Won’t you let me down just a little more?
An ambient guitar riff to set the mood, a light touch on the cymbals to lure you in with a reverberating strum of a bass and the deep lament of a voice with the power to propel you back to the 90s grunge music scene.
On June 24, Montreal’s The Flair band released their newest single, “Bedlam.”
“Bedlam has been in our back pockets for some time now,” vocalist Shane says. “I think everyone in the band interprets the song in a different way, and I hope the listeners do the same. That was by design, especially on a lyrical level. What it means to me may not mean the same as the next person — and that’s okay, that’s the point. I want the listener to really try and discover what it means for themselves — it’s more fun that way.”
Truly, the song can be construed in many ways as the lyrics feel like a mashup of sentences where the singer asks a number of questions to no one about nothing in particular. The term “bedlam” signifies a state of uproar and total confusion — and the track oozes that kind of energy.
An eye for an eye
The blind leads the blind
What is your agenda?
And who draws the line?
The music flows perfectly with the lyrics as well. When the verses are sung in a more mellow tone, the melody comes in undisturbed waves. But as the chorus rolls in, the cymbals come crashing down and the tempo accelerates, almost as if by admitting to the state of “bedlam,” the tone switches from confused to complete abandon to the uproar.
Formed in 2019, The Flair came to be when originally, guitarist George along with bassist Will and vocalist Shane were originally in another band together. Back then, the now vocalist was actually a drummer.
“We wanted to do something different at the time,” Shane says, “and I wanted to focus more on being a frontman and singer instead of a drummer. Jordan who plays the drums, is someone George and Will knew from high school. He is a unit of a drummer and it all just fell into place thankfully!”
The band’s sound exudes 90s grunge rock influences, a genre that bonds the four members in spite of their different music tastes.
“I always say this to people when they ask about influence: it’s so funny to me how 4 people with very contrasting tastes in music came together to create this sound,” Shane says. “The 90s is the one commonality we all share in terms of what we like musically because I think it takes all the elements of what we look for and brings it into one. That era was a real turning point for a lot of people, something we never got to experience but something we hope to embody.”
And where did the name come from?
“[The Flair] came relatively easily, actually,” Shane continues. “When starting a band, the trope is usually: “well we have all these great players, all these cool song, but what are we called?!” you know? I came up with The Flair name because I’m a huge wrestling fan. I’m actually a pro-wrestling manager too, and Ric Flair is one of my favourites of all time. He had such a style to him, a real pomp-and-circumstance element to him and it just radiated such a presence that we wanted to emulate through our music. Ran it by the boys and without hesitation “The Flair” was born!”
The band has been releasing their own music since 2020, with a debut single titled “Angie,” followed a year later by “Breezeway.”
“Songwriting sessions are really free-form, to be honest,” Shane says. “We’ll pull up to Will’s [bass] fully equipped basement and either George [guitar] or Will will have a queue of riffs lined-up to be worked on and we’ll build upon that. We could start with one riff, a vibe we have in mind — or, more often than not, we literally just tell Will, “write something” and then something comes of it. I think that’s how “Breezeway” was written.”
If you were to stumble upon the Flair’s socials, with absolutely no idea what you’re getting yourself into, three words to help you out, according to the vocalist: Movie, Mess, Jungle
“We want to have the best live experience for the fans,” he says. “Putting on a performance is what we always want to do. The greatest compliment we can receive is seeing the people in the audience shaking their asses, singing our songs back to us. It’s the best feeling in the world. To see them happy, to see them live life normally again after the 2 years we were apart due to COVID —that, to us, is the most important aspect of this whole thing. It means we’re doing our job right.”
The Flair will be playing on July 23rd at La Marche À Côté, on St. Denis St.
Make sure to stream “Bedlam” on all available platforms, and to follow The Flair on social media for more updates on music and upcoming shows.
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