The Flight Facilities dudes make funky, chilled-out disco for a hip, EDM-loving generation. That's what we know about them for sure.
Everything else -- where they're from, who they are, how they got their name -- is subject to change depending on who you ask. That's because they're more interested in having fun and making consistent music than getting the boring facts right.
That or maybe they have some deep-seated childhood issues. We caught up with them ahead of their Bardot performance tonight to find out what was really going on.
Crossfade: It seems like you have a habit of compulsively lying. You're always making up where you're from and who you are. Is this something that goes back to childhood for you guys?
Jimmy: I feel like I'm an habitually honest person, so I'm having so much fun lying about everything. This is my one chance to tell no truths.
Hugo: And I'm sometimes honest. I'm usually honest. It's also so we don't take ourselves too seriously and find a personality in what we're doing here which has no bearing on our real personality.
What's the best lie you ever told?
Jimmy: You know, you hook up with a girl and the next day you don't really wanna stay hanging out with her, so you kind of lie about having family dinner. And then you kind of walk around the block, come back home, watch movies by yourself hung over and really content.
Hugo: I think I kicked a hole in the wall at my house and then blamed it on a mouse. Even though all the wall was crumbled on to the inside and not the other way around.
Did anyone believe that?
Hugo: No, not even a little bit. I was like, "Pretty sure it was a mouse," and dad was like, "yeah, no it wasn't. You kicked in the wall." And then my brother had to investigate it pretty much. To look at it like, "Well, if you look at this wall, everything is caved in from the outside to the in, judging by the force, that was you."
Jimmy: Aww, your brother fucked you.
Hugo: It was a good lesson. That was probably one of the good lessons of, "oh, I'm just going to tell the truth."
Musically, your sound is so sophisticated and smooth and sexy. Do you bathe in silk and champagne to get into that mindset?
Jimmy: It's quite the opposite. We play video games and dress in horrible track suits when we go into the studio and we're really nerdy sometimes. Quite the opposite from sophisticated really. But I think if we had to knuckle down and be sophisticated we could. But life is so much funner when you're not always trying to be really sophisticated and stuff.
Why don't you have more original material? Are you working on any albums or anything to come out soon?
Hugo: Just remember, before we get into this, you're the one that asked okay? Basically, we feel like what's the point of making an album that isn't that great when quite regularly you're able to get the best tracks off that album and buy them singly. Why not just make those best tracks? If we were to write an album, we would have the material, but if we just feel like the tracks aren't really the biggest tracks on the album, why not just give people the main thing?
Jimmy: I think a lot of people make an album with three or four major singles and then the rest will be fillers. And I think a lot of the artist now themselves produce fillers, and we're not ready to put out material that we don't feel is completely a part of our souls. Everything we put out we really believe in and we really believe it has the value of being put out as a single so, that's the way we choose to put it out, to get the full attention that the song deserves. There's no reason we should flood an already flooded market with stuff that we don't even feel that strong about.
Anything coming up?
Hugo: We have a new single coming out around the start of next month. It's coming out on Glassnote Records, and it's called "Clare De Lune." It's featuring vocals from a girl from New York named Christine.
Does it feature any of the tune "Clare De Lune?"
Hugo: It was inspired by Claude Debussy's song "Clare De Lune." It's kind of like our ode to him because we're both so in love with that song that we decided to reference it in some parts, like some of the chord progressions and then build our own thing from that. It's definitely a different turn for Flight Facilities.
I heard that in Australia you're kind of pop stars, your music gets a lot of play on the radio? Why does Australia get you and we get stuck with shitty hip-hop techno remixes and Ke$ha?
Jimmy: Who do you think runs the radio stations? Who do you think runs the record labels? In America, everyone's kind of working the same thing and if something's played enough times, people like it. It's almost like a form of brainwash.
Hugo: Yeah, you don't have the choice to like something else. And also, in Australia, we have a national radio station over there. Think about having one radio station in America that was played across the entire country, and whatever was played on that was consistent, it sort of on a personal level. Everybody can relate in the same way, rather than having it broken up into cities. It's really just all the same broadcast so everyone can relate in their own way. And because it's an independent music thing no ads, a lot of people think they're a part of something a bit more special. We've gotten quite good airplay on there. It's given us a slightly more homely aspect as opposed to that pop star unattainable, in the middle of nowhere in some dirty, white studio.
Jimmy: Here in America, typically everyone forms a group around their love for something, whereas other countries are a little bit more independent in their music choice. Like they'll say "no, I don't like that thing my best friend likes, I'm going to find something that I like a bit more." But it kind of feels like, in America, everyone goes, "oh, my friend listens to that so that's what I like as well."
Man, it sounds awful over here.
Jimmy: But I mean, we're here, and we're loving it.
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