Flyte have never shied away from their influences.
After all, if music is about anything, then it's about sharing – passing on new sounds, songs that inspire you.
Set to play this year's Standon Calling, Flyte will bring their refreshing live show to the Hertfordshire event, unfurling a truck-load of good vibes in the process.
Before then, Clash caught up with Flyte to discuss a few of their key touchstones…
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Arcade Fire – 'The Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)'
For a song about boredom and nothingness it’s an absolutely gigantic track, the key changes and the apocalyptic play out, it’s as rousing as it is tragic.
Our version was done very much on a whim in a tunnel under Westminster bridge after watching the (just that bit too self-indulgent) director’s cut of Blade Runner at the BFI. We didn’t have any instruments with us, just the sound of the tunnel. The best bit is Big Ben chiming off in perfect time with the line ‘just punch the clock’, we had to try very hard to contain ourselves at that point.
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Radiohead – 'House Of Cards'
'In Rainbows' is an album that still feels new and mysterious. It’s a sharp reminder of how ambitious you can continue to be as a band without resorting to electronic trickery. 'House Of Cards', one of the many highlights, is like being in the middle of a really good dream that you’re annoyed to wake up from. We did our version with a guitar and a drum machine, just back from playing a show and mildly delirious, it’s two in the morning in the field outside our flat and we’re trying not to wake the neighbours.
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Talking Heads – 'Heaven'
They’ve been a huge influence in so many ways but perhaps the biggest thing is David Byrne’s way with words. It’s like he’s put a filter on the world and you see everything that little bit differently. We sang this in a church at Christmas, a holy light was shining through the stained glass window, a lovely bit of festive atheism.
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Alvvays – 'Archie, Marry Me'
Such a wonderful bit of songwriting – poetic, original lyrics and a pleasingly simple chord progression. This band is massively underrated, their washy, garage band sound could well have disguised how good the writing is. We thought singing it stripped down like this might help bring the melody and lyrics into focus.
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Joni Mitchell – 'River'
'Blue' is one of those sacred albums that you want to fiercely claim for yourself. Many an argument on who ‘knows and loves it more’ has been had by prematurely middle-aged adolescents who are convinced they are the first to have discovered poetry.
If it can survive that, it can survive us singing 'River' drunkenly round a piano in the wee hours of a Christmas evening.
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Flyte will be playing the Clash stage at this year's Great Escape – details.
Catch Flyte at this year's Standon Calling (July 27th – 30th).
For tickets to the latest Flyte shows click HERE.
