• News

• All

Nov 01, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Joriel Cura

Flora MMA is the new project from alt pop musician and songwriter Flynn Namala. They first got their start fronting indie outfit The Blank Minds, but went in a new direction with their 2021 solo debut EP, Songs To Sing Under the Sheets, exploring the world of intimate and emotive alt pop. They returned this year with a handful of new singles and are now back with another new track, “Goddamn This Guilt Is Gonna Kill Me,” premiering with Under the Radar.

“Goddamn This Guit Is Gonna Kill Me” is possibly Namala’s catchiest effort yet, offering a track made up of equal parts emo angst and pop anthems. Namala blends towering 2000s rock guitars with crisp production and a massive sing-along pop chorus, launching the track to stratospheric heights. As Namala explains, the track began as an attempt to write a song in the same vein as The Jonas Brothers’ “Year 3000,” but even with the song’s big pop ambitions, they also infuse it with an open-hearted confessional side, exploring feelings of guilt on the hard path of growth.

Namala says of the track, “I really hope this song resonates with other people who have made terrible mistakes but are genuinely trying to be better. I feel like we live in a culture where we’re super quick to reprimand people (which is definitely much needed in a lot of ways) but there’s not as much focus or energy given towards the process of taking the steps towards correcting mistakes and learning and growing from them. In the words of the great Hannah Montana, “everyone makes mistakes.” What’s important isn’t that we made a mistake, but instead that we learn from them and grow from them. It’s exactly like what I tell my students (I’m a 4th grade teacher): it’s okay to make a mistake, it’s how I see you learn and grow from that mistake that matters. This whole song is a reflection of my learning and growing process, maybe it’s a little more focused on the feeling horrible part and dwelling in my errors, but that’s a super important step in growing and changing!”

Check out the song below.