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Florida's indie rockers, flipturn, are staples in the scene. With a journey born from college house shows in 2017 leading to a 2025 European tour with Colony House, it's safe to say this group of musicians has a few tricks up their sleeves for maintaining a steady and fulfilling career as a touring band. We sat down to talk about their latest album, Burnout Days, as well as the importance of friendship in collaborators, the ability to pivot, and movie nights watching The Incredibles. 

OnesToWatch: Flipturn, do you believe there's a resurgence in bands? Do you think that's happening right now? 

Dillon: No, honestly, it feels like we are one of the only “band” bands, you know what I mean? Even some of the “bands” that meet are mainly a front man with a backing band. 

Interesting. I think some of the reasons are self-evident. It's probably easier, less expensive, all that kind of stuff, but let's go into the advantages. Why do you guys think flipturn has been doing so well? 
What makes it so successful? 

Dillon: I think it's been super organic. I think that's the number one reason we're able to do this. We’ve always kind of flown under the radar. But in doing so, we’ve slowly been creating a fan base that’s followed us for years, people coming back to shows constantly. That’s another reason we’ve been able to be successful is it’s never been a straight shot. We’ve never had anything go viral, but we’ve had these steady building blocks. It never fluctuated too much. So the fact that it’s been such an organic growth has really led to a lot of our success. 

Mad: I agree, it’s been our grassroots effort, since the very beginning, our college days. Freshman year, we’d be texting everyone we met at orientation to come to our shows and bring all their friends. Since then, just word of mouth, the community has grown and it’s just been really awesome. 

Dillon: And another thing, I think our live shows, once people see us live, it's totally different from listening to us on Spotify or Apple Music. That's when we usually get people telling their friends to come, too.

I would totally agree. And you kind of stole my question, which was about your story as a band. There was no cheat code of the algorithm or viral moment, you simply just put in the work, and I think sometimes people forget that’s possible. 

Dillon: It’s true, people are always asking us how we did it, and we’re like, we’re just still doing it, you know? This is year 10 of us being a band. 

Exactly. I’ll pivot my question to – what makes your show so special?

Dillon: We switch up the show every time we go out. We're always trying to keep it fresh, you know, a set can definitely feel stale after you've played it 30 times in a row. Even on this last tour that we went on this summer, we were starting to feel a little stale mid-tour and we’re afraid to mix it up halfway through. And then three fourths of the way through, we changed it more, just enough for us to feel passionate about it. That’s the other thing, if we're not having fun, it's going to be even harder to get the crowd to engage. So mixing it up enough to really stay fresh has always helped.


Mad: We’re also very lucky with our bandmates. We're genuine friends, we love hanging out with each other, and they're all incredible musicians. We keep each other sharp, hold each other accountable. It's a friendly competition, in a good way, we’ll be like “Damn, they’re crushing it over there, I gotta practice more.” That keeps us on our toes and wanting to be the best that we can for each other, because we have the same common goals to keep this thing running. 

So you just gotta hope your friend group is filled with hyper-talented, dedicated musicians who are willing to tour for 10 years and become a successful band. 

Dillon: People have asked us in interviews for advice on starting a band, and a lot of time we do say to make sure you’re surrounding yourself with like-minded people from the beginning. People you enjoy being around, because that’s huge. When we started the band, it was for fun, we would just jam in Mad’s garage and cover and write music. It was always a hope it would take off, but we did it because we love it and it’s fun. But it was really important that the people we were with were like-minded. In 2020, when we brought on Mitch and Dev, those were friends that we had slowly been making in the music scene in Jacksonville, and they're truly amazing musicians, but also they're homies and they get our sense of humor and we can hang out with them and feel like a family. It's very important to do that at the beginning. 

Let's go into your process a little bit. I love that you shouted out music direction because I think that's huge for a touring band, how to keep things fresh, change up a set and stuff like that. When you guys have a new project, like the release of Burnout Days, how do you introduce songs? How do you guys decide what to include in a set? 


Dillon: The spring was a lot different than this summer.
This spring, we were stubbornly insisting on playing the whole album. Our management people were like… “You sure?” Honestly, that was probably some of the most stubborn we’ve been with the set. But, like Mad said, we’ve been touring for 10 years and it's always so exciting to have new music out that we were like, all right, we'll play the old stuff too, but we are going to make sure we get all 12 songs on Burnout Days. We played it every night, and it was awesome because this summer we were able to be like, all right, maybe this one wasn't working as well live, and this one we have to keep in. We were able to pull the best ones from that tour that we got really good at playing. So this summer, we just really played only songs that we love playing. There were even some deep tracks from our first album, like one called “Hollow” that’s on Shadowglow, which is easily one of our deeper cuts, but one of our favorites to play live. I’m so glad we did it. It’s always balancing what we really enjoy playing and what is going to get people that maybe don’t know every Flipturn song hype. It’s a good mix. We space it out through the show to keep the energy. 

There is an art to that, and you guys clearly are cognizant of it, so that makes sense. How many songs did you guys have to narrow down to get to 12 on the album? 


Dillon: We had 18, maybe 20 ideas. There were a few that were tough to cut, which was different than Shadowglow, our first album, which felt like everything we were writing ended up on the album. This one, we pocketed some songs for down the line, to be put out as an EP or a single. 

Thinking of the politics of that, in a band, is interesting. How does that happen? Does the band collectively decide their favorites, or your team? How does it work? 

Dillon: It's always the band. There's never any outside opinion from management or label. But there is a bit of a democracy that goes on with the band. If it's a three to two vote, that song with three votes is probably going to make it over the other one, which can be a challenge, but it does mean that each idea, it's a fair chance. 

Mad: Things work themselves out in the studio, too. I remember our song “Right?” being one that we weren’t sure about, and then it really came along in the studio, and we all were like, “Thank god we were down to work at this.” That one is my personal favorite, at least right now. So yeah, things work themselves out. 

Do you test them out by playing them live on the floor, or listening track by track? 

Dillon: It depends, like “Burnout Days,” when we wrote it, we were just playing it live and it felt so fucking awesome, that it was obviously gonna make it onto the record. And then when we recorded it, it was a lot harder to initially feel good about it, because we wanted to do it justice. It was because of the difference between how we felt about it live versus how we felt about it at the studio recording. And then some other songs, like “Swim Between Trees,” at first was going to be maybe just an instrumental track, you know? And sometimes it's hard to convince people to put an instrumental track as one of the songs that we're paying for as much as a lyrical track. Our friend suggested we should put lyrics to it. We did, and our producer helped us put it together, like a puzzle, and what felt like an instrumental jam became this great song because of how we built the structure in the studio. That song was guaranteed to make it on the album because of that experience. So it depends on each song.

You guys have been giving some great advice, so I think our audience will really dig that. I'm going to jump into some hopefully more fun questions.
Who has the worst ideas in the band? 

Mad: No one has bad ideas. 


Dillon: We do have this one thing where we're like, there are no bad ideas. There might be some ideas that are brought up and people are, right off the bat, like, “No, that’s not going to work.” But, how we work as a band, we do really, really try every single idea. If we’re there, in a circle with our instruments, it’s like, fuck it, let’s just try it out. We really have to prove that it doesn’t work. If it doesn't work, fine, but I think we really do try every single idea. 

That sounds like a healthy creative process. Who has the best ideas? Or how about more consistently good ideas, since the best is, you know, subjective. 

Mad: I can think of something for everybody. I know that sounds like a cop out, but…

It sounds like you guys should be in a band. 

Dillon:
Each person's idea is really coming from what they put on the album, you know? Like Mitch is usually offering a lot of synth and keys ideas, and Tristan will be offering a lot of guitar ideas and Devin's offering a lot of rhythm ideas… it's that type of system. 

Mad: We even each other out, honestly, in a great way. Devin, our drummer, has a ton of ideas. Which is amazing because his brain's working a mile a minute, especially with percussion things.
But then, Tristan knows how to dial it back and pick the gems. It's super collaborative, so it's hard to say. No one has any bad ideas. 

This is good. I think this is revealing good band dynamics. How about this?
Who causes the most drama within the group? Who's the most emo? 


Dillon: This is so funny because we're about to get into our writing process again. So within a few weeks, we're all going to start meeting up and start working on the next project. And this is really funny because now I'm going to be conscious of this. 

Mad: I was totally thinking the same thing. 

Dillon: I can tell you Mitch causes the least drama. He’s so “Ok, whatever.” Especially in the writing process. No drama. If an idea gets shut down he’s like, “Okay.” 

That was going to be my follow-up, who centers you? 

Dillon: Actually, this is about Madeline. She’s the best at centering us when us four dudes are taking an idea and running too far with it. Madeline will be like, “Hey guys, this is really fun to play, but does this fucking sound good? Are people going to actually enjoy listening to this?” She’s great at that, which is a huge asset to have. We need the reminder that the most intricate parts don’t always sound the best. 

That's good to have.
Do you guys have a go-to band meal? If so, does someone make it? And what is it? 


Dillon: Yeah, we do. We haven't had it in a while, but Mad and Tristan make bomb fucking curry. We've had it almost every writing trip we've gone on. 

Mad: It’s basically just a really dumbed down tikka masala. It's about to be cold out again and I’ll be wanting to make that more. But yeah, I would say that's our thing that we make when we're all together. 


Dillon: It's the most homey meal.

Mad: Our favorite post-show meal is chicken wings. 

What would you guys do as a group to relax? If you have a little time off on tour, do you go to a theater, go to a museum, get out into nature somehow? 

Dillon: I love movie days, when we have an off day. It's band and crew. In the spring, we did all the Shrek movies. We watched some of the Lord of the Rings movies. We watched the Incredibles, which I forgot how good of a movie that actually is. But yeah, I love movie nights with everyone, it’s great to bond with the band and the crew that way. It’s collectively where we chill out the most. 

Mad: Tristan, our guitarist, loves to hike and rock climb, and he will take crew members to a park and do nature stuff. They always come back so dirty and grimy while I was in the air conditioning, but I'm glad they had fun. 


I like the side quest too. Last couple questions. I’d love two recommendations: one non-musical, so something to watch, do, see, place to go, etc., and then one music rec, someone up and coming. 

Dillon: A book that I would recommend that I just flew through – and I found out a lot of people read this in high school, but I didn't and I found it much further down – The Stranger by Albert Camu. 

You're such an existential guy. What's going on here, man? 

Dillon: I know, very existential, but also just even aside from that, he's an incredible writer. A really descriptive writer, and that’s what made it super interesting, too. Sometimes I’ll read Alan Watts or someone else, and they’re great writers, but it’s cool to have an actual story to read rather than someone telling you how to think. My music recommendation is Mercury, this band from Nashville. They opened for us in Charleston recently and they're one of the best bands right now, easily. They’re so under the radar. I'm waiting for them to just absolutely explode, because Maddie is truly one of the best vocalists and her style of playing is fucking awesome. They definitely deserve some more attention. 

Mad: Well, you stole mine. I was going to say Mercury, but another band called Lighthearted is great. They are twin sisters and they sing the most beautiful harmonies ever. I believe they're out of Athens or Atlanta. Don't quote me on that. They're from Georgia. They are super cool. They just sing beautifully and have wonderful harmonies. Something I would recommend is the show Invincible, it's on Amazon Prime. It’s really cool. That was a show I was finishing on tour in the spring. This is random, but there's also a business in Philly called Gagato. It's a cat cafe, and I was just thinking about it randomly, but I love to go to Cat Cafes on my days off to get some animal therapy. If you're in the Philly area, check that one out. 

Love it. Anything you guys want to end on? Shoutouts, advice, wisdom, salient thoughts, cautionary tales, anything. 

Mad: Go Jaguars. 


Dillon: Yeah. I like that, man. 

Well, thank you guys so much for your time, your story is so impactful and gives me hope as an old man who's hoping that this next generation of kids has a chance to have as much fun as you guys are having. So, really appreciate your time. 

Flipturn: Thanks, so much.