Write a little something about a song-writing duo (trio, kind of) that I’ve been a part of now for almost five years, called Mack Flinn & The Whosis Kid (http://mackflinnwhosiskid.bandcamp.com/).
The origin of Mack Flinn and the Whosis Kid goes back to 2007, when my bestest bud Scotches was studying abroad in Scotland. Having already written one song together for a band called “Chasers” that I was in for a bit and noticing the ease with which the song came about, one day I sent him an IM that said something similar to “We should write an album when you get back.” He responded with something eloquent and well-worded, but had the effect of simply saying “Ummmm fuck yes?”
And so, that’s precisely what happened. He returned, and we wrote would eventually become “Requests From Abroad and the Girls who Think they made Them,” a 17-track album that we recorded that summer and printed in the fall, capturing his return home to the states and my departing for the Ohio State University. It was recorded by none other than Mr. Declan’s Well himself (our friend Keenan), who slowly started putting his own stamp on the group as well, through his methods of production.
Though I was away, it hardly made a dent in our songwriting progress. We would spend the quarters I was away coming up with new ideas, and spending whatever time I had home arranging them. I would often come home from Ohio State, write a batch of songs with Scotches, and then run off to Keenan’s NYU dorm room to record them. That batch of demos would eventually become “I’ll Bid you Adieu, or Whatever,” which we put out in January of 2009.
By the time that album had been put out, we were already half done writing the follow up, which explains the rather quick turnaround. We wrote the remainder over the course of that summer, the final song being written after I returned to New Jersey for the month of August, and we quickly released “The Whole ‘Hero Journey’ Thing was a Terrible Idea” that November. I’m particularly proud of that one, I feel it exhibits the strengths of all three of us and is without question our most cohesive record to date.
Shifts in jobs, unexpected challenges and periods of adjustment slowed us down considerably since then, but Mack Flinn & The Whosis Kid has always been part of the plan in some way. We’ve always been writing and planning for the next album, granted it’s been challenging to do so. The album we’re very close to finishing, to be titled “The Return of the Whosis Kid,” will be our first in two years, and has been recorded in bits and pieces throughout that time. And we’re already planning for an album to follow.
I offered this brief, abridged synopsis of the band history to you because I can’t begin to express how important this band has been to my life. Every band is important in some way. It satisfies some sort of artistic cravng. Mack Flinn & The Whosis Kid is, without question, a project I am far closer to than any other, for many reasons. These songs, albums, and the processes of producing all of them directly represent my development as a songwriter and a human being. I look back on these albums with such pride, because I can say I was a different person when each record was made, and I will be a different person when the next one follows. The subject matter of this band directly expresses the stories, characters and happenings that have all shaped my life into what it is, and I’m sure Scotches can say the same. It represents the development of a friendship, both personal and creative, and the body of work is something we feel we could never achieve with anyone else. Our development as songwriters and people is easily heard album to album, as the sound changes, the lyrics change, and the context in which they operate change as well.
This band has always been so easy to be a part of. The process of getting together, writing and recording has been as far from stressful as one could imagine. Keenan, who has recorded each album, generously offers his time to put it all together for us, which is no doubt a big part of why we’ve had such a consistent output of music. But it’s the songwriting process, too, that is so easy. We just sit down and fucking write, seizing every idea and believing anything is good enough to become a song. I think that’s a large part of why we have such faith in this band. There have never been any boundaries, and there never will be.
