Speaker 1: I love every single thing about that song. That is
city Lights. That is the newest single single from Flair.
I love it so much I can't even say single.
You're on Matt condorton Unleashed and we've got so hopefully
he's still there. Tony from the band I believe, has
joined us via Microsoft Teams Tony, are you there?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm here. How you doing?
Speaker 1: Hey? How are you? Man? Is it just you or
is anybody else with you?
Speaker 2: Just me today? Everyone else is working on a Saturday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I completely understand. Welcome to the show. I
love that song so much. By the way, we should
mention too, you are the vocalist and how do you
say your last name?
Speaker 2: Call him? It's like Gollum from Lord of the Call him.
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, cool, Hey, I love that song so much.
We also played I think it was a couple of
months ago now the time gets away from Me but
run Away, which that was the first song of yours
that we played. Another great track. But city Lights is amazing.
That is so very catchy. Are you are you getting
any traction with that at radio over there? I would
imagine you are. If you're not, I'm sure it's coming.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got an email recently saying that, like in
the first week of it being released, it's been on
about sixty different shows over here. So it's doing pretty
good so far, you know, and Spotify streams will hoefully
be catching up with that as well soon.
Speaker 1: Oh that's fantastic. Yeah, I'm not surprised because it's a
very very strong track, very catchy. And then so, now
is that from the EP, because you guys have an
EP out right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, So this one's just a single. Our EP
which came out a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3: Now that was that included our songs Runaway, Sackering and.
Speaker 1: Swan Gotcha, Gotcha? Okay, so those are on an EP. Now,
so is city Lights going to be on? Are you
working on another EP or is this going to remain
a standalone single or do you even know yet?
Speaker 3: Well, we've got a couple of more studio sessions books
in a couple of months where we'll get another couple
of songs done and from there I will decide they
will include this and another EP or if we want
to maybe use those two and another one.
Speaker 2: So still be decided.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting, how you know, and this is this
is truer than it's ever been. There's so many different
ways to approach it now in terms of how you release,
how you release music, whether you do a single, whether
you do an EP or a full album, or you
can release a series of singles that eventually become an
EP or an album. It's there's a lot of different
ways to do it now. And but this is such
a song, a strong track. Now, who wrote Who wrote
city Lights? Did you guys write it together or did
you write it or what's the what's the process like
in the band as far as songwriting, Well, for a lot.
Speaker 3: Of our songs, it kind of comes from us do
in practice stations and just jamming together soil something kind
of clicks and be all kind of getting a rhythm.
But for this one particularly, it was actually I went
to our bass player, Johnny's house and sort of just
like a late night kind of songwriting session. The tubas
kind of came up with the music in the lytics
together mainly me lyrics and have music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's it's got a it's got a great
vibe and it really kind of I'm curious is it
about This might be a silly question, but is it
about any particular city. Uh. And part of why I
ask that is I'm someone who and maybe this is
part of why the song appeals to me so much.
I love Jenny knows this about me. I love images
of city skylines at night. I just And it is
some are prettier than others, but it can really be
any city. I just I love. I love looking at
city skylines at night. I love you know, the city lights.
Is Is there any particular city that you had in
mind when you wrote this or is it? Am I
am I thinking? Uh? Am? I getting too granular in
terms of my analysis of the song.
Speaker 2: Oh no, no, I'm right there with you, man.
Speaker 3: It's well, it's definitely inspired by our hometown Glasgow and
here in Scotland.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but a lot of it's really like.
Speaker 3: Just like general it's a lot of it's kind of
about mental health as well, and you know, like try
to get away from all that kind of stuff too,
So that's sort of part of its generalized. But it's
tefinitely a lot of inspiration from Glasgow too.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, And can you talk to me more about
the mental health aspect of of what the song is about,
because that's also something that we talk about a lot
on this show. I'm a certified hypnotherapist, so I help
people deal with some issues and and uh, you know,
and I'm someone who I myself struggle with depression, so
I know all too well how you know mental health,
how how it affects so many people. And and maybe
that's another thing that kind of subconsciously that I connect
with with the song. But but can you can you
kind of expand on that a little bit?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Well, when I can write lyrics, I usually
do it based on past experiences. I find it easier
to reflect on them that way, and can I get
you know, put words to it easier. So like the
time of writing, I didn't feel this way, but like
it reflects back on a time where I was feeling
very anxious and not in the best place. And like
at the time I wouldn't be able to come up
with those kind of lytrics.
Speaker 2: But like that's exactly like I.
Speaker 3: Couldn't stand being around people all this hustle and bustle.
I want to just you know, get away, go somewhere
quiet where I could be alone.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm hmm, Yeah, I can. I can relate to that.
I think everybody, you know, I think that's uh, I
think that's very very relatable. Do you find that, I
mean just generally does does writing and performing music? Does
that help you in terms of your own you know,
whether you know you mentioned that at one point, you
know you're feeling very anxious and whatnot? I mean, is
that kind of because I always feel like creativity is
the best therapy, right if you can, if you can
take things that are bothering you and create something out
of them, or if they spur you, or maybe it's
not even maybe what you create has nothing to do
with what's bothering you necessarily, but you're just creating something
as a way of kind of getting through that, you know,
the malaise or whatever it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely, Like I've always thought, it's a very therapeutic
way of getting like how you're feeling out there, and
like I find like reflection on sort of even past
emotion is a good way, you know, even after a
while finally you know, help yourself get to a root
cause of it, just looking and within yourself. But even
at the same time, if it's not, as you said,
directly addressed and an issue you're haven't, it's a good
distraction as well, I.
Speaker 1: Think, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, when you brought city Lights
to the other guys, because you and and Johnny wrote this,
did they were they into it immediately? Were they like, oh,
this is this is a hit? Or what did what?
Did they think?
Speaker 3: Well, Yeah, this is actually a song that we've been
playing on stage for probably well over a year now. Okay,
it's definitely we had tried to release it a couple
of times before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but we just felt.
Speaker 2: Like, you know, there's something missing from it.
Speaker 3: So it certainly took a lot of work to get
to the version that you just played there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The I'm curious about the production too, and I'm
kind of a recording. There's there's some very there's a
lot of nuance here. You know, it's not like you
guys just went in obviously and just you know, you
just play the track and and and you know, there's
there's some production flourishes, shall we say, especially at the end.
The way that it ends is so cool and it's
very it's very sort of atmospheric, is it. And actually,
now that I'm thinking about it, Runaway is kind of
like that too. Have you been working with the same
producer and recording engineers, uh this whole time or or
is is it a I'm curious about your your approach
in terms of recording these songs, because like I said,
it's you know, you're not You're not just going into
a studio and handing somebody a bunch of money and
just recording and you know there's more going on there.
The the production is is pretty sophisticated.
Speaker 2: Oh, I appreciate that, thank you.
Speaker 3: And we like to think that we found like some
good producers over the years, but like Runaway and actually
Aim recorded by two different people. But I think this
a lot of these just the kind of sounds that
we are trying capture right now. But I think that
you know, we went to the producer over in Edinburgh
for city Lights, and I think he was just like,
it's a much lighter sort of vibe to run Away Runaways,
I'd say, a bit darker, more mysterious kind of sounding.
But I think like both like both producers were able
to find the like the exact kind of tone that
we were looking for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, each song, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. By the way,
so what's the situation in Glasgow as far as the
music scene there. I would imagine there's a It seems
like Glasgow is a city that we hear a lot about,
at least in the US that we hear a lot
about in the UK where there's a lot going on musically.
I mean, is is that true? Is my perception true?
Is is there a lot of really good, really good
bands and solo artists in Glasgow?
Speaker 3: Absolutely every time that we play a gig, like, I'm
always impressed by at least one of the other bands
that we're playing with. There's so many talented urs over here,
especially like the sort of like rock and in the
scene that there's so many like cool venues like King
Tuts is like a legend of the place here that's
where Oasis were discovered and so like that's like it's
almost like a mecca for like bands in Scotland to
like come like to go and play there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I can imagine. And then so what's what's
the live situation? Like what's are you guys able to
get out and tour? Do you play shows in your
area or do you do you do you hit the road?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 1: What's Obviously you know, we're in the time of year
when this is when everybody wants to be out touring, right,
how's that been for you guys?
Speaker 3: Well, although the first couple of years we were like
we're stuck in the mud, like we were only getting
Glasgow shows, which was great because, like I said, the
music scene in Glasgow is amazing. But I'd say about
a year ago, we've you know, we've ventured down south,
we went to England, We've done you know, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Birmingham,
a few other places, Newcastle as well, and we've still
got a lot more booked for the rest of this
year and finally starting to get some festivals in two
so good.
Speaker 2: It's been a sating time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, festivals are definitely where it's at in terms of
getting exposure and and and building a fan base in
terms of your your your live presentation. So that's that's great,
that's really good to hear. That's when you guys play
out by the way, So if you're doing a set,
you know, in a club or that type of situation,
do you mix in some covers or maybe you have
a backlog of originals that you haven't covered, I mean
that you haven't recorded yet. But I mean, what do
you guys do do any covers or do you stick
to originals or what do you do?
Speaker 3: We mainly stick to originals just because, like mainly the
kind of circuit that we play it is like mainly
ticketed events where people are just like looking at here
sort of original music. But because that we kind of
have kind of more zone than on a specific sound now,
so we did have to kind of throw out a
lot of our older songs. So we do throw in
a couple of cover he didn't then, but mainly, like
it's actually, if we're not doing a handline show, we're
just supporting someone and we've got half an hour, we
only really want to do our own songs.
Speaker 1: Sure, no, that makes sense, That makes sense absolutely if
you've got an open for anybody, uh really any any
sort of national or international touring acts yet going through
your area?
Speaker 2: Not yet, but what's trying. Yeah no, that's a dream.
Speaker 3: Yeah no, it's gonna I want to, you know, go
and you know, like go out and travel somewhere in
Europe and beyond, and you're like going a proper tour.
Speaker 2: That would be great.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, no, I think it's gonna happen for you.
I mean, you guys are you're definitely going in the
right direction. So and uh, like I said, these are
such great songs, and you know, keep putting out great
music and keep doing what you're doing, and I you'll
you'll definitely continue to progress. I have no doubt about that.
By the way, where does the name Flair come from?
Speaker 2: So it's a funny story. It's actually nowhere needs excited.
Speaker 3: It's from the video game in FIFA, okay, And it's
basically it's like it was basically one of the one
of the traits that you can put on, like your
creative players, is called flair, and it just means like
they're a bit more skillful, a bit more flashy.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2: It was actually that's the story.
Speaker 3: I've been told that it was actually already called flair
before I joined the band.
Speaker 1: So oh okay, well if that's what you were told,
I mean it sounds like that's the official story. So
that's cool. Good deal. So where should people, Tony? Where
should people go online to keep up with everything that
you guys were doing. Where's the best place for people
to go? Because you've got a lot of great stuff happening.
Speaker 3: So mainly we use Instagram right now, which are handled
for that is at flair band, and then we use
Twitter as well, that's at flair Band zero one four
one as well, And those are kind of the main
two social medias that we're using right now to kind
of like, you know, get out, like where we're going
to be playing, what songs are coming out all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but and do you have any any idea when
the next single is gonna be out or I don't
know if you've started have you started working on the
next one yet, or I know you're focused on city Lights.
Speaker 2: But yeah, so once we're kind of done today alas,
we do have.
Speaker 3: Either October or November that we're going in for two
more recordings, and we're gonna be looking to release them,
you know, as soon as possible. Ones we've recorded them,
so definitely by the end of the year we'll have
two more songs.
Speaker 1: Oh fantastic. Well, we look forward to doing that, We
look forward to hearing that, rather, I should say, and
we look forward to playing those so fantastic. So I
think what we're gonna do, Tony is we will end
the segment with I'm gonna play Runaway, which is another
great track and then I'm gonna cheat a little bit.
I'm gonna play Runaway, but then I'm also gonna play
city Lights one more time because I love that song
so much and selfishly I want to hear it. And plus,
you know how radio works. I mean, there's there's people
who didn't hear the start of the show who are
just joining the show now so then they'll be able
to hear it. But I that song is so addictive.
It's one of those songs. It's you know, like a
lot of people, I wake up with a song in
my brain every morning, like as soon as my eyes
pop open, as soon as I even start to wake up,
there's something playing in my head. So I have this
little playlist in my brain, and that's one of the
songs that the first time I heard it. For several
days after hearing it the first time, that's one of
the songs that was stuck in my head when I
would wake up in the morning, I would hear that.
It's just so catchy, it's absolutely infectious. So after Runaway,
I'm going to play that one more time as well.
But we will definitely do this again in the future, because,
like I said, you guys are on a very positive
trajectory and happy to you know, we're happy to support
you here on the American side anyway that we can.
So Tony, we will let you go and I'm going
to hit that track. But thank you so much for
joining us today, and we'll talk again soon. I'm sure
no prov look forward to it.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1: All right, Tony, you got it. Thank you, take care,
bye bye, bye bye. All right, wonderful. That was Tony
column from the band Flair