David Andersson: “I write probably about the 85% of the music and the lyrics in The Night Flight Orchestra”
Today we have the pleasure to interview the mighty David Andersson, guitar player for Soilwork and The Night Flight Orchestra.
Today we have the pleasure to interview the mighty David Andersson, guitar player for Soilwork and The Night Flight Orchestra. We talk about the present and the future of both bands and also about the new The Night Flight Orchestra album, Aeromantic, which came out a couple of days ago.
Hi David!
Hello, how are you?
Fine, thanks! How are you?
Good, thank you!
Alright. My name’s Mario, I’m from Allied Forces Magazine and it’s a real pleasure talikng to you. I would like to talk about the latest Night Flight Orchestra album, Aeromantic, which I think it’s been released today.
Yes!
It’s the fifth Night Flight Orchestra album, how do you think it has been the reception of the album so far?
Well, it hasn’t been out there for that long but so far I guess the reviews and the comments about us has been very good and so far it’s been promising.
Yeah, I think it is a very solid album. After having heard it six or seven times, I think that it has something more to say with every listen. I love it more and more every time I listen to it.
That’s super! Thank you, Mario.
I would say it’s the best The Night Flight Orchestra album so far. But there’s still something that sounds different on this album than on the previous releases. It has a more organic sound and it has an homogenical mixture of genres… Why is it? Was it something prepared or does it came in a natural way?
I mean, as a band, we always try to do something different and also surprise ourselves, we take care of our music to new and interesting places. Yeah, everything that’s new it’s probably very conscious moves on our parts cause that’s why we’re still playing music, because we feel that we still have something new and interesting to offer. Hopefully it’s a good thing. Sometimes we go to places completely wrong (we laugh) but so far it’s seems we’ve been enable to move it on the right direction!
Well, sometimes you have to try some new things and they can be right or they can be wrong, but that’s the point.
Yeah, you said so!
Okay, in this new album you have a mixture of genres like hard rock on Taurus, some pop-alike songs like Divinyls, some aggressive stuff like Servants Of The Air. What are your influences as a musician regarding the Night Flight Orchestra sounds?
You mean, as a band?
Well, some bands that have influenced you and your music during those years.
Oh yes! We’re all very experienced musicians and we’ve been along for a long time. We have all chance of incluences so it’s all like combining the experience as musicians that have enable us to create this music. Obviously we all like Toto, Survivor, Foreigner and that bands but I also love some jazz music, pop stuff. It’s all over the place in what we are doing and it’s just trying to create music that we love ourselves and try to combine those elements in interesting ways.
And what’s the story behing The Night Flight Orchestra? I mean, both Björn and you play on Soilwork, which is a very different band, but how the idea of creating an AOR/hard rock band came about?
Well, when I did my first tour with Soilwork back in 2006 as a session musician me and Björn started bonding over classic rock albums and we realised there was a void out there in current music that needed to be filled and we started planning creating our own classic rock band. It took us some time to find the right people but it was a long time plan where we would create our own band and do the music that we love.
What about the compositional process of The Night Flight Orchestra? Do you write the lyrics first and then do the music? Tell us about the compositional process in the band.
I write probably about the 85% of the music and the lyrics in The Night Flight Orchestra. It is very different everytime. Sometimes you get a good lyric phrase and you create something around that. It all depends. As a songwriter you always have your tentacles out trying to find some inspiration to let you create something interesting. It usually starts with the music but sometimes you just get this fantastic…
Inspiration!
Yeah, you just guessed out! (laughs) That classical lyric idea that allows you to create a song within a couple of minutes cause it’s so obvious. The creative process is a huge mystery but it’s always good fulfilling when you are able to come up with something that you really enjoy.
And what are the lyrics about usually? Do you take influences on movies, books or other stuff like that?
Yes. I mean, if you’re a songwriter you’re always looking for interesting words or phrases. I read a lot of fantasy books, musical biographies and music magazines as well. You’re always looking for a good phrase or a good word and I also listen to lots of new music. I don’t try to listen to classic rock or metal, I most listen to contemporary pop. I have this huge music collection and I’ve listen to those records so many times so there is nothing new to me to discover anymore. You just have to keep your mind alerted and try to find stuff that it’s interesting or new. Whenever I find a new phrase or word that might become a song I always write it down on my phone. I have a huge library of pretential ideas that I still go back to from time to time.
That’s good! “PLEC”, Thomas Johansson, has produced “Aeromantic” and the previous albums – all of them if I’m not wrong – He also plays guitar in different music genres like death, black, thrash, power metal…
Yeah! (laughs) Thomas Johansson is a very good friend of mine. I first met him when we went to the music school but he’s a bit younger than me and he wanted to learn electric guitar, that was back in 1995. I was his guitar teacher in high school. He is a very good guitarist and a fantastic producer, and that’s what this band is all about. It’s all very organic and natural.
And how do you think that someone like PLEC can contribute to your music?
Oh, he’s not contributing so much to the music. It’s always fun having him on the studio and he’s very good on the guitar sounds and he’s great working together with Sebastian Forslund too, who mixes our album. It’s just a bunch of friends getting together and having fun!
Well, the “Aeromantic Tour” begins the 6th March and you’re visiting Spain on the 10th and 11th. What are you planning to do on the tour?
We’re planning to go crazy! (laughs) Yeah, we’re gonna put a great rock show and hopefully everyone would think that the Aeroshow would be the party of the year.
I hope that so, I’m willing to see you live cause I’ve never seen The Night Flight Orchestra before.
Super!
And can you tell us a little bit about the setlist?
Yeah, of course we would focus on the new album but we would also play songs from the previous albums. Hopefully we would make the whole thing into a big party!
Alright. How do you manage your work with a solid and a constant band as Soilwork?
It’s all about planning. This year it’s the Night Flight Orchestra year. We’re gonna do a couple of festivals and we do have few singles coming out so we’re still active in both bands. We’re probably do some touring later also with Soilwork but it’s all about trying to make the schedule fit together.
I mean, The Night Flight Orchestra is getting bigger every year so I figured that it would become be very difficult to combine both bands.
Yeah, it’s getting more, more difficult but we’re still hanging. Soilwork it’s in a good place now, we’re self-managed and we have no plans on slowing down!
What comes after the tour? Are you planning to play on festivals?
Yeah, we have a lot of festivals with The Night Flight Orchestra and we’re gonna release some stuff on Soilwork as well after summer. Hopefully we would make a Soilwork album next year.
Alright. Before we finish. In your new album you have John Lönnmyr on keyboard and Rachel Hall who plays violin as guest musicians. How did this collaboration ended up finally on the new album?
Well, Rachel is not a member of the band any longer unfortunately cause we had a fwe differences. She’s a great violin player that I have admired for a long time and it was great to have her on the album. She added another dimension to our sound.
Okay David, that would be enough for today. I’ve had a really good time. Would you like to say something to our readers?
Listen to our album, please come to see us live and we’ll make it an unforgettable evening for everyone of you.
Thank you, David. See you soon!
