Q&A: Florist on ‘Jellywish’ and the Spiritual Philosophy Of Who We Are
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY CHLOE GONZALES ☆
Photo by V Haddad
“WHEN WE PLAY, WE’RE HERE” – Florist’s singer Emily Spague is putting vulnerability and philosophical ponderings into the hands of the audience. The band has just released their latest album, Jellywish, and are going on tour this spring. With their heavy discography spanning a decade, the lyrics take on something more than their usual introspective pieces.
“I’m not optimistic at all about it, but at the same time, I want to spend what time I have telling the Earth that it’s beautiful and caring for it in all the ways that I can and shouting about that in whispers on Florist songs.”
Jellywish evokes themes of climate grief and more, attempting to answer the questions of who we are and why we were put on this Earth. The Luna Collective had the pleasure to talk to Florist’s singer Emily Sprague about their latest album, Jellyfish, and the philosophy it contains.
Photo by V Haddad
LUNA: Your band met in the upstate New York area, and you guys have been producing songs ever since. How have your relationships evolved as you’ve created more music together?
EMILY: We all met at the humble beginnings of just wanting to go off the beaten path of life and had this really, really small house show community up in Albany, New York. That’s where I met the two frist members of Florist, Rick Spataro and Jonnie Baker. They were playing in a band and we met and had an instant connection. We aligned on a lot of things, philosophies of life, not that we really knew that much about what life was then. But the ways in which being young are, it’s important to kind of go for it and see what you can experience while you can. And shortly after, we met Felix, and it’s been a wild ride. We’ve had lots of life chapters together. Felix and I were in a relationship at one point 10 years ago, and there was a period of time where we made some music without them and then we made some music with different combinations of the four of us, people stepping away from a couple of months at a time, maybe for different life things. I had a major life change in 2017 which led me to make Emily Alone, which is a record that doesn’t include anyone else in the band. So we’ve navigated a lot of what it means to be [a band], it’s kind of like an open relationship in a band dynamic. We are so committed to each other, but we are also believers in everything being optional, things being able to change if no one is feeling 100%, and we’ve been through a lot together. We’ve seen the best and the worst sides of each other and we have family holidays together and stuff. These people are the foundation of my life. We navigate working together. I think we just all felt like we needed to not stop sharing these experiences together. And 12 years going strong, we still want to, you know, all sleep in one bed in a hotel together or something. It’s a beautiful thing to see how love can grow and change over time, even when things are hard. I feel like that is true with the four of us as well.
LUNA: It seems very intimate, like relationships first, music second or music as a means to your relationship.
EMILY: I would say at the end of the day, we want to prioritize each other as friends and people that we love and care about before it’s in the best interest of the business of the band. Everyone else has their own projects as well that the other members of the band play in. And even Felix, Rick and Jonnie play with other songwriters and stuff as well. So it is a collective in that sense.
LUNA: And when you guys collaborate with each other, how do you make sure everyone’s needs are heard and accounted for?
EMILY: Very carefully. I think part of why we’re still going strong is because we have a lot of unspoken, intuitive decision-making when we are arranging a song or in a recording space. We are all very empathic people. It’s one of the reasons why we’ve always recorded all of our records ourselves. I think part of our process collaboratively is that we really weave in and out of each other’s moods and energies. And, you know, no one will be working on something if they don’t feel like they truly [want to], which works a lot of the time. I think sometimes we have to have conversations about, you know, “Okay, let’s add an element to this track,” “who has an idea,” “who’s feeling it,” “let’s talk about it.” But I think most of the time when we’re recording, it’s almost unspoken, kind of like finding these little channels to make sure somebody’s around to hit record and then capture it. I would say that after having more or less six records that we’ve done together, it’s always a bit of a different outcome of who plays the most on the record.
Photo by V Haddad
LUNA: Absolutely. It’s not very strict or stickler, like “Oh, the production has to sound like this.” It’s just feeling it out and whatever is created out of that moment, that’s what the album is encapsulating. I love that.
Going into Jellywish, it seems like you guys stepped into a philosophy class in college and thought “Wait, what are we though?” Was there a particular moment that sparked that question: “what are we doing in the universe?”
EMILY: I guess I wouldn’t say there was a particular moment. For me, songwriting has always been this way of sorting through how I’m feeling and the things that I don’t understand or want to air out. I’m the kind of person who talks through my thoughts to end the way that I feel about it, if that makes sense. So I think songwriting for me is always this existential space for thinking about, you know, why? Why do I feel the way that I feel. Why am I here? Why do we do what we do? There’s a lot of space to have that stream of consciousness, that internal dialog. But songwriting and music are also such beautiful, powerful, resources for humanity to access those feelings within themselves. So that’s why I believe in music and why I want my life to be about making music. Because I believe so much in how accessible it is and how much it can give people to think about their own lives and try to do that good work that, I think, is the foundation of what creates a healthy relationship. Whether it’s a relationship to yourself, relationship to your friend or partner or family, and then your relationship to your community, and then our relationships as a collective humanity, to each other and planet Earth and so on and so on. So that was, I guess, the catalyst for Jellywish—really just seeing all the ways in which humanity is failing on those levels to prioritize and care for each other and for the planet. And there are other motives and people looking out for their personal interests, the interests of one over the interest of many and so on, is running rampant right now in America and in the world as an effect. It’s not going to stop anytime soon; it’s in motion. I wanted to make music that was kind of looking at that without any one in particular political focus or issue that it was about. My philosophy is that we have such an amazing power to share ourselves with each other, to create this beautiful symbiotic relationship of, “I understand you, I understand myself, we understand each other. Let’s do what is healthy for all of us, what’s best for us, and what supports us,” versus “destroys us.” That’s a huge theme of Jellywish. The point of this album is that we just have to do these little things that could contribute to this paradigm shift of what we prioritize as a species. Maybe that’s what you can live by, that’s the hope to kind of keep going. So it’s kind of politically motivated in that sense—I care a lot about where we are at right now and not actually feeling like there’s no hope left, or not feeling powerless and that we can care for each other and for ourselves and that will go the distance. That’s a super long winded answer for the philosophy, but it’s very much about the philosophy about why we are here and how we could be here as we are. It’s just Florist’s version of looking outside at the world instead of looking at my own internal [self].
LUNA: Would you say it’s a spiritual or activism album at all?
EMILY: I would say it’s both of those.
LUNA: I feel like it’s your take on religion, or rather spirituality.
EMILY: I like that. I don’t believe in the dogma of religion but I do love the idea of having spirituality and having belief and I think Florist is definitely a huge part of it.
Photo by V Haddad
LUNA: Absolutely. On Jellywish, you explore many things including climate grief, where there’s a quiet mourning for the Earth woven into the songs. How do you personally process that grief?
EMILY: I live in the woods and try to live as unobtrusively as I can. And I think when you start thinking about how little of an impact you as one person actually have, it starts to feel overwhelming. It starts to feel like, “Oh, well, what’s the point?” I think for me I try to promote whatever I would feel is the best that we can do, and then try to do better than that. I’m definitely scared for the future. I’m not optimistic at all about it, but at the same time, I want to spend what time I have telling the Earth that it’s beautiful and caring for it in all the ways that I can and shouting about that in whispers on Florist songs.
LUNA: And there’s this effect in environmentalism called the escalator effect, where over time we look back and think the past was so much better, more beautiful, before we came and destroyed it. How do you navigate that feeling of something precious that has been already lost or rather, does that sense of loss drive you? Did it drive this record?
EMILY: I’m someone who tries to exist only in the moment. I try to not really think about what was or spend too much time worrying about what will happen. I think ultimately there is only the moment and it’s usually unhelpful for me anyway to get stuck too much on either side of that. I do also think in a philosophical way we will always cycle through rebirth and destruction and chaos. I don’t wish to exist without those things or live in a utopia. I think I accept the reality of everything that is.
LUNA: Absolutely. You also mentioned in a previous interview that you’re very vulnerable in these songs and that you feel safe sharing your vulnerability publicly. How much does audience reciprocation matter to you then? And how do you separate external criticism from your raw feelings?
EMILY: I think I was this way the first time I performed live, like at an open mic, and I am this way this year. I think I will always lead with [vulnerability], regardless of whether or not I feel it is going to be reciprocated. But I will say after having done Florist so long, my favorite thing about this now is that we are creating these spaces for people to come to the show and share that vulnerability with each other. I don’t think that’s always the case when you are in a room with a bunch of strangers, but Florist shows have this sort of unspoken understanding like we are here to f*cking go in and feel our feelings. When we play, we’re here. We’re there to come as we are and be vulnerable. And I think that the live aspect of Florist has also settled into its own version of the project in a way that I’m really proud of. It’s a social sharing and I think it’s really important to have that experience with others and feel the energy in the room. I am definitely more comfortable knowing that the audience we’re playing for is coming, knowing what to expect, and that it is so respectful and listening and wants to create that space for us and everyone else as well.
LUNA: Beautiful, I love that so much! I wanted to ask you one more question: Could you assign marine animals to each of your members, including yourself?
EMILY: Johnnie Baker is a starfish. Felix is a pufferfish, like a blowfish. Rick is a mermaid and I am an axolotl!
