Focus Fort Wayne: Man of the Flood
A look into the past, present and future of Man of the Flood
One of the most prominent Indie Rock bands of Fort Wayne today, Man of the Flood are known for their eclectic musical style. In this interview they kindly sat down to discuss their inspiration, songwriting process and what’s next!
Thank you, guys, so much for doing this, really appreciate you! If you could go ahead and introduce yourselves, tell me your names and what instruments you play.
Clayton: Yeah, I’m Clayton, and I play the drums.
Quinn: I’m Quinn, I sing and play guitar
Jess: I’m Jess, I sing, play keys, and dabble in the tambourine.
[Laughter]
Awesome! And if I could just hear a little about the other band members who were unable to make it tonight?
Clayton: Yeah, right now the rest of our lineup is Easton on bass guitar and Dom on lead guitar.
And how did you guys meet?
Quinn: So, I’ve known Clayton a very long time. We go back ‘till middle school or so, and then with Jess we actually met her three years ago.
Jess: Three years ago, on this day!
Saint Patrick’s Day?
Clayton: Yes, that’s when the three of us met.
Jess: I didn’t like that I didn’t have friends in my dorm building, so me and my roommate at the time made little business cards with our social medias on them and slid them under everyone’s door, and these people were nice enough to reply!
Clayton: We became friends through that and eventually later down the road we found out she was a musician. She sang and played the keys and we were looking for a keys player and we were thinking about adding another singer, so we asked her, and she eventually joined the band.
That’s really cool! Back in 2022 you guys had your debut with “Crystal Bawl”. What was the songwriting process like for that?
Quinn: I’d say that some of the tracks were started in rehearsals, like completely as a group. Some of them were started by individuals, and then we be brought to the group to further develop, like either just in rehearsals or just kind of in producing.
Clayton: “Crystal Bawl” that was a rehearsal song, “New Philosophy” that was a rehearsal song. Quinn started “A Light on in the Window” in a demo and then we kind of grew that one in practice. “Clouds” was a demo from Quinn that we finished over time. “Not My Year” was a demo, “Shotgun” was a demo with “Premonitions”.
Quinn: And “Tsskatata” was a demo one.
Clayton: Oh! And “Sixth Man, Third Eye” Quinn wrote the verse on guitar and then we grew it in practice.
It sort of sounds like it was pretty collaborative and made through jamming
Clayton: Yeah, absolutely.
And then last year you guys had your deluxe edition of “Crystal Bawl” come out with three previously unreleased songs. Were those part of the sessions for “Crystal Bawl” or were those recorded explicitly for the deluxe edition?
Clayton: Those were recorded explicitly for the deluxe edition. They were not recorded at the time.
Hey, so fresh cuts then!
Quinn: We tossed “Waste” around a little bit before hand but ended up holding it off until the deluxe.
Clayton: And then one of them is actually a redo of one of Quinn and I’s old band’s songs, “Five Pentacles”. We were in a band called, “Shiver and the Shakes”. We wrote “Five Pentacles” and we kind of improved it and made it better and we also thought it fit the theme, so we brought it back and enhanced it.
So that one is a very old song.
Clayton: Technically the oldest of all the “Man of the Flood” Songs.
If you had to pick one song that sums up “Man of the Flood”, what would it be?
Quinn: I like what Clayton said, “Vessel”.
Clayton: Yeah, off of our second EP.
Who is your band’s biggest inspiration?
Quinn: Hippo Campus?
Jess: It’s so hard…
Clayton: We probably take a lot of instrumental writing from a lot of Indie Rock bands but then we dabble with some other inspiration from other genres of music. We’ve had random jazz outros and Bossa Nova things or breakdowns. That’s a hard question to say a definitive band!
Jess: We could definitely give like 30 bands.
I’ve also heard you guys are part of a record label, would you be able to tell me its name?
Jess: Gold Top Music Group!
What’s the impact of working with a label like that on your music and your ability to reach out to fans?
Quinn: It’s nice that we can record our songs at the school studio. Handy to get to work with. Dylan South, their main engineer, is really good.
Clayton: They’ve also given us some opportunities; they’ve put us on the Gold Stock show that happens annually.
Jess: Party on the Lawn, they’ve put us on the past two years, and they threw us an album release show.
Clayton: We’ve gotten to play a couple shows at PFW to network.
What are some other bands that feature on the label?
Jess: There’s Loud Division, Indigo Society, Vio,
Clayton: Dave with the Wave.
Do you collaborate with these bands a lot?
Quinn: I’ve talked with Brody [of The Indigo Society] about doing some writing sessions. We haven’t done anything as of yet, but we have played shows with them before, so that’s always fun.
Clayton: We’ve played several shows with the Indigo Society. When we were forming as a band we played a show with the Indigo Society, they were a band before us
Quinn: Which is crazy. The lineup of the band was completely different. Brody’s the mainstay there.
Clayton: I’m in a forming band with guitar players from Vio and Loud Division, but we haven’t released any music or played any shows yet.
There’s a thriving Indie Rock Scene in Fort Wayne, with a lot of good venues to play at, do you have a favorite one?
Jess: The Brass Rail, hands down.
What makes The Brass Rail Special?
Quinn: They take good care of their bands.
Jess: Its always a nice crowd.
Clayton: Yes, the best built in crowd.
Quinn: It’s good for exposure to new audiences because lots of people like the venue for the venue. They might come on a Friday night just to hear live music in general and it’s a nice opportunity to get in front of new and interesting people.
Following along on the same sort of subject, when it comes to building your local following, what is the most important thing?
Quinn: Collaboration. Playing events with other bands that have a similar audience to what you’re striving to play to.
Clayton: When you do play with those bands you’ve gotta put on a good show! You gotta play good, you gotta sound good.
Quinn: And be friendly. People like to help out people that they get along well with.
Clayton: Talk with people after the show if you can. Like with people that enjoy the show, stick around, talk to them, get to know them personally.
Jess: Trade shows.
Quinn: Trade shows with bands that’s always good.
Jess: Give them a Fort Wayne one and they can give us something!
What’s next for Man of the Flood?
Quinn: New music.
Jess: New music. We’re writing!
Clayton: We just finished working on writing some stuff today. Every week or so we get together and try and get some more stuff written, so slowly but surely, we’ll have another project out.
Is it already in the lab?
Clayton: Depends on what you call the lab. You could say we’re doing the lab prep work. We’re in the writing stage, but we aren’t in the studio yet.
So, no recordings?
Clayton: Demo recordings yeah, but no professional recordings yet.
Jess: We’ve been playing one of them live as of late.
What’s the name of that song?
Jess: Doormat.
Clayton: It’s probably our favorite, or one of our favorites.
Awesome! From me I think that’s the last question I have, thank you guys so much!