LARRY AND HIS FLASK

LARRY AND HIS FLASK
forward by Melissa Jones
interview by Jason Walsh

Six guys from Oregon take the stage in Norfolk, Virginia. It’s safe to say most of the people living in Hampton Roads have not seen these fellas and really don’t know what they’re about. But, Larry and his Flask surprised us. They were the first of two opening acts at the Dropkick Murphys concert at the NorVa. Usually during opening acts, concert-goers are seen socializing and drinking as they wait for the headliner. This was not the case with this band. As soon as we heard, “Hello everybody, we’re Larry and His Flask,” and the band started playing, the people of the NorVa stopped and listened.

Our ears heard a great combination of folk, punk, and rockabilly, with a splash of hip-hop coming from their voices and instruments. It’s truly refreshing to see a band that combines a banjo, trumpet, and mandolin with hard rock voices. Watching Jamin and Jeshua Marshall, Ian Cook, Andrew Carew, Kirk Skatvold, and Dallin Bulkley rock out on stage is incredible. These guys have full beards and jump around like crazy people. They play hard and anyone who gets to see and hear them live on stage can feel it.

It’s amazing that these guys started out as a three-piece punk band in a garage. They’ve expanded to a sextet playing on the streets of Redmond, Oregon, their hometown. And now, they’re touring with Dropkick Murphys.

AMP contributor Jason Walsh had a chance to catch up with Ian Cook shortly after the tour began and talk about this unexpected turn of events for LARRY AND HIS FLASK.


JW: Where you at right now?

IAN: We are in Kansas City, my friend. Beaumont Club tonight.

JW: That’s a good place. I used to live in Missouri. That’s a good place for shows. Are you excited?

IAN: Yeah, super excited. It’s the first time we’ve been here, playing this place. It looks awesome.

JW: So tell me about the tour with DROPKICK MURPHYS. You guys kicked it off in Norfolk, Virginia back in February. Has it been a lot of fun?

IAN: It’s been exciting, man. It’s one of the hugest things I’ve done so far. We’re all just super stoked. The whole time we’re like freaking out, kind of like this little band of kids in this big wide world. It’s kind of crazy for us and it’s been so amazing. Everybody’s been super nice and it’s been a better tour for us to be a part of.

JW: So how did you guys get hooked up with this tour?

IAN: We actually got a chance to open up for DROPKICK when they came through our hometown in Oregon. We were like one of the only local bands that got a chance to try and open up for them on their tour. They ended up really liking it a lot and we got hooked up with doing the tour through that pretty much. The band really liked us and they were doing this St. Patty’s Day tour. The timing just worked out perfectly, I suppose.

JW: I talked to Al Barr about a week before the tour started and I saw Strung Out was on the tour but I had to ask him, “who is LARRY AND HIS FLASK?”

IAN: (laughs)

JW: He was like “I don’t really know,” but then he told me how you guys had played with them before and how they liked what you guys brought. So how did this all start for you guys. I read you guys started off as a three-piece punk band and it kind of evolved into what it is now. Tell me how that happened.

IAN: We were all pretty much just high schoolers. Just kids playing like, you know, punk rock in our parent’s garage. We started just playing a lot of shows around the area when we were growing up and it just kind of evolved over the years. We got more members after a while and then it turned out, about a year and a half ago, the drummer that had always been our drummer and a really good friend just decided he didn’t want to play anymore. We lost our drummer and then we’re kind of like, “well, what the hell are we going to do? We didn’t know where we’re headed now.” We always had been kind of more interested in roots style music and more acoustic stuff, so we just broke it completely down and just went completely acoustic. We even started off, like no amps, no electricity, nothing. Just a band on the street, a house party, wherever you need us. We just kind of built it from there in the last year-and-a-half and started just getting amped up and plugged in and then starting over, pretty much from scratch. It’s just kind of turned into this six-person crazy hillbilly jamboree now. It’s a wall of sound.

JW: I checked out some of the songs and the songs are great, but watching the videos of you guys on the street corners. I looked at this and I thought these guys look like wild hillbilly pirates that escaped from the insane asylum, just tearing up a street corner. I’m sure people on the tour are digging what they’re seeing.

IAN: (laughs) The response to it has been, well, we really were like kind of holding our breath about it, you know? We weren’t sure how the audience was going to take it and it ended up just great. Everybody loved it, seeing a bunch of huge beards jumping around being a bunch of assholes on stage. It’s pretty nice apparently.

JW: I’m glad you guys are having a good tour and people are digging what you’re doing. This is the tour DROPKICK MURPHYS do that leads into Boston for their big week, the St. Patrick’s Day mayhem that’s up there. Do I have this right. Are you guys going to be doing some recording for your first release when you get to Boston?

IAN: I believe so. We’re working our way toward doing it right now. Like kind of gaining momentum and the funds necessary to make that happen. We’ll see how it turns out. We’re all really excited to get some new stuff recorded and kind of solidify ourselves as a band, because we don’t really have a formal recording. It’s just kind of a hodge-podge of self-recorded stuff and random jam sessions. A lot of videos and stuff like that, but nothing formal, so we’re all really excited that hopefully that works out.

JW: When you first started playing punk rock songs in a garage and just being real loud, did you ever-ever-ever think that you would end up doing what you’re doing now?

IAN: No…well, I could definitely say that I’d would never think that band, turning into what it is now. At that time I wasn’t even a singer in the band. I was just the guitar player. Jamin (Marshall) who is our drummer now, he was just the singer, just jumping around going crazy, screaming his ass off. I would never have guessed it would have evolved into something like this at all.

JW: After this tour is done, you’ve got some other dates coming up. What’s the rest of the year hold for you, aside from trying to get some recording done.

IAN: Umm…I don’t know. It’s like we’re standing on the edge of a precipice right now. When this tour gets over, it’s kind of like an open slate and we’re going to see what comes of it. After we’re done with the DROPKICK leg, we’re going to tour back to Oregon ourselves. We’ve worked out a little bit of a tour all the way back home. Then after that, it’s just kind of…you know, we have a few dates here and there, but we’re going to see what happens you know.

JW: So for people out there, who might have missed you on this tour, and they happen to see that you’re coming to their town, what would you say to them to convince them to come out and see you guys

IAN: I’d say if you like having a good time, having a party, you know, we’re just down to do the same exact thing. If they like having a good time listening to some good music…we’re just all about getting down and hanging out, drinking, and having a good ass time.

http://www.myspace.com/larryandhisflask