Flowers Forever

Flowers Forever is a side project by Derek Pressnall, guitarist for the quirky Omaha indie act Tilly and the Wall. That group formed in 2001 after Presnall and keyboardist Nick White moved from their hometown of Dunwoody, GA, to Omaha, NE, due almost entirely to their shared fondness for the city's music scene centered around Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst. Forming Tilly and the Wall with members of two recently defunct local bands (including tap dancer Jamie Williams, to whom Presnall was married in August 2006) and signing to Oberst's Team Love label, Presnall released two albums with the band, 2004's Wild Like Children and 2006's Bottoms of Barrels, before coming up with the concept for Flowers Forever. The band's press materials are purposefully vague about the inspiration for the project, but a video titled Flowers Forever Biography posted on YouTube by the band features a chaotic live performance overlaid with a lengthy scrolling manifesto signed by Pressnall that begins "Flowers Forever is a project that surfaced a few months back in a string of strange events that occurred in my life" and describes the band as "an outlet of performance, music, painting, video, and spirituality." That multimedia approach is similar to the childlike playfulness of Tilly and the Wall, but with a darker, somewhat frenzied edge. The band's self-titled debut album was recorded in August 2007 by a core trio of Pressnall on guitar, vocals, and percussion, Chris Senseney on guitar, bass, keyboards, and trumpet, and Craig Dee on drums and percussion, with various guests adding horns, steel drums, cello, accordion, and backing vocals. The album, with a cryptic, symbol-laden cover photo by Jamie Pressnall, was released on Team Love in February 2008. Flowers Forever toured with Lightspeed Champion later that year, as Tilly and the Wall released their third album, O. ~ Stewart Mason