Alternative New Artist Discovery Of The Week
VIP Access. Let’s meet the band.
Sam Dyson (guitar), Steve Bird (vocals), Dave Betts (keys, guitar), and Ed Gallimore (drums)
| ARTIST | The Ramona Flowers |
|---|---|
| SONG | “Dangerous” |
| LABEL | Distiller |
| ORIGIN | Bristol, UK |
1. Please introduce yourself and give us the backstory on how the band got started.
Hey, my name is Ed and we are The Ramona Flowers. We met after Sam and Dave, who’d been making music together for a few years already, placed an add to find a vocalist for a new project. Shortly after Steve answered the call and the three guys recruited me not long after. From there we’ve never looked back, steadily creating music and developing our sound into what you hear today.
2. How would you describe your music?
It’s always hard for an artist to describe their own sound. We don’t really ever set out with a blueprint. All of us write songs, beds and have input on the music at every level so pinning it down to a genre is tough. A lot of the lyrics are extremely personal and deal with some very tough and even intense subject matter but balanced against an up beat energy that taps into that intensity. This leads to a soup of vulnerability, excitement and fun that we hope delivers the intention of each track and does it justice in its own right. Sonically we’re a proper band and we try and keep as much of our live energy in the recordings while also embracing the beautiful production of our Co conspirator Dimitri. The whole process is pretty complicated, balancing everyone’s opinions, however it produces music we can all connect and be proud of.
3. Who are your biggest influences?
That’s an almost impossible question to answer. Seriously! Each of us has a different collection of influences ranging from Prince to Gillian Welch, Oasis to Kate Bush, Led Zeppelin, Tears For Fears, Brittany Howard, Little Dragon, Daft Punk…. I could go on. It’s a deep well of evolving obsessions we’ve collected individually since childhood and they all definitely appear throughout the process of creating the music. Whether it’s obvious in the end product or not, it’s all in there.
4. What was the inspiration behind your current single?
Dangerous in essence is full of uplifting energy musically. We wanted to match the intention of our collaboration with Nile Rogers on Up All Night but develop it further. Musically it’s a dance track at its heart. Lyrically it deals with a topic everyone can relate to. The devil on your shoulder, often fun in the moment but that you know is dangerous to indulge. Even so you can never seem to leave it alone. Everyone at some point has dealt with something like that, we four certainly have in different ways. Hopefully when you listen to Dangerous you can connect with that sentiment.
5. What would surprise people most about you?
What might surprise people about The Ramona Flowers. Tough question but I guess it would have to be our live show. That’s where we take the songs themselves and have a chance to perform and present them in a new way. We take great pride in our shows and we hope it comes across. We also get to deliver some tunes that no one’s ever heard on record so you always get a sneak peak at where we’re heading or sometimes a time capsule of where we’ve come from. We always leave it all on the stage.
