Duo embraces love of music
Easton Workman, left, and Ryan Oldham comprise Flora’s Embrace. Photos submitted
By Tom Victoria
Ryan Oldham and Easton Workman are embracing their passion for song. The duo makes music.
The 19-year-olds comprise the band Flora’s Embrace. Singer Ryan also plays piano and guitar. Easton is the drummer.
Ryan described their style.
“On the surface, it's alternative music,” he said. “But really, we go into mixing different genres of music and putting it all in one concise thing. We take inspirations from a lot of different artists and different sounds. And then we all bring it back to what our sound is, and we create.”
Ryan cited the band’s influences.
“Some of our inspirations are Twenty One Pilots and Tame Impala and Djo,” he said. “But apart from a couple big artists like that, we really do try to listen to a different variety. I listen to some Billie Eilish sometimes and he listens to different kinds of music, too. Really taking different aspects of music and then bringing it together.”
Easton added particular tunes stand out to them as well.
“And we take inspiration from a lot of individual songs to not always just artists,” he said. “We can like a song that's a completely different style than what we're used to and we can take inspiration from that.”
The duo has a new album titled Sense The Petrichor debuting August 22.
“Out of its 12 songs, it has four singles that will be released before the whole album is released throughout the rest of summer,” Ryan said. “Currently, we have the first song, Always In Front Of Me, released on all streaming platforms with its music video on our YouTube channel.”
He said the song stands out.
“We're really excited about that one,” Ryan said. “We go in a different style on it, like a rock style. But on this upcoming album we're releasing, every different song has a different vibe. In these upcoming weeks and months, we'll have more singles release where you understand more the bigger picture of everything. And then when our album releases in August, then I think it'll be really cool to see. I'm really excited about it.”
The second tune, Square One, and the accompanying music video were released June 13.
Ryan explained the song’s meaning.
“Square One is really about making promises to yourself that aren't always easy,” he said. “It feels easy to lose track of where you are or what you think you should be doing. Writing this song felt like the last push and using the final bit of gas left in the tank with the finish line barely in sight. When pursuing your dreams, sometimes moving forward can feel like a drag and giving up can feel tempting. But eventually, you catch that second wind. For the first time in a while, you believe you’ll make it. Square One really felt like that second wind that we needed and encapsulates that feeling perfectly.”
The band’s latest single is Bulletproof, which debuted July 11.
“For Bulletproof, we knew it was time to take a different approach,” Ryan said. “Shifting our perspective brought a new clarity to the message we were trying to convey. Pairing that with the track’s high-energy, non-stop pace felt like being a guide to someone when they feel like they don’t know where they are.”
Flora’s Embrace’s next release will be The Lakeshore on August 8.
“Leaving your space of comfort feels so hard, and can be scary if you know you’ll be forced to leave at some point,” Ryan said. “This one really dives into the theming of the record and accurately shows what it feels to sense the petrichor. The Lakeshore is evacuating your space, not looking back, and it's looking where you should be.”
Ryan said the album title reflects the theme unifying the songs.
“Throughout the album, songs reference storms that represent unwanted change,” he said. “It's like the feeling of enjoying the sun outside and dark clouds start flooding the sky and quickly ruin the day. This album really encapsulates the feelings of being inside a storm and learning that it's not so bad. Petrichor is a distinct smell that the earth gives off when it rains for the first time in a long time. It is a very distinct smell to us because we experienced it often growing up in Florida. Sense The Petrichor is sensing that it's about to storm and knowing things are about to change.”
The duo released their first album last May. Ryan explained the differences between the two albums.
“One of my biggest things with this upcoming album, I feel like it's more adventurous in a way,” he said. “On the first one, we felt a little grounded because we wanted to just get our name out there, just release something. We're really very proud of that album and everything in it. But with this one, we felt like we could broaden our reach more with the different sounds and styles we're going for. And I really think it worked out in a great way.”
Easton cited another distinction between the two collections.
“On the last album, it was a lot about talking about certain concepts and feelings and ideas,” he said. “On this new one, it's more about attacking them and walking through them instead of talking about them.”
Ryan said their lives inspire their music.
“It's just different feelings evoked from our lives and what things are happening to us and then we can turn around and relate it to,” he said. “Maybe you could say it at face value, but in a lot of our songs, you can also twist it and come up with different interpretation on things that happen and make it relatable to other people in other scenarios. That's really a lot of how the concepts of songs like the lyrics and everything turn out.”
Easton used an analogy.
“We like to use the term time capsule in a lot of our songs,” he said. “It could be a single thing that happens a single day and that can create a whole song, and that is a time capsule for a certain time in our lives. Like the last album came out when we graduated. A lot of that stuff was about change and embracing that change.”
Ryan agreed.
“Now we can look back at those songs and be like, well, that's how I felt at the moment,” he said. “And it perfectly encapsulates that. And it's really cool.”
Ryan said they come up with the melody first when creating a new song.
“The music usually comes first for us,” he said. “We work a lot in the studio and we just love writing stuff. So a lot of times, the music will pop up first, and then shortly after, the lyrics will come and how you could see it take shape. But most of the time, the music comes first.”
Ryan said music is a special way to express oneself.
“Music, to me, feels like an outlet sometimes,” he said. “It really feels like if I need to get something out, it is a great way to express yourself. A lot of the times when I'm writing things, I can say what I'm thinking in a different and cool way. It makes me understand it more because then we can see it and be like, okay, well, that's what that is. But on the other hand, it also makes me feel better, too.”
Easton described making music as a release.
“It's also an outlet,” he said. “It's also a place for us to get away. We have our studio, which we're in right now, and we can just get away at the end of the day and just work. It's just us and the music.”
Ryan explained how they came up with Flora’s Embrace for a name.
“There's a short story named Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro,” he said. “In that story, there's a woman named Flora. She has to embrace change over time throughout the story. And by the end, we kind of resonate with that. And that was very cool because a big part of what we do is embracing change in your life and facing things. So we thought that was a cool message.”
Ryan holds the band’s first album Efflorscence.
Anyone dating the duo doesn’t have to fret about being written about in a song someday.
“Our writing style is pretty different when it comes to that,” Ryan said. “When we try to evoke feelings, I try not to say things that are surface value, like exactly how I'm feeling, but interpret it in a way and make it more sound not as specified. It's applicable to other people. It can still be applicable to me in different scenarios, too. That makes for some more Interesting songwriting.”
The duo has played together for a while.
“We started doing music in middle school, and that's really when he had a band,” Ryan said. “And then I joined him. We were just messing around, having fun with that. And then we stopped for a little bit when we were sophomores in high school. We picked it back up and we were like, we really want to start doing this. And I'm glad we did. So we've been doing this for a while. Despite our first album coming out a year ago, we have been at it for a little bit.”
Ryan said they were the remaining members of the original band for a reason.
“We have the exact same creative vision,” he said.
Easton further explained their simpatico relationship.
“I think our vision is very specific in the type of music that we make in the way we want to present ourselves not even just in the music,” he said. “In music videos, in the way we promote ourselves, we have the exact same mindset with it. It's better and we're more productive and we enjoy what we do. Just connecting our brains because they're so connected.”
Ryan recalled the first musicians to impact him as a youth.
“When I was very young, my dad used to play me Beatles songs, and we used to listen all the time,” he said. “That's really the earliest connection I remember I had with music. A lot of the Red and Blue albums they had, we used to listen to that a lot. I remember that a lot from my childhood.”
Easton recalls a later band impacting him.
“I played baseball most of my life,” he said. “I have this recurring memory that I've always had. When I was 7 or 8 years old driving home from Little League games with my dad, I swear, Living on a Prayer by Bon Jovi would always come on. I don't know why that song always stuck with me. I still to this day believe that it's the best song ever made. It's just always stuck with me. Ever since then, I've really been interested in actually listening to the music, really paying attention to what's going on.”
Ryan always was interested in making music if not necessarily belting out a tune.
“I started playing guitar, and I was 9, so I've played instruments for a while,” he said. “I never really tried singing or anything. And then when I started music with him, he played the drums and me a singer, I was like, I'll pick it up, I guess. I'm glad I did.”
Easton also has made music since he was a preteen.
“I've been playing drums probably since 12,” he said. “When I really started getting into music, I would always look at the drummer. I think it was because I played a lot of sports growing up, so the physical aspect of it always intrigued me. I just wanted to learn how to play drums. I took two weeks of drum lessons, and then I stopped and started learning on my own just by listening to music.”
Easton said drummers have to pace themselves.
“One of the biggest things that drummers struggle with, especially in a live setting, is budgeting your energy,” he said. “You might get really excited before playing and even practicing, and you get really into it. And after the first song, you are out of breath and your body is dead. So you got to learn how to ration out your energy throughout all the songs because it depends. There's a lot of sets when we practice. We'll do hour-long sets when we practice. That's a long time like moving that much. Budgeting energy is a big thing that you should really pay attention to when drumming.”
Ryan also tends to his voice.
“You really have to make sure that you don't strain anything,” he said. “You gotta make sure you if you're reaching for a note or something that you're not completely comfortable with, you gotta make sure you're not just going for it because you can really mess up your voice. It's a delicate instrument. Drink a lot of water. Have the warm tea or warm liquid that's really good for singing. And then especially breath control when you're singing. You need to need to learn when to breathe and when to be more animated and when to go for the note without trying to perform.”
Ryan and Easton want to take their music as far as it can go.
“I would be 100 percent content if we can just do music period,” he said. “It doesn't matter what level we get to. If we get to do this as a career, then I am content. But at the same time, it's fair to also say you can always strive for more and push yourself. And I think we would just keep on trucking.”
Ryan wants their music to be remembered fondly.
“I would love for people to just be like: ‘I really like the song,’” he said. “‘I really resonated with it. And I'm gonna listen to it because I like it. That made me happy.’”
Easton wants listeners to relate to the musicians.
“With that, also people recognizing the people behind it,” he said. “We're just two guys that feel things just like everybody else does, and it's embodied in these songs.”
Ryan said their passion for music keeps them motivated to keep making it.
“We stay motivated because it we have a passion for it,” he said. “I wake up and the first thing I think about is, oh, I have to do music today. But it's not like I have to. It's I get to. This is really cool. We're doing this and I love every second of it. It really keeps fueling the fire, which is a good thing.”
Easton said their diverse style makes it more rewarding.
“We make such a variety of different types of music,” he said. “Everything that we create is something new to us. It still feels fresh to us. So with that kind of style of music, you're always being introduced to something new. You find something new and you create something new.”
Ryan said they have a method to deal with fatigue.
“Like with anything, there are periods of burnout when you get burnt out on things,” he said. “We're working on this new album now. If we get burnt out doing something, we'll just switch and maybe just write something for fun. But I always know we're coming back to it.”
The next album will lead to live performances.
“So what we're going to do is we're releasing this next record and then we're going to really start rehearsing and then start playing shows,” Ryan said. “That's our next main goal with things. We're really excited about that.”
Easton said any shows would likely be later in the year.
“If anything, it'd be probably around Christmas time,” he said.
Ryan explained they have to work around logistical issues.
“We are in college and we do go to different colleges, so it'd be a little difficult, but it's manageable,” he said. “I go to Clemson in South Carolina.”
Easton is not too far away.
“I go to Lander University,” he said. “It's in South Carolina. And I'm only an hour away from him.”
Ryan is taking music-related courses.
“I am going to school for audio technology,” he said. “And then I'm also doing a double major in marketing. But audio technology is a lot of music producing and studio work.”
Easton is sticking with athletics.
“I'm going to school for sports management,” he said.
Although the duo don’t feel pressured to present a buff image to their audience, they believe fitness is worth it for its own benefits. However, you can’t be out of shape and expect to perform on stage.
“You definitely do have to stay in shape with everything,” Ryan said.
Easton agreed.
“There's a benefit to what we do for working out,” he said.
Ryan dispensed advice to aspiring musicans.
“Just do it,” he said. “We struggle for a while with not doing it, thinking about it, not doing it. And the best thing to do is just do it. And if it doesn't work out, it's fine, but you never know what's gonna happen.”
Easton said to apply that philosophy to any endeavor.
“And even if it's not music, it can just be writing a short story of your own or something like that,” he said. “Just create. You have it on your mind. Just do it.”
Ryan agreed.
“Creating is important in life.”
The band’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/florasembrace/
The band’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqPP0y37t8F2rquWax3h6eg