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Manda & Natty vs. Bad Flirt

When I found out that I was not only going with Natty to speak with the band, but that I was actually going to be speaking with them for her (since her voice wasn't up to the task), I was stoked. I was interested in the band as soon as she mentioned them, especially after going to their MySpace, hearing a few songs, and seeing all the good press littered throughout their profile. Well, it's definitely well deserved, and I'm excited to see what these guys bring to the table in the future! (Especially if they follow through with their "Space" plans...)
- Manda

The Montreal music scene has brought us some fantastic artists in the past, ones that have had number one hits and ones that never get the recognition that they deserve but we love none the less. Recently, I was introduced to a band by the name of Bad Flirt. They intriqued me and when we was offered the chance to talk to them on their recent stop in Toronto. We got to find out what inspire their music and just exactly what sort of candle they would smell like. Sit back and enjoy, as the members of Bad Flirt hit us with their humor and enjoyment of life.
- Natty

"There's a lot of good stuff! It's a rough terrain out there for an R&B quartet from the year 1994! So there's a lot of ground to cover."
– Evan, Bad Flirt



For our readers who don't know who you are, can you introduce yourself and tell us what you do for the band?

Raf: My name if Raf, Rafael in French, and I play drums in Bad Flirt.

Evan: I'm Evan, and I play keyboards.

Jasamine: I'm Jasamine and I sing and play guitar.

Laura: I'm Laura, and I play guitar.


How did Bad Flirt come about, and where did the name come from?

Jasamine: Bad Flirt was a solo project of mine that I was doing. Touring sort of solo acoustic, and I was putting together a band with some people in Montreal and then eventually found... these losers [motions to the rest of the band with her]-

Raf: Misfits.

Jasamine:And uh... then we put together our new album! And the name is 'cause we're all uh... bad at flirting!

Evan: Literally.

Jasamine: It's funny!

Evan: Except Laura.

Jasamine: Actually, yeah! Laura's kinda good.

Evan: We've firmly established that she's-

Laura: I get sooo many free drinks.

All: (Laugh)

Jasamine: She does.

Evan: Just... all shapes and sizes of people... and ethnicities...

Raf: All over the place!

Laura: Yup!

Evan: She kills it.

Laura: Mind you some are old and gross...


But free drinks?

Laura: Yeah!

Jasamine: Well, Chicago!

Laura: Oh, Chicago was good!

Jasamine: Anyway, she takes it!


She makes up for everyone else's... ?

Evan: Yes. She does.



Manda's Note: At this point in the interview, people started coming in and... making a large amount of noise. After managing to get their attention, we moved further into the club and into some booths. ...Just making a note of it because it was funny, really.


Alright. (Laughs) So "Virgin Talk" is your second release as a group. How do you think you've grown since the first release of "Six Ways to Break Your Heart", and was there a different process in recording "Virgin Talk"?

Jasamine: Yes. Because none of these guys were on the other records, (laughs) it was only me. So this one we actually did in the studio as opposed to all the other records which were done in our houses, or friends studios. And this one is a full length, so it took a lot of time. We did it on Analog, in an Analog studio, so we didn't use any pro-tools or really any of the digital technology that you can use these days. We kept it kind of vintage sounding. And also we wrote this record as a band, whereas the other albums were written mostly by me, but this one is written as a band.


I understand that "Virgin Talk" is a homage to innocence and so forth, what inspires your lyrics? Are you influenced by outside sources or are they more personal struggles that you experience in life?

Jasamine: Uh... I guess I'll take this one again.

Raf: Well, MY lyrics...

All: (Laughs)

Jasamine: Lyrics aren't really- ...I hate to say it, but lyrics aren't really that important! Like, that's the last thing that gets added, and some songs on the record, lyrics were just written in the studio like, "Oh, I need some lyrics, okay, whatever!" So, it's more like the vibe of the song, or the sort of emotion put into the song, is what I pay attention to, but actual words aren't really inspired by anything. They're just more like another instrument in the song.

Laura: Well, the one word I sing, which is "go"-

Evan: Right! You do it really well, too.

Laura: It's really... It's really deep. And there's a story behind it, but it's kind of too personal to talk about.

Evan: I was going to say that's your tour de force on the album. Not your guitar playing, just "Go"!

Laura: Oh yeah. You can hear it in the song.


Comes across in your voice?

Raf: Oh yeah. You'll hear it, you'll love it.


You did an intense North American tour before you settled in to work on the new album. Do you find there is a difference in the American music scene versus the Canadian music scene?

Evan: Yes!


Yes?

Evan: Yeah, I do. I think that despite the fact that they have more people than us, Americans... sometimes they're just a little more... aware of certain elements that go into the process of putting out records and things like that. Therefore the scenes in these cities are a little more put together. That being said, the Canadians are friendly and very full of mirth and... great food...

Jasamine: Basically I would say in Canada, everybody's really spread out. Where in America you can tour thirty cities and they're all close together and you can hit more people and reach more people with your live show. Whereas in Canada... it's very vast. So to reach people in Vancouver, it takes a lot longer to get there, where in America you can drive a couple of hours and you're in another city.


Like you can go major city to major city more easily?

Jasamine: Yeah, exactly! And in Canada you can't really do that.

Laura: ...Because we have like, two.


Who are your biggest influences out there right now in the music scene, and who inspires you to keep pushing forward?

Raf: Well I'm a big fan of Boys II Men. They inspired me the most with my drumming style...

Jasamine: And your personal style!

Raf: And my personal style.

Evan: Motownphilly...

Raf: ...I don't know that one. I just go by the singles.

Jasamine: I like All 4 One... All 4 One is pretty good.

Laura: That's a good one... otherwise...

Evan: I'm thinking Color Me Badd stuff like that-

Raf: (Laughs).

Evan: There's a lot of good stuff! It's a rough terrain out there for an R&B quartet from the year 1994! So there's a lot of ground to cover.

(Laughs)

Evan: But truthfully, you want the real answer?

Raf: No! I like the fake answer better!

Jasamine: We don't really listen to anything...

Laura: We listen to a lot of Lil Wayne.

Evan: Yeah, Lil Wayne and that little man that put out that song with Lil Wayne!

Laura: Or that really awful song! What's that awful song?

Evan: Oh, Saving Able? Oh, I think, no joke, that we should give up, because we'll never be as good as Saving Abel.

Jasamine: Yeah, we just listen to bad stuff on purpose.

Laura: Yeah! But... his lyrics are- the lyrics are pretty deep.

Evan: Yeah! And there's this horrible- I don't know if you guys know this, but like... we put on our iPods and stuff and listen to good music or whatever. But then we'll put on the modern rock station of whatever city we were going to, and I would sometimes enjoy the modern rock stations more than our iPods!

Jasamine: Because it's so awful!

Evan: It's like "This songs good, too!" For the worst music you've ever heard, anyway.

Laura: I really like Riskay right now.

Evan: Oh, Riskay! She has definitely not hit the mainstream yet.

Jasamine: Because her song is explicit.

Laura: It's really good, though! You should look into it. Riskay. It's with an A-Y.

Evan: You should be her manager!

Laura: You can call her actually, on her MySpce page! She has her phone number up so you can call her. She's in Atlanta.

Evan: With the sweet Atlanta area code.

(Laughs).


So I was browsing around your MySpace and noticed that you have a lot of testimonials from the press in your bio. How does it feel to be so well received in the media, and how do you handle getting bad press?

Laura: ...Cry.

Evan: We don't get bad press. ...Those people get killed.

Jasamine: In the van actually, we were talking about it. We were on this Celebrity Blog, called "Oh No They Didn't", and we were on there and the criticism had nothing to do with our music, it was just like; "That girls fat, that guy has boobs-"

Laura: (Laughs) Yeah! We're all fat, and every guy in this band has boobs! And I was wearing like, white jeans and apparently that's a really bad idea for someone with my body shape.

Jasamine: So I remember like, we were excited that we were on a big blog, but then we were like, "...Ooh..."


Oh wait, nevermind!

Laura: Yeah! The next day, I went to school, and I had two girls come up to me like, "I saw you on 'Oh No They Didn't',". And I'm like "You've never talked to me in my life!"

Jasamine: So any press is good press...

Laura: But we're fat. Really fat.

Evan: Yeah, that's the thing we learned the most from reviews. We're really overweight.

Raf: Thanks...


And apparently you shouldn't wear white jeans...

Laura: No!

Evan: ...I'm going to be honest. You shouldn't.

(Laughs)

Laura: Those are my party pants! They look really good.

Evan: ...Alright. Sorry about that...


Where do you see Bad Flirt going in the future, and what are your over all goals for the band?

Jasamine: Space...


(Laughs) Space?

Evan: Space!


I like it! Lofty! Now, in the sense that you guys want to go to space? Or you're going to send your music into space?

Laura: Oh, a little bit of both. We're going to play our music in space.

Evan: ...I want to win a Latin grammy award.

Laura: Christina Aguilera did!

Evan: Yeah, but she's latino!

Laura: I know! I'm just saying, no one knows that!

Evan: I'm just saying, because not one of us has any Latino blood at all-

Laura: I do!

Evan: ...Really?

Laura: ...My mother's Spanish!

Evan: ....Anyway, I meant like, real Latino.

Raf: By record number three-

Evan: Like, "yeah, I was cool with that band Bad Flirt, but when they won that Latin grammy!? That was a new thing!"

Jasamine: I guess that's the goal! The Latin music scene.


The Latin music scene, and space!

Jasamine: Yeah! We're aiming low!

Laura: I'd also like to release a song in multiple languages. Avril Lavigne did it with "Girlfriend".

Evan: And that did great for her! She's huge in Thailand apparently.



Manda's Note 2: Once again we had to change locations, after the people setting up the venue decided to start testing the speakers. Loudly. ...This time we moved into the girls washroom. Again, pointing it out because it was damn funny. Sorry boys!


So we at The Sound Faction are five of the most random girls you'll ever meet, so with every interview we do, we try to end it with five random off the wall questions to end everything on a less serious note, always. So,

If you were a scented candle, what would you smell like?

Laura: I think my answer speaks for itself! [At the time, she was sitting on one of the toilets in order for there to be enough room for all of us in the bathroom.]

(Laughs)

Jasamine: Laura's answer speaks for itself!

All: Poo!

Laura: Yes! I'd smell like poo!

Evan: How can you top that?!

Raf: I'd smell like Tom Petty.

Jasamine: I think collectively we'd be the musk of the tour van. Like... old clothes, and like leftover food that we left under the seats and forgot about-

Raf: So that's what it was.

Jasamine: (Laughs) yeah! Uhm... yeah. Something like that.


Seeing as the holidays are coming up, if you could be any Christmas baked good, which one would you be?

Laura: ...A Jew.

Jasamine: (Laughs) A JEW!?

Evan: A Jew? Is that a Holocaust reference Laura?! (Laughs) On the topic of Jews, I'd be a Latke!

Raf: Nothing with apples in it. Nothing.

Laura: I'd be that weird dish with marshmallows in it.

Evan: I don't know that one.

Jasamine: Yams?


Candied Yams?

Laura: Yeah! It's gross. So I'd be that. So no one would eat me.


If you could have any super power, which one would you want?

Evan: Well, there are all the tourish ones... Like, "Oh! I want to fly from show to show!" But that's so lame! "I'd want to eat and never get full!" Or whatever. ...That's gross actually! That's gluttony!

Jasamine: Is that a super power, though? Can we make it up?


Yeah, of course you can make it up!

Evan: ...Can I make it a super power to skip over having to watch opening bands?

Jasamine: Oh yeah! That would be amazing. Sometimes, you're on tour, and you play thirty shows in a row and you have to sit through so many bands... and a lot of the time they're really bad.

Evan: So get the super power to never have to listen to them!

Laura: I'd wanna be a vampire and live forever like in "Twilight"!

Evan: Oh, "Twilight", the best film of 2008!

Jasamine: He loves "Twilight".

Evan: Brilliant, brilliant film. ...obsessed...


Who smells the worst in the band and ho often do you need to spray them down with Febreze?

Raf: Oooh... [Points at Evan].

Jasamine: ...We all smell really bad.

Evan: I like how you pointed at me immediately.

(Laughs)

Evan: Actually, I don't smell that bad. I just have a very musky, sort of male smell. I shower really, really, really often-

Jasamine: Really really really really often?

Laura: I shower the least in the band for the record.

Evan: But unfortunately, you know, I have sort of... a very... my beard has a certain smell to it. Yeah, you know, I guess I'll take that.


And, last one, what was your favourite bath toy as a kid?

Raf: Just water.

Evan: We weren't allowed to have bath toys.

Laura: I had this rubber dolphin...

Jasamine: Yeah! I had like... a My Little Pony seahorse...

Raf: I had empty plastic containers, and I would just make recipes... like, invent random names... crooshnicatave!


(Note: ... I have NO idea how you would spell that, Raf... but I tried.)

Jasamine: ...You were a weird kid! "Crooshnicatave!"

Raf: Yeah... but just water! Water's fine by me. My favourite toy.




I want to say another thank you to Bad Flirt for giving us an awesome interview, and for giving us our first interview that ended in a bathroom! If you want to check out Bad Flirt, you can head to their MySpace, which is here.



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