LP Walkthru: FLOWERTRUCK - Partly Cloudy

Photo by Jordanne Chant

Acclaimed four-piece FLOWERTRUCK are a group of musicians who have dedicated their twenties to writing songs of love, loss and overdue rent, wrapped in beautiful melodies and indie rock sounds. Releasing their debut Australian music prize nominated album Mostly Sunny in 2018, the band today unveil their long-awaited sister record; Partly Cloudy. 

Consisting of 10-tracks dripping in their signature sizzling live drum beats, jangly guitars, melodic bass lines, accents of sparkly synths, and big honest vocal melodies embellished with layers upon layers of delightfull harmonies, Partly Cloudy is a timestamp of FLOWERTRUCK’s 8-year-long evolution to refine their indie rock sound and relatable songwriting. “We’ve seen dark clouds form over our heads, but at the same time we’ve seen the warm sun shining just behind them.” reflects the group on the LP. 

Out now, be sure to hit play on Partly Cloudy, as FLOWERTRUCK take us through what went into the creation of each track on the new record below.

Pretending

After setting off on a semi-failed hiatus out in Broken Hill, boldly proclaiming that I would write an entire album – Pretending was the only song I actually wrote out there. Even then, it took me another few months to find the core of the song lyrically. It all came together pretty magically on the last day of recording luckily!

Father of the Bride

This song was written after attending an engagement party with a very, very awkward father of the bride. The whole event was sending him into this delayed mid-life crisis, you could see him sweatily contemplating that he’d soon be a grandpa and thus dead. The song wrote itself after that. 

Crying Shame

I had a string of really bad part-time jobs in the winter of 2018. Maybe it was my Saturn return, but whatever you call it – I was pretty miserable. During this period I had a road-to-Damascus moment after being gently chastised by a bus driver for trying to sneak on without paying for a ticket. Crying Shame was the result! 

Likelihood

I watched a lot of sesame street growing up, I was particularly mesmerised by this song about Ernie imagining his future. Likelihood is that concept inverted, it’s about worrying that your present doesn’t meet the expectations you set in the past. I have a university degree now though, and just got back from an overseas holiday, so woo! 

Sing Along To Your Life

Wrote this song as a reflection on the terror and exhilaration of your twenties. Everyone in the band is performing at their peak in this track – it’s Flowertruck’s very own dole-wave version of Cattle and Cane. 

Quiet!

Quiet is an ode to some of our favourite bands – namely Talking Heads and Orange juice. Tricky song to write though! We were all super happy with how the verses sounded, but none of us could think of a solid enough bridge or chorus to ‘resolve’ the song structurally. The breaking point came after we all listened to the Talking Heads song “The Good Thing” – which has the most completely psycho bridge. It convinced us to go large or go home and the rest is history!

All Through Roads

A bizarre side-effect of the coronavirus pandemic was that I became utterly obsessed with surfing and vintage Toyota Hilux utes. “All Through Roads” came to me in the carpark of Bulli Woolworths in a blissful period where I had purchased my first car and surfboard via Facebook Marketplace.

Oberon

As a drama / four-unit english HSC student, I naturally had to read heaps of Shakespeare. Oberon is taken from the play Midsummer Night’s Dream, specifically from the fairy prince Oberon. In the play, Oberon is fighting with his wife Titania so hard that it physically affects the weather, which becomes sunny and idyllic once they reconcile. I was inspired by how couples often view their world like this. 

All Right

Despite recording this song in an early session prior to COVID-19, it almost didn’t make it onto the album! In a last minute attempt to bring the album up to ten tracks, we tracked down the long lost pro-tools file for “All Right” and then rushed into the studio last minute to put some proper vocals onto it. 

Hopeless

The great Pavement song “Cut Your Hair” always fascinated me in how it captures the minutiae of joy and frustration that comes with playing in a band. Hopeless was our attempt at enshrining all these meta things into a song. 

FLOWERTRUCK’s sophomore album Partly Cloudy is out now.

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