Indie darlings Flowertruck are packing up their gear and heading out on an East Coast tour next month to celebrate their highly-anticipated debut album, Mostly Sunny, and much to the delight of their many fans down south their first stop is The Workers Club in Fitzroy. “I love Melbourne,” says Charles Rushforth, the friendly frontman of the four-piece. “The whole scene is very supportive but I’m always conscious of being a Sydney rat when I go there.
“We’ll have Mares and Real Love with us too, so it’s very exciting and I can’t wait!” he adds. “It’s been a long time coming, a really slow burn, but we’re so happy that the album is finally out – oh my God.”
Mostly Sunny was a labour of love recorded between Sydney’s inner city at Free Energy Device Studios and the coastal, picturesque setting of the Grove Studios in Somerby’s NSW, but according to Rushforth it was anything but relaxing.
“We went into the Grove, with Richard Belkner, with the intention of doing it all live, tracking everything live, and just going over and over it again until we got the takes right, if that makes sense. It seemed simple, but turned out to be like strenuous physical exercise for four days,” he laughs.
“You see, we’re all pretty much self-taught except for Sarah [Skyes, keyboard]. Sarah’s the only one with music knowledge – she’s like an encyclopaedia, which is good. But the rest of us are bizarrely self-taught, so it was really funny watching us tightening up in that way.
“We did some of the overdubs at Free Energy Device in Sydney but they were mixed in Melbourne by Matty Voight,” Rushforth says. “He did an amazing job, he mixed via correspondence, which is crazy. Like a pen pal, but he’s in control of your life’s work,” he jokes. “It was so nerve-racking but he did a great job.”
“Our EP, Dirt, was a lot more measured, especially Will [Blackburn]’s drum tracks. It was a bit more of a calculated affair. Mostly Sunny is a lot looser,” Rushforth says, “and for us, I think that’s the best way to do it. Next time we’re looking forward to belting something out and then taking some time to mix it properly with the appropriate overdubs. I definitely can’t wait to get everyone fired up to just bang the songs out like a dinner in the microwave.”
While Rushforth admits the album was recorded in record time, the ten unique tracks came together over time forming a soundtrack to the four friends’ lives. ‘New Is the Saddest Word’ is one that has a deep meaning to the charismatic songwriter. “The song is a tricky one to talk about but I’ll do my best. That line just popped into my head one day while I was doing some work at the library for uni in winter last year,” he says.
“It summed up how I was feeling at the time – when you hit your mid-20’s as a musician and it feels like the natural wind in your sails is starting to deflate. I felt I was cursed to watch the world change around me while I stayed the same.”
Another track that stands out from the rest is ‘All My Girlfriends Are Zepplins’. “That ol’ thing! That was one of the first songs I ever wrote. It was about a break up about three years ago, a typical catalyst for a whingey indie band song,” he smiles. “It was a funny time in my life – I was very young and very naive, and my thinking was very surreal back then. I was involved with all these people and they just seemed to float away no matter how hard I tried to cling on.
“I remember the day I was set to record the vocals for that song, I was trying to come up onto the kerb from the road outside Nandos in Newtown. My bike freaked out and I went flying over the handlebars and badly injured my shoulder,” Rushforth says. “So I was walking across the road to the studio, holding this broken bike and I was like ‘Oww, I’ve gotta go and sing now,’ so if it sounds like I’m in physical pain on that song, it’s because I am.”
