With three guitarists, endless hooks and an immersive approach to tone, flipturn invite you to drift into their nostalgic dreampop world where single coils rule, guitars and synths feel like closely related species, and a blissful haze of analog chorus hangs thick in the ether.
The Floridian five-piece – singer/rhythm guitarist Dillon Basse, lead guitarist Tristan Duncan, guitarist/synth player Mitch Fountain, bassist Madeline Jarman and drummer Devon VonBalson – have been playing together for the best part of a decade, building a strong bond and a devout following along the way.
Duncan expresses their uncomplicated approach as a road-warrior outfit: “We bring a lot of energy and make sure people are having a good time.” Riding high off a recent performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and with a monster tour stretching out in support of sophomore album Burnout Days, 2025 looks set to be a huge year.
Across the LP’s 12 tracks you’ll find ethereal earworms (Sunlight), vivid futuristic sketches (Juno) and vibey choruses pulled straight out of the ’70s (Tides). At the core of every single one is the vibrant guitar interplay of Fender aficionados Duncan, Basse and Fountain.
“We take a lot of time to make sure we’re not stepping on the others’ toes,” says Fountain. “Dillon often takes the low rumble of the guitar, Tristan might be doing the lead and maybe I’m doing some really jangly stuff up at the top.”
The best way to conceptualize their approach, says Duncan, is to imagine three individuals all sitting at one piano. “You can’t all play the same part – you’ve got to spread out,” he explains. “Taking that kind of ideology into being guitar players means you can be really rich and lush with harmonization and melodies.”
A rigorous approach to demoing is also key, with fipturn often working through multiple iterations of a song before recording it for real. While the guitar parts and arrangements are set by then, there’s still plenty of room to get creative with tone.
“We might find 50 guitars to choose from,” says Mitch. “All of a sudden, something that was on an electric might now be on a rubber-bridge acoustic, so the tones become more experimental.”
His Surf Green Fender American Standard Telecaster is an interesting beast – a Limited Edition from 2016, it features a one-piece rosewood neck rather than the usual maple.
It has a hand-rubbed oil finish, allowing for a softer neck feel than you might get with urethane or polyester. It’s fitted with a Twisted Tele pickup in the neck position and a Broadcaster in the bridge position, offering twang or twinkle, depending on the mood.
During the album sessions – which took place at Sonic Ranch, outside of El Paso, Texas – Fountain fell in love with a ’67 Fender Jazzmaster he found in the studio’s collection, and used it to create a wealth of fuzzed-up leads and dreamy abstractions.
He also used an Acoustasonic Jazzmaster for standout moments, like the reverb-soaked harmonic riff at the heart of Swim Between Treeswhich has a quality not unlike an airy arpeggiated synth loop.
“I’m in open E and I’m just playing harmonics off the 12th, 7th and 5th frets,” he says. “I found a pattern that sounded like a cool melody and I used the bridge pickup because it’s a little less acoustic-sounding and has more sheen. It just popped through the mix. Then we did some in-the-box effects to give it more space with reverb.”
At the center of Duncan and Fountain’s sonic universe is a pedal that neither could live without: the Walrus Audio Julia Analog Chorus/Vibrato. Offering big, smooth chorus sounds that hug the mix, or moments of oddball wooze, it’s all over Burnout Days. In fact, “Julia” is so integral to the sound, she could be considered the sixth member of flipturn.
“I love the modular nature of having pedals in front of you,” says Duncan, whose current board includes Chase Bliss’ Clean and Onward pedals and a classic Tube Screamer. Fountain uses Strymon’s Big Sky and TimeLine delays, a JHS Morning Glory Overdrive, a Keeley Compressor and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Switcher PX-8 to reduce the “tap dancing” during live shows, while he also handles keyboard duties.
The pair have learned a thing or two about recreating complex studio sounds live on stage. “The most terrifying thing is when a pedalboard stops working,” says Fountain. “There’s a meme about it where R2-D2 is fixing a ship during a battle. That’s what it feels like when you’re trying to diagnose your pedalboard during a show!”
The solution? “Bring extra patch cables,” he advises. Then remain calm and pray for the rig-wrangling force to be with you.
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