SongVault Artist Profile

Battle Flags, the moniker for artist Jack Budd, began as a project in stencil grafitti in an 8x10 room in Richmond, Virginia. The meticulously pieced album Color Engine is its harrowing result. Recorded in his bedroom while attending music school at VCU, it is menage of rythyms stolen from pots, pans, shovels, empty kegs and living room chairs. Budd’s raspy delivery is as much calming as it is haunting. As versatile and mysterious as its author, the album carries the mood of a smoky, latenight tango, lazy naps on a southern porch, or a sobering stroll through a haunted tool shed. And if that weren’t tantalizing enough, the listener is then black-bagged and dragged along to a Caribbean barbeque. Every possible piece of each instrument is utilized, much the way a French chef would appreciate the often overlooked uses of a pork shoulder. It is a beautifully-crafted work by an unbelievably deserving artist hungry to create.