Q&A
The Florists BY TOSIN FASEEMO The Florists are a Minneapolis rock band composed of three UMN alums. Luke Michaels plays the bass and synth, Jo Kellen sings and plays the guitar, and Jared Hemming plays the drums. Read on to learn about the band’s unique perspective on live performances.
: How did you all meet? Jo: Jared and I met doing stand-up comedy when we were students at the University of Minnesota. I knew Jared worked at Radio K. I just thought he was very cool, and we ended up winding our way into a jam session. Jared: We knew right away it was going to be a silly band. I met Luke at Radio K. I DJ-ed after him, so we would hang out at the end of his shift. I noticed that he had picked out “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” by Pavement, and I thought that was really rad. We got to talking about Pavement, and we were like, “We’ve gotta jam sometime!” Jo: Then my first time meeting Luke was at the first Florists rehearsal. I had no idea ‘til we were playing music together.
Jared: I also just imagine an alternate universe version of us, like a sitcom version, where we all own a flower shop that’s also called The Florists.
: Like, where you each own your own flower shop? Jared: No, we all own one collectively. And it’s about our hijinks running a flower shop. But then our secret identity is that we’re a rock band.
: On that topic, genre-wise, would you position yourselves as a rock band? Or are you more fluid with genre? Jared: Quack punk? Luke: Definitely a lot of honking.
: How did you decide on your band name? Jo: I had wanted to name a band that since I was 15. I don’t know why. I think it’s funny when bands are named after occupations, or things that feel unintuitive.
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Jared: Queer jock? Jo: Yeah, queer jock. I usually open shows by saying, “we’re a rock band called The Florists.” I’ve just done that out of habit, but I would say we play rock music, but a lot of people find us difficult to categorize. We can be very heavy and noisy
FEB 17 - MAR 2
