Inside the minds of four Mississippi State University engineering majors, a type of music has been created that will have crowds giving standing ovations. After practicing in mini-storage for over a year and finally moving into a house together, the members of Flux have surpassed the ideal rock band that plays with simplicity; these guys play with emotion, skill and intelligence. When they sing, you feel, and those feelings can be very dynamic.
Biological engineering major and drummer Ckrysze Farrell, 23, commented on his personality and hobbies outside of the band. “I am cheerful, extroverted and like to think and question. I also like to watch cartoons, particularly old-school Transformers,” he said.
Bassist John Horne, 20, the cynic of the group, is a computer engineering major and has a fascination with Volkswagens. Guitarist Seth Myers, a 21-year-old mechanical engineering major, is the quiet and reserved member of the band. The vocalist and keyboardist, Jimmy Radich, 23, a chemical engineering major, said he is the type of guy who likes conversation, working out, fishing and writing. Radich gave a description of each member’s contribution to the band.
“Ckrysze pours the cement that makes up the foundation, John lays the bricks that begin to add structure and Seth adds paints and colors for texture,” Radich said. “I try to make sense of the design and explain it to the world.”
The band members made it clear, however, that they all have equal say in each part.
The music is classified as heavy melodic constructive neo-romanticism. Heavy melodic speaks for itself while the element of constructive is much more involved. For one thing, Flux, the name of their band, uses a dry erase board to communicate musical ideas. There are notes written on the board, both musical terms and emotional ideas, that only the band can understand, and this helps them to be more constructive while creating music.
Another part of the band’s constructive aspect is how they elaborate on change. The music and words of a song can move drastically from one mood to the next in a matter of seconds. For example, the first portion of the song “Logical Animals” has a mellow sound, which Jimmy explained as a metaphor representing the thoughts and feelings of a person who has just destroyed the world. Then, the beat of the music picks up significantly to show that the person has realized that he was dreaming and that he still has a chance to prevent his dream from coming true.
“The song is about loving and realizing we are all here on the same planet, and we should try to work together because we are all the same,” Radich said.
The neo-romanticism element is derived from music history. Classical era music followed the paved path while romanticism broke away from that path. Flux’s music looks to revive that romantic perspective.
The forces of nature brought the guys together. None of them had ever met until Farrell and Radich had a class together where Farrell’s Tool shirt sparked a musical conversation. This soon led them to discuss starting a band. Ironically, when Farrell went to the music shop a few days later, Myers approached him because of his Fear Factory shirt, and the three were playing together the following weekend.
About a year later Flux asked fellow band, The Spiveys if they knew of a bass player to join them. The Spiveys in turn gave Horne’s number to Flux. In the end, Radich, Farrell and Myers had two contacts on their list for bass players: “Seth’s friend John” and “The Spiveys’ friend John.” Fate took over.
Flux means a changing process. The question concerning how they came about choosing the name Flux triggered a series of remarks from the band.
“(We chose Flux) because our music is dynamic. We are trying to promote accepting changes that happen in life because change is the only constant in the universe.” Horne said.
“Don’t hold on to things in life simply because they were taught to you, but understand that just because you are content doesn’t mean you can’t be happier in a better place,” Radich said.
Farrell agrees: “If an opportunity comes along, one should not be scared to take a risk. Fear should not hinder growth,” Farrell said.
Their songs reflect the name of the band. For instance, “Threshold” introduces listeners to the idea of embracing change in their lives.
“The song is about a person standing in front of a line or border that is not necessarily blocking him but is scaring him because of what may be on the other side,” Farrell said.
While many bands dream of fame and fortune, Flux said they are happy just to make an artistic statement.
“We are not in this for the money or fame. I mean, who doesn’t want it, but it’s not our driving force. We have an artistic view, and our main goal is to express that view. We have no superficial goals,” Farrell said.
“The four of us come together to act as a harness to a certain kind of light. All I hope is that the people who hear our music will get a reflection of that light,” Jimmy said.
Flux plays tonight at The Princess Theatre in Columbus. One Reason from Cleveland, Miss. will open. Music starts at 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.geocities.com/fluxpad.