Quick Hit Band Interview: The Smoking Flowers

The Smoking Flowers at The Hotel Cafe

Q&A time with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? We would say that our sound is a melting pot of our life musical influences. Thus when you experience The Smoking Flowers live you might feel we are all over the place genre-wise. A little bit punk, a little bit country, a little bit rock, a little bit bluesy, a little bit folky. Put that and our two voices in a musical salad bowl and mix it with our 20 year history of living together and playing together and you get a sound which only that scenario can produce.

How do you believe the band has progressed over time? TSF started off as a side project from our separate rock bands and we decided to do something totally different... a “folk” record. We quickly realized we had something special together. Over the evolution of the 6 years performing together, the folk quickly morphed back into what we really loved the most… rock n roll. Originally we played with a full band, but when we went on the road we decided it would be best to tour as a two piece. After that experience with Kim on drums, we couldn’t look back.

The Smoking Flowers at The Hotel Cafe

I got an invite to catch The Smoking Flowers at The Hotel Cafe. This band hails from Nashville and revolves around married couple Kim and Scott Collins.

Side topic: I'm pretty sure I've never seen this before at any venue . . . while The Smoking Flowers was setting up, a random individual got up on stage. I figured the person was part of the band. This individual lifted up the keyboard cover and started to play. Nothing loud. It looked to me like the person was just fiddling around before getting reading for the set. But no, a staff member of Hotel Cafe had a quick discussion with the person and off the person went. No big confrontation, but hysterical.

The Smoking Flowers set brought the Nashville sound to The Hotel Cafe with some rocking good sounds. This band had me thinking of another two piece band, Crushed Out. Perhaps the main driver of this comparison is the fact that Kim Collins and Moselle Spiller of Crushed Out steal the show during their sets. Kim Collins went from drums to accordion to tambourine to an awesome solo all within a span of 45 minutes. And all this while proudly wearing some red high heels.

As for Scott: sometimes I was thinking, you've got to do more than just play the guitar. Help carry the load, bring out a trombone. Nah, he carried the load with some awesome guitar play filled with energetic riffs.

It was an extraordinary fun night out.