Transcript of an interview I recorded with Björn ‘Speed’ Strid of THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA - 20200227. Full article here. MAL-
Once again talking to Björn, this time about THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA with a new album coming out soon, Björn. Thanks for taking my call. BJÖRN- Well, thanks for having me. MAL- once again, it's good to have you on Yeah. Last time I spoke to you right When 'Sometimes The World Ain't Enough' was just about to come out. How did that album go for you? BJÖRN- Very well I would say we did our second full European tour and the numbers were definitely growing. We noticed in the crowd was that it was it was way more sort of mixed crowd because on the first tour that we did, first headline tour through Europe that we did, it was mostly sort of, you know, SOILWORK, ARCH ENEMY fans being a little bit curious about our projects together. And the one we did for 'Sometimes The World Ain't Enough' was a bit bigger crowds and very mixed, and even people Who never heard about SOILWORK or ARCH ENEMY, which was really cool. You know, it was very interesting, you know, and and I think we brought out people that normally wouldn't go to the same shows, you know, and it was everything from you know, prog dads to teenage girls knowing every word, you know, standing in the front row and, and to I don't know, hipsters to rockers to it was a very interesting mix of people. So I guess this band has a little bit of a uniting factor in that sense, which is brilliant, I would say. So, things have been growing quite a bit. And, you know, the previous album got a lot of good response and it seems like this, this new one is getting a lot of it too. So we're very excited, for sure. MAL- Yeah, and so you should be. I heard it for the first time last night and had a smile on my face from start to finish. It's one of those sorts of albuns, I think I did the same thing with the last one. Had anything changed this time around? Are you going through the same process for recording? But firstly For starters, I'm still amazed that you find the time in amongst SOILWORK and anyone else's projects, main bands if you like, to find the time to even write this music, you're getting it down, you're touring as well. How do you find the time? And how did you go with it this time around? BJÖRN- Well, last year was very hectic. And somehow we managed to to get it all together and but what we've done or what we're going to do for this album is that we're separating the two bands, sort of album cycles and touring cycles. And because we can't really do everything at the same time, because now there's a lot more demand for touring with THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA as well you know, so it's, so this year is going to be pretty much about THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, and we're going to few shows with SOILWORK here and there, but no, like full tours, so I think that's good for everybody involved because I mean, both me and David are in both bands as well. So pretty cool how that this band has grown, you know, a lot the latest years so yeah, I mean, but then again, it's the inspiration is always flowing. So it's quite easy, you know, once you're home and off tour, it's you know, I like to just write songs, you know, and it's a labour of love in that sense. But yeah, I mean, there are times when it can get a little hectic like last summer we did three festivals with both of the bands on the same day with just one hour in between that was, that was pretty weird. MAL- And believe it or not, I did know that because I was following the lineup of these tours, and I put a question in my mind then and it's coming at you right now. Is that at any time during those performances did you just have to stop for a minute and think which stage you were on? BJÖRN- Well, not really. I mean, I expected it to be, you know, once we were there, I mean, before before coming to the festival, I was like, What am I doing? This is crazy. And, you know, I was concerned about the voice and then we did the NIGHT FLIGHT show and that was good. And then we had, you know, one hour in between and then we went on stage with SOILWORK. And I was a little bit worried, but I was singing a lot better with SOILWORK than I normally would, you know, and it's like, wow, you know, there's, you know, maybe I should start warming up like 20 years later, you know, but it worked out really well, you know, and the voice was fine. And and I don't know, I guess I found myself you know, laughing a little bit, you know, just being on stage with with SOILWORK and I was like, I can't believe I just came out of a suit and a beret, you know, up here with my metal vest on and it was quite a kick actually in the end. And yeah, I guess some people in the crowd, I don't even know if they sort of, you know, maybe some people didn't even know that it was the same guy or I don't know, it's hard to say. MAL- Right, let's talk about this new album coming out, coming out basically, in the next day or so actually. Let's talk about that. What can you tell us about it? BJÖRN- Well, um, I think it's a continuation of a natural continuation of the previous one, even though we're I think we're breaking the boundaries even more and this new albums is a bit more focused, I would say, and it's very diverse. You know, it's an album where you could take out, you know, let's say two songs, like, you know, Servants Of The Air and Transmissions as an example. And if you show that to a random person, they wouldn't believe it's from the same band or the same album, even so And I think that's the beauty of it, you know, and when you listen to the album, you know that it's very diverse, but it's, it's somehow really connects, you know, and it definitely takes you on a journey just like our other albums, but maybe even more this time, you know, and it's super melodic, super euphoric, and melancholic as well. And I think we found a balance more than ever, you know, with those two sort of elements, you know, if you will. And so I think it's a Yeah, it's definitely filling a void in the music scene, you know, and I felt that also with the previous two, but especially this one, you know, it's something there's not many bands that sort of captured this vibe out there. And if I want to go a little bit pretentious for a second, I would, I would call it very cinematic. You know, it's like, a lot of people put sort of the A.O.R. label on us, but it's it's, I mean, what is A.O.R. today, I don't need to know because that's like a term from the 70s and 80s you know and and yeah, to me it sounds like we're playing cinematic rock because it generates so many pictures listening to this music and and yeah, there's a lot of escapism running through it both lyrically and and also musically. MAL- Cinematic rock that sits well with me. BJÖRN- Okay cool. MAL- I did pick up, now this is gonna sound weird. I did sort of pick up a slightly different vibe with this album than the previous one, but if you try and pin me down on why I can't answer why, I don't know how or why, but it just seemed to have a slightly different vibe about it. BJÖRN- Yeah, it might have. I mean, I don't know if we've done anything special. I mean, we constantly develop our sound you know, and and I don't know, maybe it's slightly more atmospheric. We've been working a lot with the keyboards as well, you know, and yeah, I don't know. It's hard to say like, like, you mentioned It's hard to sort of put your finger on exactly what it is, but we like it to be different for each album of course, but MAL- Maybe it was a background vocals BJÖRN- Maybe Yeah, maybe it might be I mean, the Annas did more vocals on this new album than they did on the previous one. MAL- The Annas. BJÖRN- Yeah, the Airline Annas MAL- Right so when's this tour kick off? You kicking it off straight away? And where are you playing? BJÖRN- We're doing the European tour starting next Friday in London so that's going to run for three and a half weeks. And then we have a bunch of dates in Scandinavia and then a lot of summer festivals in Europe. So it's going to be pretty busy schedule, but it's gonna be, we're really excited about it. It's gonna be exciting to do these songs live as well from the new album. MAL- Is it much of a logistical nightmare getting, like you've taken a break from NIGHTFLIGHT ORCHESTRA and SOILWORK album cycles, you mentioned are like different now what about the other guys? Have we had to shuffle things around with their cycles? Had we had to re-arrange their cycles? Haha, that sounds so wrong. BJÖRN- Yeah, no no I get it I mean it's for Sharlee it's been a little bit of a nightmare you know because they're touring even more than SOILWORK does you know with ARCH ENEMY so but we've had a stand in because we knew this from the beginning that you know sharlee was not going to be able to take time off with with ARCH ENEMY very often. So we've had Rasmus Ehrnborn who's been filling in on bass and was also playing with SOILWORK. So that's been working out pretty well. But of course, we want Sharlee to be with us as much as possible and so does he loves this band. Yeah. And want to do as much as he as he can, but now he has time off, thankfully with ARCH ENEMY so he can do all of the shows that we had planned so far for this album. So I think that's the hardest part getting Sharlee, you know, to, to do the shows, but um, yeah, so it's the full lineup, yeah. MAL- Any stories behind any of the particular songs on the album you want to tell us about? BJÖRN- Um, well, I could bring up 'This Boys Last Summer' as an example. It sort of captures me being you know, going to elementary school and having you know, the summer break and two weeks into the summer break I start getting a little bit melancholic and depressed and thinking oh my god, we're two weeks into summer break, soon it's school again, you know, and instead of enjoying the moment and enjoy Going into summer, I was just counting the days until you know, school started again. So that's and I've learned a lot since then to sort of, you know, enjoy the moment instead of thinking what's next, you know, and so that tells the sort of melancholic story from from these days in that song. MAL- I think we can all relate to that. BJÖRN- Yeah. MAL- Anything else Björn? BJÖRN- 'Divinyls' And people have asked me if it has any connection to the Australian band and it actually does. MAL- It does? Oh okay. BJÖRN- Yeah, it does. So here's the story. I wrote that song One day at my parents and I had just watched some DIVINYLS on YouTube and because my favourite clip of YouTube is their performance of 'Boys In Town' from US Festival 1983 and that's been sort of like something that we always played on our you know, pre show parties on the bus because we love that performance it's just magical and somehow that song popped up in my head that day and that's when I wrote 'Divinyls'. I mean 'Divinyls' doesn't sound like 'Boys In Town', but I don't know I wanted to capture the vibe in that song and I wrote that song in like two hours, and so I guess you could say that it is a little bit of a tribute and it was actually just a working name, and I called it 'Divinyls' those because that was the vibe I was going for that day because I love the band so much and, and we decided to stick with it because you know what, once we came to the end of the song was finished, we were gonna, you know, mix it and get the master done. It's like, it's like, 'Should we call it something else? Like, no, no, it should be 'Divinyls'. So that's how that came about. MAL- I actually saw the DIVINYLS right when that song very first came out. BJÖRN- Oh, nice. MAL- It only just hit the radio. And I saw them in this little hotel here. And they got called back for an encore. And I don't know if they had too much material, but they played that song again. BJÖRN- That's amazing. And it's like a hotel tour. That's exactly what I would like to do in Australia with THE NIGHT FIGHT ORCHESTRA. I guess it's not really the same sort of culture with the hotels these days as it used to be, but I think that would be that would be cool setting for this band today. MAL- That's the way to do it. Aussie pub rock. BJÖRN- Yes, love it. MAL- Just finished chatting to Björn from THE NIGHT FIGHT ORCHESTRA, talking about the new album 'Aeromantic' coming out right now and Björn, it's always great to talk to you. Thanks for taking the time to chat with me today. BJÖRN- Thank you so much, and thanks for having me. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |