Interview — It’s a Cold World with The Flatliners

Cold World, the latest record from Canadian punk mainstays The Flatliners, was unveiled on May 8 via their new label Equal Vision Records/Civilians

This marks the band’s seventh studio album and their first full-length since 2022’s New Ruin. After twenty-four years of grit, tour vans, and relentless live shows, the band is operating at a creative peak that most veterans only dream of (and if you’re doing the math on that "24-year" milestone, stay tuned—next year is going to be a big one).

We spoke to Chris back in May, so bare with us while we backtrack a little here

Who are we speaking with today, and where in the world do we find you as you celebrate this release?

Hey, this is Chris Cresswell. I sing and play guitar in The Flatliners. I’m currently enjoying a brief reprieve at home between US legs of the Cold World tour.

Cold World is out everywhere now. Given that this is your first full-length since 2022, what’s the internal energy like within the band right now? What was the anticipation like this time around?

The response to this record has been so overwhelmingly positive. Between that powerful reaction and the whole lead up to this one, it’s all a bit hard to put into words to properly capture the exact feelings. We’re twenty-four years deep, with our seventh record having just been released, and people are not only still riding with us every mile along the way, but it almost feels as though our fans are looking forward to what musical twists and turns we might throw their way with new music. We’ve been truly liberated as musicians and as a band at the hands of our fans, and it feels incredible. We get to do what we want, and have people around the world turn up the volume.

There’s a hint that the 25th anniversary next year will be significant. How much of the creative energy on Cold World was fueled by the realization that you are entering a quarter-century of being a band?

We rarely look back as a band, but the big milestones are hard to gloss over. We’re still the same four friends in this thing that we started back in 2002, so the opportunity to keep making music together, travel together, and continue to build our collective childhood dream into more and more of a reality all the time is an absolute gift. It’s a gift that you work very hard at, haha, but a gift nonetheless. 

Thematically, ‘Cold World’ as an album is a lot about friendship at the end of the world. When we were younger and just starting out, I would write lyrics about how I perceived the world around me as a teenager (shocker that everything was “bad” and “boring”, haha), and as the band began to pick up steam and travel more, the songs started to shift more into themes of distance, sacrifice, unity and wonder - kind of all at once. Those years of constant touring in our 20’s were magic, but we’re older now and everyone has a bit of a life outside this band. So the band is something we can always come back to; like a homecoming for each other as well. And with that shift lately, I’ve found that a lot of the lyrics on ‘Cold World’ come from a place where we’re admitting to anyone who listens to these songs that we’re adults now, and the world can be a dark place, so we’re responsible for our corner. Let’s talk about the dark stuff, let’s shine a light there, and let’s use that energy to create some positive moments and share this music together.

When you look back at the band that released its first record over two decades ago, what is the one thing about your collective "vision" that hasn't changed, even as the world around you has crumbled?

We always want to write the song that we want to hear, and one that we haven’t heard yet. If we believe in it, then it will be fleshed out and brought to the people. If after all that, they believe in it too? That’s a bonus.

The lead singles, “Good, You?” and “Inner Peace,” deal with grief and the raw nerves of a failing world. Is songwriting a way of "locking out the decay," or is it an attempt to find beauty within it?

It’s a bit of both really. There’s a lot of exploration of the world around us when we write these songs, and if that world around us feels like its falling apart, then that is absolutely represented in the music. So much of what we’ve been writing about for ‘Cold World’ - and ‘New Ruin’ before it - is very much in that vein. These songs are products of their environment, if that makes sense, and the current environment is… challenging for humanity to say the least.  There’s always a light at the end of a dark tunnel we may put forward in our music though, so that’s maybe the more beautiful part. We’re not singing about the darkness to evoke more darkness. We’re looking for hope.

You’ve been a band since you were fourteen. How has your "listening palette" evolved from the skate-punk and ska of Destroy to Create to the more complex, atmospheric layers of Cold World

There is just so much music out there, it feels like a crime to close your door or any of it. Over the years, all of our listening habits have morphed over and over again, and it feels like everyone in the band is always falling in love with new stuff and rediscovering the classics from our younger days that got us into this whole life in the first place. I tend to hyper-focus on albums for a week or two at a time, digging into production details, sounds, and just the overall feeling that record can bring to the table. Then, like a musical timer dings and I shift to another album for a similar process. I’m not sure why that is, but I rarely get bored in life in general - and almost never do with music - so I think its safe to say that the whole band is always learning from having music always playing in our lives. 

With a move to Equal Vision Records, you've talked about carving out a space where credit is shared equally and stability is the reward. How has the definition of "success" changed for The Flatliners since the early days on Fat Wreck Chords?

That definition has largely stayed the same honestly. We don’t have any delusions of grandeur, and really just appreciate people listening to our music and the people at the labels who work hard so we can get it out there to people. Signing to Fat at the age of 19 was an incredible thing for us as fans of all that label had done at that point, and really was a special thing to be a part of. And we will always be a Fat band in spirit. We’re bound by the memories and records we made with that amazing group of people.

As things changed behind the scenes with the label in the last year, we felt like it was a good time to explore something new. I had a new friendship with Equal Vision through the Hot Water Music records I’ve been able to be a part of in recent years and have really enjoyed working with those folks there. It just felt like the logical move in an effort to keep building this thing we’ve been doing since we were kids, with people who care about our music and are down to support the overall vision. By our measure of success, we’re on our seventh victory lap with this new record, haha.

You just wrapped touring with legends like Signals Midwest and long-time peers A Wilhelm Scream. How does the energy in the van change when you’re touring with bands you’ve known for over a decade versus taking out a brand-new act?

What a rip it was. It’s always special getting to do our thing alongside our brothers in A Wilhelm Scream. No one can do what they do, and to be afforded the opportunity to stack up so many memories with those guys around the world over the years is really something. Teaming up with Signals was a long time coming. We’ve been buds for years but had never really done a proper tour together, so that felt great. What a god damn band.

You’ve always been champions of the Toronto scene. Who are some local "creatives"—whether they are bands, visual artists, or even your favorite coffee roasters back home—that you think are doing something truly revolutionary right now?

Some local recs:

Band - Burner (@burner.to)

Photography - Riley Taylor (@larvalungs)

Visual Arts - David Alban Lee (@slopgoon)

Clothing / Family Fun - Crywolf (@crywolfclothing)

Best Damn Restaurant in Town - Sneaky Dees (@thesneakydees)

You’ve mentioned the influence of the raw, passionate sound of bands like Hot Water Music and Dillinger Four in the past. Are there newer bands on the scene that are finding their way into your heavy rotation lately?

We just finished a tour in California with our friends’ band Strangelight, who are killer. The energy of their songs just cuts like a knife. I’ve really been digging what Destiny Bond’s been up to for a minute now as well. Both bands are definitely worth checking out.

If not, what are you all listening to on or off the road, the records getting maximum rotation in your ears?

Aside from music, I’ve been reading lots of rock n roll bios and listening to lots of basketball podcasts. I am a creature of simple habits, haha.

Thanks for chatting, congrats on the new record!

Thank you!