Flowshine

Flowshine speaks on their single, “Give It A Go”, and new album, You Goddess

 Flowshine say “Give It A Go” on the release of  their new single & album

Calgary-based alternative rock five-piece, Flowshine has recently unveiled their epic seven-song strong album, You Goddess. On top of this, they have shared a new single, “Give It A Go“, a gorgeous love letter, whimsically written and carved in rock.

Landing a near-exact ten years since Flowshine debuted with their first album, Mountain Queen, You Goddess is their fourth offering. And though the group took a pause on concocting a full-length, their tenacity to consistently deliver on good music, great vibes, and powerful stage performance saw Flowshine spend their time on the road alongside heavy-hitters, Chilliwack, Five Alarm Funk, and The Wooden Sky. Their love of touring even saw them with two stops to the Yukon — a testament to their commitment to taking the music to the fans.

For Jeremiah Erhardt (guitars, vocal), Dallen Muise (bass, vocals), Jeff Oman (percussion), Calen Blondal (percussion), and Erik Smistad (keys, vocals, guitar), You Goddess is a culmination of hard work and consistency given the struggles many bands found while navigating the global pandemic. Remarkably, Flowshine managed to hold off a You Goddess drop and tour, but instead periodically recorded the record in pockets of sessions over two years.

“The sessions for the album were done with producer/engineer Ian Dillon at National Music Centre and Calgary Recording Company,” the band says. The majority of the material was recorded over four weekend sessions — the first taking place in December 2019 and the final in January 2022.

“It’s not necessarily an ideal way to make an album,” explains Erhardt, “but our hand was a little forced in the matter and it literally took us years to finish this record.” 

In addition to the intricately written, and dreamscape narrative of the album as a whole, Flowshine plucked the talents of their Calgary music scene comrades for a variety of cameos. Nikki Romeril (violin), Aislinn Grant (vocals), and the legendary Mike Clark (saxophone) were solicited to make appearances on You Goddess, further rounding out Flowshine’s sonic resume.

“I’m overjoyed that we were able to have so many of our friends from the Calgary music scene contribute their voices and musicianship to this record, it really gives it some flavour,” says Oman.

Further guests include Madisen Muise (vocals), Keath Mueller (trumpet, tuba), Kris Whiteway (vocals), and Tim Korthuis (keys).

You Goddess spins like sonic gold; a novel written in delicate chapters. From the riveting dare of “Give It A Go,” to the bittersweet “Magic On A Mountain,” to concluding with the fan-favourite “Good People,” Flowshine’s You Goddess is a comprehensive think piece that beckons you to press play and not look back.

Watch the video for “Give It A Go” below, and find out more about Flowshine via our mini-interview.

Care to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hey, we’re Flowshine from Calgary. We have been a band since 2009 and just released our fourth record. At this point we’ve come too far to turn back, so we’re going to keep doing what we love. We’re always trying to do things a little off the beaten path and we’ve had the opportunity to work alongside and perform with people that we never thought we would.

Snapshot band highlights include playing a festival in Prince George, BC with Twisted Sister and Chilliwack, having blues legend Mike Clark play saxophone on the new record, and hundreds of memories that came with touring our music coast to coast for the last decade.

What’s the one thing you’ll never, ever, give it a go?

We’d like to think that we’re very open to new experiences, but we’re not really into the adrenaline-junkie scene. Whenever we get asked a question like this our heads naturally go to something extreme like skydiving or running with the bulls. We’re good. Between us, our day jobs include carpentry in fall-arrest scenarios, climbing trees with chainsaws, working with electricity, and more. The traditional extreme stuff doesn’t really give us the rush we want the same way live music does. We will never release a dud record. Nothing but hits from us.

What’s the one thing you love about living in Calgary?

Calgary is beautiful. There’s a sort of humility that comes with being from here and I think the music in the city is often overlooked. Not a lot of people associate Calgary as a go-to music spot, but our experience has shown us that there are a lot of appreciative listeners and more opportunities than one might expect.

We love going to live shows and we’re very excited that music is back. There’s a kind of excitement here and we’ve been seeing a lot of new faces, not only at our shows but with other local bands/friends that we follow.

We’re excited to travel and tour the new record, but we always look forward to doing a show at home. There are so many great people working tirelessly for the arts and music community in Calgary and we are very lucky to be from here.

What’s it like playing a show in the Yukon? How was it?

We adore the Yukon. We’ve toured through twice and both trips are among our fondest memories as a group. When we were discussing where we wanted to tour after the pandemic, the Yukon was up there on all of our lists. We’re hoping to head back soon.

We were able to meet and hang out with very open, kind people that would have given us the shirt off their backs. We went with our tour dates set, but with no other real expectations. There’s a special kind of magic that we experienced there.

A lot of bands overlook opportunities like this because of the long drives and smaller markets. A memory that sticks out for us is actually from Atlin, BC (only accessible by road from the Yukon) where we jammed with people from the gig until 4 in the morning after our set.

What’s the one album by a Canadian artist that everyone should have in their collection?

Just one is always tough. I’m sure a lot of rock bands will say The Hip, Neil Young, or Rush, so let’s give Sam Roberts We Were Born In A Flame a little love. We’ve spun that record hundreds of times and it’s been on rotation in our van since our start. Great highway tunes. Also, Sloan’s Never Hear the End of It is a rock n roll masterpiece.