The September Flaw Interview

Andy – Drums (Sorts out gigs in Leicestershire)
Jon – Vocal / Synthesiser / Guitar (Sorts out gigs outside of Leicestershire)
Joe – Bass Guitar / Vocal (does their Myspace site)
Dave – Guitar (Fountain of knowledge)

I’ve seen a lot of bands come and go, and have had the honour (read as, great fun, tremendous amount of hard work) to road crew for Ash, Stereophonics, Henry Rollins and Terrorvision. One thing that has always annoyed me about the music scene, are bands that are arrogant, and my god, I’ve come across loads like that. So here I am waiting at Stayfree, for the arrival of “The September Flaw”, last years winners of “Supersonicboom”, and to my surprise they arrive on time.

First impressions, they certainly look the part, and after the first 30 seconds, I breathe a huge sigh of relief. I thought I was going to have to give them a serious trolling, but no! I hope that these guys go far because you couldn’t have hoped for better! They’re polite, friendly, honest, and they’ll end up carrying you along with whatever they happen to be doing at the time. You can see why they have such a large hardcore following when Jon laughingly says that they only have four fans (and one of those is somebody’s mum), when you know you’re that good you can afford to laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously.

I had tried to do a bit research on their “Myspace” site, but the only thing I learnt from that was their previous name was “Sylent Fury”, and that their lead singer is over 17ft tall, on the plus side you can hear some of their music on there which is well worth dropping by for.

The first obvious question, why the name? There are a few laughs, and the explanation begins. They were called Sylent Fury, and “somebody” spray painted the initials “SF” onto their instrument (at this point a member of the band turns red with a big smile on his face), a new name was needed, but it had to use the same initials. Joe was born in September, and with the combination of internet surfing of other band names, “The September Flaw” came into being.

This current line up have been together for 6 months, with Jon being the new addition, and I hope they don’t change it. Firstly because then I’d have to update any information on them, and secondly, I think they have exactly the right talents to make their band sound as good as they do. Andy, their drummer answers most of the questions, confident, not pushy, and that’s a reflection of his style. There are loads of wannabe drummers throughout the UK, a lot of whom, annoyingly, can’t actually keep a beat, and they would help their cause if they listened to Andy. He gets it right first time every time, driving the songs forward, confident, and with that solid pulse beating, the band thrive.

For Jon, singing is not enough, so to make things interesting for himself he plays guitar and uses a synth too! Whenever I see a new band I always reserve judgement until I hear the singer, because if ever there’s a weak point, it’s the vocals, and the verdict on Jon? He’s good, no wait, he’s very good, an accomplished guitarist and one heck of nice surprise especially as he confesses his knowledge of music theory is “non-existent”. 

Joe, their bass player, has a penchant for what he calls “the metal stance”, he gives a quick demonstration and everybody laughs. He’s instantly likeable, quiet, fun, but when he’s playing, he’s a different person. During the practice he fronts up to one of the microphones and I think to myself “oh dear, he’s a wannabe singer bass player”, and then suddenly he unleashes what I can only describe as a total “blast” that left me shell-shocked. There are bands with singers that try to achieve what Joe does, but fail miserably..and he’s their bass player?! (Coincidentally a good one at that too).

 Last but not least, Dave, their guitarist, and youngest member. I’ve decided I hate Dave (joking!). I ask myself “He’s THAT good, and how old is he!?!?”, when you see this band play, close your eyes, listen to the main guitar, open, look at Dave. You don’t get the same speed solos as say James Stew of “Tokyo”, but you do get an impressive sound that’ll knock you off your feet, and you know that given time, Dave will surpass most other guitarists. Dave has a grade 7 in music…with 8 being the “top”, but the band are working on a new grade along with a new scale in honour of him ^^.

I ask about the Supersonicboom event this year and how they felt about winning it last time round. Andy says that “it’ll be good this year”, and Joe chips in with “and I found a fiver on stage last year as well” (so if anybody lost a fiver last year at Supersonicboom, Joe’s been looking after it for you), but winning last year “was fantastic” with them being “chuffed”. They enjoyed playing at the event, but their all time favourite venue? "The Attik, I ask "What about De-Montfort Hall?", again they all laugh "Nah, we're too big for that, don't think they could contain us!!".

I would like to say a big thanks to Stayfree for letting us interview there, and a bigger thanks to "The September Flaw" for an enjoyable interview. I may have to get myself a t-shirt though, with “I hate Dave, ‘cos he is that good!” on it.

Good luck with Supersonicboom 2007.

Check out their Myspace website which has more music and photo's!
The September Flaw - Myspace