Featured Artist Friday: The Flips

This week's Featured Artist is Chicago Indie Rock band, The Flips. The group is consist of guitarist and lead singer Nick Sintos, drummer Mike Carlson, guitarist Dustin Martin, keyboardist and vocalist Annette Nowacki, and bassist Maccabee Kelem.

The five piece band have headlined and performed at many of Chicago’s venues, including the Cubby Bear, The Metro, the House of Blues, the Bottom Lounge, and Camp/Us. The band describes their sound as really loud and sad indie rock with layers of dynamic sound that can be heard in all of their songs.

“We enjoy being loud and heavy and fuzzy,” said Martin. “But at the same time we have a quiet, shoegazey side, and that balance is pretty representative of our sound. We love bands that can walk both sides of that line well, and we always strive to make our music dynamic and layered. When we play live, we love to create a massive wall of sound, and in the next second take it all away, leaving just a voice and a guitar.”

The Flips take a multifaceted approach to writing their music. Typically the songs are initially written by Nick Sintos and then brought to the rest of the band where they then structure out every member’s part in the song. However, the band will also take different steps to putting together their songs.

“With the songs we’re currently writing, there have been a lot more that stem from riffs or segments that we toss around in practice.” Said Martin. “Once we get to something that feels like it has potential, Nick will develop that idea into a fully structured song, or sometimes we’ll just structure it from playing around with it over and over. We’re pretty committed to the idea that you have to serve the song, and that philosophy helps inform how we approach fleshing out the songs once we get a structure down.”

The band’s most recent release was a six song split EP with Chicago Emo Rock band Pelafina. The Flips have also released two albums, titled “A Harm Deep But Shining” and “Better Days,” and an EP titled “Damn You & Damn Me, Too.”

“All we’ve ever tried to do is make the biggest and most earnest rock n’ roll that we could,” said Sintos. “And that’s what we’ve done.”

The Flips’ original two members were Sintos and Carlson who were joined by Martin shortly after the band initially formed. Later on the group added Nowacki to the lineup, with Kelem being the newest member of the group. The five members are also close friends and the fun they have with each other is on display at every live performance.

“It’s kind of a cliché, but we really are all friends in the band,” said Martin. “We’ve all been playing together for years at this point, and that sense of personal and musical connection is critical when it comes to writing or traveling or anything else that being in a band entails. Sleeping three to a bed in a Red Roof Inn would be kind of weird otherwise. “

The Flips next show is Monday, October 9th at Subterranean alongside Looming, Stay In, and Elton John Cena. The band also has a currently untitled project that they are in the process of writing.

Next Friday's Featured Artist will be Chicago band Foreign Sunsets. Make sure to follow ODMG on Facebook and Instagram for all of our newest content and be sure to also subscribe to our YouTube channel.