Indie hip-hop heroes Flobots fight their way to the top

The six-piece Denver conglomerate Flobots create a mishmash of funky jam-band fare, hip-hop and classical music aimed at empowering the masses.

Seem like a lofty goal? ey’re already on their way to the big leagues. Consider this: “Handlebars,” the band’s first single from their major label debut Fight With Tools (Universal Republic), climbed Billboard’s Modern Rock charts to No. —in three weeks. We caught up with Flobots co-founder Jonny5.

Flobots began as a side project. When did you decide to put it front and center? [Co-founder] Brer Rabbit and I were working with our viola player Mackenzie Roberts, and a friend suggested we put together a live band behind that. And that friend was Andy Rok, who is on guitar. We tried that out for a Rock the Vote show. at’s when the live incarnation of Flobots was born: January 2005. Think at that show, the audience’s response to the live band… we decided we’re going to do this.

What were the writing sessions like for Fight With Tools?

Some songs began with a concept, then a bassline, then a viola lick and the lyrics. Others began with the lyrics and everything filled in around that. We’ve always been committed to the six of us all contributing equally to the songwriting, and because of that we had to rediscover the process for every song.

“Handlebars” illustrates how easy it is to abuse power. Flobots went from a grassroots band to signing with a major label. Any sleepless nights over what this means in terms of maintaining your original vibe? No, because we know what we’re in it for. We’re creating a non-profit organization [flobots.org] that will help implement a lot of the ideas that we’ve had around using music to get people engaged in community projects. We’re drawing on the relationships that we’ve had during this process. We keep each other in check; we keep in conversation with the people we’ve known throughout. I think there’s always temptation or risk, but we’re just excited to be doing everything we’ve been doing on a larger scale.

In January, a Denver radio station put you in regular rotation. A few weeks later, your album began outselling national acts at local record stores. What does that say about the consumers? People are hungry for something new. If you take a risk, people will reward you for it. On the message side, people want to have some kind of a message in the music. ey don’t want to be preached to or beat over the head, but I think people do want some content. Musically, I think people like to see new combinations. We sometimes confuse people because we don’t fit neatly into any chart, but I don’t think actual music fans care about that.