Fling ii: Modular Synths, Pedal Steel, and Michigan Motorik

This week we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Ann Arbor krautrock band Fling ii.

I sat down with drummer and synthesist Brad Gowland, and guitarist Richard Murphy, to chat about their third album, 3, which is out now on We Are Busy Bodies. It’s six tracks cut down from hours of studio jamming.

We talk about Richard's path from ambient guitar to doom metal, Brad finding four minutes inside a fifty-minute take, and how a Magic: The Gathering card - and a commune breakup - inspired the band’s name.

(The musical excerpts heard in the interview are from Fling ii’s 3)

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Dig Deeper

Fling ii:

• Visit Fling ii on Bandcamp, where the full catalog lives
• Purchase 3 from We Are Busy Bodies, Bandcamp, or Qobuz, and listen on your streaming platform of choice.
• 2 (2024), the record that introduced Dave Van Dusen's pedal steel — Bandcamp
• The self-titled debut (2022), seven tracks from the band's first weekend at Willis Sound — Bandcamp
• The debut's 2024 vinyl reissue on Italy's Black Sweat Records, distributed by Forced Exposure

The Studio and the Label:

• Willis Sound — the converted church in Willis, Michigan where every Fling ii record has been made
• We Are Busy Bodies, the Toronto label behind 3 — and Exclaim!'s interview with founder Eric Warner on the label's first twenty years
• The label's roster on Bandcamp

Elsewhere in the Band:

• Sif, Richard Murphy's instrumental doom project, which Brad Gowland produces and programs drums for

Musical References:

• Neu!'s "Hallogallo" — the track Richard played Brad in high school, and the founding reference point for the band
• Earth's The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord, 2008), the ambient half of Brad's original pitch — also on Bandcamp
• Elder, the stoner-metal band whose turn to unqualified krautrock Richard cites
• Blood Incantation's Timewave Zero, the synth record Brad keeps returning to
• Water Damage, the Austin group whose In E the live show came to resemble
• Amon Düül II, whose split from their parent commune gave the band its name
• Osees, whose cover art set the visual template

Scenes and Support:

• R. Solomon, the goth synth-pop act who shared the Ann Arbor bill
• Ryan Spencer, the Detroit DJ and producer whose new project closed the show
• New Orleans Synth Cult, the collective Richard describes playing laundromats — also on Instagram

Read More:

• RetroFuturista's August 2026 interview with Brad Gowland, on motorik, pedal steel, and recording at Willis Sound
• Fifteen Questions: Fling ii about krautrock

Elsewhere on The Tonearm:

• Suzanne Ciani: The Buchla's Orchestral Homecoming — the episode Brad name-checks at the close, and its companion article, Speaking the Word of the Buchla

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