Gang Of Flaw
The border counties may not exactly be a hotbed of indie rock but that hasn’t stopped Monaghan hopefuls The Flaws from producing one of the year’s most mesmerising debuts.
Paul Nolan, 08 Oct 2007
“I actually met Kevin Drew once. I saw Broken Social Scene play in the Temple Bar Music Centre and they were amazing. At the end, Kevin Drew jumped into the crowd and starting hugging loads of people. My friends and my girlfriend at the time all got hugs, but I didn’t. Luckily, though, we’d played there the weekend before, so I knew the code for the backstage area. I ran around and punched it in, then met Kevin Drew as he was coming off stage. I shook his hand and told him it was a great gig.”
Drew is not the only member of the indie rock aristocracy that The Flaws have met of late. Inside the Spirit Store, I get talking to the band’s bassist, Dane McMahon, resplendent in a Sgt. Pepper-style jacket he purchased at Camden Market. Dane mentions an encounter with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club bassist and vocalist Robert Levon Been at the Melt Festival in Germany last summer.
“He’s one of my favourite bassists,” he enthuses. “So when I spotted him, I introduced myself and told him I was a big fan. The only thing was that the girl I was with, who had sort of organised our trip, thought he was from a different band we’d just seen onstage. I finished saying my piece and then she jumped in and told him, ‘That was a brilliant performance, you guys really rocked.’ BRMC hadn’t even been on yet!”
Dane and Paul join their bandmates for the photo shoot, after which Paul and I head to the dressing room, in a Portacabin at the back of the venue. As is to be expected, the walls are festooned with band posters, although there are a few rather incongruous items, including a chess set and miniature Christmas tree. I ask Paul if he’s pleased with how Achieving Vagueness turned out.
“It took six months longer than it should have,” he muses. “We had a deal that didn’t work out and we had to get our own money to finish it, which took time. When we were going through that whole phase of not having money and being unsure of what would happen, we kind of lost sight of how good the album was. But we got it finished, and there’s this realisation, like, ‘Fuck, we did actually do something that year that was really cool.’ We went through so much shit, but it was worthwhile in the end.”
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