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Read The Full Interview Here…

“It’s a special type of aggression. Sometimes aggression doesn’t have to be angry or a negative connotation. This band has this fun type of aggression.”

Bitchflower is a five-piece project, fitted with some seasoned and talented musicians from the local scene and a budding presence to be noted. Their sound wisps around the borders of psychedelic rock and punk- a sound that promises a true escape from establishment through psychedelia. The anger and unbottled emotion packed into the vocals make the songs feel like a villain origin story- something to listen to while setting fire to a car. Their more driving moments inspire movement from the crowd, and cult-like loyalism as they copy the energy presented by the lead singer. Starry-eyed and hypnotized, the band drifts into more lulling moments where they seem to drip venom from just a guitar tone.
The aggression expressed in their songs is more of an open slap than a closed fist punch, sharper and intense but nonetheless stinging. The songs bode on ominous promise as they blend in notes of metal and blues-rock to further highlight that “riot-punk” sound. The energy in the room was thick during their set, thrummy and rubbery as they moved fluidly through their set, the ease of it feeling rehearsed and purposeful. ‘Bury the Hatchet’ seems to be the crowd favorite, with a sloppy little mosh pit sure to follow, and with its rapid emotions and recognizable melody making it a great closing song. They were cheered out with encores, and I feel that deeply. I hope to hear them more as they develop.

“They’re also my best friends and I feel very inspired by them.”

Bitchflower most certainly wouldn’t accomplish their sound in the same way without their lead singer, Brooke. Her vocals are caramelly and raspy; her voice alone brings the lyrics to life in a way that shares so much emotionally with us as the crowd. She stalked up and down the length of the stage that night, lit up in purple shadows, and I felt like a predator was stalking me. The crowd connected to her from the very beginning, with a hypnotic draw to move closer. The breaks of softer moments in their set felt like revving an engine into shifting gears, a gasp for air while dancing, before moving back into the harder exploration of punk. I’ve yet to see someone with the exact energy she brings to the stage, existing outside the borders of a ‘scream ripped out of your throat’ freedom and tightly bottled anger. The expressive energy could not simply be captured in mere sound waves; this is something you just have to see for yourself. Lucky for us, this young band is preparing to release an album and play more live shows, and plenty more encores.

Interview

Q: Start off with names, roles, and anything else you wanna tell me about yourself.

Brooke: My name is Brooke, I do vocals in Bitchflower. This is my first ever band or musical project that I’ve been in. Which is super cool, it’s super fun to explore this side of creativity. I love working with these people. They’re also my best friends and I feel very inspired by them.
Steven: I’m Steven and I play guitar.
Zack: I am Zack and I play guitar, but I’m cooler than Steven.
Miles: My name is Miles, and I am a drummer.
Nick: I am Nick and I play bass.

Q: How did you meet? Was it through the band or were you friends to begin with?

Brooke: No, we were friends, to begin with. We met like two years ago -ish.
Nick: We met you two years ago.
Brooke: Yeah so, I’m the last – I’m the latest to the group. Steven and I met two years ago on Hinge.
Steven: For bands.
Brooke: Yeah, Hinge for bands.
Brooke: Then I met these people. But they’ve all known each other for a while.
Zack: Nick and Miles have known each other for I think it’s going on four millennium now.
Miles: Yeah, we met in seventh grade. But then we met Steven and Zack through mutual friends and music.
Zack: Steven and I have known each other since 2014 – 2015.
Steven: 2016. I remember that. A great year.
Zack: That was a great year. The four of us have known each other for a while. Then Brooke came onto the scene.
Brooke: Yeah, I’m a new addition.
Zack: A great addition though.
Nick: I met Brooke at Psychs Peak. Another music thing.
Zack: The first Pyschs Peak.
Steven: Three years ago.
Zack: We were friends before playing music together. It was a collaboration, someone was like “We should play this kind of music.”
Steven: It was the next Psychs peak we decided that.
Nick: Yeah it was the next Psychs peak.
Steven: And then, a year after that we finally started playing music.
Zack: It was a lot of Psychs peak involvement here. Then yeah, we all decided we all wanted to play together. Jumped in a room and it just clicked. So now we’re here.

Q: Do you have music background? Were you in previous bands? What drew you to this?

Nick: Yeah, everybody except for her.
Zack: yeah, I mean Steven has been in bands for probably as long as I have. I’ve been in bands since seventh grade, my first band and I’ve been in four or five projects, maybe more, since then. I’ve done tours and been signed and stuff. Miles and Nick have their own journey they’ve been on.
Miles: We play – me and Nick play in King Crawdad and it’s been like over 20 years we’ve been playing music together. That band and we have another band where we play together, and now this is our third band together.

Q: How did you decide on your current sound? Was it ‘meeting in the middle’ for everyone or it was all that you liked?

Steven: I think it just kind of happened. We were like let’s be in a psych band. Had some ideas so it was hard to keep it in the box – keep it to one sound. Then it was like I remember one of the songs – I remember being like “I wanna play a Black Sabbath thing here is that cool?” The response was mixed. We did it and it was like that’s pretty sick. It’s whatever comes naturally to us.
Brooke: We just had our first practice, but I was a late addition to that practice. I was just like “Can I try to do vocals?” They said yeah, we jammed together on this song we brought. We didn’t end up doing anything with that first song or first practice but created things out of it. We just played whatever felt right and our sound came from that. It came really naturally.
Nick: Totally.
Zack: It was like everyone has their own background and we just kind of brought our own sound to the table. It turned into exactly what it was supposed to, with everyone’s like rock n roll, psych, heavy, like less heavy. We all have those backgrounds and we thought we had an idea of what we wanted to sound like. It just naturally formed into what it turned into. Honestly, I thought that was way cooler anyway. It was like I have an idea of what this is gonna sound like and it sounded way different and it was way cooler.
Miles: It’s very natural. Really quickly. After that first practice, it just felt really good and like the right thing. Playing music for as long as we have – I haven’t really had that happen that quickly. That has been really cool and I feel like every song we write has some interesting thing that’s like “Oh, I haven’t done this before” but it still feels natural. Nothing has felt forced. There’s stuff we work out song wise time to time, but it doesn’t feel forced. It feels natural and right to me. Which has been amazing.
Steven: It feels like initial natural momentum. During the first four or five practices we had, we worked on whatever we worked on the last practice and then wrote a new song. A lot of our first several songs came pretty quickly it felt like. Which is cool.

Q: You mentioned Sabbath, and you said everyone brings something to the table. Is there anyone specific you’ve sat down and been like “ I like this, I want to bring this?”

Steven: It depends on the song and the part. For me, if I arrange some things. We’ve talked, like Bikini Kill is really sick. We went into some rock stuff. That’s always a well of inspiration. Some Black Sabbath stuff. Some older punk stuff. Some of that. I don’t know, kind of whatever.
Brooke: It didn’t really stem from like oh we like this band we wanna sound like them. It more like we had a riff or melody or part of a song and were like oh that kind of sounds like this and that’s cool. We’re always naturally inspired by the things we hear and see and so it comes out. It’s nice cause I feel like we’re not trying to, and we don’t sound like one other thing. It’s a mix of things.
Miles: I think that goes to it not feeling forced. Even though initially it was like “ I wanna play psych rock, I wanna play this thing.” For me, that’s a really wide umbrella but it’s also like not sitting down and being like “We need a punk part to this song.” It naturally happens and how natural that is, is what makes this so great to me.
Zack: I do a lot of leads in most of the songs. It’s mostly cause Steven writes a ripping riff and everyone’s coming together. I gotta think about something. My biggest influence for that is Glary Clark Junior – a more modern blues rock player is a huge influence of mine as far as leads go. I like to go back to traditional roots when I’m doing something more driving on guitar. It doesn’t really matter what song we write, or style. The style of lead I do, to always fit in a pocket somewhere. It’s always nice that I have that to fall back onto. More recently I’m trying to branch out of that as well.
Steven: From the outside looking in, I can only assume this is a fun outlet for you too especially to not just play hardcore music.
Zack: This is like – honestly, Bitchflower has become my main gig. Because you guys are so active in it. You guys are messaging every day and getting practices, shows, recording. This has become my main thing right now. I’m into it. This is really fun for me.
Miles: Hell yeah.

Q: You mentioned that you write a lot. How does that go with five members in the band?

Steven: It’s pretty collaborative and it depends on the song.
Miles: We send voice memos.
Steven: I wrote every part of a specific song and arranged it with Miles. Then there were other songs where everyone was in it. There are a couple we’ve figured out through jamming. ‘Grapefruit’ was you and I figuring it out and bringing it to the band.
Zack: ‘Bury the Hatchet’ was started by a riff Brooke wrote on an acoustic guitar, and then Steven came with the Black Sabbath riff of course. Sometimes I’ll write a riff and bring it to the table, and everyone else here will run with it. It’s awesome and sounds great. Miles is a huge team player in getting the songs to sound where we want them to in orchestrating how they get played.
Miles: I love arranging this type of shit with people that can write these types of songs. It’s so frequent that they will come up with – Zack and Steven or Brooke will come up with something like “here’s this riff”. We all work in different ways to take it to the next step with each song. Drums lead to that. At the same time, they give good suggestions like “try a beat like this, try a feel like this”. Very collaborative, but at the same time, having two guitarists that can just churn out riffs. Again, I’ve played with a lot of different people, a lot of really good guitarists. People that can churn out stuff like that, it’s inspiring like Brooke said.
Steven: It’s funny cause you literally do that too in your other bands.
Miles: It’s different. That’s why it’s so cool. It’s five people inspiring all of us. In rhythm section-wise, me and Nick have played together for so long that really helps. I cannot even look at Nick and know I can really feel what he’s playing. I’m developing with all these guys, and it develops in different ways.
Nick: After playing garage shows with no PA. Can’t hear what you’re playing half the time. You get really good at reading the body language of your bandmates. Like “Oh, Miles is moving his head like this that means he’s playing this part of the song.”
Brooke: Definitely very collaborative.

Q: If you had to describe Bitchflower to someone, who’se never heard any of your stuff, how would you describe it? Sound-wise.

Zack: I’d tell them to come and see. It’s a project I’m a part of, so that is such a hard question to answer. I wouldn’t, you gotta come to see it yourself. Our shows are so fun. I’ve played in pop-punk, indie, and hardcore bands so much stuff and the shows I play with Bitchflower are the most fun, energetic, upbeat, and positive feedback from the crowd I’ve ever seen. We’re not even playing to a whole bunch of people at the moment, but every show we play is more and more. It’s very word of mouth. It’s so awesome to see people having so much fun. With that question, I don’t even want to say anything I just want you to see it hear it, and be a part of it. Somebody else will have some words.
Steven: It’s rock baby.
Miles: If I ever stop to pay attention to anything these other guys are doing, it becomes too much. I get too hyped up.
Nick: Especially when Brooke is rolling around on the floor. That gets me hyped.
Miles: I wanna look up what I put now.
Nick: Brooke is one of the people, as a front person makes me want to go, just go so fucking hard.
Zack: I’m in the same boat. I’ve gotten some neck strains cause I see her going crazy and then I go crazy and I forget I’m 30 years old now.
Nick: very intense live energy.
Steven: Like hard rock.
Miles: I tell people it’s like indie psych-punk.
Brooke: Yeah, indie psych punk
Miles: Different definitions of what this shit is.
Steven: I like the whole riot-psych thing. It has a nice ring to it. Even if it’s not totally accurate.
Zack: A lot of these are total bullshit.
Nick: There are all bullshit. It’s just rock.
Brooke: For the record, we have no idea how to describe ourselves.
Nick: We’re honestly just awaiting the actual description.
Brooke: It was something like trying to describe the genre of like psych punk with a really intense energy that needs to be seen live.
Miles: That goes with what he’s saying like it does need to be seen. The best live experiences I’ve had, not to sound too existential, but there is an energy transferred between the people on stage and through sound and back through an audience.
Nick: The feedback loop.
Miles: We’ve done that with this band and seen as overly important.
Brooke: I will also say we are currently recording an album and it also sounds really good.
Steven: The best way to experience music is live or on Spotify.
Brooke: Listen to our album when it comes out.

Q: This new stuff how does it differ from the stuff you have out?

Brooke: We don’t have anything out.
Steven: So yeah, your question is correct. Old stuff, new stuff. It’s all new stuff.
Brooke; We’ve been a band for seven months? I think.
Nick: We’re on the eighth month. We played our first show in June? August?
Nick: July. Right, it was the beginning of July.
Brooke: We’ve played at least one show every month since then which is cool. This will be our first album and we’re doing eight songs on it. It’s been a really fun experience, recording and everything. I’ve never done it so it’s awesome.

Q: What’s the inspiration behind it? Any major theme, thought, or message?

Steven: Fun. For real, I just want to have fun with my friends. Low pressure. The songs become really cool and entertaining.
Zack: We’ve all been a part of bands that have been super try hard. The point of the five of us coming together was like was to be laid back and chilling. Seeing what we could do by having a good time, turning into something like now I’m really excited to get the ball going. Now it’s nonchalant. It’s way more fun than I thought it would be.
Steven: I just want to play the Atrium. You can’t play the Atrium in a hardcore band.
Nick: Not yet.
Miles: Not until they knock that wall down. I thought they were waiting for a hardcore show to knock that wall down.
Nick: We did have I think the first mosh pit in the atrium.
Steven: No, it was a Rugs show. I was there.
Zack: No, you’re gonna start beef.
Miles: For the record, there is no beef.
Brooke: We’re trying to start scene beef with the Crooked Rugs.
Nick: More like the Crooked Fucks.
Miles:  I just want to go crazy on every song we play, that’s what makes me. I just want to go fucking crazy.
Steven: Alright, we’re a hardcore band. Go back to the question, we’re a hardcore band.
Brooke: This album in particular. Honestly, it’s coming out of the first, best songs we’ve created. The ones we’ve made that we thought were the best that we wanted to put on an album. We wrote pretty fast, so we had enough content to make an album. Not necessarily any theme or anything. The overall theme I guess is Bitchflower. It all sounds like Bitchflower.
Miles: In like a snapshot of all that time. And we only had money enough for 8 songs.
Brooke: We had more but…
Nick: It kinda boils down to that.

Q: You said that was your first time playing at the Lyric, what was that like on your end?

Brooke: I work at the Lyric so I see a lot of shows there and I’ve seen all these people at the Lyric. Fun to play there for the first time, it was a first Friday event which are events that I actually put on and organize. It was interesting organizing my own band to play. It was the Art to Live grant, a really cool grant started by my friend Maya, it gives a certain pool of artists $3,000 just to live or support some artistic endeavor that they have. Miles was the one who won that grant, there’s another one coming up. It was a showcase of all those artists, so we showcased our stuff. That grant helped fund our album, so we’re really grateful for it. A really cool event, there were a lot of people there which was nice. Fun and supportive. It was a really good showcase of what the Fort Collins creative community looks like. I think we all felt very honored to be playing that.
Nick: The Lyric is kind of a home base for us in a lot of ways. Brooke works there, I met my fiancé there, we go to a bunch of shows there, we play a bunch of shows there, we go there to see movies, we go there for trivia – trivia is really fun there. We go.

Q: If you had to describe what makes you different from other bands in Fort Collins, or bands in similar genres – what would you say makes you different?

Zack: We’re like a veteran group of musicians who’ve been in this scene for a long long time kind of just getting together and seeing what bullshit we can make up. I feel like a lot of bands do that, but the biggest difference is that literally all five of us have such a different background. We got together as friends not just as musical associates who would write the same shit. I love damn near every band that I’ve heard in Fort Collins and this one just feels special, not just being a part of it but listening back on shows, watching the footage, and listening to our songs we have recorded in the process. It hits in a different spot where I feel like this has a huge spot in the Fort Collins music scene and people are gonna love it. But, I feel like I love it the most. I honestly just love the songs, love playing with these people. The shows are so fun, the music is so hype, and practicing is fun. Just thinking about is really fun. What Bitchflower really brings is that you can see our name on the flyer and go, “That’s gonna be a good night. I know I can go to a show and have a really good time.” Every band can do that – but it’s Bitchflower.
Brooke: It’s hard to compare other bands just cause every creative project here has such a unique spin on it. I don’t know. I can’t really think on how we’re different.
Steven: I would just say were heavier than a lot of the lighter bands we could play with and lighter than some of the heavier bands we could play with. We can play with all of them.
Brooke: That’s a good one.
Miles: To piggyback off that, I think a special type of aggression. Sometimes aggression doesn’t have to be angry or a negative connotation. This band has this fun type of aggression. I think Brooke’s vocals and performance set us apart from other bands.
Nick: That’s what I was gonna say like factually speaking other bands don’t have Brooke.
Zack: Other bands have Steven and other bands have Miles.
Miles: That’s a good point.
Zack: The four of us do play in multiple parts of the music scene in Fort Collins, but Brooke is the one who really brings Bitchflower into Bitchflower. My girlfriend absolutely loves Bitchflower, and 95% of it is that she just absolutely loves watching and hearing Brooke live and she is like her idol for being on that stage and going crazy and being this huge inspiration to the local music scene. I’m just happy to be a part of it, in the back with my guitar, doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I got Brooke in front of me just going absolutely nuts. Again, it goes back to like I’m just trying to get all crazy. Your energy on stage and in the album so far is so big, even in practice when you’re not feeling it. It brings so much to Bitchflower. That’s definitely a game-changer between us and other bands is Brooke.
Steven: And you write great lyrics. And on the spot, which is crazy. I’ve never seen anyone do that.
Zack: Yeah, Brooke’s lyrics are the absolute best. She is very articulate compared to other bands I’ve been in where they just scream.
Steven: Here queen you dropped this, *picks up large crown*.

Q: Something I try to talk about is Fort Collins specifically, our music scene and community. What do you think makes it good/bad? Is there anything you would want to improve?

Steven: Oh man.
Miles: There’s so much support –
Zack: That’s a hard question.
Miles: Between the psych scene, rock and roll scene, indie scene, and hardcore scene there’s a lot of support. I think people genuinely taking time to observe and participate in other people’s art. So many supportive people who are also very talented and have these unique – so many unique bands. I don’t know what’s bad about this music scene.
Brooke: The thing I wish was better, is I wish more people in the country knew about Fort Collins and how awesome it is. People overlook it and see Denver as ‘the city’ in Colorado. It’s very special and very supportive. I’ll go for weeks sometimes where I just listen to local music. Months where the only live music I’m seeing is local and I’m so satisfied and fulfilled with that. Then the collaborations that the musicians have, artists have, and all the different art forms that happen. Super collaborative so supportive. And then like you asking us to do this, that’s super cool. Thank you for interviewing us and other bands and getting this record of these projects and this scene in a spot.
Steven: When’s the podcast happening?

Q: I did want to mention the Misfits Halloween show. I was obsessed after and decided I was going to follow and stalk you guys.

Zack: I feel like deciding on a band to cover almost didn’t need to be spoken. All of us love the Misfits and it seemed like a reasonable band to cover within that short time frame and it really does fit with our style. In the sense, it’s not overly complicated but it’s still high energy and punk. We did turn a couple of those into our own but the whole premise of doing it and dressing up as it, I’ve done a Misfits cover set 4-5 times in my life and that was 200% better than any time I’ve ever done it. And again, it comes back to Brooke being amazing. The rest of us really nailing it down> Just being a house show on Halloween, it doesn’t get more perfect than that. It was: what are you gonna do for Halloween? Like duh”,
Brooke: I was super excited that we got asked to do that show, with Autumnal, Crooked Rugs, and Jesus Christ Taxi Driver. And Ducki.
Miles: Banging lineup. It was all of our favorite local bands.
Brooke: The fact they asked us to play was very cool. I was a little nervous, about us being able to fit with different genres. I was worried we were gonna be a bit too heavy compared to those other bands.
Steven: It works.