The Flashpot Moments ‘Sauce’ and ‘Lucky Human Illusion’
The Flashpot Moments never lack flashpot moments. With so much thrill and introspection, the double EPs Sause and Lucky Human Illusion give you goosebumps at each exhilarating point. The Flashpot Moments has a memorable classic flair in their sounds. Soaring vocals and expansive soundscapes, like a long-waited thunderstorm, the driven Lucky Human Illusion gets under your skin with cathartic anthems, exploding resolutions and explorations, and shooting fire in your ears.
Punchy and delicious, Lucky Human Illusion is emotive yet uplifting, epic yet intimate, universal yet twangy. Laced with sick guitar licks and powerful vocals, smooth background vocals, and ever-evolving soundscapes, there’s only going up in Lucky Human Illusion.
But the emotions dive a little deeper within the development of each track as the sounds around the vocals enrich and darken. Vertically, the album is also on the path of deepening. Each track hits harder than the last. The Flashpot Moments never cease to surprise. There’s a change of perspective, a renewal of sounds and ideas. Through the noise-coiled, wailing guitars, rich and emotive chords evoke feelings and memories.
Sauce goes the opposite. It leaves comfort for confrontation. From “Pile On” to “Young Sends Me Tunes,” moody, bleaker-sounding guitars trigger a whole different vibe from Lucky Human Illusion. Songs like “Pile On” declares that there are simply more sauces in Sauce. “(Not Quite So) Mess” explodes in messy retro soundscapes, revealing more soul-baring moments in both the instruments and the voice, and there, the sonic palette of Sauce darkens and cools down at the twilight hour. “Code” then evokes a subtle coastal vibe with more impressionistic guitar sounds, illuminating and tender.
Read our interview with The Flashpot Moments where we chat about the little-known stories behind the double EPs and where Flashpot gets its name.
Punk Head: I love the contrast and connection between the two EPs. But releasing two simultaneously sounds like quite a massive project. What gave you the idea in the first place?
The Flashpot Moments: I had a few songs I’d recorded in Boston with my longtime collaborator, Andy Pinkham. And Jamie Woolford (of The Stereo) was set to mix them. Then, Jamie invited me out to record with him in Phoenix, AZ. But he wanted me to write a big pile of songs to choose from. He selected his favorites (“One Too Many Great Ideas” and “Pile On”). But of course, I thought there were some gems in the pile he didn't select, so I kept working on them…and those songs ended up being a totally different EP. Jamie mixed (and co-produced) all of Sauce - very cohesive and specific with big guitar guitars and driving rock beats. But as a counterpoint, I wanted Lucky Human Illusion, created from all the other demos, to be as expansive and diverse as possible - working with three producers (Andy, Tom Polce and Brian Charles) and six different mixers on three continents!
PH: What are you most proud of about Sauce?
The Flashpot Moments: In the time it takes to make an album, my mind wanders. I want to try different instruments, arrangements, tempos and structures. But with Sauce, I set out to make a totally cohesive, catchy, driving power-pop album, and for the most part, I stuck to the plan.
ANSWER B: It sounds really good! One of the most polished sets of recordings I’ve done.
PH: Which song do you like the best from Lucky Human Illusion and why?
The Flashpot Moments: Gotta go with Track 1 “Baby, You Don’t Know.” Having the chance to sing a duet with Kay Hanley was a total thrill, as I’m a huge fan of her band Letters To Cleo and her solo work. Tom Polce, Letters To Cleo’s drummer, a longtime collaborator of mine, produced the track in LA.
PH: What is your creative vision as an artist?
The Flashpot Moments: I create every song as if it’s meant for a capacity crowd at, say, Madison Square Garden or Castle Donington. I don’t care if that’s delusional. That’s the mission statement. That ethos is baked right into the name of the band. You know when you’re at a concert, and there’s an over-the-top moment – a soaring vocal, shift in dynamics, dramatic key change, crescendo into the final chorus – and the fireworks go off? Those pyro cannons are called “flashpots.”
PH: What is the one thing that you’d like your fans to know about you?
The Flashpot Moments: There are millions of bands out there. If your ears have somehow, against all odds, found their way to my music, and you appreciate big, bombastic, catchy guitar rock, I love that you listen and that you enjoy it. And I’m going to keep relentlessly making it.
