By The Mancunian duo of twin brothers George and Henry Flint already have plenty going for them on the chemistry front. Identical siblings who are on the same page musically? The songs that are coming from their brains are obviously going to be strong. But for most of their career, working behind the scenes, they’ve lent their pop songcraft to many stars, including Jean Dawson, Deb Never, Melanie Martinez, and Lil Yachty. Their most recognized collaboration is probably with Justice, when they lent their voices to the French electro vanguards’ hook-driven “Mannequin Love.” Yet when the brothers step back into the spotlight as the Flints, they don’t funnel their art into anyone—it’s all them.
Collaboration unsurprisingly plays a huge role in their process. In the following interview, they mention their love for working with other artists, but also reiterate how natural collaboration is when it’s just the two of them in a room. With this context, JEWEL OF THE NORTH becomes more than their fifth EP of their expansive and vibrant blend of neo-psychedelia, indie rock, and dream pop—it’s another enthusiastic display of making music for themselves and on their own terms.
JEWEL OF THE NORTH is the latest EP following your renewed interest in making music for yourselves after lockdown. How does this one differ from the EPs that came before?
The Flints: We’d moved back to our hometown in Manchester when making this record, back to where it all started for us. So the environment around us definitely had an impact. In a way, it feels like we’re gradually becoming a bit less maximalist with the music. Because we self-produce everything, it becomes very easy to add unnecessary parts and layers to the music. So I think we’re just trying to focus on every sound in the music having a purpose. Maybe people can hear that difference?
What catalyzed the creation of JEWEL OF THE NORTH? Did you keep on recording after your last one, 21ST CENTURY LOVE? Do you have a lot of songs on hand?
TF: Although we have a lot of songs in the bag, we didn’t really use any of those for this EP (for our sins). We started from scratch because we wanted to do something new that represented our moving back to Manchester and signified this fresh chapter.
What’s the arc of this EP and its themes? There seems to be a lot of heightened emotion across some of the songs, like the one-two punch of “Tomorrow’s Yesterday” and “The Cold of You.” Yet on the lullabying title track “Jewel of the North,” the EP concludes in quieter, reflective territory.
TF: JEWEL OF THE NORTH is meant to represent finally finding your way back home. Groundedness, resolve, and the EP were all our journey to getting there. Our writing style can be quite scatterbrained. We work quickly between ideas, throwing everything at them early on, then returning a few days later with a fresh perspective. With that way of working, a lot of songs can go through many different forms before we hit what we feel is the final feeling of the track. “Jewel of the North” went that way—it was originally quite high-energy, but something didn’t feel quite right. I guess it was one of the last tracks we worked on for the EP, so it made sense to strip it back and keep it simpler once we knew how it sat with the other tracks on the record.
You’ve often produced for other artists, but how has it felt creating music for yourselves instead? How do you go about navigating the two modes of working with a collaborator and as familiar brothers already knowing each other’s tastes?
TF: We love working with other artists; you can learn so much from another musician’s ways of working, mindset, and priorities in the creative process (and beyond the music, too). Maybe we’re lucky because the idea of collaboration comes super naturally to us, being twins and everything. But when we work together, certain psychological aspects that would be in play when working with others aren’t involved when it’s just the two of us in a room. When you’re writing with someone else for their project, the roles can be different each time—maybe they need perspective on lyrics, maybe it’s more production-leaning—but when it’s just us, the routes and possibilities are endless.
What has collaborating with different artists, some of whom are in very different genres, taught you that you’ve embraced in your own music?
TF: As long as you’re all aligned in the feeling you’re chasing when you’re making a song, I don’t think genre differences matter. Take “Mannequin Love” for example: When we were with the Justice guys writing it, the fact that the instrumentation was electronic didn’t change the way we approached the song—there was so much in the chords and the way they made you feel. It all came super easy. That said, the more genres we work in, the more tempted we are to push boundaries in our own songs—certain synths, chords, melody shapes—it all circles back to a love of being creative and pushing yourself with every song you make.
You’re both from Manchester, and perhaps that’d naturally lead to some nods to the Madchester sound, but was that deliberate this time? Do you two even hear it? Personally, the bouncy bassline at the forefront of “Tomorrow’s Yesterday” and the jangly riffs in “The Time is Now” particularly remind me of that sound.
TF: I don’t think we’d describe it as deliberate. We never properly “lived” that era. In the studio we would sometimes say, “Something needs to feel more ‘Manchester’,” but that, to us, wasn’t necessarily doing some Johnny Marr-esque riffing. We loved the feeling of “The Time is Now,” when we came up with that bassline. Adding the vocal gave it a weird familiarity where we were convinced we’d ripped off something. It’s like a feeling of false nostalgia for a time we never properly lived through. Looking back, we do hear it, but to us, the Manchesteriness comes from more than those individual elements.
When you write songs, do you start with a clear idea of what you want to capture, or do you go with the flow and see what happens?
TF: It honestly can be anything. We have a joint note on our phones with over 500 song titles or lyrics—things that can springboard a 16-bar loop to a song, or the other way around when we write to a title and let the music itself capture the feeling of that. Other times it can be a new guitar or a new piece of gear which we won’t be able to put down. We were in LA recently and came back with two new acoustic guitars (shoutout to Norman’s Rare Guitars) which are scattered across “Jewel of the North.”
How has it felt now that you’ve gotten a firmer grip on your sound? In what ways do you anticipate your artistry evolving? Also on that note, what comes next for the Flints?
TF: I think you’re right in that we definitely feel as if we’re getting closer to what “the Flints Sound” is … Originally it was the blend of our voices, the harmonies, and how they work together, and now it’s evolved further to particular instrumentation, production choices … The only way to know is to keep going. We always want to play more shows in front of people, visit different cities with our music, and collaborate with more artists we love. Release-wise, seeing as JEWEL OF THE NORTH is our fifth EP, maybe we think it’s time for the first album?!
JEWEL OF THE NORTH is available on all streaming platforms. You can follow the Flints for updates over on Instagram!
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