* En anglais uniquement
Hailing from Washington, D.C.,
Flasher are a band who specialize in sparkling indie pop that's tuneful and smart, with just enough melodic turns and pointed lyrical observations to make their songs challenging without robbing them of accessibility. On their debut album, 2018's
Constant Image, they were a trio with plenty of rough energy to go along with their clever tunes. After fate put the band on hold for several years, they returned as a duo for 2022's
Love Is Yours, a more polished effort with a post-punk feel that revealed their skills as songwriters had only grown during their time off.
Flasher was formed in 2015 by bassist
Daniel Saperstein and drummer
Emma Baker, longtime friends who played in a band called Sad Bones while in high school. Late in the band's run, Sad Bones played a show with a group featuring guitarist
Taylor Mulitz, and the three musicians kept in touch. Over the next several years, academic and professional aspirations took all three outside Washington, D.C., and they all played in a variety of projects.
Baker was a member of
Big Hush,
Saperstein worked with a group called Trouble (not the doom metal pioneers), and
Mulitz earned popularity as a member of the group
Priests and co-founder of the indie label Sister Polygon Records. In 2013,
Baker and
Mulitz started a punk band, Young Trynas, and in time
Saperstein also signed on, and in 2015, they adopted a new name and outlook as
Flasher. They released a self-titled debut EP through Sister Polygon in 2016 which earned good reviews and helped make them a band to watch in D.C. Initially,
Mulitz divided his time between
Priests and
Flasher, but when
Flasher signed a deal with Domino Records, he quit
Priests to make
Flasher his priority project.
Domino issued
Flasher's first full-length album,
Constant Image, in 2018, and the band set off on tour to support the release, which included a number of dates opening for
the Breeders. However, the pressures of life on the road didn't agree with
Saperstein, and he resigned from the group in 2019.
Baker and
Mulitz opted to continue, and they each took on additional instrumental roles in
Flasher, with
Baker adding guitar and bass parts and vocals as well as drumming, while also expanding their sonic influences to include post-punk and art rock accents. In 2020, they went into the studio with producer
Owen Wuerker to begin work on their second LP, but by the time it was finished, the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to tour, and they chose to postpone the release of the album. While they waited,
Mulitz moved to the West Coast, where he hoped to attend business school and landed a job with a marketing firm.
Mulitz chose to leave his day job and make music his primary career in time for Domino to finally bring out
Love Is Yours in June 2022. Ready to play for their fans again, a new touring edition of
Flasher hit the road, with
Baker and
Mulitz joined by producer
Wuerker on guitar, bass, and samples, and
Shawn Durham on drums and guitar. ~ Mark Deming