Band Info
Saying that Blue Flux was formed in the previous millennium somehow smacks of mobile phones the size of car batteries. Luckily guitars haven't changed much in shape since then. Nor have keyboards, microphones or musicians' egos. Just as well.
Always an album band, Blue Flux never did take much notice of prevailing musical trends anyway, short-lived or otherwise. The emergence of a stubborn and increasingly successful independent market encouraged the band to steer clear of crumbling corporate walls and instead join the revolution by setting up their own record label.
When Blue Flux’s fledgling mid-nineties instrumental albums failed to find much of an audience the band embarked on a journey towards song-written material. Early releases like The Riddle (97) and The Beach (99) were the first staging posts, with the latter at last generating some welcome resonance and an infant online following. Bereft of a proper studio due to a move in 2000 the band next recorded a guitar-only album, Sugarbeat (01), then retreated once more into their atmospheric instrumental cave with the moody Just Dreams (04).
But then something changed. Wits and pencils sharpened, Blue Flux set to work, slowly at first, then gaining in pace and confidence, to create The Agenda, their 2008 album of songs that one by one refined, even redefined, the sound and feel of Blue Flux.
2011 saw the release of the band's latest offering, Shooting Star. Building on its predecessor's intricate songwriting and arrangements, this new album distils Blue Flux's heart and soul into 8 captivating songs full of light and shade, passion and longing.
"We still hate predictability," says Tom Berlin, Blue Flux's founding member. "You know, when every chord change is peeping at you from around the corner. Of course, now that we're more song-focused, certain structures are a given. But that doesn't mean it has to be verse/chorus all the way. The thrill of being surprised by a song's sudden turn is worth the wait. Even though it might take a second listen to fully get it. And yes, I'm still hunting for that great lost chord. The one that, ever so briefly, raises curtains behind your eyes. One of these days..."
Composing and recording can sometimes be a slow process for Blue Flux. Working in their own studio affords the luxury to take as much time as needed. But this isn't always of benefit to the final outcome.
"It's nice to watch a song's beating heart bubble to the surface, slowly. But sometimes no bubbles come. All you see is soft ripples, and reflections. You wait and wait, tweak this, add that - but nothing. Until you realise the ripples you saw were the song. We’d just been too busy splashing about to capture it.”
When listening back to some of the band's earlier albums the long, sweeping arc of their musical journey becomes glaringly obvious. But lyrics or not, most Blue Flux songs share a sense of discovery, a longing for something once held dear but now out of reach, if only ever so slightly.
"Instruments change," says Tom, "as do the options that are available to us now but weren't back then. Yet minds rarely change. Especially at that fundamental level where music is conceived and felt. We've always striven to imbue our songs with a mind of their own, so that they can ask questions, not just spout truisms. Of course, questions aren’t always what listeners want. And it's true - some days, all we need from a song is any old melody to chase the chill from an empty room while our minds are elsewhere, busy writing, working, dusting... Other times though, when our minds are at home, we may want more than just musical fast food. We want the whole full-fat three-course meal. The more surprising the better." Tom laughs. "Or am I just being too outrageously non-PC here?"
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