Q and A: Björn “Speed” Strid (The Night Flight Orchestra)

By PAUL SOUTHWELL

SWEDEN’S The Night Flight Orchestra (aka TNFO) started as a side project for friends in established metal bands such as Arch Enemy and Soilwork, primarily as a creative outlet. Their growing international profile was temporarily disrupted by the pandemic, halting their tour cycle for fifth album Aeromantic. Undeterred, the band took the opportunity to compose more songs, eventually recording their well-received sixth album Aeromantic II.

For many rock and metal writers, Aeromantic II attained the top spot for the 2021 album of the year, given the great song writing and undeniably fun choruses. Tragically, the band’s co-founding guitarist, and fellow Soilwork guitarist, David Andersson, took his own life in 2022. But somewhat stoically, both musical projects have soldiered on, as per his wishes. Now with TNFO landing on our shores, Hot Metal recently spoke to Björn ‘Speed’ Strid about their exceptional career trajectory and what fans can expect from the long awaited, upcoming tour to Australia.

Hot Metal: You’re going to be back in Australia again, very soon, having recently been here with Soilwork.

Bjorm Strid: “Yes, ha-ha. I am coming to Australia quite often these days”.

HM: Is it difficult touring a band that is an eight piece outfit?

BS: “Well, logistics are a little bit of a nightmare but as far as going on stage, some places we come to we’ll find the stage is quite small and that can be a little bit of a challenge to fit everyone on there. But normally it is a great vibe and having back-up singers definitely adds something to the show, and they are such great singers with such great personalities too. It is amazing and it is a great bunch of people. It is definitely needed now.”

HM: Having back-up singers might make TNFO feel a bit like the bigger acts that your music tends to reference?

BS: “I know but it is a kind of a lost art, even with Guns N’ Roses when they toured in 1992, for the Use Your Illusion tour, they had back-up singers, and that was quite common in the nineties, and also in the eighties, and of course the seventies. But then it just sort of disappeared, I feel, at least in the rock world. Major artists tend to have a lot of back-up singers but when it comes to band, you don’t really see it that often. So that was something that we wanted to bring back a little bit.”

HM: Your line up for back-up singers has also changed. Anna-Mia Bonde now replaced by Åsa Lundman.

BS: “Yes, that was during COVID and we were going to start touring again but one of the singers did not want to take the vaccine and there was Åsa stepping in and she turned out to be a fantastic singer and person. It has brought the band to a new level, I think, and she is working really well with Anna. They are having a lot of fun on stage, and it is a really great vibe in the band.”

HM: One thing with pop music and backing singers it is encourages songs to launch into the chorus quickly.

BS: “Yeah, I guess and with most of our songs, you can notice that there is a chorus pretty much right away. That usually comes along pretty quickly but we also have some progressive material as well, that we sort of mix things up with other music a little bit. I think that we have found a recipe that is not too predictable, even though you can definitely feel when the chorus hits.

HM: You could argue that metal has a formula too, it is just that people try to ignore that being the case.

BS: “Yeah, exactly, but I think that in this band the wonderful part is that anything goes musically with this band and you’ll always find yourself in a situation when you discuss things asking ‘Oh, can we got there?’ and the answer is, ‘Yes, of course we can,’ whilst that might always be the case when it comes to metal. Then again, with Soilwork, we manage to develop metal in a pretty interesting way but there are only certain things that you can do, I feel. That is where you can feel very liberated with the Night Flight Orchestra where you can really do a lot of things.”

HM: That makes sense and I guess with the pop world, if it is really good, it doesn’t matter, they just accept it.

BS: “It should just be music, and again, in the end it is all about, ‘Is it good music or not?’ We are so, sort of, used to putting labels on everything but then you have people like Devin Townsend, for example, who has done something completely different with metal. It is all over the place and it is quite inspiring, it has always been inspiring to me even though we have taken different paths. I really think that he should start a classic rock band at some point, as that would be really cool to hear what that would sound like.”

HM: Indeed, even just his work from Ziltoid the Omniscient still baffles, in a good way.

BS: “Yeah, I was there when he was building the puppets. That was when I was recording vocals for Sworn to a Great Divide [2007] with Soilwork, that was when he was developing Ziltoid, and I was at this place where this crazy artist was building the puppets for him. I was there with him, and I was drinking tequila and I was like, ‘What the hell is going on right now?’ It was just out there, and I will never forget that.”

HM: Moving on, the Aeromantic II album was created under the circumstances of the pandemic lockdown. Did it force you to make an album?

BS: “Yeah, it was quite weird because we had just realised Aeromantic by the time that COVID hit and we were actually out touring. We made it one week into the tour and then we had to go home because then they shut down Spain and France. It was a really weird time and huge anti-climax, just like for any band that was out at the time. You know, you release a new album, you get out there, do the first tour and then you had to cut it short and then go home and nobody knew what was going to happen. Obviously that was a big letdown and we just entered the studio instead and experimented and later on, that became Aeromantic II because we felt that we were not done with the Aeromantic concept and so we decided to make a second album and we also felt that we were definitely not done with the first Aeromantic album, and by the time this was over, that album was going to be old, but were wondering how do we extend this so that we can go out there and tour for both albums. I don’t know, it just happened quite naturally, I guess.”

HM: I listened to the album again and was reminded of how good the production is on Aeromantic II.

BS: “Thanks, yeah well, Sebastian [Forslund], our guitarist in the band, who missed everything, is a fantastic guy and I love his mixes. They are very organic and everything comes alive as they are very detailed. Yeah, it is just the way we want it because I mean, there is a lot of AOR out there today that sounds quite processed and very big and the drums are super triggered. But we wanted it to be organic and even though we don’t want to be too much of a nostalgia band, I think that it is that we wanted to sound like the golden era of 1978 to 1982. We wanted to capture that, but you know, it is also important that we came up with something refreshing and something that works today.”

HM: How much analogue equipment were you tempted to use for the album?

BS: “Ah yeah and we did pretty much but as far as doing things like recording to tape, I did that once with Soilwork for the first album and it was a little scary at the time because I think that at one time, the machine broke and we were going ‘Oh my God, we’ve recorded all of these things!’ But, ah, yeah, it was tempting but certain things were not always better back in the past, I think certain things have definitely improved but you can still have an organic sound or have it recorded in an organic way.”

HM: Are there any songs on the album that have grown on you that maybe were not so keen on initially?

BS: “Wow, good question. I haven’t really listened to the album for quite some time now because it has been out for a year and a half or something. I would have to look but I think that generally I am very pleased with the album. I think that it is better than Aeromantic and I remember how I was so proud of Aeromantic, which I still am, of course. But I really think that Aeromantic II is even better.”

HM: Everyone is going to like ‘Amber Through the Window’ and ‘Chardonnay Nights’ but I found that deeper tracks like ‘White Jeans’, ‘Zodiac’ or ‘Moonlit Skies’, all of which are in the second half of the album, had a bit more impact on repeated listens.

BS: “Yeah, and I really like ‘Moonlit Skies’ and that is something that at first I thought was maybe too synth based. Then again, this is a band where you can do whatever you want, really. ‘Moonlit Skies’ is definitely a song that grew on me, and when at first I thought it was a little to synth-wave, I’ve come to think that it has Night Flight Orchestra written all over it. That is a song that is one of my favourites these days.”

HM: Given the loss of much-loved guitarist David Andersson, who is replacing him in the live line up now?

BS: “We have Rasmus Ehrnborn [Soilwork bassist and backing vocalist] on guitar and he has also been a touring member of the Night Flight Orchestra for quite some time. So, he is picking up after where David left and they were really good friends as well. I think that Rasmus is fantastic at carrying on David’s legacy and is also adding his own touch to things and just like him, we learned a lot from David as a songwriter and also as a musician. So that is something that we are carrying on.”

HM: Will this arrangement logically inform how you approach the new Night Flight Orchestra?

BS: “We already started recording the new album as we are doing sessions here and there. At first, we were wondering if it was going to feel really weird going back to the same studio where we always record without David and so we were a little bit nervous about that and if the grief was going to take over. We went in there and of course we were sad, because we saw him everywhere, you know, all the time, you could see him coming with a beer in his hand, or just in underwear, and coming into the studio, walking in from the corridor. He was a super creative guy and also super intense when he was in the creative mode. So, he was missed but it was in general a really positive feeling and in the end, you know, he was very present, and we had so many laughs about things he used to say or about things he used to do. So, it was a great sort of reunion in that studio and that was where we sort of ripped the band-aid, if you know what I mean, on how the vibe was going to be in studio. It became something really creative in the end and some really good stuff came out of it. So, I really have faith in this band and both Sebastian and I have written a lot of songs through the years so I think we should not underestimate ourselves. I think that is what David would have wanted as well, because I talked to him before he passed away and he really wanted us to continue so I think that spirit definitely lives on in the band.”

HM: I presume his sense of humour also carried everyone when touring?

BS: “Absolutely, he was one of the funniest people I have ever met, and him, in combination with Sharlee D’Angelo [bass] is just priceless. I cannot even explain to you how funny they were together. There are messenger threads that we should print books from and it might be largely internal humour, but it is brilliant.”

HM: What are your thoughts, in hindsight, of the early albums of TNFO, following the Aeromantic projects?

BS: “Well, I mean, it is still something that I am proud of but back then I think it was a bit more of an experiment and it took us some time to find our thing, or our sound. The earlier albums sound like early seventies mixed with late seventies music and then we sort of, more went into the late seventies and early eighties and that is now where we have been staying. I think that our sound now suits us. It is of course that the influences are pretty clear because you hear a lot of late seventies styles from say Foreigner, Boston and Steely Dan, which I guess is a little bit more mid-seventies. There is also some KISS-co, which is the disco era of KISS, but there is also a little bit of Abba in there, for sure, which I think that just about every band has been influenced by Abba, more or less, but I think that we are more influenced by Abba than the average AOR band is, I would say. I think you can hear that as well, that is something that stands out.”

HM: I would also add a bit of Joe Jackson, Kim Wilde and Simple Minds in there too.

BS: “Yeah, sure, absolutely, no, you’re right. We are all over the place but that is the beauty of it, I guess.”

HM: By comparison, when you’ve sung with the At the Movies projects, you’ve got to sing some songs by big acts or big artists globally. When you are presented with these big hits, there’s an expectation to meet a level of performance. Does that cause any trepidation for you as a vocalist?

BS: Yeah, I mean, it was a huge challenge when we were doing the At the Movies thing and singing all of these songs in the original keys, as well, that was a challenge. I mean, just a song like ‘St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)’, that is some pretty crazy stuff, and so I felt the pressure, but I love a challenge and I usually get there. It is something that I am proud of and I think that we did really well. I am not saying that everything was perfection but I think that we did really well and a lot of people seemed to enjoy those At the Movies albums. I also developed as a singer just by being a part of that experience and it definitely something that I brought with me to the Night Flight Orchestra, and to Soilwork.”

HM: Did you finding covering the work of Huey Lewis [‘The Power of Love’] more challenging than expected?

BS: “Absolutely, and at first it was like, ‘Oh no, you can’t touch this,’ you know what I mean, it was like, this is Huey Lewis who is such an alpha male singer. He just comes in there and delivers the goods and my voice is, in general, cleaner than his but I managed to do my own take on it. It was tough but I think it turned out pretty cool but nothing beats Huey Lewis himself.”

HM: Is it fair to say that the Night Flight Orchestra could perform and be involved in the pop charts quite happily without non-metal people knowing about your metal background?

BS: “Yeah and we started to get that a lot more, whereas in the beginning it was mostly curious metal fans that came to our shows. But now, there are people coming up to us, when we play in Europe, saying ‘Oh, I heard you are in some other bands, like you are in a metal band?’ and I will say, ‘Well, yes,’ so it is actually cool that we’ve come from that direction instead of the other way around. It is quite interesting and so this band is becoming such a unified band that brings people from different genres to the same show, that normally don’t go the same shows. There are people staring at each other going, ‘What are you doing here?’ and they are like, ‘Well, I was going to ask you the same question,’ it is kind of that situation. In the end, whether people are progressive dads, hipsters or 14-year-old girls with braces and metalheads with Behemoth patches, everyone is dancing at the hip.”

HM: That is pretty funny. It’s amazing think back to the eighties with say REO Speedwagon, Toto – the musicians in those bands were exceptional. Nowadays, some of the bands in the pop world get metal schooled musicians as their hired guns. Case in point being Nuno Bettencourt playing in Rihanna’s live band.

BS: “Yeah, which is really cool and it is funny because people keep throwing the guilty pleasure thing around the Night Flight Orchestra a lot and I just ask, ‘What is so guilty about it?’ To me, it has never been that way. You always get the question, ‘Oh what are the most embarrassing albums that you have on your shelf back home?’, and my answer will be, ‘Nothing, I am not ashamed of anything.’ It is funny because we are so used to putting labels on everything. I expected to get a lot more bad response from the metal world in starting this band and doing what I am doing, because it is quite poppy stuff, you know, but so far, so good. Even if I got a lot of shit thrown at me, I still would have continued because it was something that I really needed to do. It was a calling and now I am in a situation where I have these two bands and I get to channel all of my influences through the band. I think that Soilwork will do pretty good for me having that other band too. A lot of people really seem to like both bands and they appreciate that it is something completely different. It is not like a side thrash metal project, like a lot of people will do, I mean, I did it myself back with Terror2000, back in the day. But yeah, this was something that I really wanted to do and I think that is cool when I see people coming from the metal world, if they do something completely different. Nergal has Me and That Man, which is quite different, even though it has a dark vibe to it but I love it when that happens. I love it when people surprise you.”

HM: I guess with good pop too, there is nowhere to hide – your vocals have to be clear, and you have to remember the words.

BS: “Yeah, I know exactly and it was scary at first. It happens every now and then where you forget some words but with Soilwork it can be a little bit easier, at least in the screamier parts. But here we have a lot of intros where it just piano and vocals. It is something else.”

HM: The only bummer is not having the big budget for film clips like Michael Jackson or Duran Duran had in the day.

BS: “Ha, yeah, I know. We’ll get there some day.”

HM: Alright, I will let you go but it is excellent news that the Night Flight Orchestra is touring Australia. It should be lots of fun.

BS: “It will be, it is going to be a blast. Come out and see our shows. If you’ve heard the albums and listened to the music, seeing it live is on a whole different level, the music comes alive.”