How did you all meet?
Anthony Wallace: Well, the three of us that aren't the singers all went to high school together, so we've known each other for a really long time and we started our band in high school and we went to college and met our singer very early. Actually, we lived in the same dorm as him and one day - we were looking for a singer - and one day I heard him singing Christmas carols in the showers and he was really good; it was a very unusual start. We formed our band then and we've been going strong since.
How did you come up with the name 'Flight of Ryan'?
The name actually came before we went to college, so it's really old. There's this road where we grew up called Ryan Street or Road or something and they had railroad tracks that ran through it and there was a big hump where the railroad tracks went through it, as there often is, and we used to drive our cars down that street and go off the hump like it was a ramp and my car would fly and that's how we got the name. It was pretty dumb and dangerous and it kind of broke my car, but that's what we used to do.
Are there any bands you take inspiration from?
Yeah, definitely, I think there are tons. The Beatles are our favorite band - just like everybody else in the world - and we love them and we love a lot of artists from that era. We love Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Doors. We love Death Cab For Cutie - that's huge for us. We love Jimmy Eat World, who is also from Arizona, they're just important to us. And then, we love a lot of modern synth-y bands, like M83, Chvrches, Passion Pit. So, I guess those are kind of, like, the three sort of areas of music that we focus on: classic '60s psychedelic rock and then sort of emo-y kind of music and then kind of modern synth-y. We like all kinds of music, I mean, but I guess I would call those the main ones.
Any tracks you're hooked on now?
I've been listening to Grimes' new album this week, it's really cool. I don't know, we've all been pretty much obsessed with Tame Impala this year; the album they released over the summer is amazing. Also, Beach House.
How would you describe your sound?
I kind of believe that the people that make the music shouldn't try to describe it. I just think, when you make your own music, you kind of get a little crazy, you kind of lose perspective, and sometimes you just need to ask other people to find out what it sounds like. So, having said that, what most people say about our music is that, it's accessible; it's pop-y, like, there are strong melodies and beats that you can comprehend easily; it's also kind of dark, it has kind of a melancholiness to it; and it's electronic, but I think it's kind of bippity boppity, if that makes sense; and it also has a very heavy, good dose of guitars, so it's kind of bluesy in that way.
What inspired your latest single, "Technicolor Souls"?
The actual song is actually pretty old. Like I said, we've been around for awhile, the band has been together for awhile, but this is our first album and there's a lot of time in there when we were making music of a completely different style, without synths or anything, and we've kind of taken all that music down, but "Technicolor Souls" was the first song that we ever made with our synths, so I guess, what inspired "Technicolor Souls" was getting all these new instruments and just trying to make something with them. Yeah, it really was just our first kind of foray into electronic music, at all.
Lyrically, I think what inspired it was kind of an anxiety with aging and getting older; it was kind of like, we're young, but we're kind of at the time where you're clearly not a kid anymore, so that's part of it too.
Is the sound on the two singles you've released thus far indicative of what we can expect to hear on From Cocoon?
Yeah, I think those songs are good representations of the album. I think that there are songs that are less straightforward, I would say, than those two, that are just, kind of, for lack of a better word, just more weirdness going on. Yeah, the sounds and the feel and the basic vibe of those songs is a good indication of what to expect on the rest of the album, I think.
How would you describe the album?
I guess I would just describe it the same as I would describe our sound. I mean, I will say that we weren't trying to go for anything particular when we made the album, we were just kind of writing and doing what came to mind, so I guess I would really just describe the album like that: it's really just kind of what happened from us all getting into the studio.
Is there anything you hope listeners can take away from your music?
Yeah, I mean, I think about the songs that have been most important to me and, obviously, I love the song, like melodically and just the sound and like that, but there are also some elements of a message that resonates and it would be super fulfilling and cool if anybody got that same thing out of any of our songs. Obviously, the most important thing that you'd want for anybody listening to your music is to like your songs, to be able to, you know, bob their head to it or learn the words, but I would also hope that they kind of take some time to reflect on the message of the lyrics and think about them and apply it to their life in some way.
Is there anything you would like to add?
Well, the album [From Cocoon] - we just finalized the date - it's going to be December 11th; we should expect one more single to come out before then.