FLOSS
(interview)
Get tickets to FLOSS’ headline show at The Tote here.
Demure spoke with floss, lead singer and namesake of dream-pop Melbourne band FLOSS about their growing sound, their latest EP Surrounded, and what the future has in store.
Tell us about your band and how you came together?
FLOSS is a band that falls into several different genre categories including dream pop, alternative pop and indie-rock. We are a five-piece including Floss Cuming (lead singer and rhythm guitarist), Nick Grifa (drums), Jeremy Phillips (bass), Charlie Howcroft (lead guitar) and Zac Bunston (keys). It’s a bit of long-winded story how the band came together as it is today which I will try to condense. Charlie, Jeremy and myself (Floss) all learnt from the same guitar teacher throughout primary and high school and were placed in a band called Malcolm and The Creatures by our teacher Peter. In 2016, the three of us decided to form a new band along with Lachlan Marshall and Nick Grifa which is when FLOSS was born. Lach is no longer playing with FLOSS but Zac joined us in 2018 to play the keys.
Talk us through the creation of your first EP, Surrounded. How did that process go with the lockdowns last year and was it exciting finally releasing this body of work?
The EP ‘Surrounded’ was in the works for so many years and has contributions from lots of people. Despite being released in March 2021, the recording started in the Summer between 2017 and 2018. Taking it back even further the songs Why and Surrounded were ones that I wrote back in high school around 2014 and 2015. Thus, the EP was a labour of love that spanned across several years. The EP was finished and ready to go well before lockdown commenced in March 2020. But we just decided to slow the release and opted for putting out two singles before the EP itself so we could wait to play actual live shows around the time of the EP release. It was extremely exciting to get the music and recordings that we had been working on extensively out into world for people to hear. It’s really nice to have a solid body of work to refer people to and it makes us all super proud.
Your sound is something unique from other Melbourne alt-rock bands. Do you feel that your sound has been evolving since 2020?
Our sound is always developing, often in slight and subtle ways. I like to think that my songwriting and song construction has matured greatly in the past year or so which creates the foundation for the band to form more interesting and memorable tracks. Although our general approach remains the same, i.e. taking the solemn-ish ballads I write and turning them into more rocky or poppy upbeat tracks, I think you can tell that there has just been a general growth in our songs. This development emerges as we have all come to know each other so well and work together in a very natural and collaborative way.
The lyrics in Surrounded are so vulnerable and honest. Do these come from real, personal experiences?
All the songs I write are very much based on real-life emotions and experiences. In fact, I wish I had the ability to become a little more creative and write about things that didn’t happen to me (haha). Surrounded was a classic song fuelled by teenage angst and the feeling of being ‘surrounded’ by people that I didn’t fit in with or who didn’t understand me. It’s quite funny to look back on now as it’s such a quintessential high school feeling, but I’m glad the song itself holds up and the end result is one we’re all really proud of. The beautiful way in which the song turned out must be credited to the all the band members’ input, especially Charlie’s awesome trombone playing and Nick’s mixing.
I have been lucky enough to see the band play live on multiple occasions. The atmosphere and energy is always great and the audience is full of mates. How do you feel about performing for some bigger crowds in the near future?
I suppose the goal is always to be playing to bigger and more diverse crowds. We are beyond grateful for our incredibly dedicated friends and family who show up time and time again for our gigs. However, I think we would love to start seeing a couple of unfamiliar faces out there in the crowd to indicate that our music is reaching beyond our circles. A huge goal for us would be to play a venue such as the Northcote Social Club which would be our largest show yet.
What can we expect from FLOSS in the coming year?
We all hope to continue playing shows around Melbourne about once a month, so that can definitely be expected. Of course, we are all very eager to get back to recording as we have around 12-14 songs that are sitting and ready to form maybe even an album?! Balancing the work and university commitments of five people in their early twenties is a challenge so the recording process will not be speedy, but it is certainly in the pipeline and something we will be working towards in the long term.
Where can we see you performing soon?
FLOSS has two exciting shows coming up. One on Friday the 30th of July at The Evelyn Hotel in Fitzroy supporting Blue Vedder alongside Phaedo. Then on Thursday the 19th of August at The Tote Hotel in Collingwood we have our big headline show where we will be supported by Barely Standing and The Laymen.
Interview by Lucia Morris (she/her)
Photography by Rose Hartley & Sam Amar.