Toledo, Ohio band the Flats just announced a brand new EP to be released this Friday, January 6. Titled Auburn In The Everlast, the six-track release will coincide with the first date of the band’s tour with Mat Kerekes, the Citizen frontman who will continue to support his most recent solo release, Luna & the Wild Blue Everything, on the road for a nine-date run. Kerekes also plays drums in the Flats, recorded their EP (mastered by genre go-to Will Yip), and is brother to vocalist and primary songwriter, Chris Kerekes.

We’ve teamed up with the band to share the video for the lead single from their aforementioned EP ahead of its official release. “Electric Light” is a melodic indie/alt-rock jam that will take less than one full listen before it’s worked its way into your mind to stay indefinitely. This of course will result in you only wanting to listen to the track that much more.

Discussing the band’s approach to the video for “Electric Light,” Mat Kerekes offers, “Making this video was super fun and easy. Chris brought the idea of creating a band practice type of vibe and just rocking out. We all thought it was cool, energetic, and fit the mood of the song and really represented what these new songs are about. Everyone in this band is so excited to be making music and we just wanted to go crazy while being obvious about pretending to play the instruments to our own music—similar to how we all used to play air guitar or air drums with all of our favorite bands. For us it represents the idea that ‘that was then and this is now.’ Music makes you feel pretty cool.”

Providing some insight to the EP itself, Chris Kerekes says, “The EP title ‘Auburn In The Everlast’ is intended to abstractly say ‘negative things forever in the past.’ The idea conceptually came from the thought/feeling that red or auburn can be associated with negativity and the past is something that fits the description of something that is ‘everlasting.’ ‘AITE’ is about entering into a new phase of my life. A rejuvenated, energetic phase while still acknowledging the reasons why I felt that the quality of my life was poor prior. That includes removing people from my life, having new people come into my life, feeling like I was finally living again, and also taking a hard look in the mirror and taking responsibility for what I did to create the situation.”

As mentioned, Auburn In The Everlast will be available this Friday and can be downloaded via Bandcamp for free(!) upon release. The dates for the Flats’ tour with Mat Kerekes and Elder Brother (members of The Story So Far, Daybreaker) can be found below.