Willoughby Won’t Be Any Longer, Leader Decides

Mike Flanagan, one of the most talented songwriters on the local music scene, is breaking up his unheralded pop-rock band, Willoughby, to try different musical approaches.

The Orange County / Long Beach band will play two farewell shows--the first on Friday at Que Sera in Long Beach, the other to be announced.

Willoughby also includes drummer Steve Pertschi, bassist Doug Keidel and guitarist Toby Tryon. The foursome will stick together long enough to finish a follow-up to its lone previous release, “Be Better Soon.”

“The idea of leaving a dozen songs never heard and in unfinished form is kind of irritating to all of us,” Flanagan said. “We’re not sure what we want to do with it. We may use it as a memento for ourselves, but I definitely want to give it to people I know, just to see what they think, as a going-away present, kind of.”

Flanagan said he considered hanging on with Willoughby long enough to see whether the new material would give the band a boost in the music marketplace, but decided against it.

Willoughby’s distaste for the promotional side of music making kept the band stuck in a limited, grass-roots round of local club gigs and self-financed recordings.

The band’s quality emerged in sweetly melancholy songs such as “Hiding Place” and “Borrow My Shoulder” that evoked the warmth and catchiness of vintage Kinks material; Willoughby also could hit with a modern-rock edge akin to R.E.M., the Plimsouls or Elvis Costello & the Attractions.

The breakup was solely the decision of Flanagan, the band’s creative engine. When he told the other members early this year, “they were of course sad and bummed out about it, but I’ve received no death threats yet. There’s no bad feeling. We had a great time when we practiced last week.”

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If, by some stroke of luck, the new music were to fall into hands eager to bankroll and lavishly promote it, Flanagan would change his mind. Barring that, he will focus on his new tack, which calls for a more diverse approach than the straightforward, guitar-based pop-rock that Willoughby played.

“In the [new] stuff I’ve been writing, it’s hard for me to get away from that melodic-pop background, but I’ve been experimenting with ambient-sounding things and some really ugly noisy things, along with retro-sounding ‘60s things and barrelhouse vaudeville things,” Flanagan said. “I want to take all sorts of different elements and make them fit together.”

Flanagan, who grew up in Los Alamitos and lives in Long Beach, said upheaval in his life apart from the band has him considering a change of venue for future music making: “I might move away. I’m just sick of Southern California. It’s where I’ve lived all my life.”

* Willoughby plays Friday at Que Sera, 1923 E. 7th St., Long Beach. 9 p.m. $5. (562) 599-6170 (club) or (562) 804-5523 (band hotline).