Upon Flaw's most recent return to Tek World, I spoke with Lance Arny and Chris Volz about what the band has been up to since their big record deal with Universal/ Republic. Here is what is going on in the land of FLAW...

LMN: Upcoming concerts... who are you guys touring with?

FLAW:We finish up the Kitty tour in a week and a half, then we take a short break, then we go to Europe for a couple of dates with Mushroomhead and Kitty... then we are doing OzzFest. (The band is pretty pumped about playing with Tool! Look for some really good tours over the summer with these guys...)

LMN: How many copies of Through the Eyes have sold so far?

FLAW: Scanned ... about 135,000. (The CD release date was October 30th, and the sales have been at 7000 units a week for the past several weeks. The band is also in the top 200 on the Billboard charts as well...)

LMN: What are some of your feelings about your success? For instance, coming home now must be a lot different...

FLAW: The trees have gotten a little taller! (Laughs) Really, there is just so much to do. (Chris tells a story about a day of a show in New York where the band had one thing to do after another, and they did not get to eat all day long.) It doesn't really feel any different coming back here, it just feels like another Tek World show, only hopefully this one will be standing room only. There was a festival in Biloxi we played at in front of 16,000 people. I can remember going to things like Lollapalooza and being the fan, and now I was seeing it from the other side, as the performer. It was kind of weird. It's awesome!

LMN: You guys are under the microscope right now with magazines, newspapers, etc... What kinds of added pressures do you face with this?

FLAW: It is like everyone is always watching you. You have to be careful about what you say, how you act. You have to stop drinking that 13th beer before you go up! (Laughs) People are starting to base their opinions on us. There are kids coming up to us asking us about life matters...

LMN: What happened with Ozzfest?

FLAW: The record company was involved with that. It is a dream come true for us to do it! It is the last year for Ozzfest, and we get to be part of it.

LMN: How many copies have sold of the Scorpion King soundtrack?

FLAW: It did 90,000 in this first week! We are getting excited over the 7000 per week sales of our album ad this one does 90,000 in the first week, we were like "what the f**k!" We will get a Gold/Platinum record for that CD if it goes there for having a song on it. It will go right over my bed! (Laughs)

LMN: What is your favorite song of yours to perform?

FLAW: I like playing "Amendment." Live it would have to be "Amendment" or "Scheme."

LMN: What about your favorite bands to play with?

FLAW: Sevendust, by far. It was a lot of fun playing with the guys from Cold and we are still good friends with them, but just the vibe of the mixture between our music [w/ Sevendust], they have worked really hard, and they respect us. They came up and say "hi" to us the first day of the tour.

LMN: On the subject of Jay, what can be said?

FLAW: The official release is that he was fired for personal and musical differences. He was becoming too volatile for the band and beginning to breakdown the infrastructure. Honestly, without going into detail, everything came to a head, there was violence, and we are not going to stand for that anymore. So, he was ejected like he was sitting in the passenger seat of James Bonds' car.

LMN: What about now? Is FLAW going to be a 4-piece band?

FLAW: We have played three shows since then, and they keep getting better and better. If we feel that things are not full and thick enough for Ozzfest, we will hire a musician then for that. We don't want to add somebody in the band actually. It is kind of like Kitty is doing right now with that guy Jeff. He is not really an official member of the band, he is just a paid musician that tours with them.

LMN: What are you going to compensate for the guitar loss?

FLAW: I am running bi-amped right now with two different distortion sounds together and changing them up. I'll use one and when it gets to a heavy part, I'll kick the other one in. It's four cabinets running, and it is pretty thick. It is not two guitar players, but it is as close as you are going to get without running ADAT, and we are not running ADAT. That`s cheesy.

LMN: What do you see in your future, what is coming up soon? After Ozzfest?

FLAW: They label thinks there is one more single, then we will tour through it. After that, we will start working on the second album. We already have a lot of ideas for it. Locked in the studio for two weeks and we could have a whole other album busted out. Lance and Chris also have a lot of material that we never got to work with because they had to learn all of our old stuff. The second album is going to have a lot of texture to it, but it is going to be heavy too. We got to keep the heaviness, keep the rawness, but keep the texture too.

LMN: Closing comments, what do you want people to know?

FLAW: We want people to know that we did not lose a single step with Jay leaving the band. I want people to remember him back in the Toy Tiger days, and know that is why he is not in the band anymore. We are still FLAW, we are still kicking a**, and we haven't missed a beat. It is going to take a lot more than that to bring us down... And now we all smoke weed! (Laughs)

The end of our interview brought up many points about the Louisville-native band that have been stirring about in the rumor pool for quite sometime now. Most recently, the firing of guitarist Jason Daunt for irreconcilable differences was obviously the hot topic. The band is pushing on strongly and showed a lot of heart at their performance at Tek World that night. It was a packed house, and the crowd was seemingly impressed with Lance's coverage on guitar. I noticed differences in the sound, but only because of hearing the band so many times before. I do not think it will have an impact on their success, it is just as the band said, "an adjustment period."

The band is off to Ozzfest this summer, and I will try to bring you coverage on that, as well as an update on the success of their album Through the Eyes, and the soundtrack to The Scorpion King, which features their hit, "Only the Strong."

Another band to check out along the way is Century Media recording artists, Skinlab. They are also on the tour with Flaw and Kitty. They are a heavy outfit out of the Bay area that have been together since 1995. They are to be touring with Phil Anselmo's tour from Pantera's new band, Super Joint Ritual, starting June 6 in Atlanta, GA at Masquerade. They are on the cover of Zero Magazine this month, and their new album, ReVoltingRoom, hits stores on May 28. Visit them at www.skinlab1.com. They rock!

A big thanks to FLAW and Scott Frazier for taking time to chat with me this month, letting us know what is happening in their world right now, and clarifying some of the rumors about the band. Good luck to them on the road, and I will hopefully see them soon at Ozzfest. They are definitely a success story for the Louisville music scene.

Email me at JJKSLACKER@cs.com... Support local music. (Even if they get famous!)