The Ramona Flowers

The Ramona Flowers are on a roll - their latest release Human is climbing up the US Alt Radio charts and hitting over 1 millions global streams, and track Dangerous hit the Top 30 at US Alt Radio. Hit single Up All Night has reached over 1.8 million streams on Spotify and over 4 million global streams, and is the band's biggest radio hit with over 100k plays at US Radio with 10k plays a week. Globally, the track has had huge support, becoming a radio hit in Italy and multiple plays across Germany, Canada, Belgium, the US and the UK. Up All Night has hit the top 25 on Alt US Radio, entered the Billboard Chart earlier this year and was included in the NBA 2K24, which has now sold over 135 million copies. “We’ve been a band for over a decade, we’ve released a few albums, but this is where it’s really connected”, Dyson says. “Whatever we’re doing, it’s really working”. The band now are now readying their brand new album Made By Humans, due Oct 10th, 13 slick tracks that seamlessly blends genres disco, funk and indie, featuring previously released singles Up All Night, California, and most recent single, Human. Without the boundaries of one genre, the album is their most creative and honest to date. Alongside their familiar upbeat tracks, Made By Humans is multifaceted with emotive tracks Sins Of The Father and Three Minus Two. Sure to be fan favourites are synth filled Circles and funk-infused Hopeless Romantic. Speaking about their upcoming album the band said, “Made by Humans is an album that dives deep into the raw, unfiltered emotions that define us-love, heartbreak, addiction, and everything in between. It's a reminder that, in an age of artificial perfection, these songs are crafted from real experiences, real pain, and real passion- things only humans can truly feel. It's a soundtrack to the highs and lows of being alive, exploring the connections we make, the ones we lose, and the vices we turn to in between.” The Ramona Flowers kick off this bold new chapter with That Summer, the infectious lead single from their upcoming album. Reflecting on a whirlwind romance, the vibrant track is built for long summer road trips. Rewind to 2020, when the band brought their disco-inspired track “Up All Night” to the studio, they had a distinct vision for it. “We wanted the guitar to sound like Chic, to the extent that every guitar track I laid down was labeled ‘Nile’ in the file,” Sam Dyson says. “Next thing I know, Nile Rodgers is calling me up, saying he loves the song and wants to play on it.” While the band’s manager suggested reaching out, Dyson never imagined Rodgers would be interested in collaborating on a song with a band out of Bristol who had yet to meet their moment. As it turned out, “Up All Night” delivered it. Since it debuted in 2021, “Up All Night” has become The Ramona Flowers biggest track to date and continues to soar. After reaching over 1.8 million streams on Spotify and 5 million global streams, “Up All Night” is the band's biggest radio hit with over 100k plays at US Radio with 10k plays a week. Globally, the track has had huge support, becoming a radio hit in Italy and multiple plays across Germany, Canada, Belgium, the US and the UK. Up All Night was taken from their 2022 6-track EP Gotta Get Home, has hit the top 25 on the Alt US Radio, entered the Billboard Chart earlier this year and was included in the NBA 2K24, which has now sold over 135 million copies. “We’ve been a band for over a decade, we’ve released a few albums, but this is where it’s really connected,” Dyson says. “Whatever we’re doing, it’s really working.” Founded in 2012, The Ramona Flowers got their start gigging around their hometown of Bristol, a city still steeped in the legacy of trip hop and dance music. While Dyson and his bandmates, Steve Bird (vocals), Dave Betts (keys, guitar), and Ed Gallimore (drums), hit the scene as a rock band, they had a flexible definition of “rock” in mind. “Growing up, I loved guitar music, but while I was playing guitar at home, I was also going out clubbing, listening to dance music, and meeting DJs. In Bristol, that crossover is all happening at the same time,” Dyson says. The Ramona Flowers released their debut LP, Dismantle and Rebuild, in 2014 via Dyson’s own Distiller Records, an independent label he founded out of love for his local music community and frustration with the treatment small artists often experienced when they signed to majors. “I saw how little care or attention was paid to nurturing new artists. Friends of mine would sign huge deals and then their albums would get shelved, and they couldn’t get out of the contract,” Dyson says. “I didn’t have a clue, and I didn’t know anyone, but I started taking meetings, knowing I wanted to support new and emerging artists in the really difficult early stages of a career.” Moreover, Dyson was in a financial position to make constructive changes to a flawed label system; his father invented the first bagless vacuum cleaner, and while things hadn’t always been easy for the family, by the time Sam was grown enough to begin his own venture, he had the means to back it. Since it officially launched in 2009, Distiller Records has grown into Distiller Music Group, becoming a venerable force in the UK., championing celebrated artists like Danny Goffey (Supergrass), Reverend And The Makers, Sports Team and of course, The Ramona Flowers. The band followed up Dismantle and Rebuild with Part Time Spies (2016) and Strangers (2018) along with three EPs and a smattering of one-off singles, including “Up All Night.” Andy Barlow (Lamb) and Chris Zane (Passion Pit, Jack Antonoff, Holy Ghost!) grace their list of collaborators alongside Nile Rodgers, and in recent years the band has landed tour spots with British mainstay acts like the Libertines, Placebo, and Muse. Most recently, the band debuted Hey You, an EP written and recorded in 2020 when, per Dyson, The Ramona Flowers experienced a creative and collaborative rush like no other. Decamping to a studio in Ireland, the members of The Ramona Flowers each brought a set of songs to work on, and in a process Dyson likens to “an old school hit factory,” the members got to work alongside producer Dimitri Tikovoi. “We each set up our own production station in the studio and passed tracks back and forth before sending them over to the producer,” Dyson explains. The Ramona Flowers left the sessions with an arsenal of new music in hand, much of which is as-yet unreleased. Some of those new songs were heard on The Ramona Flowers’ most recent tour supporting Barns Courtney in the States, where their reputation for being an outrageously good live band has only grown. That, coupled with a radio tour of various stations on the East Coast has piqued American interest in the group. Dyson attributes the lingering success of “Up All Night” to NBA 2K24, but also to those radio spots, which gave the band an opportunity to pitch themselves to an audience far from home. “We’ve worked hard for a long time, and in those studios, it was gratifying to hear DJs say, ‘We fucking love it. We love everything you're doing, and we’ll keep playing you.’” That promise is a sure reminder that The Ramona Flowers have hits on deck and that they’ve more than earned their moment in the spotlight. “This is so ridiculously British, but I used to be really embarrassed about my backstory, and worried that people would discredit the band, which is bigger than me,” Dyson says. “Now, I’m just incredibly thankful that we were able to pursue this career the way we wanted to. A lot of musicians don’t get this luxury.” Dyson’s paying that luxury forward with Distiller, recently signing a handful of new artists he excitedly talks up with the enthusiasm of a lifelong fan, all while managing the affairs of The Ramona Flowers, who, over a decade in, have finally met their moment. “We wrote an album in lockdown, and since coming out of that, we’ve written another,” Dyson says. “We’ve got a whole catalog of amazing songs that we can’t wait to get out there.”