Mr Phlyzzz’s album, Cancel Culture Club, landed in my inbox and rapidly became one of my favourite albums of the year (you can read a glowing review here), thanks to its canny mix of noise rock, unbelievably addictive hooks and sly nods to rock / pop history. Given that the band’s home is with the legendary Amphetamine Reptile Records and that the record features guest slots from Haze XXL, Kevin Rutmanis and King Buzzo, I was eager to talk to the duo of Danny and Clinton about the band’s formation, influences and sonic evolution. They proved to be engaging interviewees, committed to their art and remarkably aware of each other’s contribution to the band. Read on and step into the weird world of Mr Phlyzzz…
I couldn’t find a lot of information about when and how you formed, but you had two drummers before Danny, is that right?
Clinton: Yeah, so you kinda nailed it. We originally formed in Cincinnati in 2015. The band just started because I was in another band that was really nothing and the drummer and I would make these obscenely annoying songs, just to drive the rest of the band nuts! There was a guy in the band who was really stiff and uptight, and he hated anything that was harsh. It was like a blues band, keep that in mind, so I’d be like “I wrote this new song” [imitates chugging guitar noise] and he’d be super-pissed.
So, that’s kinda where the band started and we just… I don’t know if you’ve been in a band where you find two people within the four-piece structure (or however many) and you’re like “we actually both hate this! It’s just a time to hang out.” That’s how Phlyzzz started, me and my friend were like “we like to do this more.” So, yeah, that drummer – Ray – was part of the band for a few years and then he joined a different band, and we parted ways.
Phlyzzz was always my original idea, so when we parted ways, I got another drummer, named Danny (not this Danny – we refer to him as Danny 1) [laughs]. Danny 1 did some shows with us, with Phlyzzz, just for a run, but then COVID happened, so we weren’t able to do anything after that.
So, then, after COVID I’ve had this Danny, Danny 2.0 (which is the best Danny). We met in Grand Rapids just after that tour and when COVID happened, nothing happened for two years. I was just working on the record, I moved to Chicago. I took the time to just write and record until it was over, or (you know) if it never would be, I would have an iMac full of shit [laughs].
So, I reconnected with Danny 2.0, and it was like really quick. We were off to a running start, because Danny had seen the band; he knew what I want to do and Danny was also playing and doing that same style – harsh, crazy, fast, kinda all over the place drumming. So, when I came across Danny, we started talking and it was like immediate – I don’t know if you’ve ever had that, where you just connect with somebody and you’re like “this is it. I don’t really have to talk about it, they just know what I want to do.”
And I’d been speaking to some other drummers, and I was like: “yeah, Phlyzzz is kinda this chaotic…” and they just didn’t get it. They were like [adopts meat head voice] “yeah, but what do you sound like?” Danny just sat down immediately while we were recording and was like “I’ve got it.” And there was just minimal talking, which I really like. I just want someone to hear it, understand it and do. And Danny’s very good at translating that and adding a bunch to Phlyzzz itself. Again, I don’t have to say much. If I don’t have to say, “I don’t like that” or “I’m not vibing that”, it’s great. So, this era of Phlyzzz is very collaborative with Danny. I feel like a lot of this record wouldn’t exist without Dany’s input and Danny’s feel and understanding of the band.
So, that’s where we are now. We’re with Danny 2.0, we’re in 2022 and we’re moving right along.
The Pandemic was such a double-edged thing, because in terms of being able to make something creative, there was a lot of time available to really try out a lot of things; but at the same time, a lot of bands stalled, because they weren’t able to reach people – how did you guys find that whole period?
Danny: Well, for me, I basically started drumming when the pandemic hit. I had played one show in November. I borrowed a kit for a two-piece I was in at the time and my first show was when I met Clinton in Phlyzzz in Grand Rapids. And then the pandemic hit, and I bought my own kit, that was when I started drumming. I had a lot of time on my hands, so I just practised a lot. In a weird way, if it wasn’t for the pandemic, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you guys.
Wait, so, what’s your background? If you started drumming in 2019, how did you get into that?
Well, drums are like my very, very first instrument., But, you know, you have to have a really understanding household in order to have a drum kit and be loud. My mum’s not keen on that, but my cousin was a drummer, so that was the first instrument I ever touched when I was a little kid at his house. Obviously, that wasn’t a very viable, practical option for me at home, so I started playing guitar when I was twelve.
So, I did that for a while and then, in my first band, I ended up playing bass because I wanted to be in a band really bad, so I borrowed a bass, tried it out and got in the band. So, I did that for a while, made a record and then I was in two or three other bands for a good three-ish years. I kinda hopped around a lot, like guitar; I played lead guitar with a band called Pansy, and we made an album. Then I started drumming, again, in late 2019 because we got to losing our drummer, so we couldn’t find a drummer and I thought “fuck it, I’ll switch from bass to drums and we’ll do a two-piece thing.” So, yeah, here we are.
Cool, so you spent most of the pandemic honing your drumming skills and Clinton, you spent it writing a ton of records?
Clinton: Yeah. Well, Danny is really underselling himself here. It’s wildly impressive that somebody has taken…
When Danny says he took the quarantine to learn drums, it’s not like he sat down every day for an hour to learn. I mean, Danny was practising like eight / ten hours a day. I’ve never seen anyone in my life practice more than Danny…. And who was so in tune to learn, more than Danny. The way he can grasp and pick up things, it’s crazy. So, when I started working with Danny, I saw immediately who Danny was going to be then, now and in the future. I mean that’s rare to find a drummer who just wants to slam and learn and get the work done. I feel like every drummer I’ve ever played with is like: “I got it, I got it, I know…” and it’s like the same shit. When you’re explaining a vibe or a feel or an atmosphere for a song and how it should go and how it should move – I’m sure you’ve run into this, and you’re trying to explain a song and they’re like “I know, I know” and then they come up with something that’s completely bullshit – a sixty-five-minute solo. And you’re like “actually, no, all I need is like the kick for the verse. It’s literally that, it’s nothing else”.
But, Danny, again, it’s that non-verbal… it’s all that learning and understanding and the way that Danny listens to music is different to most drummers. When I show him something, or I show him a riff, Danny doesn’t listen to it thinking, like, “how can I shine?” Danny listens to it and thinks about how he can emphasize, and I think what makes him stick out even more is that we’re a two-piece. Danny’s not playing to be in a two-piece, he’s playing to meet the song and that’s really rare. That’s a really rare thing to find, for somebody who wants to compliment the song. And every single time, the drumming becomes more than drumming. It becomes like all the rest of the instruments.
I don’t know, it’s like everything we write, it fills in all the extra little pieces, it’s like he understands that part. It’s like he knows how to look at a song and turn it from a basic riff, or whatever, to this all-completed, all feeling song. And, I don’t know, it’s really rare. It’s something that you don’t see in someone who’s just started learning, and it’s such a rare thing and it’s such a wild ride to be a part of and watch him grow and learn. Like every night, it’s like “damn, he’s doing shit that, like, drummers who’ve been playing for ten years don’t know how to do it” You know what I mean, just crazy shit. So, I applaud Danny all day long. He’s good, Philip, he’s good!
It’s really important that you play – whoever you are, whether you’re lead guitar or drums – you’re right, it’s really rare in whatever scenario, that everyone is focused on just making the song as good as it can be, rather than focusing on their independent area of expertise, they’re focused on making something that fits the music.
Clinton: Yeah, totally. I feel like we’re also really good at challenging ourselves with songs. You know, we wrote a song recently where were like “what if it’s just one note? How can we make one note be cool? How can we make the same note be cool and actually change?” So, we’re finding out these weird ways of writing, like writing a song that’s just drums, and maybe a guitar part only comes in for one second, and you just get a taste of it. I love those aspects and, again, a lot of people in other bands are like “no!”
In my old band, they would have been like “absolutely not! If it doesn’t sound like Jack White and the Raconteurs, we’re out” [laughs]. So, it’s like, I want things to be crazy. I want people to be like “what the hell? It only has guitar for like two seconds!” I like that aspect and Danny vibes that way really well.
You get a lot more interesting stuff trying to experiment in that way. If you’re writing to a relatively set formula, it’s inevitably going to sound more or less the same. I kind of like it when you’re learning to do something new, maybe some new chords or a new sound, and a song comes out of that “ah this is new, and I’ve not heard this before!” I think it’s a much more exciting way of producing music.
Clinton: Yeah, it’s really a thing. You hit it on the head. We pretty much only want to do stuff that gets us super-excited. I feel like that’s a basic-ass thing to say, but a lot of people… if you really look at how people write songs and people do bands, I feel like people spend most of their bands trying to sound like somebody. Subconsciously they’re there thinking “oh, if it doesn’t sound like X band, then it’s bad”. It’s like this weird, subconscious where you’re trying to write something new, but really, you’re just trying to copy stuff you’ve heard. And I only want to do stuff that gets me genuinely excited, and Danny and I only work on stuff that gets us excited. Like, if it doesn’t thrill us, we’re like “we’re good” – it’s just not how it works. If we’re psyched on it, like this is awesome, that’s the stuff that I want to do because that’s going to translate on stage. If I’m just a little bit off on it, then I won’t do it, because I have to be psyched from the moment it starts to the moment it ends, because that’s going to translate to everybody else. If I’m bored by a chorus, that’s going to show, and people are going to be like “this guy hates his own shit!” [laughs]
Danny: No feeling!
Clinton: Yeah
So, with that in mind, the new album – Cancel Culture Club – starts off with a kind of homage to the Beatles… how did that idea come around, and on a really dull technical note, because I’m curious, are there any rights issues that go along with that? It’s similar, but it’s in a kind of Melvins “I fuck around” kind of way…
Clinton: it is every wrong note [laughs]. So, it is literally… I kind of thought about that too. It is literally every wrong note, but it’s close enough. So, I’m not a huge Beatles head at all, but I love that song. I literally was like… for that reason (legal reasons) “I’m just going to figure out what it sounds like up here” [points to head].
It’s kind of like when you draw something and then, if you squint, you might see something else. It’s pretty much what it is. If you really break it down, vocally it sort of follows, but side by side, it’s like completely different. I don’t know, I was fucking around, and listening to some Beatles stuff, and the idea of Cancel Culture came up. I loved the play on words, Cancel Culture Club, and I think Tom had said “it sounds a little too much like Lonely Hearts Club band – you don’t want the Beatle people coming after you – they’re hardcore!” [Laughs] So, Immediately, I was like “I gotta do that!”
Danny: [simultaneously with Clinton] I gotta do that!
Clinton: So, Tom was like “yeah, you gotta do that!” So, it came together really quick. I sent it over to Kevin Rutmanis from Cows and Tomahawk and all that, and I was like “hey! I kind of made this botched cover of Sgt Pepper, would you like to add bass?” and of course he was like “yes!” and added this weird slide bass to it. I just wanted a song. I felt like the record needed to open with this fake homage, weird, welcome to the record kind of thing. So, I thought the best, corny way was to do this terrible Beatles cover. Also, I wanted people who like the Beatles to be like “that’s not accurate! You didn’t do this, and you didn’t do that!” So, yeah, it’s completely wrong!
I like it – it totally wrongfooted me because you have these huge riffs and then it’s like “is that… is that the Beatles? Nah!”
I like it, but it took a moment to settle in. Across the record, when you hear the term “noise band” it can go a lot of different ways from, kind of, McLusky-esque scratchy punk to Khanate’s one beat every half hour; but there’s a lot of accessibility in Phlyzzz, in the way you’re juxtaposing layers of noise with really catchy melodies… so, in terms of development, are you coming up with the melodies and then thinking how you can kind of bury them?
Clinton: It’s honestly both. So, I’ll let you in on a little inside knowledge – I’m actually not a fan of loud music. I love playing it, but I mean you can ask Danny, anytime we’re anywhere else, I’m listening to, like acoustic, quiet stuff. I listen to a lot of frog sounds… just like weird shit! It’s weird… but I love a good melody. I love a good hook. I love all of that stuff, but when I play a guitar, it just comes off really brutal. It’s like… an ape, sort of mentality, like [adopts neanderthal voice] “hey, here’s my song!”
I’m not… I can’t articulate things beautifully with my hands. It’s very robust and weird. So, I think it’s that. I like to sing a good melody, but my hands can only do this kind of chaotic noise. It’s also like a child. I’m so hyper to show somebody the idea that it comes out like this manic mess. And the older I’ve gotten, I’ve always tried to tamp that down. I always wanted to be the acoustic guy, who could play that sort of stuff, and be able to build these atmospheres, but I realised I just have to give that up and do exactly what I can do, and it’s translated to (in my opinion) some of the best songs that we’ve done. The melodies are like… like you said, buried in this chaotic noise. In my mind that’s what it should be – these really great melodies, but they’re lost in this chaotic mess, so when you hum it by itself, it feels really good – like “oh, that’s a great melody!” But, when you listen to it on the record, it’s like “woah, what the fuck, that’s chaotic!”
So, yeah, Danny can attest to the same thing – the way we write and the way we constructed this record was the same way – getting together and then taking it out in its rawest form and just letting it be what it is. There’s really no thought process behind it – I’m not going to tear the song apart or whittle it too much. I’m going to clean it up to where I feel good about it, but I’m not going to overthink it to where it loses its originality. So, that’s pretty much the process we took with the entire record. We’d take a song to where we were hyped about it, then add some elements to where we thought it would be interesting and then not overthink it. As soon as we felt like we were getting into it too much, we left it, because then you get to that point where it’s not what you originally intended it to be. You’re now thinking with like too many cooks in the kitchen, including my psycho brain, which has like seventeen voices going on at once. So, once we got to a point where we were digging too deep, we walked away. We were like that’s a song and we let it set for a couple of days, and then we’d come back to it after a couple of days and we’d be like, yeah, that’s it, it’s done.
And then, I don’t know if this is more from the rhythm side of things, but there are a couple of tracks – Pretend Friends and You have One New Messages, have kind of a funky underpinning, that really makes them groove.
Danny: Hmmmm, I’m trying to think. With those two songs specifically, it was basically digital drums that Clinton laid down, and then it was me trying to fit in to that, while also doing my own thing, and serving the song, which is kind of hard to do.
So, I mean, I think I was kind of trying to fit what was already there, which Clinton does a great job – he’s also a drummer, so he already has the… he knows what he wants. So, yeah, it was a lot of trial and error, especially You Have One New Messages. I think we did one take on that, right Clinton? So, there was a lot of me listening to the tracks and then trying to do my own thing with it and still serve it. I guess that’s just how it turned out naturally. It’s funky! I’m a groovy drummer. I like a good groove, just like Clinton likes a good hook, so yeah!
I think it’s those two elements, you take the hooks, you take the groove and so… throughout the record is surprisingly accessible… except for the last track, which is just… scary.
Danny: What was the last track?
Clinton: Oh, yeah [Laughs]
I think it’s I took A Selfie At A Protest And Now Im a Good Person and it’s like four minutes of doomy, chaos-y… I really enjoy it. It’s a great whiteout after the album, which is hooky and takes you all sorts of places before the final track throws you on the fire.
Clinton: It’s like that whole… all of that. That idea of having two files – songs that are great and songs that are shit – that song was all the files of shit, and those were all demos that I just ran together. It’s half of a song, taped to half of a song that wasn’t finished, taped to half of a song.
So, it’s all just demo ideas where I typed together weird interludes and shit like that. Before Phlyzzz, I started this other band called the Beverly Hills Supper Club, which is about this club in Kentucky, which had this huge fire. It was a huge club in the sixties, but it burnt down. It was so big, all these people were dying and burning inside of it, while the other people were still having fun and had no idea they were trapped, it’s like how big the club was. It’s really interesting to look up, but I had this whole thing I was working on where I did a song for every room. Never got around to it, because it was too many rooms [laughs] so, I put it aside and that’s how that song came together. I just taped all these ideas together. I was having fun one day and I was like “let’s try gluing all these songs together – what would it sound like?” And that’s what it sounds like.
Most of it was recorded at home, wasn’t it – what about tracking drums? The press release mentions a 10 x 10 room, which doesn’t sound big enough!
Clinton: Most of the drums were done at the practise space which is literally 10 x 10. I am very untraditional by recording, because I feel I’ve been jaded by experiences in actual studios. Um, there’s nothing wrong with studios, and there’s nothing wrong with engineers, but what I want and what I hear is like an engineer’s nightmare. I want the drums to be chaotic. I want them to be in the centre of the room. I want bleed. I want it to be what the engineers went to school to avoid. If they learnt to cross mics to avoid bleed, I’ll be like “well, uncross them, because I want all that shit!”
So, I took the pandemic to record this myself, so it was a lot of learning and time well spent, because now I have that understanding of exactly how Phlyzzz should sound and, when you buy this record, you get Phlyzzz from top to bottom. I touched every aspect of this. I fixed it. I helped with mastering. I recorded everything. It’s all Phlyzzz, it’s all of us. I’m really proud of it in that sense, because I did a lot of untraditional stuff. When King Buzzo came over to my house, it was literally… I’ll show ya [picks up this battered, piece-of-shit amp] It was this, five-dollar Esteban amp that he played through and an SM58 that I had under my desk, with my foot pushing it into the speaker. That’s the shit that I like and when Tom came over… when Tom added his guitar, we were taking guitars and plugging them in and just sitting around and saying “what if we just hang it by the whammy bar” or he’d rip a lead and we’d be blowing stuff out.
I wanted the recording process, no matter who was involved – Danny, Tom, King Buzzo – to just be fun, quick and interesting. So, King Buzzo came in, ripped his solo, and I think we did the whole thing in like twenty minutes. I think maybe. I showed him where I wanted his solo. He was like “OK”. He picked out one of my guitars, plugged it in. It’s weird to tell him to try another take in the sense of I just wanted to hear him play – I didn’t need another take! But, yeah, even that – it was great because he came in, we knocked it out and we were done and, from what I understand from Tom, that’s how he likes to record – it’s fast!
That’s also the way I like to record, so yeah – I feel like with this record and doing it all in one small room, it’s claustrophobic, but it’s also very focused. I didn’t have a lot to work with, this is like the entire record [points to his battered amp] and this SM58, which I think I stole from a venue that didn’t pay us. So, that’s the whole record and I get really frustrated when bands or people online are like [adopts stoner voice] “well, if I just had this… or if I just had that I could make the best…” You really don’t! You just need time to sit down and do it. That’s it, you can make anything sound cool, it’s just if you’re willing to put the work in. So, this is a great example – you can make a crazy noise record and it shouldn’t sound polished.
So, you mentioned you’re involved in everything – what about the artwork, because I’m a huge physical music fan and it looks awesome – was that you guys?
Clinton: That’s Tom. So, with all artwork, and anything like that, I trust Tom with everything. I very rarely trust people with the band. I trust Danny and I trust Tom, that’s pretty much it. If I trust you, it’s a lot. And Tom is one of those guys where… I’m very hands on with the band. Danny and I always have to give it a thumbs up, no matter what…. But, with the artwork, and that aspect, we let Tom do whatever he wants because Tom does incredible work that I love. Everything he’s ever put his hands on I think is incredible and I just let him do his thing.
So, with this, Tom asked me to send him some ideas and I was like: “I was thinking like culty – like Cancel Culture Club, so we were thinking weird, demonic, churchy vibe” Everything I do, for some reason, has a religious undertone. I don’t know why. But I sent some ideas and I think a week later, just really rough images. And, a week later, he sent over the cover and the back. I don’t know if you’ve seen the back, but it has this big dick on it, that he carved. And I loved it. I was like “this is everything I want” There’s just all this hidden shit inside of it, all this hidden, tongue-in-cheek shit and I thought this is incredible! He snuck a dick on this record, it’s… I want to do a whole record that is covered in dicks, because this is the best dick, I’ve ever seen carved…
Danny: And you’ve seen a lot!
Clinton: I’ve seen a lot of dicks! This is grade A dick. He’s, yeah, with the artwork now, it’s fully… I give it to Tom all day. He’s the best. I can’t tell anybody who’s as good as he is to be anything other than himself.
[brief interlude where Zoom times out]
We’re back! The embarrassing world of the independent webzine, where we can’t afford Zoom packages
Clinton: [Laughs] It’s OK, I get that 100% – I feel like everyone… well, not everyone… but a lot of people think that, because of the Am Rep connection, we’re caked in money. It’s like “no! We’re not!”
Even DIY, it’s amazing how quickly costs spiral – especially if you’re trying to do cool, physical copies of stuff.
Clinton: Yeah, I mean thank God in heaven for Tom, who covers all of that. So, we don’t have to worry about any of that, which is amazing. So that’s a blessing.
The curse of the independent band, it’s like a never-ending money pit!
Clinton: [Laughs] Honestly, we did a couple of releases by ourselves, before Tom got involved, and just like small number stuff and even then, it was like Christ! There’s no return from this. The only return we get is like the smile we get for putting it out! It is, like you said, it’s a money pit. I’d be better gambling – if I took it to a casino, at least I’d have the odds of getting it back!
It’s one of those things – you get into it for the love of it and it’s impossible not to do… but it can be tough.
Clinton: Yeah, it’s kind of like the weirdest, best drug you can take. It’s really addictive and you’re like “I don’t care if I can’t afford the bills!”
It’s always interesting, the process of getting guests involved in records, because you have to have a lot of trust that the guests will come in, get the concept of what you’re doing and, also, not do something that ends up in a dispute over what to include or not to include…
Clinton: Yeah, we had King Buzzo, Kevin Rutmanis and Haze XXL, which is Tom…
[At this point, Danny manages to get back in]
Danny: Hey guys, what’s going on?!
Thank you for coming back in.
Clinton: Hey, Phil, check out Danny’s ripping tattoo on his arm
[Squinting at the screen]: Awesome
Clinton: Alright, go-ahead Phil, I had to show off our tattoos, because we’re bad boys [laughs].
So, yeah – the process of getting guests involved…
Clinton: Yeah, I mean, so… again, like you said, it’s basically just the trust aspect. Kevin, Buzz, Haze XXL – I trust them enough musically and I’ve listened to them long enough to know I genuinely like what they do, and I was just going to trust them. With Buzzo and Kevin and Haze, there was no direction. It was like “here’s a part, here’s where I want you to play…” that’s the only direction I gave. Everything I sent Kevin, I was like “I’d love for you to put bass on it”, I never said what it should be. With Haze, when he came over and we were hanging out, I was like “here’s a song…” I let him listen to a song and… I love Haze, because he’s very stoic, and he was going like this [nods his head to an imaginary beat] and I was like, yeah, you should add something – whatever you want to do. So, it was just sitting back and recording whatever he wanted to play. It is a lot of that trust, because I trust these guys, I value these guys’ opinion and I value what they’ve done creatively for years.
I am the idiot if I tell them what I want them to do. I should let them be them 100%. I’m the dummy if I’m sitting back and telling King Buzzo how to play guitar! Having him… he’s such a master at what he does. He’s done so many records that he’s ideal to work with because he literally… I showed him a section and he was like “OK – yeah, just roll me back and press record” and it was that simple. And, it’s not just trust, it’s picking people who I love musically, who are seasoned at what they do and understand music as a whole.
It’s not an ego stroke or anything like that. They’re not getting anything off of playing on my shit. They’re doing it because they love to play. Those are the people that I want to be involved with – the people who love to play. And I’m 100% grateful to those guys.
And really, massive thanks to Tom, because Tom has been showing my stuff to people for years now, apparently, that I didn’t know of. But other people are like “yeah, Tom’s been sending me your stuff for a while.”
So, yeah, it’s a lot of Tom too – putting that little nugget of information in people’s heads and spreading the gospel of Phlyzzz, so when the opportunity arose, and when I sent this record to Tom, he flew in, and he was like “we should really do a vinyl of this stuff.” And then when we were like going through all these songs, I was listening to Mr Entertainer and, at the end, I’ve got Kevin ripping bass through the entire thing. Anyway, one of my favourite live videos is Melvins from Belfast. it’s one of the best live shows. To me, it’s like the Melvins just killing it for forty-five minutes. It’s relentless, non-stop, relentless.
And I love the way Kevin plays bass on that. I love his bass tone and I laid down Mr Entertainer and I had the bass down and all I could think of was that video and Kevin and Buzz. And I was talking to Tom, and I was like “man, I just feel like, in my head, this ending would be complete if Buzz rips something” and Tom being Tom was like “yeah, I’ll ask him and see what’s up”.
So, he sent it over to him and Buzz was like “yeah, I’ll do it!” Just very simple. I got an email from Buzz, saying “I’ll do it, I’ll be in town” And, like I said, twenty minutes. I picked him up from his hotel room, drove him back. In my house, twenty minutes… we ate! We went to go eat after; it took us longer to get food than it did to record that! [Laughs]
But, I mean, again – it’s that whole circle of trust. I trust all these people and these people trust each other. So, having someone like Tom on your team is incredible, because when Tom says “hey, these guys are good, if you have time, would you like to add something?” it’s that level of trust. They trust Tom, I trust Tom and we all trust each other. Yeah. It’s crazy. I still… it’s been like a year and I’m still like “yo! I fucking did that, it’s wild!”
And with the Kevin stuff too – Kevin was recorded all through his phone. Tom got Kevin connected and I got him a good bass sound, and it was great, because he was asking how we’d record, and I was like “lay your phone against your bass amp!” Literally, all the bass tracks are an iPhone against his bass cab and that’s all his bass tracks. They sound nuts and, if you isolate it, you can literally hear Kevin, like talking, in the background and, of course, I left all that in.
So, yeah, it’ a big thank you to Tom and a big thank you to all these guys who genuinely trust each other, and all just want to make something cool.
Mr Entertainer is, anyway, one of my favourite tracks – it’s a nice dynamic shift in the middle of the record, but it’s pretty full on up to that point, and the track gives a moment of pause before building back up. I love all the stuff that goes with sequencing a record to get that journey.
Clinton: Cool!
So, my final question, really, is what happens next. Even on the album, it feels like you’re evolving – so how do you see Phlyzzz going forward?
Clinton: Danny…
Danny: [on the spot] ummmmmm we already have a whole load of songs, that sound pretty different to Cancel Culture Club. When Clinton and I get together, we basically started writing right away. We tracked the album, and then we set off writing shit. So, we have a good five songs, and then another two… one or two that we’re working on literally today. And yeah, I think when we come back from this, we’re going to record another batch. All these songs are really collaborative, we literally wrote all of them together, and we’re good foils for each other.
Like Clinton said, he’s more on the hooky side of things, which I like as well. But I’m on the other side of things – I like noisy shit and loud shit! That’s kind of my bag. So, when we get together, it’s like perfect, because we’re good foils for each other. I might push him in certain ways that he might not think about, like what happens if we have a slower tempo, or if we add this intro, or something. So, yeah, our new album is probably going to be out this time next year. So, yeah!
Clinton: It’s how we’re going to work. Danny gets it. Just cranking out music. Like this record, I’m so hyped about this record, and we have a tour on Sept 29th for like 30-something days. So, I’m really hyped about this record, but I’m also the type of person that like… I’m already on the next record. I’ve done this, I’m on to the next one. So, like Danny said, we’re finalising more stuff today… Yeah, it is what it is, we’re going to keep moving forward and I feel like the future of the band is going to be exactly this. When you think you know what it is, the next record is going to be completely different. That’s what I love about Phlyzzz… it’s always going to be everywhere, and I never really want anyone to really get their thumb on the pulse with it – I consistently want to throw people through a whirl every time. That’s just how I am. To me, it’s not only funny, but it’s creative. Why have a box. Where are these rules that you have to be a noise band because you play this weird stuff. You have to be a pop band because you have a synth. You have to be like this because you have this guitar… these weird rules that people have stated because they are jealous of people doing something different… I break them all the time. Any time anyone is like “you’re a two piece, you can’t do…” I’m like “no, we’re going to go in the studio and have horns or whatever we want.” It’s 2022, I can figure a way to make it work.
Somebody said in a live thing that we’re not necessarily a noise band and we don’t fit, and I was like “yeah, you’re right – we’re just a band. I don’t know, we’re making music, and it’s always going to e different” It’s not like “I’m on am-rep, I have to do heavy noise…” No, Tom took on Phlyzzz because he likes what I do in general, so I’m going to keep doing me, and that might include… I don’t know, I might make a record with accordions – who knows?!
At the end of the chat, as I thank the band for their time, we get into a brief and more general discussion about music. It’s amazing to me that, despite having spent an hour of the morning answering my questions, they just want to hang and talk more about music, but it says a lot about who they are and why their band is so awesome.
Check out Cancel Culture Club via the band’s Bandcamp page now:
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