Who is Flerm?

I remember when Flerm first began. Splendour In The Grass weekend was just getting started, we were having a few quiet beverages, and I showed all my friends this new FB page called Flerm. And we LOL’d. Oh how we LOL’d. It was much internet. The muchest we could handle. Or is that a doge thing? They’re all kinda blending together now.

It continued on in humorous fashion through the latter half of 2013, mostly focusing on the up-and-coming “Australian Sound” scene, producing hilariously bad drawings of such luminaries as Erlersen Wundalen, Erscer Ker Sin and Chert Ferker. He even made really funny edits of Flume tracks with too many cowbells. It was great.

For a while it almost became a right of passage for those young producers - you got Flerm'd, you'd made it. And pretty much ever since I've been wondering who the fuck is behind the one you know as Flerm. Especially in more recent times as the focus has been getting away from that producer scene, into promoting events and helping triple j with 'gifts' for voting in the Hottest 100.

I digress though - Flerm’s uses as a great marketing tool for events large and small is another discussion for another day. For now, let’s entertain the question of WHO exactly is Flerm? I've narrowed it down to 8 candidates (in no particular order), ‘cause I get bored, have too much time on my hands, and love a good conspiracy/ruminating on things that are ultimately incredibly pointless.

SO WHO THE FUCK IS FLERM?

FLUME

The first, and most obvious choice – it is his namesake after all. And how else would Flerm be able to obtain the stems for all those high-quality re-works of Flume originals unless he has direct access to the man himself? He wouldn’t, unless he was actually Flume! However, Flume has had a way to massive past 12 months to even consider creating a piss-pulling alter ego, let alone having the time to craft such beautiful pieces of art.

ADAMNOTEVE

Melbourne-based taste-maker photography/music/lifestyle/culture website adamNOTeve are the only ones to ever actually have INTERVIEWED Flerm, and for that reason alone they are a prime candidate for this list.

EMOH INSTEAD

You can just see the headlines now: “Flume’s partner-in-crime in their exponentially-getting-massiver What So Not side project – tired of everyone asking where Flume was during What So Not DJ sets even though he was fucking killing it – finally cracks under the stress of being the guy that’s not Flume, and creates this bastard alter-ego in an attempt to undermine everything Flume has created.”

LOL jks, Emoh is a legend.

LEWI MCKIRDY

Most of Flume’s 4million-or-so current Facebook fans may not remember this, but a couple of years ago man-about-town Mr McKirdy actually blooded a then-12 (or something) Harley Streten on our national youth broadcaster, giving Sleepless a spin on his lunchtime show. Little did he know the beast he would create. And by 2013, with everyone tired of his drunken lamenting in the club every 5am - “I WAS THE ONE WHO MADE FLUME WHAT HE IS TODAY”, Lewi finally let his jealous rage get the better of him. It also explains the increasingly strong triple j-connection.

Interesting to note however is the picture used for Lewi above is actually taken from another attempted Flerm-type page for Lewi, and no actual Flerm pictures exist of the man… Is this proof of guilt?

CHET FAKER

Noted chill bro and excellent friend of Flume, there’s no jealousy vibes here – this is based purely on the fact that I’m pretty sure Chert Ferker followed very quickly after the original Flerm picture. The two have had a pretty incredible year, touring the country together on that massive Infinity Prism tour, and then the whole Drerp Da Germ thing happened. Maybe they’re in on the Flerm phenom together, high-fiving each other in a massive tour bus getting blazed after another killer show in front of 10,000 people, drawing silly pictures for shits and giggles.

NINA LAS VEGAS

Again we have the triple j connection, plus the House Party hostess has been responsible for helping the spread the good word about many of the artists Flerm has been drawing since it all began. She even scored a picture herself. Going against the idea of Nina being involved however, is she already draws heaps of cool pictures and writes lists and stuff on notepads, and having compared the handwriting styles and illustration lines of both artists, I have deduced conclusively that there is no chance Nina Las Vegas is Flerm.

RAISED BY THE WOLVES

Music photographer to the stars, Raised By The Wolves is a prime candidate for several reasons. She’s one of the very few non-music-making people to score herself her own Flerm picture (evidence of which has mysteriously disappeared from the internet since…); she enjoys most of the acts who’ve been ‘Flermed’ - Matt Corby being a most recent example; and she loves to help promote the various music events/festivals around the country - an above all else awesome thing. She once even posed the very same question we are asking in this article today – honest query or diversion? You be the judge.

(UPDATE: Raised By The Wolves called us out, so credit whre it's due, this picture does still EXIST)

US

One time we used a picture of Flerm instead of a picture of Flume in our year-end list for a laugh, and then Flerm shared the article! Classic tale of an inside job if you ask me. Plus this office is filled with the most untrustworthy gaggle of smelly pirate hookers I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of smelly pirate hookers.

Is this article pointless? Yes, but thanks for reading it if you did.