Hold on Like a ‘Wrench’: How Flycatcher Tuned-Up By Letting Go

Flycatcher frontman Greg Pease shows Atwood what’s under the hood of his band’s new-and-improved debut, ‘Wrench.’

Stream: “Down” – Flycatcher

Most bands need an entire lifetime to finish their first album. For Flycatcher, it took two full-lengths, one buzzy EP and seven years of retooling to arrive at what’s now their official debut.

“It’s funny,” says frontman Greg Pease from the passenger seat of the band’s tour van. During our video chat, Pease is quick to explain just how much Flycatcher has changed since work on Wrench technically started in 2018. Here though, he pauses, as if still struck by the realization. “Flycatcher turning into twangy, folky, down-the-middle rock is how we ended up touring with Oso Oso. I thought it would’ve been the opposite.”

Wrench - Flycatcher — Wrench – Flycatcher

Pease and his three fellow road dogs in Flycatcher happily reside between Asbury Park and Jersey City. But up until now, staying close to their roots was clipping the band’s wings. “I was holding on really tight to the emo stuff,” he reflects from behind dark sunglasses.

Tonight’s show has led them to Austin, Texas, nearly 2,000 miles from his hometown of New Brunswick, back where the initial lineup formed near and dear to the genre’s revival. “I thought I could reverse engineer our songs so we would fit into that box.”

To be fair, it’s not like Flycatcher weren’t successful when following the blueprint. Their first two cracks at a full-length showed enough promise for the scene’s chief producer Will Yip to sign them to his label. But Wrench makes good on the band’s potential by breaking the mold.

“The reason we called it Wrench is that my relationship with music was very strained,” explains Pease. When asked how he untangled those knotty emotions, our conversation traces back to his first love. “What made me like music in the first place is hearing my dad play these loud, vibrant, exciting records,” he recalls, going on to cite The Kinks, Prince and Californication. “Wrench is the kind of album that I want to hear. I wanted it to feel fun and relaxing. I wanted it to feel like rock music.”

Wrench grips it and rips it without scrapping all of the influences that built Flycatcher’s already solid foundation.

You can hear traces of a younger Citizen humming beneath “Dissolve,” a pop-punk speedster that’s muscled by Jack Delle Cava’s hard-driving bass line. Still, by removing those self-imposed guardrails, the band have really opened up their songwriting engine. Pease may envy the practical skills of his “Brother,” but he and fellow guitarist Justin VanNiekerk are locked in even when trading greasy licks.

“These songs feel really intentional and deeply written, more so than our original stuff,” Pease acknowledges. “Instead of playing a sick riff and thinking that the song was done, I realized that I needed to focus on melodies, the lyrics, different chord progressions and arrangements.”

The upgrades underneath Flycatcher’s hood are so surprising that the band as we’ve come to know them are almost unrecognizable. “Down” sounds like Evan Stephens Hall ditched Pinegrove to front The Wallflowers, a comparison that Pease humors with a “hell yeah.” “I think it’s just a natural progression,” he continues. “I’m 28 but was 19 when I started Flycatcher. For a band, that’s a lifetime.” Wrench buffs any residual rust from emo’s fourth wave with power-pop’s elbow grease and spit-shined Americana. “Fault Line” doesn’t swing so much as it crashes through the fences like a wrecking ball swept up in a stiff Southern breeze.

“I’ve had that thing bouncing around my head for so long,” Pease sighs when returning his attention to the album’s crunchy opener. “There was something about the verse that wasn’t connecting with me.” Instead of hemming and hawing like normal, he waited until recording was well under way for the song’s hook to appear like a sunbeam from behind his mental cloud.

Don’t want to pretend like I’m somebody else/ And I don’t recognize myself.

* * *

“If I was trying to be more precise and a little bit more controlled, then I probably would’ve said the song wasn’t ready and that we needed to work on it more,” he figures. “But even though I wasn’t sure where it was going, I had to tell myself to trust that it was going to be cool.”

The most significant improvement on Wrench required more fine-tuning. “When Flycatcher started, I didn’t really have a voice,” Pease admits. “I’d like how I sounded on one song but not another.” That tracks; his range has run the gamut, from Midwest emo’s gentle reassurances to indie’s collected cool and Title Fight lite shouting. He’s now found the right lane, thanks to Yip’s steering. Dialing up the vocal fry brings out a warm crackle that sticks to the twangy melodies like syrup. “After we got through two or three songs, I finally figured out how to sing,” he laughs.

Funny enough, he turned the corner on a song that wasn’t planned for the album. “That was a big one for me. It felt really special,” he remembers about assembling “Truth” days before the band pulled into Studio 4. Incoming drummer Matteo DeBenedetti punches into its chorus like an empty highway, but Pease’s gravelly timbre yields wisdom that’s as hard-earned as it is open-ended. You find peace once you let it go / Or is it something that you’ll never know?

It’s fitting that Flycatcher underwent an extensive overhaul to reach this point. ” I think it’s the only way we could have done this.” As Pease lays out, Wrench grapples with everything that he can and can’t control. “This album is me trying to process band members leaving, relationships ending, graduating from school, moving jobs.” He surveys New Jersey’s shifting landscape on “Water Gap,” which falls away as easily as sand through an hour glass. We oughta live like we’re gonna die, warns “Flood,” only to let past misgivings over his career path pass like water under a bridge.

“These songs come back to the idea that life’s going to take you in all different directions. Everybody is going to react differently and that’s okay.” Wrench hinges gracefully on Pease’s levelheaded approach. Instead of beating himself up over a fumbled relationship, “Super Bowl” accepts his shortcomings despite ending the album with a guitar solo that flies like confetti over the losing team. “I think that’s why I write. It’s a way for me to grow and grieve certain changes.”

Perhaps it’s not in spite, but thanks to the bumps in the road that Flycatcher have wound up right where Pease wanted to be all along.

With Yip pulling the strings, who else but Brianna Collins of Tigers Jaw fame should accompany “Man on the Run.” Her softly piercing harmonies serve as the perfect foil, holding up the mirror to his dirtbag blues.

“It’s been a real privilege to hang out and play with people who were our heroes and are now our peers,” Pease says, looking off camera. His bandmates are calling him in to soundcheck ahead of opening for The Frights. “It’s crazy. I’ve gotten further than I ever thought I would.”

Wrench comes out this Friday, October 24 on Memory Music. Catch Flycatcher next month during the band’s first headline tour!

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