Biography
Flowers Forever originated as Derek Pressnall’s side endeavor while he handled guitar duties in the eccentric Omaha indie outfit Tilly and the Wall. That ensemble coalesced in 2001 once Pressnall and keyboardist Nick White relocated from Dunwoody, GA, to Omaha, NE, drawn principally by their enthusiasm for the local scene orbiting Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst. They assembled the group alongside musicians from a pair of recently dissolved area acts, among them tap dancer Jamie Williams, whom Pressnall wed in August 2006, then placed the project on Oberst’s Team Love imprint. With Tilly and the Wall, Pressnall issued the 2004 album Wild Like Children followed by Bottoms of Barrels in 2006 before conceiving Flowers Forever. Although the group’s official statements remain deliberately noncommittal regarding the project’s genesis, a YouTube upload titled Flowers Forever Biography presents a frenetic concert recording accompanied by an extended, continuously scrolling text credited to Pressnall. The statement opens with the line “Flowers Forever is a project that surfaced a few months back in a string of strange events that occurred in my life” and characterizes the endeavor as “an outlet of performance, music, painting, video, and spirituality.” This cross-media sensibility echoes the playful innocence associated with Tilly and the Wall yet introduces a more agitated, shadowy tone. The self-titled debut was captured in August 2007 by the central lineup of Pressnall on guitar, vocals, and percussion, Chris Senseney on guitar, bass, keyboards, and trumpet, and Craig Dee on drums and percussion, while additional contributors supplied horns, steel drums, cello, accordion, and backing vocals. Jamie Pressnall supplied the enigmatic cover photograph dense with symbols, and Team Love issued the album in February 2008. Later that year Flowers Forever shared bills with Lightspeed Champion while Tilly and the Wall delivered its third full-length, O.
Albums