With a new album, Thunderbird Lodge, on the way, I sat down and caught up with The Flavor That Kills guitarist, singer, and lyricist Ryan Corcoran, to find out more about the band’s journey and the story behind the new album.
Can we start with a bit of background? How did the band come together, and what paths as individuals are the paths that you have taken to get to where you are today?
Eric and Ryan met through Smart Studios in Madison, WI. while working on different projects. Ryan used to live in the back stairway at the Pons Palace, and Christian played bass for Screaming Cyn Cyn and the Pons. Nick met Ryan when they played a show together, playing for different bands at an all-ages club. Nick met John Paul the same way. Ryan and John Paul played in a Spoon Tribute band named Fork.
I first heard your music when reviewing Book of Secrits. What do you think has changed for you musically, and otherwise, in the two years between now and then?
Book of Secrits is the first of the trilogy. Thunderbird Lodge is the next phase of the story. Musically, this called for reality warping sounds to reflect the twists of identity loss, the cognitive dissonance caused by the dissolution of ontological principles, and interactions with characters who exist in dimensions that are incomprehensible. Musically, things are more linear, more chaotic, dynamic, yet more orchestrated as a whole.
For those who are yet to hear you, how would you describe your music, and what artists and influences drive your music?
Joseph Campbell was heavily referenced in developing the plot. Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan’s space wizards script was basically a boilerplate. Whenever we would get tripped up in the studio, we would draw an “Oblique Strategies” card. If that didn’t work, we would ask, “ What would Miles Davis do?” Of course, we have a hundred years of Rock and Roll, Blues, Jazz, Funk, Punk, Metal, Disco, Indie-Rock, Hardcore, Post Hardcore, Post Punk, Garage Rock, Country, and Hip Hop coursing through our veins like oxygen.
The new album, Thunderbird Lodge, is, for want of a better term, a concept album, or at least a continuous narrative. Can you tell me a bit about the story and how it relates to Book of Secrits?
The end of Book of Secrets, the Cyborg, Rutsy, dropped the nukes on himself, the invading alien forces, destroying the Earth and humanity. Thunderbird Lodge begins with Rusty being dropped into a suburban neighborhood by the Archons in a parallel timeline, immediately being attacked by a swarm of Skin Walkers, which he dispatches reflexively. Things for Rusty get worse from there.
And although the story seems one based in sci-fi, is there a deeper, real-world point being made here?
These are real things. Science is real. Extradimensional beings are real. Alternate timelines/parallel dimensions are real. Aliens are real. Alien abduction is real. Skin walkers are real. The enemies of mankind, who have been and are plotting our destruction, are real. Meteor destruction is real. History and fiction are both narratives; the difference is what you accept as fact and textual sources.
The story is actually based on real events that have happened before and will probably happen again. There are struggles happening right now that are given mundane explanations in our present times that actually are reflections of the interaction of these entities with isolated individuals and our governments. These governments are squarely focused on a narrow focus of reality, reinforcing that narrow focus, until reality is so obscured that everyone walks into oblivion, certain that they exist at the pinnacle of civilization.
I guess that is the point. There is a problem when real things are dismissed as fiction, when the disaster cycles of our planet are ignored. The problem is that there is this crazy belief out there that human civilization has only been around for 5,000 years. Yet we know from biology and paleontology that humans have been on this planet for 2 million years. We also know that we went from the invention of flight to splitting the atom within 30 years.
Evolution doesn’t work like that. It doesn’t work that fast. In other words, we must have been capable of these things for a million years, but we lost the evidence that we did them. The evidence is what we are now. Currently, the U.S. The Federal Government is finally disclosing its cooperation with non-earth entities, going as far as admitting that it has participated in alien/human hybrid operations, and what is the reaction at large? Crickets. They don’t believe it.
Right now, as we speak, the Poles are flipping, and our magnetosphere is weakening. We know these reversals are associated with mass extinctions, and would knock out our grid, our satellites, and turn people into charcoal if they are facing the sun on the surface when it falls. The reaction? People dismiss it as fiction. Yet scientifically, we are as certain that the poles flip and will flip again as we are of the dimensions of our planet.
How did the writing process work for this album, and was it different from earlier, non-conceptual work?
It’s really the same thing. Every song is a concept song. A concept album is really just songs associated with a plot line sketched in order. Making the music fit together is tricky. Guys will come in with great riffs and song ideas, but they don’t quite fit into the whole, so we ended up with a ton of material for the back burner that will be used for the end of the trilogy.
This is your first album with new member, Jon Paul. How did he come to join The Flavor That Kills, and has this changed the band’s sound?
I honestly don’t know. One day, I showed up to practice, and Jon Paul was in the band. I’ve known him for quite a while, so I didn’t think anything of it. It’s worked out great, though; he’s a great writer and music brain.
Are there plans to take this album on the road, and if so, is it possible to play it faithfully to the recording, or would compromises need to be made?
We have a few things lined up; things are still in the works. Yes, we are planning on playing the album live. It’s possible to play it as recorded. However, what sounds good live doesn’t always sound good coming out of stereo speakers, and what sounds good coming out of stereo speakers doesn’t always work in a live music setting.
Live music has 50 speakers competing with acoustic instruments, and recorded music is meant to be played on two speakers. Compromises are always made in recordings to filter down hundreds of sounds into two channels.
And finally, what lies ahead for the band?
We are playing some shows with Electric Six at the end of April, and we have more live dates coming up this summer and fall. Stay tuned.
NEXT SHOWS: Opening for Electric Six on the following Wisconsin dates:
April 29th rd High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI. 8pm
April 30th Green Bay Distillery, Green Bay, WI 8pm
May 1st Shank Hall. Milwaukee, WI 8pm
