used the story arc from Beowulf. Somehow it felt like the same story really, the outsider mysterious monsters who have little value for human life, intruding, taking and destroying people and how the response to threat destroys not only the monster, but the humans as well. These were the story and musical references. The catalyst for actually going ahead with the concept was personal experiences and having quite a bit of time to reflect on them over between 2020 through 2022.

(Christian Burnson) I grew up in Madison where there was a very vibrant music scene that I was aware of but too young to participate in. When my dad had a brief stint of singlehood in the early 90’s, we had a roommate for a bit who was in a bunch of bands and did a lot of touring. He showed me a bunch of guitar chords and how to play some Nirvana songs when I was kid and would tell me stories of touring the U.S. and Europe so that’s when music seemed like a doable thing. Madison was also home to Smart Studios where a lot of great records were recorded. My best friend growing up had an uncle who is in Garbage so being in an orbit of all of that made music seem attainable and doable. When I was a young adult, I played in a punk band with my sister and that’s when I realized that music is so much more than just playing instruments. Making personal connections with people in other bands made the experience so much deeper and now it’s basically like a non-negotiable part of life.

This is a concept album about the ancient alien origin theory and the apocalypse. What was going on at the time you were writing it to put you in that headspace? In spite of the destructive and absurd events of the
last 4-40 years do you see much of a future for the species? Do we deserve one at this point?

(Eric Hartz)-I’m not a big fan of our species in general. We need human interaction, but we hate human interaction, it’s a real struggle. I think we were biologically genetically mutated from a slave race to serve the gods who came to this planet. That experiment is still happening and will end in a spectacular conclusion in the near future. We can prove Time Travel is possible now by Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, but there are other theories like Quantum Entanglement and Block Universe Theory that tell us we may be overlooking something about certain events and the connection of particles. It may be our only hope now to change the course of our own demise.

(E. Davis) If you think humans are assholes, wait til cats take over the planet.

(Ryan Corcoran) The apocalypse in this record isn’t exactly the end of humanity. This is the first of three in the trilogy, and if we kill off humanity in the first record, I don’t know how we would dig ourselves out of that one. I think when you look at other stories dealing with the apocalypse, like the “epic of Gilgamesh” or John’s “Revelations,” the big punchline is that there are forces greater than humanity at work, which don’t have the best interest of the humans in mind, and will eagerly destroy humanity with or without reason. The Greek stories of the Gods of Olympus also had that ambivalent attitude toward our existence. Also, there are competitive interests at work concerning the human beings in the old apocalyptical stories. The Anunnaki tries and drown off all the humans, but Enki decides to save some for himself. Jesus doesn’t seem to save all the souls in Revelations either. However, Satan takes those cast down and puts up one hell of a fight. Hera is literally trying to kill Hercules and Zeus is doing all he can to help. I think it’s allegorically similar with these beings in “Secrits” that have been humanity’s controllers. Perhaps they destroy us just to bring us back.
The head space? I think across the board, no matter who you talk to, there is a pervading feeling that something catastrophic/reality changing is on the horizon in the near future. Nuclear War? Civil War? Another Pandemic? Cascading devastation from runaway climate change? A Corona Mass Ejection sending us back into the stone age? Alien invasion? Artificial Intelligence going Terminator? The hadron collider ending the universe? It seems like everyone has their favorite apocalyptic nightmare awakening in the near future.
As far as humanity goes, the solution in the past has been-produce enough people to create a genius that will solve the problems. Earth, however, is limited in how many humans she can hold, which limits the chances of genius being born. Unless we can get humans breeding in outer space, our chances start fading to zero each passing day we don’t do so.

(Christian Burnson) Half the music on the record was made before the pandemic and the other half after so I think that’s where some of the apocalypse vibes come from. I think people worry too much about the end of the world and it’s derived from egotism and doesn’t give us enough credit as a species for being incredibly resourceful when push comes to shove. For me, the theme of the album is more about surviving and existing after great challenges in a new, weirder world. Bring on the weirdness I say. Maybe I’m just the token optimist in the band.

We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

(Eric Hartz) I don’t regret anything I’ve done in the past; it has only served as a way to grow and learn.

(E. Davis) I’m the only one in the band who never did much touring. Now I’m looking for a nice Faustian bargain.

(Ryan Corcoran) I once hired a guy to manage a band I was once in. Two months later he was indicted by a grand jury for murder, and I am served a subpoena to testify. I think he’s still in prison.

(Christian Burnson) My regret is ahead of me. It’s the day I stop digging deeper for connection to the world through music so hopefully, that day will only come when I’m dead. I regret the fact I will die.

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences as a professional, touring musician so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

(Eric Hartz) Not with this band, but with another one I once got into a fight and arrested when a security guard at a hotel in North Dakota pulled a gun on me and the cops thought I was in the band Pantera because they were playing in town the same night.

(E. Davis) I don’t remember much.

(Ryan Corcoran) Once after a show I smoked something and saw the 5th dimension for 30 seconds. Terrifying.

(Christian Burnson) Meeting weirdos. Go to weird parties and staying in sketchy places. Watching the sunrise in different places. Hopping fences and having late night pool parties. Playing at a venue in downtown LA with Captain Ahab and not being able to leave because a rap video was being filmed in a parking lot, and critical mass was making the street impassable due to so many bicyclists. Meeting another Wisconsin band in Arizona that I’m pretty sure were ghosts from the 70s. Playing a show in a college town when the beginning of the year parties were happening and going to a frat and drinking their beer and eating their food and needing to flee and narrowly having a chair thrown at me. Getting blackout drunk at a house party in Ypsilanti but somehow standing up for a woman who was being mistreated and waking up the next day with black eye and remembering nothing. Hanging out at a bunch of anarchist coops and meeting the ride or die nonconformists. Playing a guy’s birthday party in Arcata California who was missing a foot, waking up at dawn in the backyard and being offered a joint from a guy who materialized from the bushes. Keeping it weird.

One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?

(Eric Hartz) All from Wisconsin, Bron Sage, Whippets, Elephonic

(E. Davis) If you haven’t been to a Cribshitter show, you haven’t lived.

(Ryan Corcoran) Digibot, Sleeping in the Aviary, The Shivers, Right Arm Severed, David Thomas Jones, Cosmic Bob, The Skamish, Pigment, Pivot’s Edge

(Christian Burnson) Christy Costello & Monica LaPlante from Minneapolis. Hot Probs, Educational Davis, Novagolde, The Moonboot, PROBLEMS,

Now that the world has its hands on the record, what’s next for The Flavor That Kills?

(Eric Hartz)-I’m not sure the world has a hold of the record yet; we are still working on getting more people to discover us. We are half done with songs for another album which hopefully we will record before the end of the year with Beau Sorenson at Tiny Telephone in Oakland. I would love Max Martin to get on board and produce the next album, so I don’t have to worry about the production side. Other than that, we are waiting for Electric Six to get back to us about support for their next tour.

(E. Davis) I want to cover a Bob Seger song.

(Ryan Corcoran) Whatever it is, it’s going to take a very long time to do. And it will be so dated by the time we are done with it that it will be cutting edge when we are finished.

(Christian Burnson) Keep the musical muscle supple so the next great ideas can manifest. Get a horn section, a chorus section and do the Eastern European festival circuit. Record more and get weirder.

What do you wish I asked about or that you had more of an opportunity to speak about during this interview?

(Eric Hartz)-The state of the music industry and how most of the talent has shifted to the great local music scenes across the nation. Discovering new music has never been easier, but now the major labels are watering down the talent with their shitty bands and lack luster bland putrid façade of formulaic shit they try and ram down people’s throats.

(E. Davis) I wish we talked more about the economics of local art and music and how little public grant money is set aside in this country to stimulate growth in the creative economy. Free speech in the arts builds the conscience of a society, and lack of interest in funding it is evidence of our backslide into fascism.

(Ryan Corcoran) I wish you would have asked about Bigfoot, the giant monster in lake Monona, the giants, and the missing skeletons, how conspiracy theories are the conspiracy, the gospel of judas, how loving your neighbor and your enemies also means loving Satan, the Carrington event, how awesome Beau Sorenson is.

(Christian Burnson) – Our dope artwork (care of artist extraordinaire, Claire Kellesvig).