Latest Release: Give Us the Moon
Label: Napalm Records
Tour: https://hardlinemedia.net/night-flight-orchestra
Band Website: https://www.thenightflightorchestra.com/
The Night Flight Orchestra last touched down in Australia during the middle of 2023. They created the biggest conga lines that local venues have seen, and in line with their inspiring latest album, Give Us the Moon, a trajectory to a higher altitude has been set. Given the band members having established legacies within the international metal scene, their ability to come up with material that is on par with Top 40 material of the very early 80’s is astonishing in itself. But their discography indicates this is not a one-off, but a dedicated and respectful approach to celebrating a musical era when rock, disco and pop melded without any sense of pretence, and where melody was the key ingredient.
Catching up with Sweden’s Björn Strid is always worthwhile, and his metal credentials remain intact with his flagship band, Soilwork, whose impact continues to be felt globally. However, he has the creative spirit and musical drive to embark on other projects that enhance his creativity, with like-minded musicians. Plus, his involvement in the At the Movies projects should make that clear to most listeners. As such, The Night Flight Orchestra is not a vanity project, but is, quite simply, an extension of a musical adventure, somewhat instigated by the musical mastermind of the much missed guitarist and songwriter, the late David Andersson, for whom Björn has endless respect, as evidenced within the content of their latest album. We caught up with Björn just before he jumped on yet another plane to deliver The Night Flight Orchestra’s great music.
I had a listen to the latest album and, yeah, fantastic work again.
Björn Strid: Thank you very much.
It’s one of those funny things with that style of music in that there’s a lot of people who dismiss it as that pop and yacht rock thing as a way of categorising it. But that era had some of the best producers of the day, such as Quincy Jones and songwriters like Desmond Child. It’s not easy to replicate.
BS: No, that’s not, and it is something very timeless. I would say it is something maybe people don’t really see it as a timeless thing. They see it as sort of like a nostalgia thing. But it’s a lost tradition, you know, but it’s. It’s also hard to write songs like that. It’s hard to make productions like that, and I think that that’s why it’s been lost. People have found easier ways or the easy way out. I think it’s a tradition that deserves to be carried on.
Did you therefore have to spend a lot of time on the instrumentation and arrangements?
BS: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, there’s definitely a lot of attention to detail but then in the end, it’s also about the songs. I guess we’re snobby about it, but not too crazy. In the end, it’s about the song, and it’s music, it’s not only music for musicians. It’s just good music in the end I can’t help mentioning Abba, as per usual when you talk to a Swedish band. But it’s like that, with that tradition of speaking very directly to the listener but also having quite complex arrangements. That’s another thing that’s very inspiring. But that being said, it doesn’t have to be so damned complicated all the time. It can be something very simple. I can be inspired from anything from The Clash to Abba and they’re completely different expressions, but somehow, we manage. I feel that we can move between these different genres and find ourselves being very inspired by that to create our own unique expression. We tie it all together in the end, most of the time, and that is a really fun experiment.
Understood, because a song like “Paloma”, which might be a little bit sparse to start with, can be compared to the depth of “Stratus”, which includes almost everything.
BS: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Extra everything. Yeah.
So, where do you draw the line to say that a song’s completed? Say you’re in the studio, you’ve got the vision, you know what you want, and then you might say, ‘Okay, it’s time to put it aside to mix it later.’
BS: I don’t know. It’s just a feeling when we have these recording sessions. We never really enter a studio for five weeks in a row and finish the album. We usually do sessions that are like long weekends or sometimes just a weekend, and we get together, record some music. We cook and we drink or whatever and hang out. t’s a bit different to what I’m used to coming from the metal world. It’s always been like, going into studio for five weeks and it is done. So here you kind of get some distance to each and every song. But I think we have this mutual vision that we just know when a song is done. But of course, there’s times when things are not locking in on a song and we don’t really know what it is. You just need to let it marinate for a while, and then suddenly you come to think about that song, and it feels like, ‘We need a song like that so let’s bring that up again.’ So, then maybe you rearrange it a bit, and then it falls into place. You never really know in the end. But there are times when you’ll say, ‘Okay, that song is done,’ because it’s there.
I get what you’re saying. I guess that’s the thing where someone like Thomas Plec Johansson or one of your engineers are sitting down listening to when Sebastian [Forslund – co-guitars and percussion] is mixing a track, and you’re choosing which instrument track faders to bring up within the track is what makes it interesting.
BS: I know, and I love working with songs like that because it can give it a completely new feeling, if you just say, ‘Okay, skip the guitar in the verse and just have the keyboard,’ and you’ll say, ‘Oh, there it is,’ and I love experimenting like that.
The solos that are on the album are quite skilled Sorry to bring up the Toto reference, but some are very reminiscent of Steve Lukather [Toto guitarist and studio legend]. You cannot miss it. So, is that intentional or is it just one of those natural progressions in following the genre?
BS: Well, you know we got Rasmus [Ehrnborn – lead guitar], who replaced David Andersson. He’s a big fan of Lukather and you can definitely hear that in his solos with just absolutely amazing solos. Lukather is one of my absolute favourites too, and we were lucky enough to open up for Toto a couple years back. So, that was very inspiring in itself. But I know people have different opinions about Toto, but what they’ve done is something really timeless, you know.
Yeah, and that’s interesting you say that because David Andersson was a lyricist on “Like the Beating of a Heart”, and there’s some very big Toto references in that song.
BS: Yeah, for sure. I mean, he was a huge fan of Toto, and, yeah, they were always present there in his compositions and that was a song that was his only contribution on the album. We decided to include that even though it was actually meant for a different project. I just remembered that song and that song deserved to do something else than just collecting dust. We brought it up and I talked to his family and his kids. They liked the song and so we brushed it off a bit, rearranged it, then kept all his lyrics and, the melody. So, it’s turned out really well and I think it really fits on the album.
I definitely agree. It’s a fantastic track. When you have elements of dialogue that you add into an album, does it then start feeling like you’re creating a concept album and you have to think about, you know, track placement?
BS: Yeah, I mean, we’re strong believers in the full-length albums as well as being able to pick out songs from our albums as singles. But, in the end, it needs to be a unit, like a full album, that will take you on a journey. So, we kind of need to live up to that and I enjoy lyrically and musically connecting everything together with real life stories versus spaced out stuff, which was very much David’s thing. He was reading so many urban fantasy books every day. He read three books a week, you know: absolutely insane. He was a super intelligent man, and then a very creative mind and quite hyperactive. So, he also wrote a lot of stuff based on real life stories as well, but some of them that we experienced together, but I think that’s an element that needs to be there, and there’s a bunch on this new album and then also other stuff that, like “Cosmic Tide” that is a bit more spaced out.
Yeah, certainly, and it’s extremely rare to find an individual such as David who’s both creative and a medical practitioner. So, a very analytical, great memory mixed with musicality – it’s extraordinary really.
BS: Yes, and he’s very missed, so very missed. He was unique, being PhD qualified, and a father, and active in two bands plus being so creative, reading so many books. Yeah, absolutely.
What’s the impact on this band to Soilwork? Presumably you have to rejig your schedules around – how do you do it?
BS: Yeah, I mean, it can be a bit tough sometimes. We have the same booking agent now. That helps a bit, and then, but we try to divide it; divide the album cycles and touring cycles, as much as we can. Of course, there’s going to be stuff bleeding into each other, but it usually works out. Then also, you know, both Rasmus and I are in both bands, so we need to find some time to rest a bit as well. So, it’s, it’s a bit of a challenge. We’re trying to be a bit more maybe selective, especially with Night Flight as well and not, I mean, we’ve been on a full European tour now. You know, we did that in February and March, so that was five weeks, but we haven’t really done that in a pretty long time. But, ultimately we would do more like shorter tours and put more effort into each and every show and make it more like an ‘evening with’ kind of vibe rather than just going out there like a four band package play six days of the week, like, ‘go, go, go, go, grind, grind,’ because I come from that world, you know. Being in the metal scene for so many years, I also want this to be a bit different. But still, it’s pretty tough. I’m going to have to go to Australia every year, having both bands. But I mean, no, I do love it. I mean, the journey kind of kills you, but once we’re there, I love it. This is going to be my 12th time to Australia as an artist, so that’s amazing.
Would you ever consider a double bill?
BS: I mean, we have talked about it and, and I don’t know if that would work or if it would be appreciated. We try to keep the band separate, but yeah, who knows, you know, that maybe could have been cool, I don’t know. We’ll see.
Is there a particular track on this latest album that you’re most proud of at this point?
BS: There’s a few. I mean, the hardest one to put together was because David always wrote a long, epic song, and so he was always writing those, and nobody else really did. I felt that, you know, it was sort of my job on this album to sort of capture that so I started writing this song that became “Stewardess, Empress, Hot Mess (And The Captain Of Pain)”, and I really don’t know how that song came together. It’s really weird because it just happened, and I was sitting there. It’s like how did I just write this because it was such a challenge; I’ve never really written anything like that, and it really felt like David was very present when I wrote that song because he was always very good at encouraging me as a songwriter, as a singer and also as a guitarist, because he was encouraging me to pick up the guitar again. When we did The Living Infinite with Soilwork, I wrote a lot of stuff, so he’s been inspiring me for so many years. Bringing that song together was really interesting and quite an experiment. I’m really happy with how it turned out in the end, you know, it’s kind of hard to compare it to David’s songs. I mean, one of my favourites that David ever wrote was “The Last of the Independent Romantics”; that’s just a fantastic song. But I’m proud of what I put together and hopefully people enjoy it.
Do you find that if you look between genres, do you favour one more than the other at this stage? You’ve worked mostly in metal, but given that you’ve now got some pop audience crossover from metal, are you gravitating more towards pop these days?
BS: Hard to say. I mean, I’m always going to be a metalhead, but it’s like I’ve lived it for such a long time, and being in a metal band can sometimes feel like you’re in a cage. But that can also be a positive thing because you work with what you have. I think we’ve been pretty good at developing extreme metal in our own way, and it’s something I’m very proud of and I still enjoy. But then there’s Night Fight and it’s like an open field where you can do whatever you want. So, of course that’s quite interesting but I like having one foot in each genre. It makes it interesting, and I can switch between these bands quite easily but that I get to do it and that they’re actually two bands that are established is unique. So, I feel very grateful for that.
So, what you need to do is do a film clip on a yacht with Soilwork.
BS: Exactly. That would have been amazing.
But do you find there are limitations in what you can do even though you say that with Night Flight, you can do whatever you want?
BS: Yeah, very often with Night Flight it’s like, ‘Can we really do that?’ Yes, of course, we can with the Night Flight Orchestra and that kind of that scenario, which is cool. You get pretty high on that fact. But, of course, maybe not always things turn out great just because of that. You can do whatever you want, and I would say most of the times it does, and we usually manage to sort of do so. Even if it’s this crazy idea that might not sound like us in the beginning, and we manage to turn it into ours in the end without compromising somehow. We just make it our own, so it usually works out, you know. I think that’s also sort of like a lost tradition. The 70’s and 80’s bands could have a reggae song, then have a progressive song, have a ballad and an upbeat rock song on the same album. Everybody thought that was completely fine. Nobody thought that was weird, so that’s kind of a lost thing, and you hear it sometimes in like commercial pop music, which is all over the place, you know, but within rock and metal, you don’t hear it that much. I think that’s something that we picked up on and pride ourselves in.
“Cosmic Tide” is interesting in how you mentioned about the 70’s musical freedom aspect, because that reminded me very much of 70’s radio, and it could probably very nicely sit next to Steely Dan, if you know what I mean?
BS: Yeah, absolutely. It’s one of my favourite tracks on the album for sure, and I love performing it, but it was really tough recording the vocals for that one. Somehow, now that we’ve been recording it or been playing it live, I feel like it’s so much easier. I don’t know why I had so many troubles. Well, not troubles, but it was quite a challenge to record the vocals, but live, it’s like, you know, it’s still tough, but I feel like I’m doing it better live, and I feel like I should have gone back. I want to re-record the vocals, but it doesn’t matter. I think it’s a great track, and very dreamy, super melodic and a bit more jammy than the other songs, I guess. It has more of like a 70s feel, like you mentioned Steely Dan, and maybe a little bit of Yes. Yeah, it sticks out a bit, but it somehow it really works with, with the rest of the songs as well.
Finally, given that you’ve appeared live in the cape, beret and white jacket, and you’ve got flight attendants, is there anything you’re going to do to top that this time? Or is it all corduroy jackets circa 1982?
BS: Ha, yeah, well, we have new outfits, and last time I did have a cape, but I think this one is better. The outfits are better, a bit more glittery than last time, so that’s an improvement. It’s only a matter of budget. I mean, we wish we could bring so many stage props to Australia, but it’s a long journey. But I think we’re improving our stage show every year. We’re sounding better, and also, we want it to be a full concept; we’ve got the songs, but we also want the full experience, and I think we’re pretty good at developing that. So, yeah, it’s going to be an even better show this time.
Bring out a big yacht front, like an Amon Amarth’s ship bow.
BS: Yes, there you go. That would be amazing. Thanks for support. See you soon.