Flying high

Image from the Flight Brigade Website
One of my favourite tracks right now is being played out quite a lot on CrossRhythms radio. It's called 39 Steps and it's by Flight Brigade.

The song has really got inside my head, and you would be well advised to check it out on YouTube. I think you'll like it. There are several versions, including a few live performances. Flight Brigade are going from strength to strength.

They are masters of the memorable riff, and every track I've heard from this 7 piece outfit weaves melodic rock with intriguing lyrics. The track below, titled U Kill Me, illustrates this perfectly, and showcases the diverse talents of the entire band.



The band's website opens their biography page with the following statement:

"Think of Flight Brigade as a family as much as a seven-strong band and you start to understand the chemistry between them. Think of their songs as epic stories to which each member is essential and you begin to grasp what makes their music so powerful. Watch them perform and you can’t fail to be struck by the special bond they share." When you meet them, you can see this is true. Flight Brigade are clearly enjoying working together, and their work extends beyond the stage and studio, in film and TV and other media activities. Flight Brigade remind me a little of Arcade Fire, with the same stage presence, drive and big wall of sound the Canadian indie-rockers often generate.

I managed to grab an interview with three of the members of Flight Brigade, the songwriting team of Tom, Dorry and Ollie, before their MainStage set at Creation Fest 2018. We talked about songwriting, filmscores, playing at festivals and most importantly - spirituality. It is the band's opinion that music has a spiritual dimension and has the capability to bypass our minds and intellect and speak straight to our souls. That's the reason, they say, why it can be so powerful. One of the stories violinist and vocalist Dorry tells in the interview is about a man who heard them play on Canadian Radio, and his life was transformed as a result. The band don't compromise when they are playing at secular events - they continue to do what they always do - play great music, with pounding beats, crunching guitars alongside thoughtful lyrics and lilting strings, and this somehow comes together to make Flight Brigade. A band who are well worth a listen.

My interview with Flight Brigade is available to hear in full below on the red and white arrow link.



Creative Commons License
Flying high by Steve Wheeler was written in Plymouth, England and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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