Bad Flirt

In 2002, Jasamine (pronounced Jasmine) White-Gluz began a solo music project, which she called Bad Flirt. She performed in support of this project, doing shows in the Eastern United States and Canada. From 2002 to 2004 the solo project evolved into a band, and by 2006 that band took on its present form and sound. The line-up is composed of Jasamine on guitars and vocals, Raf De La Durantaye on drums, Laura Lloyd on guitar and Evan Dubinsky on keyboards.

Bad Flirt have played hundreds of shows together, including sets at POP Montreal, the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey, the Montreal Fringe Festival and many other important music shows and festivals. They were even included in a music competition put on by Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen; a competition that they won. When I caught them in Montreal on December 19th, they were playing the Lambi here in Montreal, back home after several long months on tour through the US and Canada.

I got there early and was permitted to watch their sound check as I waited. I was literally the only non-band person in the club, so I was treated to a two-song set as the sound engineers performed their tasks.

Later, as I sat down with the band, I got a real feeling of just how close they are as a band, telling inside jokes to one another, talking over one another and generally leading the interview off on tangents as they conversed as much among themselves as they did with me. But I also learned how seriously they take what they’re doing. Not in the sense of artistic pretence, but they plan to do this for the rest of their lives and are very action-oriented and business-minded in their approach to their music career.

Jasamine explained: “When we were doing this record it was like, ‘Do we keep playing around like we’re a band, or do we actually do it full time and do it for real?’ and so, that was the change.”

I was impressed with Bad Flirt’s realistic approach to playing music professionally. While they have some romantic aspirations – Evan wants to earn a Diamond record, or at least enough money to buy someone else’s Diamond record – they have no illusions about the industry or its workings. When I questioned them if, with all the great acts that have come out of Montreal in the last few years, they thought Montreal was home of a new music scene, they shot down the idea.

“Ever since Seattle, everybody just wants to pinpoint the next Mecca,” Jasamine said.

“Austin has a scene,” Evan added, “Minneapolis has a scene.”

“And everybody’s looking at Portland,” Jasamine replied, “And everybody’s looking at Brooklyn.”

“I think people are actively looking to make money off of new Indie bands every day.” Evan concluded.

But given the tangential nature of our conversation, this posed another dilemma: “Indie” has become sort of a catch-all term to cover anything that defies standard music genre classifications. Peruse the titles of some so-called “Indie” artists and you find a wide variety of music within the supposed genre.

As Laura very succinctly asked, “Well, what is Indie?”

I had an odd moment as the conversation turned to this topic. I felt less like an interviewer and more like the host of a panel discussion show, as Evan, Jasamine and Laura (Raf was, for the most part a silent partner in the discussions) debated the issue:

Jasamine opined: “I think there’s still a way to be Indie, but the term Indie as we know it doesn’t mean much. There’s still bands that do things that are totally not the norm. But an Indie Rock band?”

“There are still a few Indie labels that aren’t attached to any of the major labels,” Evan replied, “And in fact the three Montreal bands that I’m thinking of who are big are still with Indie labels and they always will be. But, let’s be honest here: For every one of those there are thirty other rock bands that signed to Interscope or something like that… I mean you get people out-Indie-ing people and that thing? It’s pretty strange you know where you get into a situation where you’re trying to define how Indie you can get.”

“It’s like an arms race to be the weirdest band,” Laura said, “Most times it’s just…bad! Weird does not mean good.”

“It’s a weird time to be in a band,” Jasamine said, “Trying to sell music because music is in such a flux right now on every level, from being Indie Rock to retailers to the actual thing that you buy when you buy music is changing, so it’s a weird time.”

And the changing times are another concern for the members of Bad Flirt. Though their current incarnation has been able to benefit from being part of the Internet generation, they view it as a mixed blessing, especially when it comes to how it affects their ability, as a working band, to earn a living:

“People often think that if they’re sharing your music online it’s okay because they’re like, ‘Yeah, but I go to the show.’ But I don’t think that’s the case, anymore,” Jasamine said, “I think people got really cheap when it comes to music, and they want to have shows for free, they want to have music for free.”

“There’s like, nine or ten bands that I can think of right now,” Evan added, “Who don’t draw that well, who don’t sell that many records, but who got a pretty good Christmas gift this year by having their song licensed to an iPod Touch commercial.”

“It’s changed the way being in a band is run; with things like MySpace, people can get an instant idea of what your band is; touring, also: it helps when you’re playing other cities.” Jasamine said, “You don’t have to bring posters to every store because you can do all your promotion online, so it’s definitely helped us a lot, for sure. I think it’s changed – not necessarily us in particular – but how bands in general function.”

At last, Raf joined in the conversation: “There are some down sides unfortunately, of MySpace in particular. The idea of streaming music on MySpace is brilliant; but the fact that bookers and promoters are actually affected by MySpace plays, like “Well! You only had 50 000 plays, that’s not good enough!” but, Dude! That is totally good enough! It’s the idea of one-upping each other.”

“Yeah and deciding whether or not a band has the goods based on the number of plays is not the correct attitude to have.” Evan agreed.

Attempting to explain how they balance the pros and cons of MySpace and the Internet against the very necessary real world work to be done to promote and maintain their band, Jasamine added: “We tend to balance what we do online with real stuff. It doesn’t really tend to affect us as much… You have to balance it; the networking and the shows. We do network, but then we go out to where the people are as well. You can’t just do all the online stuff and then never go out there. Some bands will be, like, “Well I’m going to add 4000 fans from Atlanta” and then they never go.”

This point was particularly an irritant for Evan: “We’ve done hundreds of shows, so we’ve had hundreds of bands opening for us. And it’s pretty sneaky when the band opening for you has an exceedingly high number of MySpace friends or plays, and then they draw not one soul? Come on! You have, like 65 000 fans and you don’t have one fan in your home town?”

From Jasamine’s response to Evan’s observation, I really felt as though this was a topic they’d discussed time and again:

“Well it’s all conception.” She said, “On the internet you can be who you want to be, you can do what you want to do; just like creepy old dudes on the Internet can pretend to be somebody else, bands can pretend to be as big as they want, and don’t have to face any consequences, really.”

“Pros and cons I guess,” Evan conceded.

I’m used to speaking with bands who either have lofty, romantic ideals about where the future is taking them, or who have the advantage of having managers, public relations people, handlers and businesspeople to look after the day-to-day necessities of running a band. Although not the norm among Indie bands such as Bad Flirt, it was nonetheless refreshing to be able to speak with people who are taking a personal interest in not just the creative side of their music, but the business end of things, as well.

“I think if you’re a band and you seriously want to do this, it takes foresight and know how to figure stuff out.” Evan replied when I made the observation that if you really want to do this but you don’t have any idea how shit works then it’s really just a hobby.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, the business part of this band has to be as big as the creative side,” Jasamine concurred, “Because we always have to take into consideration things like the logistics of touring, selling merchandize-and it’s not because we’re selling out or anything like that; that’s just the way it is.”

Bad Flirt’s wisdom and know how comes from experience, and experience is not always a positive thing. There have been problems that they had to overcome.

“We don’t have any serious, serious regrets,” Evan said, “Because we have our eyes on a lot of important things. And you know, we’ve made friends with tons and tons of bands, and I’d like to say ‘That was a big misstep for your career as a band’ but we can’t say ‘You just screwed your band up’, but I think it’s important we keep our eyes on everything, and I think that every band should, too.”

“You don’t need a how-to manual,” Jasamine said, “But you do have to be smart about it; you can’t be, like ‘I’m gonna write great songs and then I’m gonna be famous and people will come to me!’”

The hard-learned lessons are only part of the experience that has helped Bad Flirt create the winning conditions necessary to make their living as a touring Indie Rock band; they have also learned from the example set by others they have toured with.

“We tour a lot; like a lot!” Jasamine said, “I was touring before it was a band, and so since 2002. So you definitely get to see all kinds and you have to pay attention to your surroundings. We’ve done like, a hundred shows this year, and every show is with a different promoter, another band, a different club, so you kind of learn just by being on the road and by watching other bands and seeing how they screw up or not.”

“Yeah, sneaky-sneaky,” Evan quipped, “Watch how other bands fail and then never do that.”

“And watch how they succeed and take that.” Laura was quick to add.

An extensive tour, with hundreds of shows a year, travelling across Canada and the United States is, evidently, quite gruelling. The hectic pace of life on the road does take its toll on musicians, and the members of Bad Flirt are no exception.

“I think when the last note is played on a show it’s like my countdown before I get to go to bed.” Evan said.

And, after their last tour ended? “I took a solid two weeks in bed.” Laura said, “You kind of have to; when you’re coming back you just want to sleep! I couldn’t even walk my dog.”

“Another thing,” Jasamine added, “After the shows there are always people who are like, ‘PARTY!’ and we’re like, ‘Uh, no; we just want to go to bed and do nothing.’”

“And usually the people who want to party are usually pretty loser,” Laura commented, “I think we’re just one of those bands who like to relax.”

Make no mistake, the members of Bad Flirt earn their down-time. The set they played at Lambi that night was fantastic, energetic and fun to watch. They were appreciative of the audience and gave them far more than their money’s worth. It is a wonder that they can maintain such a powerful energy level so consistently, especially with everything they have on their plates.

Bad Flirt’s album, ‘Virgin Talk’ came out in October of 2008, and their live shows are a perfect reflection of the energetic and original Indie Rock that they performed onstage that night. If you have the chance to catch them live on their next marathon tour of the continent you should do so. Not only will you be catching a great show, you’ll be supporting a deserving talent. Pick up ‘Virgin Talk’ online or at the show; again, they won’t disappoint.

Having spoken with and heard Bad Flirt live and on CD it is my sincerest hope that they will join the ranks of other great Montreal bands that have been exported to the world. I know that as a reporter I’m supposed to remain unbiased, but the truth is I really want to see these guys succeed.

http://www.myspace.com/badflirt

To read the full interview transcript click here

Editor’s note: photos (article and cover) by John Kenney, Montreal Gazette