Fly Over States - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Fly Over States. We discussed their new song “40 Stripes Minus One”, lyrical inspiration, artwork, collaborating with Fever Ltd., the importance of having physical releases, early-mid 2000s music, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
Thank you for talkin’ to us!
The first single for the new EP is “40 Stripes Minus One”. Can you tell me about writing the song?
“40 Stripes…” is a song I wrote about a fatal workplace incident that took place under the direction of the Paria Oil Company. It’s about the lack of responsibility taken on by the company after five divers were sucked into an oil pipeline and the survivors guilt that is taken on by the sole survivor of the incident. I also wanted listeners to be able to put themselves into the song, relating it to every day guilt that we carry around from things outside of our control.
The artwork for the EP and single are great. It captures the vibe perfectly. You worked with Kamtin Mohager. Visually, he’s a key person in creating the aesthetic of this new era. He’s worked with tons of bands including Sparing, Stateside, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, etc… What has it been like working with him?
Working with Kam has been great! He really makes everything so easy in the way he lays out his game plans. If I have a suggestion he’s probably already thought of it and working on it before I even say anything.
Did he come up with the entire concept for the artwork or is it more of a collaboration between him and the band?
We really just gave him the keywords, we knew we wanted to run with the aircraft theme that we had with our last album artwork, and we had the color scheme, otherwise he used his knowledge and experience from the early 00s scenecore era to make what you see.
You signed with Fever Ltd. for your new EP ‘Ghosts’. How did it work out for you to sign with the label?
Signing with Fever LTD actually ties in with the album artwork. I don’t know if it’s like super known that Fever is Kam’s label, but when I approached him to do our album artwork, he explained that listening to the bands he makes art for really helps him get a grasp on the direction to take it. It was within the next couple emails that he had teased at possibly signing us to his label in the future and we went from there!
You have a CD available for pre-order for the EP. How important is having physical media like CDs, cassettes, etc… to your band?
I think physicals are pretty underrated in a time of streaming, but that being said, I feel like every one I know has some sort of physical music media that they collect whether its cassettes, vinyl, or cds. CDs are kinda coming back now with the low cost to make/buy and the whole y2k thing being trendy helps out in this case.
I’ve had the chance to listen to some of the new songs and it seems like you’ve really captured a nice sound. What was some of your biggest influences for these new songs?
We took inspiration from a lot of different bands, personally structure was a big focus for me and I looked to bands like The Chariot for the linear structure of Horsefly. There’s a riff on Exits that is pretty Fugazi-esque. And the last song on the release was so nu-metal inspired it hurts haha (in the best way possible).
Your music has elements of emo and hardcore that remind me of the early-mid 2000s and artists like Underoath, From First To Last, Matchbook Romance, etc… You mentioned in our previous interview that Underoath was a big band for you. What do you think it is about that era that makes it so great?
I was so little when that era was happening, but my dad was the programmer/morning guy for our local metal/rock radio station. He got all sorts of cds sent in, most notably for me was when he got sent the radio copy for They’re Only Chasing Safety. He took me to punk and scenecore shows a lot, and he grew up a pastor’s child so any christcore that existed was plugged directly into my ears. (I got pretty familiar with the Solid State lineup when I was little as a result haha) I never grew out of those listening habits and carry it all very close to my heart now.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
If anyone reading this is looking for artwork, hit up Kamtin! Look out for our bassist’s other band that he fronts, Hey ILY (who we also have June tour dates with) and their new record later this year. Lastly shout out to Sound In the Signals for being such a pillar of the diy community and shedding light on some amazing scenes and bands going on around the world!
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