Flap Your Wings

That’s the response of Steve Hindalong, lyricist/percussionist for The Choir, when asked about the release of Flap Your Wings, the band’s first studio album in four years. "Ultimately," says Hindalong, "if you get to keep making records, you win. You’re fortunate. At this point in our career, with all of us well beyond the age of optimum marketability, we’re astounded that we get to keep making music and that people want to hear it. Whether it’s a million or a thousand. That’s a lot of people that you receive feedback from and get to establish a rapport with."

To understand the band’s motivation for recording Flap Your Wings, one needs to look back to a reunion concert The Choir performed at a festival sponsored by KLYT in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the summer of 1999. Hindalong has a similar response to a query about what coaxed the seminal modern rock band out of its three-year long, self-imposed retirement.

"Somebody asked us to play a concert, and we asked, ‘How much?’ And then we said ‘Yes,’ the drummer explains, a sly smile crossing his face. Guitarist/vocalist Derri Daugherty, Steve’s friend of over 20 years (and creative partner for 17) offers a bit more elaboration on the subject. "There’s always been a tremendous amount of good will toward The Choir—nobody’s ever said ‘please stay retired!’ That was definitely one motivation for doing the reunion show. We had been away from the band long enough that the business stress didn’t bog us down." Perhaps saxophonist "Buckeye" Dan Michaels nails it best: "We had all grown so much as individuals since we last performed as a band. Maybe we found that we still have something to say. Maybe we still want to connect — with our audience and with each other. Maybe we simply wanted to rock. I'm sure it's more than that, but either way I think we're pretty excited to get back to doing what we love in The Choir with the friends that we love so much."