Kansas indie rockers Flooding are becoming inescapable

Flooding at 7th Heaven, October 2021. // Photo by Aaron Rhodes

Between December 2019 and February 2021, Lawrence singer-songwriter Rose Brown released four EPs and one single under the name Window Seat. By the beginning of 2021 and inspired by bands ranging from Los Angeles garage rockers Cherry Glazerr to Pittsburgh metalcore giants Code Orange, Brown says she was itching to take a break from solo work and start a rock band.

Flooding sounds almost nothing like either of those bands. What they do have in common is an exceptional level of musicianship. Brown communicated her desire to start a band to her partner, Cole Billings, who signed on as bassist after a history of singing and playing guitar. Billings then asked Zach Cunningham to join in—the drummer from his band Guest Service. Just like that, Flooding came to life.

The band quickly got to jamming, even before a name was chosen. Brown, who is studying psychology at the University Of Kansas, was playing with a random word generator online when “flooding” popped up. She remembered the term from her classes, which was used to describe part of a therapy process when a subject is exposed to their phobia at maximum intensity in order to lessen their fear of it.

Throughout the first half of 2021, the band would reconvene every week. As soon as they felt a song was done, they’d record it themselves in Cunningham’s garage in Gardner, Kansas.

“We just wanted to get it down fast and not have to think about it a whole bunch, because that just kinda gunks up the process,” Billings says. So after they had a demo of each song, they simply made their way back through the tracklist and tried to make each one sound its best.

During our Zoom call, we asked if they ever thought to record at a professional studio or work with a producer other than Cunningham. They quickly replied in unison—no. “I don’t think I ever wanna do that as long as we have the capacity to do it ourselves,” Billings says.

“I’ve never recorded with a professional person before,” Brown adds. “I’m the type of person who, if recording with a professional guy, he’d be like, ‘This is what you’re gonna do,’ and I’d be like, ‘Okay,’ and I’d be too scared to have him make any changes to it.”

Flooding is thankful for their autonomy as a band.

Something that made the group stand out among their peers was the fact that they released a quality full-length album right out of the gate. “We had enough songs written,” Billings says. “It was kinda just like, why not do a full album? I feel like that’s just more of a feat.”

The album’s nine songs contain a unique and complementary mix of sounds, drawing bits and pieces from indie rock, space rock, post-rock, and slowcore. There are measured builds, confident grooves, clever shifts in momentum, and apocalyptic blasts and crashes. Brown whispers; Billings occasionally screams. The songs can be compared to carefully built Rube Goldberg machines.

Flooding at 22/32, December 2021. // Photo by Aaron Rhodes

Billings gives a fair amount of the credit to Brown. “So, Rose is like the mastermind, obviously,” he says with a smile. “She’s got the big brain.”

He continues on about Cunningham—“He’s got the beats. He’s got the pots and pans. He’s got the recording technique down. He’s got the long hair,” says Billings.

Brown and Cunningham both agree that each member’s contributions were integral to the success of the first album and that they all seemed to arrive on the same stylistic page pretty quickly.

While indie rock is a wide-ranging term and therefore timeless, the other sub-genres noted above saw their respective peaks in popularity between 10 and 25 years ago. Nevertheless, fans of all ages have been enraptured by Flooding since the release of their album last August. They’ve shared bills with hardcore punk bands, hip-hop acts, techno/house DJs, and rock bands a bit more adjacent to their own sound.

Local pioneer bands that were active in the scenes have even started to reach out. Flooding has played two shows with The String & Return—Kansas City’s reunited slowcore favorites that are preparing to release their first new full-length since 2005. Flooding is also set to play with recently reunited grunge-pop heroes, Frogpond, at The Bottleneck in March.

Veteran interest in Flooding was predictable, but what Brown says she didn’t expect was the number of younger fans they’ve made. “Going into writing the album, I didn’t think this would really go anywhere I just really wanted to create it because this was the music I wanted to hear. But it’s surprising to have people from all age groups really enjoy it,” says Brown.

Initially released online as well as a limited edition CD by Community Gym—a DIY label run by the band—the album is now receiving a cassette release by Kansas City indie label Manor Records, which is soon set to open its own non-profit and multifunctional flagship space in KCK.

Looking ahead, the band will be recording a sophomore release sometime next year, followed by a tour in the coming months. Give the current album a listen. We think you’ll agree there are few better musical ambassadors for the Sunflower State.

Flooding’s cassette release show takes place this Saturday, February 19, 2022 at 8 P.M. at Farewell (6515 Stadium Dr., Kansas City, MO). The gig is all ages and includes openers OK O’Clock and Rosé Perez.