“True Rock. True with no E, Rock with no C — Tru Rok.” This is the sound of Richmond’s Flight Club.
“Tru rok, if I had to say it was one thing it would be Foo Fighters meets Four Year Strong — ‘Foo Year Strong’,” said guitarist Charlie Mahoney when describing the four-piece band’s music. “Cause it has that aggressive bouncy part of it from Four Year, and where it gets a little bit heavier is the Foo Fighters, who’s just a rock and roll band.”
Flight Club released their first self-titled EP back in September 2015 when the band only consisted of singer/lead guitarist Sam Tucker and drummer Toney Trefsgar.
“I’ve known Toney since tee-ball from when we were five, he grew up five minutes from me. He got a drum set and we started jamming a lot in high school,” said Tucker. “We’re from the middle of nowhere so there’s really nowhere for rock bands to play, like, if we wanted to do anything that we were doing now it wasn’t really an option where we were from.”
That’s where Richmond comes in. Tucker moved to the city to attend VCU where he later met Mahoney in spring of 2015.
“I met Charlie through a music group here and he had very similar tastes and desires for what we wanted to do musically and we just got along really well, we were kinda like, ‘cool let’s take this seriously,” said Tucker.
Although the band commented on how they identify as a “tru rok” band, the overall musical style, from the lyrical content to the guitar riffs that make you want to angry finger point and dance the night away, shows that they are a pop-punk band at heart. The bandmates themselves, however, disagree.
“I think honestly if you listen to the music, right now especially, we probably just get coined pop-punk, but we’re really trying to take that in a different direction,” said Mahoney. “Pop-punk is honestly one of my favorite genres, but even now I’m like okay, ‘give me something new, we get {it}, you broke up in high school, dude. You’re an adult now, so we’re just trying to add a little bit of maturity to that.”
The band, however, is not safe from the realization of their underlying misogynist lyrics from the public and they know that.
In the song “Fifty Shades of Fine”, the band sings: “Hey pretty baby think you wanna lay me/Hey pretty lady bet you’re fucking crazy”/Cause I bet $100 that says you’re fucking bonkers.”
It is not hard to see the issues with these lyrics. Perpetuating the crazy girl trope and the somewhat sketchy idea that a girl at a party wants to fuck you. Even the use of the term “pretty baby” is more demeaning and condescending than some may realize.
But the band has some things to say about that, bringing the lyrics up for conversation before I got the chance to ask.
“We just wanted to address it so you know that that’s not who we are,” said Tucker.
Tucker goes on to explain that the song was written when it was mostly him writing the lyrics when he was young. Although the band enjoys playing the song because of the instrumental and the harmonies of the song–but wishes he had changed the lyrics.
The band is also trying to fight back against the assumed role of a pop-punk band by putting out music that is different enough and energetic enough that will get their crowds moving and get them noticed.
“We also really try to focus on being a good band and not just being a pop-punk band,” said Tucker. “Like, it’s important to us that we go out and play live shows that are good and not just us getting through and playing the songs we wrote.”
Trefsgar went on to say that the hope is that Flight Club is not recognized by others as being “just another pop-punk band.” The group hopes to stand out in more ways and seize every opportunity they can find.
Their “tru rok” influence, Alan Day from Four Year Strong recorded their recent EP, Kinda Funny, which dropped in June 2017.
“He put out this Instagram post saying, ‘hey I’m starting to record bands, email me if you have an interest’ and we kinda just figured, it probably won’t happen,” said Tucker. “But he responded to us, gave us a quote and we said, ‘well, not gonna turn that opportunity down’ so that was kind of a dream come true in a sense of the word for us.”
The Kinda Funny EP incorporates all of the makings of a catchy and accessible album within the Richmond community and even throughout the nation. The band recently went on a January tour that brought them all down the east coast and up again, the longest run the group has had.
“What was cool there was that there were a lot of struggles, it really tested our resilience and we are willing to go through bullshit,” said Tucker. “It doesn’t have to be a vacation the whole time, we have a job to do.”
Flight Club is currently working on new content to put out and will be performing with ska icons Less Than Jake and their very own “tru rock” idols Four Year Strong Feb. 15 at the Canal Club. Tickets are $22-25.
Photo Credit: Liz Peterson
