Charlotte-based duo Flagship, makers of fist-pumping indie rock anthems, will release their second full-length album, The Electric Man, on March 10th. The pair met years ago when Charlotte music scene regular Drake Margolnick filled in on bass for fellow scenester Michael Finster’s band. “We just connected, and this out of the ashes, Flagship arose,” Flagship drummer Finster says with a laugh.
Flagship released their debut EP, blackbush, on Bright Antenna in 2012, followed by a self-titled full-length in 2013 produced by Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Washed Out). MTV dubbed Flagship “Buzzworthy” as they whipped up a full-tilt frenzy in the blogosphere, shared stages with bands like Kings of Leon and The Black Keys, and toured with British indie pop band The Wombats. With thousands of YouTube views and millions of Spotify streams already under their belts, Flagship headed back into the studio in 2015 to hammer out their next endeavor.
“Drake and I went to visit our producer Joey Waronker, he’s the drummer for Beck and plays in Atoms For Peace, a super legit kind of guy,” explains Finster. “We jammed for a few days on some ideas and he recorded it; we made about 22 demos for the record. The songs very much capture individual moments of time, we can’t keep our attention on one thing long enough to focus a whole album on one thing,” he laughs. From these sessions,The Electric Man was forged. “The record is dedicated to a former band member who passed away last year,” explains Finster. “He is who the Electric Man is. He was a wily, energetic guy, who was crazy and funny and incredible and smart, and electric person.”
The album’s subject matter covers everything from love to anger—the commonality is raw, honest, emotion. “In our minds, there’s no attempt to sound a certain way, it’s just what we do. Both Drake and I were raised in a church environment, that’s where I learned to play music.,” says Finster. “When you’re raised in church playing music, there’s a whole factor of being able to sway a room emotionally-speaking, to enhance feelings. Coming from that background, though that music doesn’t influence me anymore, it still exists in me in a way. We just make what we like. We love music that takes you somewhere, that invokes a feeling,” he continues. “We want to allow people to get lost in the music.”
Leave a Reply