Flowerstream‘s laid back, ethereal and bassy debut Procrastination Inspiration is currently getting some airplay on student radio nationwide, hitting a nerve during tertiary exam time. NZ On Air Music are feeling the vibe, and added the track to their NewTracks compilation this May.

What are your names, where are you from and what instruments do you each play?

Huiming Wu comes from Fuzhou, China and plays bass, guitar and guzheng. Maxwell Brown comes from Te Tai Poutini and plays drums, guitar, keys and bass.

Was any high school or other music training especially important to you?

Huiming played bass in a rock band in high school, she loved the sound of bass and enjoyed playing with others. She also learned how to play classical guzheng when she was a kid. That experience is helpful for her experimenting and improvising on guzheng now.

Any other projects that we might know you from?

Maxwell has a solo project called Sans Valeur, plays/played in Stay Foolish, Badcoropration, A Lonely Cow Weeps At Dawn, and he’s also played/performed with Jazmine Mary, Whyfi, Melodownz and a bunch of others.

What’s the background story of how Flowerstream came to be? 

It was pretty natural, we are both musicians. Maxwell had a little extremely low-budget studio (room with a bunch of instruments in it) and we would jam. We went travelling through Asia at the start of 2019 and we wrote and recorded our first song the night before Huiming left for China, basically just so we could make a music video for it while we were there.

How has your music evolved from your beginnings in songwriting to now?

We wrote our first song really quickly in one night, taking turns playing bass and drums and then overlaying stuff on top. After we started playing gigs, we started writing whole songs with just Huiming on bass and Max on drums. Then we got a guzheng which changed everything again. Most of what we do evolves from improvisation.

How and when did you come up with the name for the new project?

When we started playing music together, we came up with Flowerstream because “hui” in Huiming’s name means a type of flower (boat orchid/ “hui lan”) and Maxwell’s name means great stream (“Mack’s spring/well”).

Aside from this release, what’s been the highlight to date?

One of our first gigs was a festival called Festi, put on by some of the people who were behind Chronophonium up north, it was such a cool vibe! The lineup had Phoebe Rings, Lips, Bub, like a whole bunch of super cool bands that we were so stoked to be playing with! And then earlier this year we played at Newtown Festival. That was our first gig in Te Whanganui-a-Tara! So many people all over the street and everywhere and super super cool bands!

What makes Procrastination Inspiration stand out for you as a single?

It just felt more singley than the other songs! You don’t hear the Chinese language or instruments in music here in Aotearoa too often, which has been important to us to have it as a part of our sound. A lot of people feel pressure to westernise everything to be successful in music.
And the song is kind of about being in limbo, which is super relatable after the last few years we’ve all had. This is our first single! And we change the way we sound a lot, so not even sure how well this represents us overall.

What is the story behind Procrastination Inspiration?

The bass line at the start is actually the first bass line Huiming ever wrote! We used it as the basis for the whole song and jammed it/ performed it at a bunch of different places and then recorded it. The lyrics were written between 2020 and 2021 and are talking about how much of a struggle it can be to be productive sometimes. I think the last couple of years really had a profound impact on everyone in that respect.

What’s your favourite moment, musical or lyrical, of the track?

Huiming: My favourite moment is the outro part! The improvisation was fun and Maxwell made the guzheng sound so good and well-balanced with the other instruments. The song wouldn’t be the same without the outro.

Maxwell: The same! We played that outro so many times practising and at gigs, but only with bass and drums. It was so cool hearing it come together into the finished sound.

Who did you record/produce the single with and where?

We did everything ourselves at Hokima Dihar! Maxwell did most of the recording and production. There was a lot of recording and then re-recording, and then completely changing everything, and then re-recording again. The song was mastered by Alex Wharton at Abbey Road, known for his work with artists such as My Bloody Valentine, the Pixies, and Radiohead.

What would you like listeners to take away from this song?

Asian languages and instruments are cool. Procrastination or unproductiveness can bring us inspiration too.

Are there any other musical endeavours you’re working on that we should keep an eye out for? (with this band or others.)

We have been working on our first EP, it should come out this year! And we are quite active on Instagram, we make little performance videos and post them often!

Can you name three other local tunes that would fit well on a playlist alongside your song. 

• Phoebe Rings: Spissky
• Imugi: Somebody Else
• Hanbee: Dice & Checkers

Have any previous NZOA applications not gained funding or been included on NewTracks?

This is our first time applying for NewTracks! Super happy to get on it! Still haven’t applied for funding from NZOA yet, something we are working towards at the moment!

Are there any musical blogs, Youtube channels or podcasts you’re super into?

There’s a super cool blog called Grotesqualizer that’s listed on Hype Machine. They did a great review of our song and playlisted us!