On Saturday, August 9th, I caught up with Florida-born indie rock band flipturn before their set at Outside Lands. Known for their infectious stage presence and energy, the five-piece radiates the same warmth offstage as they do in front of a crowd.
The band, Dillon Basse (vocals/guitar), Tristan Duncan (guitar), Mitch Fountain (guitar/synth), Madeline Jarman (bass), and Devon VonBalson (drums), has evolved from playing tight-knit college house shows at the University of Florida to selling out venues and performing at major festivals like Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Governor’s Ball, and now Outside Lands. Along the way, they’ve opened for acts such as Two Door Cinema Club, The Revivalists, Mt. Joy, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise.
These experiences helped the band build a devoted following. In 2022, their debut album Shadowglow solidified them as a creative force, offering heart-tugging anthems like “Sad Disco” and “Playground” that capture the bittersweet transitions into adulthood.
Their latest album, Burnout Days, carries that momentum onto the global stage, pairing irresistibly catchy lyrics with passionate, emotive vocals and instrumentals that embody the chaos, uncertainty, self-discovery, and romantic adventures of life in your twenties.
On this crisp San Francisco afternoon, hours before taking the stage, flipturn was in high spirits, ready to talk touring, songwriting, and connecting with their audience.
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Izzy: How does it feel to be back in the Bay Area?
Mitch: Oh, it’s great. It feels great.
Dillon: The weather is amazing.
The band laughs in agreement.
Dillon: We’re so used to the Florida heat, so it’s nice. It’s refreshing. It’s like 95 in Florida right now. We walked outside of our bus and I think everyone was like, what is going on? This is the nicest weather of tour.
You recently played “August” on the first day of August at Lollapalooza and “Chicago” in Chicago. How does it feel to play those songs that really fit the setting?
Collective laughter from the band.
Madeline: It’s fun. There’s kind of a different energy. I think the crowd gets really excited—especially when we were at Lollapalooza on the first of August and we were in Chicago.
Dillon: The stars aligned for us at that moment.
Mitch: The promoter and the agents were [scheming].
Yeah, they were like, wait a minute…
Dillon: It has to be August 1.
Exactly. Maybe you’ll also be able to catch the sunset in San Francisco today… if you can see it.
All members: Ahh yeah!
Madeline: I’m winking.
One of my favorite tracks from Burnout Days is “Swim Between Trees” because of the beautiful lyrics and the wistful atmosphere it creates. Can you walk me through how that song came about?
Dillon: For sure. It was going to be an instrumental track. Tristan came up with this really cool progression with harmonics on guitar, and we just built something around that. There was no plan to put lyrics to it until a friend of ours was like, “You should put something on it.” So we were like, okay. It was last-minute in the studio—I knew we were going to put something to it, so everyone was in the studio while I was walking outside and going through my notes. I thought, all right, let’s try this. It’s more spoken word. It’s a little different than some of the other songs we have. They all liked it, so we ran with it, and now it is what it is.
That’s awesome. When you create music, does a lyric, sound, or title start the process?
Mitch: It’s usually a musical idea first and then we all work on it. Someone will bring an idea, we bring it to the band, and we rep that for a while. At some point we get to a good enough position where Dillon will either start humming or singing some stuff and it just builds from there. Usually vocals come second—not every time, but most of the time.
Devon: Dillon’s really good at channeling the energy or the emotion of what the instrumental is doing and putting it into words. So the track usually comes first.
Mitch: It’s a fun process.
I love the visuals and tour compilations you post on YouTube. What inspired you to capture those moments and share them with fans?
Madeline: I think it’s cool just to see as a music lover in general. I always love when bands post behind-the-scenes stuff and whenever they post about their experience at a certain festival or whatever. So as a music fan, I love that. We just hope our fans enjoy it too. Like a slice of life of what we’re going through. [Fans] can kind of see pictures online which are nice, but the videos show the chaos of it all.
Have any fans reached out saying, “That was awesome,” or “I saw myself in that video”?
The band collectively: Yeah, definitely.
You’re always touring, and with super cool and talented musicians—recently Joe P, and now Sun Room and Odie Leigh. How does that connection come about? Are you involved in that process?
Mitch: It’s a mixture of us really enjoying their music and agents talking in the background like “Do you like this band? Or do you like this band?”. Then we’ll listen to their music and say, “Oh, they’re really cool.” But, with a lot of these bands, for example with Odie Leigh, we went out with them last tour for a little bit, really liked them, and really wanted to bring them back. So it’s a mix of the whole team coming together to figure out who will play with us. It’s always a fun time.
There’s a lot of great energy in Burnout Days. Is there any song you’ve played live from the album that got a surprising reaction from the crowd?
Devon: I mean, “Swim Between Trees” honestly surprised me. It’s really cool how people latched onto it so hard. I wasn’t expecting to hear people screaming those lyrics back because it’s a mouthful, there are a lot of words. That surprised me in the best way.
Dillon: I think “Right?” too. It was one where we pictured it and we thought it’d be really cool if this was the part where people sang—and then they did, and we were like, “oh all right, let’s go!” That’s a fun one.
I know you have a few more shows this year. Are there any additions to the tour you’re excited about?
Dillon: Australia. We’re going to Australia for the first time this year, so very excited about that. After this tour we’re taking the Burnout Days tour to Europe, the UK, and Australia. It kind of feels like a mini world tour, you know? Kind of spread out.
Mitch: Yeah, we can call it a mini world tour.
Madeline: Haha a two continent tour…
Dillon: Yeah, so that’s exciting to take it international.
Finally, for someone who hasn’t listened to your music before, where would you recommend they listen to you from?
Mitch: Oo, that’s a hard question.
Dillon: A car haha. I think we write music that’s really fun to drive to. I love thinking about driving and picturing a landscape ahead of you when listening to our music.
Madeline: Yeah—late-night, introspective drives, or an early morning sunrise drive.
Mitch: Sounds like a Spotify playlist. Haha. That’s a playlist right there.
Madeline: Burnout Days is good for any occasion, for whatever you decide!
Review and photography by Izzy Hory
