Flammable Animals, the band that debuted with What Lies Beneath the Parkway North last year, just released All These Wolves, a new EP that exemplifies the main components of alternative rock. Fast rock tempos, clever hooks, jarring guitar work, and lyrics that make you think instead of just tapping your foot, are just a few of the several things Flammable Animals have seemed to perfect.
A few months back, bassist Pat Napurano approached me about conducting an interview for this EP, and of course I said yes. I compiled a list of questions and sat down with Pat in their living room to get a behind-the-scenes look at All These Wolves.
[Artwork: Michael Burke, Samantha Bastone, and Erin Holmes]
How is this album different from What Lies Beneath the Parkway North?
First off, the production on this is way better - the quality is certainly there. I think that everyone really pulled together on this one and we all just did our jobs really well. I think it differs in the fact that it's mature and the songs are just better.
Is there any song in particular that you're really excited for everyone to hear? And is there any one that you're really excited to play live?
If it's a song I want people to hear, probably "Due North" (Kevin's song). That's the one I want everybody to hear. But playing live, probably right now is "Ordinary Threat," 'cause I've been having the most fun with that one live.
Why do you want everyone to hear Kevin's song?
It's totally different in the fact that if you listen to our first EP, and then listen to this one and get to that track, it's just way different than anything we've ever done before. That's the only song of ours that sounds like that.
I'm going to branch off a little bit from the album. As a band in general, what would you say your ending goal is as a band?
End goal right now obviously for us is to get signed at some point and really try to do some heavy touring - really get our names out there. That's pretty much it for right now. You can't become complacent in what you're doing. We want to go as far as we can with it.
Bands sometimes change their identities to try to reach that kind of goal and I know you said there's nothing in mind right now, but would you guys ever consider changing who you are in order to get to that point?
No, not at all. We really love each other, and if you really want to get down to it, sometimes we'll fight like idiots but we do love each other, and that's why I like being in the band, because of who we are when we're around each other. It works really well for us, so I don't think that will ever change and we will never change who we are, what we do. . .
So even musically you wouldn't change anything?
That's a different story. Identity is one thing, but changing our sound. . . who knows? I think this one sounds way different than the last one, and I like that. I don't want to do two things in a row that are the same. That was our goal, to really go in the opposite direction. We targeted a bunch of areas last time to hit, like things we wanted it to sound like, but we also had the mind set of, "Let's stay from things we don't want to sound like," which is just as important, I think. That's what really came into play here.
When you were writing the album, was there anything you were hoping to achieve with it?
At least on the business end of things, we would like this one to make a bigger impact than the last one did. Everyone who has heard it liked it so far, so all positive reactions. I'm interested to see how everyone else feels now. We wanna see if it makes a bigger splash - there are more people paying attention now. Artistically, I think this is exactly what we needed production and writing-wise. I can't wait for everyone to hear this.
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"Boyfriend's Car," the second track on the extended play, was recently released as a music video that you can watch by clicking this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UTvnKEEsD4.