Band Members

Dawn Mandarino - vocals
Gillian Hanna - guitar
Ryan Hanna - bass
Jen Foster - drums

The Flairs Interview at Arlene’s Grocery 6/30/06

TCZ: What influenced you the most in pursing a career in music?

Ginger: Basically I’ve always loved music in general and especially the Rock N Roll music and then I’ve been playing guitar and love it! So I Rock!

Dawn: Yeah I’ve been drawn to music ever since I was very little as well, I’ve been singing since I was a baaaby!!! And…

Ginger: I think they call it “Crying”

Dawn: Well, I guess yeah and I started playing the piano really young, I picked up the saxophone and then the harp so I was just always been musically inclined.

Ryan: Yeah same for me as well. Since I was a little kid I’ve always jumped out with a tennis racket on my bed…

Dawn: Okay man!?!

(everybody laughs)

Ryan: Yeah I do that and I’ve always loved music and I’ve went to a few concerts when I was a young kid and that’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do.

Jenn: I am completely unemployable in any other job so, I don’t have a choice. Ha ha ha.

(everybody laughs)

TCZ: Tell us the story behind THE FLAIRS?

Dawn: We were actually well, Jenn and I are playing in another band Gill was in another band and we kind of all met on this one tour together and we thought “ We have something here, we could start something bigger and better that’s going to…”

Jenn: BETTER being the key word

The Flairs: YEAH

Dawn: Yes! So we just all ended up moving. Well, Jenn and I ended up moving to Vancouver where Gillian lived and Ryan is her brother.

The Flairs: So, it just all fit like a glove. YEAH!

TCZ: On your new cd Shut Up And Drive. You covered Skid Row’s signature song, 18 And Life. Tell us the story behind that.

Dawn: Well, actually skid row was the first concert I ever went to.

TCZ: How old were you?

Dawn: I was 10.

TCZ: Wow

Dawn: Yeah Skid Row, Bon Jovi

The Flairs: Shot thru the heart!!!

(everybody laughs)

Dawn: And you know what I've actually really loved Sebastian Bach's voice and I've always, always wanted to try singing that song and we just tried it out one day and it was kind of interesting spin on it with you know being female vocal.

Ginger: We messed around with a lot of covers and we just kind of played it for fun and then when we played it live especially the feed back that we were getting was how good like Dawn was able to kind of stretch out her range. We just got a lot of compliments on it so, we kept on doing it and recorded it for fun and then got a lot of good feedbacks.

TCZ: Was that your first video?

The Flairs: No, that was our 3rd but it was our first real like professionally done budgeted video. On actual film. The other ones were just kind of like friends shooting.

Ryan: It's actually on our cd. If you put it on cd-rom it would play the video. Check it out!

The Flairs: And it's on our website as well.

TCZ: Now this is your first full-length release. What was the most difficult obstacle you faced during recording?

The Flairs: GETTING IT OUT THERE! Oh so many… Where to begin???

Jenn: Gives me mono thinking about it!

Ginger: I think basically just getting it like out coz we've had it actually recorded for quite awhile. The thing is we have it ready but we were waiting for it to be distributed properly so, people could get it at record stores or order it from there rather than just buying it when they come to shows coz some people can't go to shows.

Dawn: It's really easy if you get online distribution but it wasn't actually as easy as we thought it was going to get retail distribution, which we wanted, so, that people could go into the stores and buy the album. So. We wanted to wait until we get that.

TCZ: Do you handle your own production as well?

The Flairs: Yeah. We do.

Jenn: Dawn is kind of the Mama Flair

Dawn: We really honestly done it all ourselves like from everything. Artwork to booking the shows to getting everything done, we do it all ourselves.

Jenn: We've dabbled with other kind of avenues before but it's just better to know exactly what is going on.

The Flairs: Coz everyone ducks and falls thru, you can't trust them and when you do trust them they fuck up and you lose money!

Dawn: You heard the quote. "If you want something done right. Do It Yourself" that is so true! That is my new motto.

(everybody agrees)

Dawn: In this industry really nobody gives a shit about you except yourself, right? So, you're going to be the one to do the best job for your band.

Jenn: Yeah coz what everybody's plan right now in terms of managing or owning a label is like they just pile on a whole bunch of bands and just hope that they'll kind of hit it big so, they get to cash in on it as well. Instead of actually doing work to push it for you.

Ginger: Yeah, the industry has definitely changed.

TCZ: Are you guys doing this for fun or for the money or a combination of both?

The Flairs: DEFINITELY NOT FOR THE MONEY!

(everybody laughs)

Ryan: Right now, we all love doing it and we do have our jobs to get us by but even if we make millions or not this is going to be our full time thing.

The Flairs: It takes a special kind of person to be able to do what we do, honestly.

TCZ: I’m curious what are your alter egos? Day jobs?

Ginger: Receptionist

Dawn: Accountant. Exciting.

Ryan: I take care of drug addicts

Jenn: Logistics Coordinator

Everybody: WHAT IS THAT?!

Jenn: I order stuff and put things in their proper places. It’s a very high profile, very difficult; I organize the shipment of a lot of things.

Dawn: "A lot of things"

Jenn: The last one was very chemical engineering firm. So, I had to ship every nut and bolt to all the generators!

Everybody: oh okay

TCZ: This is your second tour in the US, as a Canadian based band, what is the biggest difference you have noticed while touring in the US?

The Flairs: Yeah, this is our biggest US Tour!!! Cheaper WENDY’S!!! Cheaper liquor!!! Cheaper Cigarettes!!! Cheaper Everything!!! WE LOVE IT!!!

TCZ: Do you have a big following here in the US?

The Flairs: We don’t know yet. We'll find out soon. This is just our 3rd show.

TCZ: No problems crossing the border?

Dawn: Not this time coz we actually went thru it the proper way and got our work visas. There was absolutely no problem crossing thru this time.

Ryan: They only searched me once!

TCZ: And it lasted for 3 days

(everybody laughs)

TCZ: Do you avoid any staples or foods while on tour to protect your voices?

The Flairs: HA HA HA

Ginger: We always eat at Wendy's a lot coz that's like CHEAP and you can get healthy choices like baked potatoes and salads and they have the dollar menu. And the chili is actually good for you.

Ryan: I've eaten about 30 burgers a week now. Pretty good!

Ginger: Yeah, he's a fatty! Ha ha

Dawn: I only eat potatoes and side salad at Wendy's coz I can't eat wheat and I don't eat meat. That's pretty much all I eat.

The Flairs: No wheat, no meat

Jenn: I’m on a strict diet of whiskey and cigarettes. Except it's not really working with the weight loss but I'm having a great time!

(everybody laughs)

TCZ: Tell us about your gear and your early musical training.

Ryan: I use Ampeg, 6-10 cab, Ampeg SVT Pro Head and Ernie Ball music man bass and Minarik Inferno Bass; yeah it's good I love it.

Jenn: I use Pearl drums and Zabien cymbals and they were nice enough to sponsor me so, they take good care of me. Next I’m looking for sticks and skins!

Ryan: Luckily we got every guitar strings and SIT guitar strings to sponsor us that was very nice.

Ginger: I use a Gibson Les Paul left handed custom of corz they are hard to find and a Marshall jcm 2000 amp and I also got endorsed by Minarik Goddess Special Edition guitar they are based in California and they make pretty killer guitars.

TCZ: Favorite song to perform live and why?

Ginger: Of our songs? Hmm I really like playing STINGER and recently during our shows we've been doing a cover of REBEL YELL that’s just a fuckin blast!

Ryan: I'm into this new one that we just wrote NOTHING TO LOSE. It's really good.

TCZ: Why is it good?

Ryan: It's more like the direction of where we are going and it’s really like what we are all about right now.

TCZ: What about you Dawn since you are the vocalist?

Dawn: Hmm actually I am having a lot of fun with NOTHING TO LOSE as well coz it is new and it is kind of about what we are going thru right now at this moment so, it's kind of close to the heart…

Jenn: Very appropriate.

Dawn: and it's kind of more aggressive vocally than I normally do, it's more screaming and stuff

Ryan: YES!

Dawn: It is a more aggressive vocal song so; it is more challenging for me and I like that. I'm always up for a good challenge.

TCZ: When it comes to writing songs and material. Do you all kind of move in the same direction? Do some lean into something heavier or lighter?

Jenn: What makes it cool is that we all like a lot of the same things and we also like different things so, one person kind of brings an idea into the table and then we kind of bring in an element and usually it doesn't turn out at all exactly like the person who originally wrote or originally planned.

Ginger: We just all add our own FLAIR, someone brings in something that might not be a finished song, and it could be anything from like a cool phrase or like a rifts.

TCZ: Is that why you are called The Flairs?

Ginger: hmm No not really

The Flairs: It sounded Cool!

TCZ: So, how did you come up with the name of the band?

Ryan: We went out for Chinese food one day and it was in the back of a fortune cookie. (poker faced)

Everybody: WHAT?

(laughter)

The Flairs: We are trying to make up a cool story here…

Jenn: The day before I did watch Office Space “where you need 38 pieces of FLAIR on your vest.

(everybody laughing)

TCZ: Anything you want to add to promote yourselves/sell yourselves out there.

The Flairs: GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE JULY ISSUE with Tom Petty on the cover we are on page 42. We have a whole page The Flairs that is actually pretty big thing. It is like the Rolling Stone for guitar players. We don’t know how to tell you this but people know us (laughs) and we are on Myspace. Myspace.com/theflairs and The Flairs.com where we have our songs and videos.

Dawn: And we have new video coming up soon, the one we just shot before we left. It is being edited right now and we are hoping it will be released in the next couple of weeks. So, that should be up there on our site.

TCZ: All right! Anything else?

Jenn: Give us free liquor when you see us! Wear condoms! BUY THE RECORD!!!

Ryan: Yeah, buy the record.

Dawn: Yeah, that is always a good thing.

The Flairs: BE OUR FRIEND

(everybody laughs)

TCZ: Thanks guys!

Interview by Erik Batykefer and Pearl Palma © The Cover Zone Aug 2006