The singer who was almost on the new Flight Facilities track
It’s now been five years since Flight Facilities released their debut album. And the duo still don’t know if they’ll follow it up any time soon or just release individual tracks
Confidential
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FLIGHT Facilities wrote new single Better Than Ever three years ago with American soul singer Charles Bradley in mind.
Alas it wasn’t to be. The Sydney duo — Hugo Gruzman and Jimmy Lyall — recorded a version of the song and were set to finish it in New York with Bradley in 2017.
Sadly the 68-year-old’s stomach cancer took hold and he passed away.
The song sat dormant until they revisited it with US singer Aloe Blacc, best known for his hit I Need a Dollar and his work with Avicii on Wake Me Up and SOS.
“We got lucky Aloe wanted to carry through the vision we had for the song,” Lyell says. “The song does feel different for us, but in the studio it felt natural.”
“It used to be more electronic, then it transformed into more of an Isley Brothers track,” Gruzman adds.
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“We brought some electronic elements back in to balance the bridge between our music and Aloe’s music.”
The more soulful sound has surprised some although they call it a natural evolution.
“Bands do this and we’re guilty of it,” Gruzman said. “You go away and make music, people don’t hear from you in ages. You’re away having a private evolution. By the time you put the music out nobody’s seen you have that journey. It’s like having a haircut and not seeing someone for a while and then they’ve got no hair. What the hell just happened?”
This week marks five years since the release of their ARIA winning debut album Down To Earth, home to C rave You, Two Bodies, Sunshine and Clair De Lune, as heard in Telstra ads.
They’ve only released a singles since — Arty Boy, Stranded, Need You and All Your Love — but have been busy writing and recording “an artillery” of new material.
However they’ve yet to decide if they’ll release a second album, or stick to the singles-only policy.
Lyell says it’s only media who want albums these days. “Fans love to be drip-fed things they can digest. Even if they’re not only telling us that, that looks like the trend from people who are listening.”
“You can throw out ten tracks on an album, people gobble it up and two months later they’re like ‘What else have you got?’,” Gruzman says. “It depends on what reward you’re after. If you want all the focus on one song and you want everyone to know it, it makes the live shows better, because people know each song, so each song feels like a big moment. There’s a million ways to skin a cat.”
