Remembering Seann Flynn

The following is written by Seann Flynn's friend Chris Engelman. in a motorcycle accident on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. He was 29.

My band Twist of Nothing used to play around Bowling Green, Ohio quite a bit in bars, on the university campus and in festivals. We played with various bands, and I started noticing this one drummer was in several of them. His name was Seann Flynn and he was amazing!

We were in need of a drummer in our band, and we found out that this mysterious local superstar was interested in playing with us. We weren't sure why, but Seann was on board to help our band make it through a transitional stage. We were honored.

We all became good friends, produced a rock/fashion show that we performed on campus and recorded some demos together that Seann engineered. I was an aspiring engineer and Seann was always happy to teach me what he knew, and invited me to shadow him on his recording sessions. We all decided to move to Los Angeles together to pursue careers in music and film.

Seann was our "guy on the couch" during our first and most difficult year in L.A. He stayed with us rent-free because we didn't want him to have to wait to move out later that year after he saved some money for rent. Twist of Nothing only played one show together before disbanding, but our experiences working with Seann in a creative capacity were in full swing.

I attended Musician's Institute in the second half of that first year. Seann helped me navigate through the quirks of working with Pro Tools and always made me feel welcome asking him for guidance. I looked up to him as a musician and as an engineer, but he never looked down on me. Seann was extremely accommodating. 

Our friendship survived that first tumultuous year and Seann even came to Las Vegas for my bachelor party. I played some of the recordings I was working on for local bands and he seemed genuinely impressed with them.

As fate would have it, Seann was looking on Craigslist one day for a band needing a drummer, and felt compelled to respond to an ad. This band was Red Circle Underground. I had been producing and engineering RCU for a while by that time, and we listened to their recordings on the way to Vegas. He had no idea when he joined that band that it was the same one I was recording. 

Eventually, RCU lost its original bass player and their guitarist called me frantically while I was on my honeymoon. I already knew the songs, and I saw a unique opportunity to play with Seann again—this time in the rhythm section with him. So I obtained a bass and an amp, and joined Seann in yet another musical venture. We played some shows together and wrote some new songs before Seann was ready to move on.

I eventually quit RCU and decided with my wife to move back to Ohio to live near family again. I threw a going-away party at the on the beach, and the after-party took place on the sand under a full moon. Seann came to the gathering with our friend and former roommate Melissa to see me off, and we drummed on the beach.

After I moved back to Ohio, Seann and his roommate Ted helped my brother build The New American Media website and Seann was Brian's live radio show engineer. I visited them in L.A. about six months after my move, and Seann acted as our cameraman as we compiled footage at the Conscious Life Expo. I was also fortunate enough to engineer for Seann as he played percussion to a track he wrote for Johnny Rabb in the electronic music spirit of the Tron soundtrack. This was the last time I worked with Seann musically.

I finally started working on music again here in Columbus, and there were tunes I was writing for The Moon Saloon—a creative work hatched by my brother and myself that Seann was helping us advance. I always had Seann in mind to contribute drums to the tracks when I was done putting them together, but that day will never come.

I'm very fortunate to have not only met Seann Flynn, but also to have created with him, lived with him and spent quality time with him. His self-discipline was unmatched and was an inspiration to all around him. Sean truly made the most of every single moment at his disposal, and can surely leave this planet with no regrets. He perused every avenue that piqued his interest with every bit of energy the Lord blessed him with. 

Seann attended the open Table Lodge at our Masonic Temple in Culver City, and considered joining Freemasonry with us. He asked for an application for degrees, but that application was never turned in. Otherwise, Seann would not have only been a friend and business partner, but our brother.

It is with great regret that we say goodbye to Seann Flynn in the physical sense, but he without a doubt left behind enough energy, enthusiasm and creative works to live throughout the ages. 

Seann was a whirlwind and one of a kind, but as they say—"Only the good die young."