Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Jonah Bartels - Drums, Vocals

David Di Salvo - Lead Guitar, Vocals

Dawson Fry - Bass, Vocals

Linden Jackson - Lead Vocals, Guitar

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to One Flew West? How long has the band been around?

Jonah, David, and Linden have been playing together since 2010. Our high school band was called Continuum and never amounted to much. We formed One Flew West in 2014, and that sort of spearheaded the music into what we play today. 

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Since becoming One Flew West in 2014, we like the name and plan to keep it for good. The band name is a reference to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," one of our favorite books and films. The word “west” also acts an homage to the region that we’re from. Native Coloradans are a very proud bunch, so we like having an ode to that.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Linden writes all of the lyrics and a good portion of the music, but we all collaborate on the music as a whole. Linden writes songs based on whatever he's feeling and just lets whatever comes out happen.  He doesn't write about a specific topic extensively, and the song topics have a pretty broad range. It’s kind of cool to see what each release ends up being about. They coincidentally all kind of end up having a consistent theme across all of the different songs, but it never happens on purpose. 

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Frank Turner has always been an enormous influence on us, and his music inspires us constantly. In addition to that, Social Distortion and Weezer played a big role in the shaping of this new EP. It definitely has more of an edge to it than our past releases.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

All of us had our own personal inspirations to start a band, but there wasn't really one specific concert or artist that made it happen. Starting the band just grew out of the need to play music with other people, and to experience music with your friends.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, etc …

Along with some stretching and physical warm-ups, we like to warm up our voices by singing "The Longest Time" by Billy Joel in 4-part harmony.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Back in 2015, we got the opportunity to play KTCL 93.3's (the major alt radio station in Colorado) Keggs and Eggs concert. We opened for The Dirty Heads, 3OH!3, and Brick+Mortar. It was a great experience for us, and it opened a lot of doors for us in the years following. The show was in the morning, and we had to play at 7 am, which sounds like a bad time slot, but this event is one of the biggest St. Patty’s Day parties in the city and the place was packed wall-to-wall with people ready to party bright and early. We finished our sound check the night before at about 1 am, and had to wake up at 4 am to be ready for the show. None of us got any sleep at all, but even with the sleep deprivation, it was one of the most fun shows we’ve ever played.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Frank Turner, Weezer, Social Distortion, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Plain White T's, Wham!, The Captain and Tennille, the Bee Gees, GG Allin. The list goes on and on. Obviously, some of our favorite bands make the list because it would just be an absolute honor to play with them for us personally, but we played a one-off with Plain White T’s one time and they were just some of the nicest, most humble dudes we’ve ever hung out with. So it’d be pretty awesome to hit the road with them someday. And it’s a no-brainer that The Captain and Tennille would be on this list. That’s a match made in heaven.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Dawson is able to listen to an entire 311 album without turning it off. Also, black licorice tastes like shit.