Hotstar: flipturn & Their Tour Chicken Pray To ‘The Holy Purple One’ While Criss-Crossing The Country

Before flipturn takes the stage at every show, the indie rock band consisting of Dillon Basse, Tristan Duncan, Mitch Fountain, Madeline Jarman and Devon VonBalson gather together and say a little prayer. The deity they’re trying to reach isn’t God in a traditional sense, but one they refer to as “The Holy Purple One” — better known by the general public as the musical artist Prince.

“It was storming really bad when we were doing a show once, and I was just trying to boost morale,” Von Balson says. “It was just a joke, but he seems to be with us, man. Every time we pray to Prince, he seems to bring a certain energy to the show. And then, the shows we don’t, stuff goes wrong. There’s always technical issues and everything. So, we’ve kept it up. We all huddle up and it gets us in a mindset, gets us in a groove.”

The tradition started back in Gainesville, Florida, the town where flipturn got their start. The weather was overcast and it was pouring rain, so VonBalson wanted to hype up the band. He was trying to come up with artists who had memorable performances in the rain and remembered Prince’s iconic (and wet) 2007 Super Bowl halftime show in Miami, which is widely considered to be one of the all-time greatest performances during the big game.
“That’s a legendary show,” he says. “So I was like, ‘C’mon, let’s pray to Prince.’ And since that day, we have not done a show without it — or, there was one that we didn’t do the Prince prayer and then stuff went wrong. So, we’ve kept it as routine.”

Basse (vocals), Duncan (guitar) and Jarman (bass) were high school friends who started flipturn during their senior year in 2015. When they began attending the University of Florida, Fountain joined on guitar and synthesizer and VonBalson came on to play drums. They became somewhat of a Gainesville legend as they performed at house parties across the university campus. They’d make their way over to Jacksonville for more shows, sticking close by and working the college crowd.

“Those first shows still stick with me,” Basse says. “For instance, the other night in Gainesville, we played a little house show. It reminded me of those early house shows at the Surf House in Gainesville or the Bug House in Jacksonville. Very loud, chaotic but sweaty and high-energy shows early on. I’ve been thinking about those a lot recently just because of what we did a few nights ago. They’re a little different now – still high energy, but not right in your face.”

With students at the University of Florida familiar with their local bands, flipturn became integral to the college scene and went on to meet members of their current team (including their publicist, Madi Florence) while in school. The band is currently managed by Sam Heekin with Atlas Touring and booked by Caleb Coker at Atlas Touring.

They recently wrapped their “Something More” tour that featured support from Richy Mitch and the Coal Miners. They’ve grown into playing clubs across the country, including the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. with two sold-out nights on April 18 and 19 grossing a total of $84,000, according to reports submitted to Pollstar’s Boxoffice, and The Sylvee in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 23 grossing $64,849. In 2023, they supported Shakey Graves and Rainbow Kitten Surprise on select tour dates and performed at major festivals the past two years, including Lollapalooza, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Shaky Knees and SXSW.

While on tour, the band continued the Instagram account of Jalapeño, a beloved blue rubber chicken that joins them on the road. They’ll post photos of the chicken on the road, fans throwing rubber chickens onstage in lieu of flowers. They say it’s another fun joke that keeps them sane while on the road, Jalapeño taking his fair share of abuse from a life of touring.

“He’s kind of a vessel for our hatred,” Fountain says. “I don’t know how to explain him. The insanity. He’s a therapy character we pour our emotions into. He’s turned into a character now; he’s got over a thousand followers. People make art for him. He’s the stupid mascot that we have. People throw us chickens on stage because of him. We don’t get flowers; we get rubber chickens.”

The band also started their own festival, the Playground Music Festival, in Gainesville — a town so central to their story that they frequently return to it.

“Gainesville’s one of our hometowns and there is such an awesome music scene there with great local bands and our relationship with Swamp Records,” Jarman says. “We knew we wanted to honestly put on a show that’s bigger than a venue show, but something that we can get the community involved in and just include as many bands as possible. We just love Heartwood. That’s a venue we play a lot. We have a great relationship with their team there. So, we had an idea to create our own festival. We named it Playground after the first single we released off our debut album, Shadowglow.”

The second edition of the festival took place in January, the band opting to move it from August in hopes of better weather.

“In August of 2022, it was extremely hot outside,” Jarman says. “Everyone was just walking around drenched in sweat and sunburnt. They still had an amazing time, we had an awesome time, but it was really, really hot. So we tried January. And, funny enough, it was so cold the day of the festival this year. Like freezing, freezing cold, but at least no one was sweating. We all had hand warmers and everything, so I still prefer the cold over the hot.”

CONTACT
BOOKING AGENCY
Atlas Touring
Caleb Coker
[email protected]

MANAGEMENT
Atlas Touring
Sam Heekin
[email protected]

PUBLICITY
Big Hassle
Madi Florence
[email protected]