Meatbodies

Chad Ubovich, leader of Meatbodies, finds himself at a turning point. After years of increasingly wild shows in front of frenzied crowds, and a band lineup in constant flux, fatigue finally catches up with him and Ubovich realizes a new change is on the horizon.

"It was as if the car had broken down in the middle of the road, and I knew there was a long walk ahead of me."

He retreats into the underbelly of Los Angeles in search of meaning and a fresh start. Ubovich gives himself over to that world, neglects his own well-being and tries to forget his successes.

"I lived like a ’90s vampire straight out of a comic book. I hung around Los Angeles with the social set, partying to drown my sorrows, trying to forget."

This is when Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom begins to take shape — a project constructed by a man seeking new beginnings and a redefinition of himself. After quitting drinking, Ubovich starts writing at home and in various studios with his longtime collaborator Dylan Fujioka.

Formal production on Flora finally begins in 2019, but the story remains unfinished. Disagreements with the studio create tension and the project is put on hold. The album, half-complete, seems abandoned.

After tensions cool and many discussions about the record’s future, Ubovich eventually gets the green light to finish production in 2020 — but a new obstacle appears: the pandemic. And while the world pauses, the idea of Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom is likewise shelved.

Refusing to sit idle at home, Ubovich dives back into his old demos with Fujioka while continuing to write for Flora. Out of that work comes 333, which becomes Meatbodies’ third official album. Yet Flora never really leaves his mind, and Ubovich returns once more to the idea of finishing this almost-mythic album.

When restrictions begin to lift, he heads to Gold Diggers Sound studio accompanied by engineer Ed McEntee and a crew of friends and collaborators. Ubovich then completes the album’s final act — but another trial awaits.

His house, where he’d lived for eight years, is declared uninhabitable. He ends up in the hospital, where he spends the following month.

Forced not only to relearn how to walk but also how to play music, Ubovich finds motivation in an upcoming tour with his band FUZZ. For a year he rides the road to regain some sense of normalcy.

When he returns from that tour, he feels refocused and full of energy, ready to confront his white whale: the almost-lost album.

The mission ultimately succeeds.

Settled into a new house and a new studio — The Secret Garden — Ubovich mixes the record himself, brings in Brian Lucey (Magic Garden) for mastering, and Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom is finally finished, five years after the initial demos made with Fujioka.

"A lot happened with this record: it took me five years, I left a band, I had a drug problem, the album almost never saw the light of day, the pandemic nearly stopped it again, and in the end I almost died in the hospital, I lost my house and had to relearn to walk. In the end, it was worth it," Ubovich jokes.

And so we have Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, an album completed through sheer willpower and unwavering determination.

It is also an ambitious, varied and accomplished record for Meatbodies — a step forward, both by usual standards and given its chaotic journey. The album was finally released on March 8, 2024 via In the Red Records.

The record recalls the white-hot energy that mixed Blue Cheer and Iggy Pop with a psychedelic touch on the band’s earlier releases, while adding new elements: shoegaze, classic alternative rock, Britpop, drone and even touches of country. The group explores new directions without ever sounding forced.

Both an homage to 1980s Los Angeles punk and to the rise of indie/alternative music in the U.K., Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom feels like a radio station broadcasting from the cosmic void, with a playlist that might include early Pink Floyd, the Ramones, Roky Erickson, The Kinks and Spacemen 3.

Although these references might seem disparate, Ubovich manages to create a trajectory that is unmistakably Meatbodies across the songs, yielding an eclectic yet surprisingly coherent work. The result is an album whose diversity is its strength, closely followed by the quality of its songwriting.

Beyond the obvious themes of redemption, reinvention and resurrection that surround the album and its creation, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom also explores love and loss, escape, fatalism, hedonism, psychedelics and much more.

"The previous record was more of a caricature of who we were — simple and fun, without really delving into heavier concepts," Ubovich recalls.

"With Meatbodies before, we never really sat down to reflect: we just moved on to the next thing. But I wanted to do something with more depth. After everything that had happened in my personal life, I felt a great emptiness and a sense of loss. So I wanted to make music that was more rooted in emotion."