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'The Edge Of The World', the stunning opening track to Scottish rockers, Flood of Red's debut album sets the scene perfectly. It's ambience and hazy atmospherics literally drip from the speakers as the song builds slowly, only permeated by singer, Jordan Spiers', tender and acutely Scottish-infected vocals. Even before the more raucous second track, 'The Harmony' kicks in, this song has gifted the record an airtight atmosphere that envelopes its entire span. In blending such galactic atmospherics with hook-laden emo rock, Flood of Red have created a progressive, wildly ambitious but massively successful musical mix - Rock Sound
During the finale of Flood of Red's powerhouse performance they suddenly storm into the crown and set up extra drum kits. Cue and enormous, military style drum roll, and one hell of a closing spectacle. How many other bands provide a unique twist like this? First up though are The Casino Brawl who slay the old-fashioned way with passion and extreme metallic precision. As good an indication as any of just how much effort they've put into their slot comes when Flood of Red spend half their sound check mopping up the lake of sweat and spit wads they leave behind. The six of them barely fit onstage but, with the likes of Home Run (1997) and A Place Before The End sounding particularly enormous, they still turn in a performance that more justifies the internet hype surrounding their live shows. Tonight they play like they've got more Red Bull coursing through their veins than blood. When that closing drum procession finally thunders out, one thing is very clear: Flood of Red have just raised the bar incredibly high for themselves. - Kerrang
With their first album, Flood of Red have proved the worth of biding your time. The Airdrie sextet have been regulars on the live circuit for ages, but in waiting to release this they've managed to hone their sound from the scrappy if enthusiastic screamo that charged up their early shows into a mature, melodic and thoughtful sound that's all their own. Which is great news for front man Jordan Spiers, because it turns out that under all that initial yelling was an androgynous, ethereal, warm-accented voice that sprinkles a real sense of magic throughout their dreamy soundscapes. There may not be a lot of variety here, but Leaving Everything Behind is an unexpectedly delicate treat. - Kerrang
Discography
Lost in the Light EP - Feb 2007
A Place Before The End Single - July 2009
Home, Run (1997) Single Oct 2009
Leaving Everything Behind Album - Oct 2009
Both 'A Place Before The End' and 'Home, Run (1997)' have received airplay from stations in the UK like Radio 1 (national and regionally), Kerrang radio and XFM. The video for Home, Run (1997) has been playlisted on the Scuzz, NME and Kerrang TV channels.
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Bio
FLOOD OF RED
Jordan Spiers - vocals
Sean McGroarty - guitar
Calum Doris - guitar & backing vocals
Jamie McGowan - bass Guitar
Dale Gallacher - keyboard & backing vocals
Graham Griffith - drums
Flood Of Red formed in Airdrie, a satellite town twelve miles east of Glasgow in 2004. Starting out as a trio who met via school and the local skate scene, they soon expanded to a sextet.
Sitting in the heart of post-industrial Lanarkshire, Airdrie provided an early inspiration of sorts: inspiration to strive for more. Inspiration to get out. “It’s known as a bit of hooligan town,” says drummer Graham Griffith. “It was also voted the crappest town in Britain two years running and was the only place to actually address that accolade with a plaque in the town centre, in which effectively it said: ‘Airdrie may be crap, but it’s our crap’. Which is sort of how we feel about it too. It made us what we are today.”
Though members were born in countries as far-flung as South Africa, Canada and the US but all based in nearby town such as Caldercruix and Dumbarton, these Glasgow conurbations were enough to inspire the name of Flood Of Red’s new record label Dark City and to send the band straight out on tour just months after their formation, all aged just seventeen, playing for £20 and cheese sandwiches per night (“If we were lucky…” laughs Graham).
Home for the next few months was an ex-police riot van. The early shows and recordings slotted somewhere into the post-hardcore and screamo genres – think pile upon pile of jagged guitars, a melodic and abrasive vocal interplay, a squall of electronics and Satan’s own in-house rhythm section.
Things got moving in 2006, when Flood Of Red played a show with another new young band taking the DIY /self-empowerment route, Enter Shikari. A year later and the two bands had shared over forty stages and put in many road miles together – Enter Shikari still fondly tell interviewers about certain Flood Of Red’s members’ propensity to hang out of the back of vans, naked at 70mph along the highways and by-ways of Britain (OK, it was US guitarist Calum).
The hard slog of touring continued in 2007 when the music industry started paying attention to a band drawing crowds of many hundreds on reputation alone - and things started to get twisted. Record deals were forthcoming but Flood Of Red took the unprecedented – some would say smart - step of ignoring them all. “We realised we could live the dream by signing to a label,” says Graham. “But we also knew we wanted to last. We wanted to do this for as long as possible. And to do that we had to take control of this band.”
More touring followed throughout 2008 with the likes of Enter Shikari, Madina Lake and The Blackout – shows that would often culminate in two three or four members playing drums simultaneously and which saw Flood Of Red’s fan base continue to swell, both live and online. Many bands inflate or exaggerate their online presence, but this sextet are the real deal. So much so that, inspired by the emerging practices of the likes of Radiohead and Nice Inch Nails, Flood Of Red decided to release their debut album via a variety of neat, independently-funded marketing techniques. We'll get to that in a minute…
First though, on January 3rd 2009 they flew to Baltimore, Maryland where they spent a month recording their debut album with punk rock extraordinaire producer Brian McTernan (Cave In, Thrice, Converge) in his Salad Days studio. It was a time the band describe as being like a holiday “but a million times better - everything we had been working towards."
Titled Leaving Everything Behind, Flood Of Red’s debut album proper sees them making a large leap into new territories. Toned-down are the screamo bits as the band now paint from a broader musical palette, incorporating the ambient and soundscape elements that earlier recordings hinted at, but without ever compromising on the heaviosity. The title is telling too. The marketing of the album is forward-thinking too as they by-passing the standard practices of old, cut out the middle men and sell straight to fans who can choose from a variety of album bundles - from basic digital downloads through to value-for-money packages featuring CDs, merchandise, exclusive tracks and more.
Preceding that, a sampler summer (though not summery) single ‘A Place Before The End’ was released on local legendary venue King Tut’s own in-house label to coincide with appearances at Download 2009 and Sonisphere, before the six-piece hit the road through August and September. Judging by early reactions to their debut album life for Flood Of Red is only going get a hell of a lot busier, better…and louder.
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