Fort Wayne band The Meat Flowers is not your typical rock band, so it is not surprising that their history, album goals, and target audience are delightfully quirky and definitely not typical.

Though not many may be familiar with the band, lead singer Jared Andrews is a familiar face around Fort Wayne and a previous Whatzup subject piece.

Gaining a reputation

Formed in 2013, the band is formed by three friends: Jared Andrews, Dan Obergfell, and Jon Ross.

“My old band broke up, and I wanted to do something new, and I love Dan and Jon dearly, so we started a band, gave it a dumb name, and recorded an album,” Andrews said. “And then our studio burned down.”

Beyond the misfortunate of a studio mishap, the three musically inclined friends quickly made a reputation for themselves in the local music scene by becoming staple performers at bars such as The Brass Rail, The Ruin, and The Clyde.

Don’t let their Midwestern roots fool you, though. In their six years of producing music, The Meat Flowers have become no stranger to tour life.

“We’ve done some touring,” Andrews said. “We’ve played for dozens of people all across the U.S.A. One time we opened up for Squeeze and De La Soul in Long Beach, California. I don’t think they remember us.”

Grilled about their sound

To summarize The Meat Flowers’ sound presents its own challenge.

“Our sound is kinda heavy, kinda not,” Andrews said. “Pretty melodic, pretty poppy, kinda rowdy, kinda chill. We’ve gotten six percent better over the past 6 years.”

While their sound “kinda” draws on a little bit of everything, their eclectic sound has helped the band progress from being a local band to expanding their popularity and reach.

The Meat Flowers successfully produce their first album in 2016 (the self-titled The Meat Flowers) which is available for purchase on the online music store Bandcamp.

Time for a second album

Andrews commented on the future of the band.

“We just wanna keep writing and recording and making records and playing shows and eventually get our music in an Outback Steakhouse commercial or two. That’s all,” he said. “We’re finally gonna make another record sometime this year.”

When asked what the band’s goals would be in regard to a new album, Andrews said: “It’s gonna be a lot better than our first one, and we’re gonna give it all we got. If it’s not good enough for Outback Steakhouse, then we’re officially calling it quits forever and you’ll never hear from us again.”

While The Meat Flowers’ appreciation for meat clearly goes beyond just their band name, Outback Steakhouse commercials are not the only ambition or audience for the band.

“Our target audience is Target employees.”

But jokes can’t mask the band’s success with and passion for music.

“We always knew we wanted to pursue music in some form or fashion,” Andrews said.

“For me, it started when I saw Billy Joel’s ‘Uptown Girl’ video on VH1’s Pop-Up Video. For Jon Ross, he became transfixed by the Dave Matthews Band at an early age, and his fate was sealed. For Dan, it was the first time he caught a glimpse of Mark McGrath from Matchbox 20. So yeah, I guess you could say we’re all kinda music snobs.”