J's Rock Music Zone

FLAW
The Debut Album "Through The Eyes" In Stores October 30th

"Payback" will hit the radio airwaves in late September."Why buy
three different records to find the types of songs you like--from an
intense wailing song that kids will dig, to a more ambient and
hypnotic tune, when one band does it all?" Flaw queries. Why indeed,
when the 13 tracks on Flaw's dramatic and cohesive Republic/Universal
debut, Through the Eyes, including its aggro, dynamic and multi-
faceted first single, "Payback," cover a wide-ranging emotional and
musical gamut, "heavy" and "melodic" being the common denominators.
But within Flaw's aural and emotional power and honesty, captured
deftly by producer David Bottrill (TOOL, Peter Gabriel), an
atmospheric soundscape prevails, expressing and exorcising vocalist
Chris Volz's personal and provocative lyrics.

"In the past, I've written songs about current events, but I believe
songs and music come from the heart, and you shouldn't have to use
outside references," opines Volz, who, like the rest of Flaw, resides
in Louisville, Kentucky. "Music is very personal to me," he
furthers, "because my adoptive mom, who died when I was 12, is the
one who started me in music. She was an opera singer; she performed
at the Kennedy Center several times and got me into singing."

The song titles only begin to tell the tale: from the whispered
breakdown in "Only the Strong" to the moody intensity of "What I Have
to Do" to the crushing groove of "Reliance," it's clear Flaw have
lived and learned, and use music as a catharsis. Flaw formed in 1996
around the core of Volz and Jason Daunt. Volz answered an ad in the
local paper. "It said, 'guitar player looking for a singer for an
industrial/alternative band,'" recalls Daunt. "Anything alternative
was cool," remembers Volz, "though industrial wasn't my thing. I just
wanted to get back into writing music again after a rough period in
my life." Volz called the ad and found he lived two blocks from
Daunt. The two hooked up that night, each playing their music for the
other.

Soon, both musicians were living in the rehearsal space: "It was a
pretty intense work scene, occasionally a little partying, but we
worked on music when we were awake, crashed out on the floor at
night, then got up and did it over again," Volz recalls. While
rhythm sections came and went, bassist Ryan Jurhs joined in 1997, and
Flaw's direction began to solidify. "Ryan was only a month or two out
of the Marines, and he was playing guitar and singing backup for a
band we knew locally... and we kinda stole him!" Daunt recalls. "In
Flaw, he plays five-string bass and sings background vocals, although
he also plays a lot of different instruments and used to teach
guitar. Within a week of Ryan joining, we recorded our first indie
record."

That 1997 disc, the eight-song American Arrogance, which
featured "Reliance" and "Amendment" (both on Through The Eyes), was
recorded with ingenuity. "Well, The Musician's Friend, the musical
ordering catalog, has a 30-day return policy if you're not
satisfied," explains Volz. "So we ordered all the equipment we could
possibly need to record an album, and then sent the stuff back and
said we didn't like it. So we recorded the album for shipping and
handling costs! "None of us had the income to do anything else. It
was either do it that way or not do it at all," grins Daunt.

The outcome was impressive, and in addition to scoring openings gigs
for acts including Fear Factory and Econoline Crush, a local radio
station, The Fox, spun songs from Flaw's indie disc. Two more well-
received independent records, 1998's Flaw and 2000's Drama EP, saw
Flaw continuing to grow, finalizing its current lineup in 1999 with
the addition of second guitarist Lance Arny and drummer Chris
Ballinger. "For a long time, we had only one guitarist," notes
Volz. "It got a lot more atmospheric when Lance joined, and spacier.
When you're playing the kind of driving, heavy alternative music we
do, in a live situation, two guitars sound so much better and
fuller." Both Daunt and Arny use seven-string guitars with standard
tuning, but, notes Daunt: "Lance is more the technical player; I'm
more of the live player. As far as the writing, he's more into
atmospheric effects, but I like coming up with odd sounds, things
that guitars aren't really supposed to do."

It's that emotional musical freedom that works so well with Through
the Eyes' ardent lyrics. If there's a theme throughout the CD, it
might be best expressed in "Inner Strength" and be about "finding
your own road and really developing that "inner strength" part of
your personality," explains Volz. "My general focus in lyrics is
about childhood and life being a healing process. My adoptive mother
committed suicide when I was 12," Volz says. "The song 'Whole' is
about her death. Going through her suicide sucked and I wouldn't wish
it on anybody, ever, but in a weird way I wouldn't change it either,
because I went through several years of intensive psychotherapy and
different building processes that aren't in people who don't go
through that. I learned so much about myself and other people. I talk
about hurt and how I got through it in Flaw's music. I'm very
personal with lyrics; I don't like to write about other people."

It was that openness and distinct musical personality that caught
Republic's ear when Flaw showcased at New York's CBGB, leading the
label to ink the band in October 2000. Recording commenced in early
2001 in Los Angeles, at Sound City then Larabee, with Bottrill, the
band's dream producer. "We were totally confident in David's ability
to get the sounds we wanted," enthuses Daunt. "We're fans of his
older work with Peter Gabriel and Aenima, by TOOL encompasses every
sound we have in our arsenal. He had a good feeling for our vision."

That vision is well honed, and as with everything Flaw does, there's
a reason behind it. First, the cover artwork, featuring a child with
his mouth zippered shut, illustrates part of the Flaw philosophy. "It
represents what this album stands for," observes Volz. "The child
doesn't look like he's in pain, but it screams that too many people
don't say what they need to." The band name, too, has a raison
d'etre: "Originally it had a different meaning: we spelled it F. Law.
Then we realized that musically and lyrically, it didn't truly suit
us, so we dropped the period and made the name a bit more general,"
Volz explains. "We didn't want to be perceived as a mad-at-the-
establishment rock band," Volz concludes. "Flaw could mean a flaw in
your personality, the planet, in your emotions; it was just more
open, like we are. "


				*J's Rock Music Zone*



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