Profile – What is Flaming Fire?

Flaming Fire is a metaphysical collective dedicated to making music and electronic/print art that comments on the universal ache to know meaning and/or a higher power through religion, belief and myth. Patrick Hambrecht is the leader of Flaming Fire.

*Our band consists of songwriter/singer Patrick Hambrecht; singers Lauren Weinstein and Kate Hambrecht (Patrick’s wife); guitarist Jonathan “Jonny A” Ackerman; bassist John Mathias; and percussionist Brian Wilson. Lauren Weinstein is also the award-winning cartoonist who writes “Vineyland.” Lauren and John Mathias design our t-shirts and posters. Flamingfire.com is about the band. Read the background of the musicians and the band at the end of this profile.

*We are also attempting to gather 36,665 illustrations for The Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible (www.flamingfire.com/bible.html), an online version of the King James Bible with all new pictures for each verse. When it is completed, we will print an accordian-fold picture book Bible that will stretch 3 miles. Absolutely anyone can contribute a work in any medium, as long you can take a digital picture of it or scan it in (we need a jpeg to display on the site). Just named Best Freaky Collaborative Art Project of 2003 by the Village Voice, the Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible is run by Patrick, Kate, and computer genius Adam Mayer. (Since everyone seems to have to know, Patrick and Kate are Christian and Adam is Jewish, but the project was not designed to try to convert anyone.)

* Godmagazine.com is Patrick’s zine. The current issue features writing by Tim Hodler (Tim interviewed visionary Egyptologist Jason Gildow, who is the first person to accurately translate the Book of the Dead); Camilla Ha (Camilla interviewed her own mom, who was stillborn but was revived by prayer); and Patrick himself (Patrick interviews underrated psychedelic rocker Bobby Hecksher of the Warlocks).

*Cuniglius Cronk is Patrick’s skeletal Civil War general comic-book character. Cronk’s story is told in the Flaming Fire song “Kill the Right People” on the 2003 album “Songs From the Shining Temple.” Currently in development are a Cronk video game (with collaborators Gabriel Walsh of Perhaps Transparent Records and Lou Underwood), and a Cronk comic, which will appear on serializer.net shortly and later we will sell printed books at Flaming Fire shows (collaborators include John Mathias, Tim Hodler, Alex Reshanov, Cynthia Mitchell, Richard O’Connor, and Gabriel Walsh).

*HISTORY OF THE BAND AND MUSICIAN BACKGROUND: Flaming Fire started in 2000 as a Greek chorus with all members wearing masks and togas and chanting along to electronic samples. We used to distribute songbooks to audiences so they could be a part of the Flaming Fire chorus. Members at this time included Patrick, Lauren, Kate, and Theo Edmands (cartoonist for Meathaus comics and bluegrass banjoist extraordinaire). Banjo Pete Leonard (1920s-style tenor banjoist extraordinare) was our emcee. The current “rock” incarnation features Jonny A on guitar (he’s also guitarist for National Romance League); John Mathias on bass (John also plays guitar for Team USA); and Brian Wilson on drums (Brian also plays with American Watercolor Movement, a gypsy space-rock band). From 1997-2000, Patrick, Kate, Theo, Banjo Pete, and Lisa Badavi (current guitarist for Mz. Pakman) played with Dame Darcy in Rock Rock Chicken Pox. Most of RRCP’s songs were about office culture: memorable songs include “401K,” “Capital Time,” “Light Socket,” and “Fear and Greed” (Patrick says his first boss in NYC would always say, “How do we sell the conference? Fear and greed!”). We all performed in matching careerwear and Patrick would maniacally point to pie-charts throughout our shows. Also, RRCP had a fake extra bass player (Banjo Pete’s roommate, Allen) who was supposed to get fired halfway through each show for lack of productivity, but we would always forget about him, so Allen would just stand onstage slowly strumming a bass that wasn’t plugged in for the entire performance. It may sound completely goofy to describe it now, but at the time, RRCP was really trying to express a serious desire to rile up office workers and start a revolution. From 1995-1996, when Patrick was in college in Nebraska, he was in American Goy, a band that would all play the same notes at the same time. American Goy’s finest hour was when they organized a tribute concert to themselves in 1996 and got local bands to cover their songs. This was around the time of Patrick and Kate’s infamous Jerry Springer appearance. Anyway, the current Flaming Fire lineup came together thusly: Patrick and Kate (high-school sweethearts) met Lauren at the Coney Island Mermaid Parade in 1999. Lauren and John M. know each other from their college days at Washington University in St. Louis. Lauren and Jonny A briefly dated before playing together in Flaming Fire --- we used to be discreet about this, but there’s now a comic about it in Lauren’s book “Inside Vineyland,” so cat’s out of the bag.