Gang Of Flaw

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon at Dundalk’s Spirit Store, which despite overlooking the town harbour, is the focal point of the local music scene. I’m here to meet The Flaws, the indie quartet who have just released their debut album, Achieving Vagueness, a record which has confirmed their status as one of Ireland’s most promising young rock bands.

Having grown up in County Monaghan, The Flaws originally met at school in Dundalk, before eventually forming the band in 2004 while they were at college. Since then, they've released an EP and a string of impressive singles (including the top 30 hit ‘Sixteen’), as well as landing a number of high profile support slots with the likes of The Thrills, Nada Surf and Editors.
Along with bands such as Delorentos and Director (both of whom they have toured with), The Flaws are part of a new wave of Irish indie acts who, while each having their own distinctive styles, do have in common a love of angular post-punk rhythms. The Flaws, for their part, have a slightly darker take on the genre than their contemporaries (there are echoes of The Cure and Psychedelic Furs on Achieving Vagueness) and have more in common with, say, the wintry atmospherics of Silent Alarm-era Bloc Party than the feelgood anthems of Franz Ferdinand’s debut.
While photographer Emily Quinn tinkers with the lighting in preparation for the photo shoot, I chat to the band’s singer, Paul Finn. We end up discussing Broken Social Scene, whom Paul describes as “probably my favourite band”. He is somewhat miffed that, despite having secured tickets in advance, he will be unable to attend the gig by BSS member Leslie Feist in Dublin a few nights later.
“We’re playing two gigs that day,” he says, in his distinctive Monaghan tones. “One in Maynooth college in the afternoon and one in Limerick University that evening. We’re doing a show the night of [BSS main man] Kevin Drew’s gig as well! I’ve been into Broken Social Scene for a few years, before they became really well known. I loved You Forgot It In People, and on the back of that I started listening to loads of stuff on the Arts & Crafts label.
“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.”
Two of the strongest songs on the album are the singles ‘1981’ and ‘Sixteen’, the latter of which kicks off with a very Killers-like synth part.
“We’ve heard that,” nods Paul. “I don’t know if that was a good idea or not. At the heart of it, it’s a quirky pop song, but… we wrote that song before The Killers were even going. Bastards! (Laughs) It’s a song about… I used to have this really weird dream. I had pneumonia, and I would get fevers. I still can get relapses, but when I was younger I was on this medication. When I was in the grip of the fever, I would have this dream about an angry old man, and he was trying to level out this bowl of sand.
“But he can never do it, because when he applies a wee bit of pressure to one part, it pushes up the sand somewhere else. Then he gets so annoyed, he throws it at my face, at which point I’d wake up. So I thought I’d use that in a song. Instead of writing about the dream, I wrote about having the dream. The chorus goes, ‘Even as a boy of sixteen/I had this recurring kind of dream’.”
Speaking of surreal spookiness, to these ears Paul sounds a little like Marilyn Manson on ‘1981’.
“Really?” he replies, sounding vaguely shocked. “That’s mental! Honestly, I have every Marilyn Manson album. Actually, I don’t have the last two, but when I was growing up I had Antichrist Superstar and Portrait Of An American Family. I was a young punk rocker, and I’d listen to anything, and I do have some Marilyn Manson. But for someone to say that, it’s crazy. (Laughs) I’ll take it on board.”
Among the groups Paul and the boys have toured with are, of course, The Thrills, and the singer is quick to credit the band’s guitarist, Daniel Ryan, with playing a key role in The Flaws’ development.
“He was paramount when it came to us even doing demos,” explains Paul. “We met him two years ago, he came to see us at the very start. He really liked us, he knew all the words to ‘Sixteen’ before we even had the song finished. It was his enthusiasm that made us realise that people on a wider scale could like our music. He came to see us loads of times at the start and helped us put the album together.”
Ryan’s influence on Achieving Vagueness wasn’t all positive (later, over a drink, Paul reveals that whilst recording at Grouse Lodge, he sustained a minor injury during a badminton game with the guitarist), but there is no denying the importance of his contribution. Another group whom The Flaws have supported are fellow post-punk practitioners Editors.
“That was at Mandela Hall in Belfast,” remembers Paul. “It was a good experience, at the time it was the best gig we’d ever done. The crowds up the North can sometimes be wary of bands they don’t know, but that particular gig was unbelievable. It broke us into the North; there were people at that show who still come to gigs we do up there. I’d seen Editors’ first show in Whelan’s, and then I met them when they played Oxegen that year. They were watching a band, and I went over to say hello and that I thought the gig in Whelan’s was brilliant.
“They were just young guys who didn’t know what was going to happen to them – it was before everything took off. And then it was interesting seeing them go on at Mandela Hall, still with the same enthusiasm. They were jumping up and down, encouraging each other, saying, ‘Come on, let’s do this’. It was like us, they just get so into it before they do a show. It was a great performance as well.”
What are Paul’s ambitions for Achieving Vagueness?
“I just hope that as many people get to hear it as possible. Because it is good, it is a very honest record. In terms of overall ambition, ideally I’d like to do this for the rest of my life. Somebody said to me recently, ‘You guys are the next Snow Patrol’. And I said, ‘Fuck you, when I was a kid and I dreamed of being in a band, I didn’t dream about being the next Snow Patrol.’ And there’s nothing wrong with that band, but that’s not what we wanna be.”
Whatever the future holds for them, right now The Flaws are a talented young group who are passionate about they do. In other words, a band worth savouring.

Achieving Vagueness is out now on Arrivals Records.