Flash Mountain Flood Discusses "1936", Fiske Planetarium
March Featured Artist reflects on past to capture present
By Eric Frank
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
As they prepare for another high-demand performance at the Fiske Planetarium on the campus of CU Boulder this March 24th, Flash Mountain Flood has released a video to "1936", a peaceful if not acquiescent number about, well... death.
A peaceful and acquiescent song about death? Well, there's a story behind the song - one that rhythm guitarist and composer Wes Rather was happy to share with us.
"I grew up in Louisville [Colorado] which is an old mining town," says Rather. "All my life my mom told me my great grandad and my grandad worked in the Monarch Mine. I spent a lot of time in Old Town where one of my childhood friends lived [and] his dad always told us this story that the entrance to his basement used to be the entrance to the old Monarch Mine. He said that Joe the miner still haunted his house...".
One night back in 1936, there was a huge explosion that was quite devastating. As the story goes, after sorting through the rubble down in the mine shaft, a set of footprints was found that appeared to be running but then slowed, then suddenly stopped and disappeared. Apparently, a miner was trapped in the mineshaft while working the graveyard shift when he heard the explosion and tried to run only to realize that there was no way out. Accepting this fate, Joe the miner sat down to die. So Rather "wrote a song about that with my lyricist Matt Granzow. I'm pretty happy with what it's turned into."
Musically, "1936" is based on traditional folk-style songs and became an ode to a miner's work song. Before the days of iPods and streaming, workers had to provide their own music to pass the time. With incidents like the infamous Monarch Mine explosion, some songs became buried beneath the rubble of time. With "1936", Flash Mountain Flood has done an admirable job to recreate that spirit.
Catch FMF at the Fiske Planetarium on Friday, March 24th at CU Boulder's campus. The last show garnered so much attention that the band is back by popular demand. Enjoy blissful jams beneath the stars along with lights, lasers, 8k graphic visualizations and deep flight into the universe using Fiske's peerless projection and live flight team. Check out the official Facebook event page to the show for more information.
Enjoy "1936" below.