Throughout our interview, Flipsyde use words like ‘tight’, ‘man’ and ‘shit’ a lot. As I lift up a copy of Is Ainm Dom, the debut album from Dublin rapper Collie, 26-year old guitarist Steve Knight unleashes a slew of phrases typical of the US four piece. “Hey man you like that shit right there? Is that some tight shit? Do you dig that shit?”
“Huh,” I mutter, stunned at the speed at which he’s fired three questions at me. That’s my job. I stare back with a blank expression and again mutter something indecipherable. Knight continues pouring his tea.
He’s white, built like a brick shithouse and a former US soldier. He’s from Alabama. When he speaks he reminds me of a line in the song ‘Campaign Of Hate’ by The Libertines. “White kids talking like they're black.”
Around him sit the rest of Flipsyde, a rock, sometimes Spanish influenced US hip-hop collective. Think Linkin Park or one hit wonders Sugar Ray. It’s a mesh of sound that’s certainly not typical of the genre. Knight, as mentioned, is a white guitarist influenced by Pearl Jam, Phish and Dave Matthews. Dave Lopez, the group’s second guitarist, is Chilean and comes from a background of protest music.
“We are a lot of things. We’re not just hip-hop though that’s obviously a major influence in our music,” notes Piper the group’s rapper, a black American, perhaps more typical of the type of musician to have toured with Snoop Dogg and The Game. “I mean the hip-hop audience digs the guitar sound as well. They might be feeding off the hip-hop element but when Dave plays guitar, man they go mad for that shit. We rock any crowd.”
Touring is something Flipsyde have been doing since January. They’ve already been in Ireland twice since March and arrive back for a third show in September as part of Eminem’s Anger Management 3 tour.
“We’re looking forward to that show, hell yeah,” says Piper enthusiastically. “That will be a show. Do we learn much from the people we support? Yeah, of course. I mean touring with Black Eyed Peas and Snoop you do pick up shit. I mean they’re legends of the game, man.”
Prior to Slane comes the release of the quartet’s debut album, We The People. It hits Ireland at the end of this month, and with such a variety of influences in the group it must have been difficult to appease each member’s tastes?
“I wouldn’t say it was that hard to record and to please each person,” says Knight. “I mean generally we’d have a role. You know Dave is great with guitar solos, Piper will freestyle and I’m good at coming up with melodies and hooks. I seem to remember it was pretty easy. There weren’t many arguments. It was more a case of either we were digging the track or not. We digged it and I think once the people hear it they will too. It’s very us, man, and the different elements we represent. It’s all in the title, We The People. We feel this is music representative of the people from the people.”