Global call for democracy leaves mark on music
Jamie Laurie started a band to make a difference. For the past 12 years, Laurie and his band, Flobots, have created music with a message.
This time around, it’s no different. The band released “The Circle in the Square” in August. The songs on the album were inspired by a trip to the Middle East.
“We’ve never really tackled how many countries want global democracy,” Laurie says during a recent interview from his Colorado home. “We found all of the struggles to be very inspiring because in the end, these people want a better life.”
The band consists of Laurie, Stephen Brackett, Jesse Walker, Kenny Ortiz and Mackenzie Gault.
The songs on the new album were inspired by a trip to Jordan with Brackett. Laurie says the two have been friends since they were 10 years old and always wanted to go on the trip with an organization in Denver.
“We had some free time and spent a week doing the tours and taking in the way of life,” he says. “Being in the region was exciting, and a few hundred miles away there were huge crowds of young people changing the course of history. We were fortunate enough to see one of the marches happening in Jordan. It was an eyeopening experience.”
On the flight back from Tel Aviv to Denver, Laurie says, the chorus to “Circle in the Square” came out.
“I really had to pay attention because it (the chorus) came to (me) so fast,” he recalls. “I knew from that point which direction our music was going.”
Laurie says it was about a year before the songs started coming together. All of the band members chipped in on the writing.
“We’re very democratic in our writing process,” he explains. “That’s what separates us from a lot of bands. This is a project for all of us, and we all have a stake in what we’re putting out there.”
Laurie says there is no magical way to write and that each song has its own way of going from an idea to an actual song.
“We allow the songs to emerge from the idea state and then it’s our duty to nourish it,” he says. “We wrestle over how to give each song its truest place. What’s great is that there are plenty of us and we all have different tastes and styles, so a lot can co-exist.”