It won't surprise you to know that I get contacted by a lot of bands about being Band of the Week. There are a lot of crap bands, quite a few good bands, and a few excellent bands. Occasionally however I hear a band that is so good I assume they have already been signed. To my great surprise — and delight as I now get to feature them — The Flaws aren't.
Their sound is a beautiful updated mixture of '80s bands like The Smiths, The Cure, and Echo and the Bunnymen. Frontman and primary lyricist Paul Finn has the enviable ability to strip away the everyday mundanities of life and articulate the longing and desire for more. Strong melodies enveloped in synth, glittering, jangly guitars, Finn's rich, fervid vocals and intelligent witty lyrics make for a spellbinding experience.
And all of this is evident on their radiant, lush, nearly flawless - come on, I had to - debut album Achieving Vagueness (AV). The two singles "Sixteen" and "1981" have both seen airplay in their native Ireland and I think it's time the rest of the world woke up to the scintillating near-perfection of The Flaws and AV.
It is the album that should never have been made, after troubles with their former label, Sound Foundation (Polydor imprint, now bust). However this ambitious and confident foursome did whatever it took to make an album they completely believed in.
These struggles may have helped to ensure that AV is as mature and incandescent a debut as any I have ever heard. Recently frontman Finn agreed to give me some of his time to chat about his band and that fulgent debut album. Finn impressed me with his serious intent, humble intelligence, and dry, caustic wit.
Tell me how The Flaws became a band. Where did you get the name?
The Flaws were, at the start, four people who knew of each other through school. When college came knocking, some of us ended up living together and starting bring our acoustics to the bedsit we were living in at the time, and playing some Lennon covers.
The name came much later. Shane came up with the name. He liked the idea behind the name of The Kinks, so it has similar connotations as that name. The Flaws were, at the time, Stephen Finnegan on drums, Shane Malone on guitars, Dane McMahon on bass, and myself, Finn, on vocals and guitars.
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