Flopself is an independent music project created by David Warren. Most of the songs that make up the project’s early releases were originally written as rough demos during the 1990s and early 2000s, while others were composed more recently over the last decade.
The project began as a way to finally complete and release songs that had remained unfinished, unreleased, or forgotten for many years. Rather than creating something entirely new, the goal was to revisit old material, give it a finished form, and make it publicly available.
As a result, Flopself spans several decades of songwriting. The earlier songs reflect the alternative and indie rock influences that shaped their original creation, while the newer material naturally moves in different directions. Although the recordings were completed using modern production tools, the songs themselves were written by hand long before many of those technologies existed.
Flopself was never intended to be a commercial project. Its purpose has simply been to document and release a large body of songs accumulated over nearly thirty years. Once the remaining material has been released, the project will most likely be considered complete.
The Process
The songs released under the Flopself name often began as simple home demos recorded over many years. Some existed only as rough sketches, while others were nearly complete but lacked the resources needed for a finished production.
The recording process typically involved revisiting those original demos, rebuilding arrangements within modern DAW’s, recording additional instruments and vocals, and refining the material through contemporary production techniques. The mixing and mastering processes are kept as simple as possible, prioritizing intuitive choices over technicality.
Modern software tools, including AI-assisted technologies, were used during the production and restoration process including fine tunning and altering the original vocals to be more cohesive for artistic purposes. These tools helped improve sound quality, refine performances, and bring unfinished recordings closer to their intended form.
However, the songs themselves were not composed by artificial intelligence. The writing, melodies, structures, lyrics, and original concepts all originated from human songwriting and recording. Technology served as a production tool rather than a creative replacement.
The Future
There is currently enough material remaining for one final album and several additional singles. Once those releases are completed, Flopself will most likely reach its natural conclusion.
Part of the reason is practical. Finding time to write, record, and develop new songs becomes increasingly difficult. More importantly, there are other musical directions I would like to explore that differ significantly from the style and approach that came to define Flopself.
After nearly thirty years of songwriting, the project has largely achieved its original purpose: releasing a body of work that might otherwise have remained unheard.
At some point, I would also like to assemble a collection of original demos, early recordings, and unfinished versions of these songs. Such a release would most likely appear through platforms such as Bandcamp and possibly YouTube rather than traditional streaming services, as much of the material remains rough and archival in nature.
In that sense, Flopself is less a continuing project than a long process of completing something that began many years ago. Once the final songs have been released, the story will feel complete.
Before Flopself: Tiannamen
Long before Flopself existed, there was a short-lived three-piece band called Tiannamen.
Formed in the late 1990s by three friends, the band never progressed beyond rehearsal rooms. I served as the main songwriter, guitarist and some sort of vocalist, and a handful of songs that would eventually find their way into Flopself were already taking shape in primitive form during those sessions.
In truth, Tiannamen never really became a proper band. We never played live, never released any recordings, and never developed much beyond a collection of rehearsals and unfinished ideas. Our musical influences were often very different from one another, and our technical abilities were, at best, limited.
The only truly memorable thing about Tiannamen is a series of completely ridiculous coincidences.
Over the course of only a few months, the band’s drummer and I happened to meet several musicians we admired. After a Foo Fighters concert, we met Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins merely by chance. Around the same period, we attended autograph sessions with Bruce Dickinson and Max Cavalera.
None of them ever heard a single Tiannamen song. Yet all of them signed posters or pieces of paper addressed to the band.
Looking back, I find it amusing that a band which never left the rehearsal space somehow accumulated autographs dedicated to it from musicians whose records sold millions of copies worldwide. It remains one of the strangest and most surreal footnotes in my musical history.
Although Tiannamen quickly disappeared, some of the songs and ideas rehearsed during that period survived and a number of them would eventually reappear in finished form through Flopself.
Above: The autograph of Dave Grohl for Tiannamen and David