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This past month has been Flo-tastic. On March 12, Denver was treated to the CD release concert for the Flobots newest album, Survival Story. The following Tuesday, Survival Story was released to the public. To round out this Flobot trilogy, Johnny 5 of the Flobots spoke with The Clarion about the then-upcoming concert and album release.
What do you think it is about your music that attracts people to it?
J5: I think that, first and foremost, we try to write the best songs possible, and songs that don’t fit into any box. They represent the six of us and who we are, and I think if it makes the six of us happy, then it can have a broad appeal, since we’re different. I think we also speak about issues that anyone can recognize in their own lives, whether its political issues that we’re all familiar with or personal issues we all struggle with.
The Flobots advocate peace as a means for tangible change first and foremost, where some other bands have promoted peace by any means necessary. Do you think that this has begun to positively reinforce or influence the minds of your listeners?
J5: I think that the peacemaking we promote is peacemaking that anyone can do, which means it might be a very small thing in your own life where you realize that you are treating someone like an enemy and need to engage with them as a peacemaker, and that small step inside can be huge and it can be the most difficult thing in the world. It’s important that somebody who protests a war or helps stops a conflict or something like that. So we celebrate all types of peacemaking, whether it’s in personal relationships or conflict resolution across the globe.
Fight with Tools (released in 2007) was a reaffirmation of the power in the people, while Survival Story is more of a call to action. Would you argue that this album places more emphasis on the choices we make with this power?
J5: I think both albums place emphasis on choices, on power. But Fight with Tools was told through slogans, and this album is told through stories. Back then, we were playing with slogans, and now we’re playing with stories – personal stories, but also what is the global story that we are writing about our future. Storytelling is not just about the past, it’s also about the future and what will happen, and we think we’re in a place right now where it’s very important to write a story together about our collective vision of what we want to happen on this Earth.
In pop culture right now you can see a fascination with doomsday stories. That’s fine for an escapist movie, but it’s not fine as a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is what I fear it can become. We don’t want everyone walking around thinking “The world’s about to end, so why try anyway?” We want people walking around thinking “We’re going to face some tough choices in the next few years, how can I be prepared to help to make sure that I survive and that everyone survives?” And that’s why the album is called Survival Story.
In 2008, you started up Fightwithtools.org, a non-profit organization showing support through the community. What kinds of ideas do you have for 2010?
J5: We’re going to continue our programs that work really well, like music therapy at the Denver Children’s home, we’re going to continue our online resources Fightwithtools.org. We’ve now opened up a community space, where people can hold events, we’re also going to hold a Fight with Tools Institute – there’s quarterly trainings and a week-long skills training for people all over the country to come to Denver and learn about how they can become more involved in the community. Those people who do that will go back to their communities and do a six-month fellowship with the organization there to implement the training that they’ve had. And that’s something we’re really looking for, anybody to get involved.
We’re looking for people who want to attend the training. We’re looking for people who have time to invest in the organization, and we need donations too, because a lot of people think that just because we’re in a band, we’re rolling in dough. And we definitely support the organization financially.
We also need the help of the community to join us so we can create a sustainable organization. So if you believe in the power of music to make change, please consider donating. You can go to Flobots.org and there are incentives packages and special merchandise that you can get in exchange for donating.
You also performed here at DU during May Days in 2008. Have you heard any interest from the community about playing here again?
J5: We’ve been involved with DU in a number of ways. I was here March 2 to perform a rap about Howard Zinn (the recently-deceased American historian who wrote “A People’s History of the United States.”)
And as far as shows, we have to be very selective about our shows just so we can help to build up our audience because that’s what a band does, so we trade off.
