We happened upon Flagship Romance in Downtown Jacksonville during the One Spark event. The duo, comprised of Shawn Fisher and Jordyn Jackson were playing material from there latest EP: The Fudge Sessions. We have been fighting over the copy as there are some really nice cuts on this including "Hit the Ground", and "Treason". They are about to embark on a Kickstarter campaign starting in June and are putting material together for another cd. Here is our interview with this cause-oriented band.
Shawn:
What was the first song you learned on guitar?
The first song I ever learned on guitar was "Fat Lip" bySum 41, believe it or not (it was 2001, so cut me some slack, haha!). At the
time, I only had a red Fender Stratocaster. Upon learning the song, I called
all of my friends and told them to meet me at the local racquetball court. I
grabbed the guitar and rode my bike down to the courts and played them the song
with no amplification. Oh to be young and newly immersed in the world of
performing arts.
Jordyn:
What was the first song you ever performed live?
The first song I ever performed in front of an audience was
Disney's "Part Of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. I sang it on a
cruise ship in a talent show when I was 13 years old. I felt like a million
bucks when they gave me a plastic trophy at the end of the night. haha!
Both:
Tell us about charity: water, and your role in helping push their mission
forward.
"charity: water" is an organization based out of New
York City. Their goal is to provide safe, clean drinking water and basic
sanitation to the over 800 million people in the world who don't currently have
access to it. In order to raise funding for building wells, they usually
encourage individuals to give up their birthdays and instead of asking for
typical presents, ask for donations to their individual online campaign.
The
two of us, being performers, wanted to raise awareness and funding in our
own way. So, we organized and performed at the inaugural Clean Water MusicFest, which took place at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall in August of 2012. With
this festival, we had an initial goal of raising $2500, which would fund about
half of a well building project. However, by teaming up with Venus Swimwear as
our title sponsor, and many other local businesses & bands, we ended up
raising close to $12,000. This ended up providing two ENTIRE communities (about
585 people) with clean water and access to basic sanitation for the next 20
years of their lives.
To think that we accomplished this just by doing what we
love to do makes playing our music that much more gratifying. We have decided
to turn the Clean Water Music Fest into an annual event, with the next one
taking place on August 10th, 2013, at the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall.
What was the coolest venue you ever played together?
The two of us were actually quite spoiled when it came to our
first show together. It took place at the stunning Florida Theatre. For many
reasons, we value that show quite a lot.
Shawn: Well, when the two of us began writing music together, we had no
intentions of starting our own project. We both had individual projects that
were our main focus at the time. In fact, I was originally writing songs with
Jordyn for her solo jazz project. However, whenever we performed for friends
and strangers, we received so many comments and compliments on not only how
well our voices blended, but our chemistry on stage as well. After a while,
this encouraged us to take our musical direction further.
We spent the better
part of a year writing and honing our sound. When we felt that we were ready,
we went to New Orleans, LA, to record our debut EP at Fudge Recording Studio.
Every morning, we would meet up with the session musicians over coffee and
discuss that day's song(s). Once we finalized a direction, we went into the
tracking room and recorded a few takes. It was a very off-the-cuff, organic
process. We did not want to over-think anything when it came to the full band
arrangements.
Now, the title of the EP is quite the conversation starter, haha.
The reasoning for it is that the two of us felt like this record would not have
been the same if we had recorded it anywhere else. We are already in the
planning stages to head back to Fudge to cut the next batch of songs.
Two things! First, be humble. Confident, yet humble. As large as
Jacksonville is, it still retains a small town feel. Especially when it comes
to the music scene, everyone knows everyone. Your reputation will follow you
wherever you go, so keep that in mind.
Second, patience and perseverance is a
must. You cannot expect overnight success. The two of us have built our fanbase
in a grassroots manner, one by one. It might seem old fashioned, but we can
tell you there is nothing more fulfilling than looking at a sold-out crowd and
personally knowing every single person in the audience.
| Website | http://www.flagshipromance.com |
|---|---|
| Press Contact | cody@codyjamesfisher.com |
| Booking Agent | Booking@FlagshipRomance.com | College/University Booking: rjockel@cuttingedgeentertain.com |www.cuttingedgeentertain.com | (860) 693-9116 | Toll Free: (888) 221-6538 |
Great song and wonderful interview. Thanks for introducing me to this talent. Her voice is reminiscent of Joan Baez.
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