Australia's electronic music scene right now is buzzing with energy.
A series of artists have made dents internationally, with revered duo Flight Facilities leading the pack.
The pair's debut album was a strong introduction, all arena-sized synths and chopped up beats, a gleefully creative document that re-paid continuous listens.
New track 'Arty Boy' is the duo's first blast of new material in some time, and it comes equipped with some startling visuals from German collective Jünglinge.
Clash catches up with Flight Facilities to see what lies ahead…
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This is the first new music we’ve heard from you since ‘Down To Earth’ – what makes this such an appropriate point of return?
That's just the thing, we'd been gone so long we weren't 100% sure of the first move. 'Arty Boy' was originally written with Emma back in 2014 for her record 'Supercry'.
After she realised it didn't quite fit with the other tracks, we toyed with the idea of releasing it as a collaboration. So after three years of sitting on it, we finally decided to put it out into the world.
Did you feel you needed a natural break from your debut, or is this more of an evolution?
After the last record, we toured so much that we never got around to finishing anything. We naturally felt like we wanted to go back to the drawing board and start again, hopefully evolving along the way.
We were worried we might have stayed away for a little too long but we're overwhelmed with the reception 'Arty Boy' has had and we intend to keep building on that.
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We'd been gone so long we weren't 100% sure of the first move…
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The visuals are a key part of your return, have you always sought to tell a wider story than simply music? What role did visuals play with your debut, for example?
Visuals are a huge part of our music, in both the production and live element. When we were making one of the tracks from 'Down To Earth' called 'Merimbula' we were no more than a five second loop of music in when we began paring it visually with one of our favourite Disney cartoons – Pink Elephants On Parade.
We constantly make music in "colour" to explain the feeling or emotion behind a track to each other. We hope to work more and more with amazing visual artists for the live show.
German collective Junglinge come on board to direct the new clip, how did this come about? Were you fans of their work before?
Our manager found them. We had a few treatments for the video already that weren't bad by any stretch but the guys at Junglinge really jumped out at us. It was a super kooky idea but you could tell in the wording of the treatment and from their previous work they knew how to execute it.
I think this video is the most creative control we've handed over to a director just because of how much attention to detail there was in the treatment. After a few phone calls and seeing the outcome of the casting call, we had a lot of trust in them. Also, they're German, precision is basically their middle name.
What attracted you to the story of Shirin & Nasser?
The sweet but bizarre nature of it. The fact that they owned such an incredible establishment and were friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger alone would be enough but there was a sweet hidden nature about them, it felt like their story needed to be told but they would never have thought it was a story in the first place, it was just their lives. A video we have always loved in a similar style was Todd Terje's 'Whateverest'.
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We constantly make music in "colour" to explain the feeling or emotion behind a track…
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How does the video expand on the creative universe offered by the music itself?
The song is very sparse and awkward to begin with but the video definitely helped to accentuate that. There's definitely a sweetness in the lyrics and phrasing that comes out more in the video.
Christiane Spangsberg worked on the artwork, what made her the right choice for the project? How integral is it to blend artwork and music?
Because she rules! We've loved her work for a while and were over the moon when she said she wanted to be involved. Her rendition of 'Arty Boy' is exactly what we were after.
Where next for Flight Facilities?
More music! We’re excited to share what we've been doing for the last few years, we just hope people will be excited to hear it. We plan to be touring again in 2018.
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For tickets to the latest Flight Facilities shows click HERE.
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