We don’t know about you, but we at The Honey POP are ready for summer. And with the sun coming out and the flowers blooming, everyone needs a new artist to soundtrack their summer. That’s where we come in. Allow us to introduce you to flor, who we already know will be on repeat all season. Their music just screams summer, and their name means flower in Spanish. So, you know, it’s meant to be.
Lucky for us, flor is keeping us fed with new music. Their newest single ‘Nosedive’ shows off their most vulnerable side yet. It’s hardly the first time flor has explored personal topics, but the departure from their usual whimsical and charismatic melodies in favor of a more simple tune made this one stand out to us. We were fascinated by ‘Nosedive,’ as we are by everything flor has released. So we took the chance to dive inside singer Zach Grace’s mind, and we’re taking you with us!
‘Nosedive’
First, we’re in love with your single, ‘Nosedive.’ It’s an incredibly personal song. What does it feel like to release something that looks so deeply into your emotions?
It feels so empowering to put out a song that is as vulnerable as this one. There is no greater medicine than communication and removing the veil I often keep over my feelings was just a reminder of that. Allowing people to see what I’m struggling with is scary, but being open and communicating where you are and what you need only ever gives the people around you a chance to empathize and meet you where you are. If you always hide behind this emotional wall, even for righteous reasons, you miss out on an opportunity to truly connect with people.
This new music is coming after some amazing projects! How would you describe the shift from Future Shine to your most recent releases?
Future Shine was such an incredible album for all of us to make together. As we started this next chapter, we wanted to take a look at what has always proved the most successful avenue of getting our music out and feeling excited about it. For flor, putting out singles has always kept us the most excited and engaged. Oftentimes, the album process just takes a little too long for us, but this chance to instantly share what we have been working on fires us up, and I think our fans see that excitement we bring and match it. With ‘Warm Blood Pt 2,’ we shocked everyone with a surprise drop, and the chaos and excitement that followed made it so easy for us to take pride in what we were doing. There’s a freedom to this freeform exploration. That’s the throughline we are following for this particular part of our career.
Can you tell us a little about the writing process for ‘Nosedive?’ How is accessing your own emotions, especially for a song as unfiltered as this one, different from writing about others?
Sometimes, it can be much harder for me to write from my perspective. I feel like I need to be careful and thoughtful about how and what I choose to write about because I don’t want people to get the wrong idea about a situation. In the case of ‘Nosedive,’ it looks pretty bleak. I’ve been asked if I’m doing alright a lot by people who have heard it, and I have to tell them I am, this was just a feeling I had that I wanted to explore. Whenever I’m being honest and not overthinking a song, the process feels the same. It feels natural and connected and true. Songs that are completed from that perspective always have this uniqueness about them that make them true flor classics.
The Creative Journey
In your The Noise interview, you spoke about finding inspiration from books and writing about stories from other perspectives. What’s your process for that? How do you go about accessing the emotion you need to write from a character’s perspective?
This process changes based on what I’m experiencing. Sometimes when I read Haruki Murakami, I start to form sentences and thoughts and use words and phrases that he would use. This just becomes my natural voice as I imitate whatever it is I’m enjoying. When I’m engrossed in the fantasy world, like one written by Patrick Rothfuss, I try to understand the complex relationships between people pursuing their different goals and how everyone is affected by the consequences of reaching those goals. When a story completely overtakes me, it is the most natural feeling in the world to fall into a different perspective. I enter this flow state where I let everything from the words and the melodies come out, revising after I’ve purged whatever I’m experiencing. It’s all about trying to put myself in their place and letting what I believe they would want and need push the narrative forward.
You also mentioned that ‘Warm Blood Pt 2’ was inspired by the game The Witcher 3. Can you describe the relationship between ‘Warm Blood Pt 2’ and the video game?
‘Warm Blood’ is about a love story in the Witcher 3. The main character Geralt has many different love interests, but the story I followed had him fall in love with a sorceress named Triss. For ‘Warm Blood Pt 2,’ I wrote about the loss of love in a relationship. This was loosely based on Geralt’s choice and how it affected one of his other love interests. It’s written from the perspective of Yennifer, another sorceress, who, after a breaking of a spell, finds that love was never really there all along. Sad stuff. flor needed another breakup song though so it had to be done.
Is there a specific song that there’s a fun story behind? One that might be inspired by a book or game that you haven’t shared before?
‘As You Were’ from our album ley lines was inspired by a feeling I had after watching ‘500 Days of Summer.’ It’s not really about the movie at all, but it triggered an idea in my head that I wanted to explore. To simplify it, I wrote about this choice of whether or not to pursue a relationship with someone, knowing the impact you could have on them might change or take away what makes them so special.
We just love that your music has such a fun, unique sound, specifically the way you play with melodies and instrumentals! Do you do a lot of experimenting with sounds? How does that play into your songwriting?
Finding the sound is one of the most exciting parts of songwriting for me. I’ll completely change the entire point of a song sometimes if I find a sound that I feel gives the track something special. I’m just such a sucker for a unique melody or surprising instrument.
Song Bracket
You put together your own March Madness bracket of your songs. First of all, how do you feel about the results? Are there any songs that made it further than you expected?
March Madness was so fun. Hats off to Kyle for that idea. I went into it just excited to see what made it out. Most of my picks lost in the first round anyways, so it was very easy to enjoy and ride the wave. Shout outs to ‘never was mine’ and ‘no more time.’ You should have won. Honestly, it played out about how I would expect. I’m glad the fan fave ‘warm blood’ got its moment in the sun. The poor song has always been overlooked.
Speaking of songs that deserved better in the bracket (if you’ll allow us to share our own opinions), one song we’ve always loved from Future Shine is ‘Gotta Do Something.’ When it comes to songs with messages like that, do you ever find lyrical inspiration from each other?
We tend to find inspiration from each other a lot, even if it isn’t obvious. At this point, we’ve spent so many years of our lives together that our lives will always be shaped by each other. The line “fighting with my landlord asking me to pay more” was written because of a conversation I had with Kyle. At the time I wasn’t paying rent so that was inspiration from him. That said, we don’t typically write about interpersonal experiences too often. I feel like I don’t simply because the imbalance of power I hold as the lyricist. Most topics would be explored from my point of view, which will never fully explain the story. ‘Gotta Do Something’ was more of a kick in the pants from my dad.
What’s Next
Last year, you were on tour with The Maine. How was that? And did you learn anything from the band celebrating their sixteenth birthday? They must have had some wisdom to share with you.
The Maine is incredible. That tour was so much fun, and I will forever be thankful for the experience. There was one night in particular where Pat took me aside and encouraged me to dive into every bit of our story. He essentially said to be courageous through every high and every low of the band. And that, no matter what you accomplish or how many people you impact, what every artist is doing is meaningful. Great advice from a band that might be the best example of what it means to connect with and cultivate your audience.
So, you’ve released three songs since Future Shine. We assume that means more is coming. What can you tell us about the future of flor?
More is coming, but how much do you want spoiled? 😉 Creating music for the love of music is our focus right now. Hop in folks, we’re just getting started.
Looks like we’ll have to wait, but we’ll be along for the ride. We hope you will be, too! Let us know what you think in the comments or at @thehoneypop on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. And look no further for more exclusive interviews!
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