By Paul Nern, News Editor

[Photo Courtesy of Instagram]

Q&A with Grant, Carson and Preston of In Flow 

In Flow graced the crowd at The Union last Thursday night for ACRN’s Battle of the Bands, so much so that they walked away as the crowd-voted winners of the night.  They combine explosive elements of punk rock, garage rock, shoegaze, and much more to create their own distinct sound in the Athens music world.  I had a chance to sit down to congratulate the lads on their big win, as well as talk about their current ongoings and plans for the future which involve Columbus shows, recording, and continuing what good things they already have going here in the fabulous town of Athens, Ohio.  Take a look below to see what went down.

I’m here with Grant, Carson and Preston, the In Flow guys. ACRN’s Battle of the Bands winners for 2021. First question; how was the show guys and how did it feel to win? 

Grant: It was tubular!

Carson: A lot of great bands

Grant: Undoubtedly it went very well. It was fun.

How was the crowd for you all?

Carson: Very receptive and so much energy down there, they were digging it just as much as we were.

Sounds like a great time. I wanted to know when exactly did the idea of this band come to fruition? And when did it start paying off?

Grant: We started last summer.

Carson:  The week the lockdown started was the first time we jammed. It was like the day after the lockdown started.

Grant:  Because we were going to go to a music festival and so we got it going from there.

Okay cool! Did you have an idea of what you wanted to be as a band from the start? Or did your sound just come sort of naturally when you started writing songs?

Carson:  Well we were going to that music festival and we all actually met at a music festival as well. We kind of had this idea of, you know, what our likes were and what we didn’t like, and like the sounds, I guess it was just, we knew where we were going. We knew what we liked. It was just garagy Lo-Fi kind of shoegazey stuff that we were all digging.

Preston:  Pretty organic. 

Grant:  Organic, yes.

That’s one thing I’ve noticed at your shows is, as a three piece your guy’s sound is so full. And I think it’s just a good balance between all of you. So, when you have an idea for a song, you sit down and start writing it. What exactly makes it work? Like how do you not, like bump into other guy’s parts? Are you all just playing off each other? Or are you trying to serve the song? What exactly is in your mind when you are writing and jamming?

Preston:  One idea we always keep in mind I think is making our songs kind of like a length where people won’t lose interest, so we try to keep our songs around the 2 minute 30 second range. That played a big part I think in when we write and what we kind of want to feature.

Grant: That’s right. I’d say we all kind of collaborate when it comes to the writing process now like, at first it was kind of like we would bring a song to the table, and then we would all kind of work off that. But now, it seems like we’re all kind of putting a hand in and being collaborative and everyone has an idea of what they should be doing and what other people should be playing. Also we all like that, we love that, you know, sharing our ideas with everyone.

Well, one of the words I’d use to describe you guys is definitely tight. You all sound very dialed in when you play. Then the last thing I want to talk about, as far as live shows go, is remind me what the song is that has the huge explosive riff at the end. It just like explodes at the end.

Preston:  I think you’re thinking of “Fire” because like, I don’t know how to explain it, but it really opens up and we like slow it down. Yeah, we just recorded that song actually with some students at Hocking (College). 

Oh yeah, I saw you guys were recording on your Instagram. So what are you plotting? Are you looking to record a couple singles? Or will we be blessed with an album? What’s coming our way?

Carson:  Right now we don’t have anything out. So we recorded one with Arman.

Grant:  Thank you Arman.

Carson:  for his for his class that he was-

Preston:  Audio Engineering Society. 

Carson:  Yeah.

Grant: And then we recorded at Hocking College, and then that’s where we recorded three other songs. But we’re just trying to get singles out at the moment. Just have something out there. And eventually, you know, we would like to work towards that.

Well, I’ll be keeping my eye out for that. Is that mainly what you guys are eyeing in the future as a band? I assume you’ll keep playing shows whenever they pop up. But are you starting to eye the recording side of things?

Carson:  Yeah, yes. Yeah, we’ll totally dive into that and get some ideas rolling as far as like pricing and who we want to go with and such, and then ultimately get a release game plan. I think for right now we just want to do singles. And we’re going to be performing as well through this just to see all the crowd receive it.

Preston:  Definitely fundraising is a big part of the recording process, too. So Battle the Bands really helps us with that aspect of wanting to pursue our recording goals.

That sounds absolutely lovely. I can see you have the huge check behind you. I mean, it’s not like it says like $1 million on it. But how was holding that big check after you won the award. 

Carson:  Very, very cool.

Grant: Very rewarding.

Glad to hear that. Glad to hear that for sure. So, one last thing I want to talk about: you guys have been playing Columbus shows recently. How are your Columbus crowds? I heard one of the venues was, you know, not exactly what you were looking for. But I just want to know how those went?

Carson:  The Columbus shows went pretty well. And to touch on the note that the venue wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. It was our first show in Columbus. So we didn’t really know what to expect. You know, we were basically just relying on the local bands of that bill to pull. Whereas you know, our pull is down here in Athens. But overall, it was a very fun experience. And we hope to get into that scene and expand and we find new people and gain an attraction in Columbus.