With their 3rd album Random Karma, Destiny And Future Welsh prog rockers Final Flight To Pluto took a special way to their track making. In 2022 Prog spoke to Alice Freya and Darren Joseph to determine extra…
“At one level, I had males swinging punches at me. It’s a excellent task I will take care of myself.”
Prog is chatting with Alice Freya and Darren Joseph, vocalist and drummer/songwriter respectively of South Wales-based band Final Flight To Pluto. Having requested them in regards to the band’s origins, Alice – all 5ft 3 of her – is reminiscing a few specifically onerous gig at the Sandfields Property in Port Talbot.
“All of the individuals of Pluto had been within the covers band that Alice and I ran,” continues Darren. “It’s a hardcore circuit in South Wales, very tough and in a position.”
“Each and every dive you’ll be able to bring to mind. We’ve performed it,” chimes in Alice.
Darren continues. “At this actual gig, I don’t assume the locals took a shine to me. I’m tall – 6ft 5 – and on the time I had a foot-high Mohican. This dislike carried thru to all of the band. It wasn’t beautiful.”
It’s hardly ever the usual begin to a prog occupation, which is much more likely initially noodling in a bed room than a struggle in a South Wales membership, however it used to be this gig – and lots of others find it irresistible – that satisfied the band that they needed to create their very own track. So, they began pooling their gig cash round 2014 in order to paying for studio time to file their first album, which was See You At The Finish in 2015 adopted by means of A Drop In The Ocean in 2019.
Each albums have a an identical construction – six songs each and every, averaging at round 8 mins in step with observe – however for his or her newest file, Random Karma, Destiny And Future, it’s transparent that the band have changed this means slightly.
“It all started in lockdown,” Darren says, “I realise that each musician on this planet made up our minds to make use of the time to put in writing an album, and that’s precisely what I did in my house studio.”
The band’s manner is that Darren places the track at the side of Alice contributing principally lyrics, even supposing Final Flight To Pluto are abnormal in that whilst Darren and Alice are necessarily ‘the band’, they’ve a bunch of favorite musicians that at all times participate within the recording procedure, specifically guitarists Jack Parry and Ryan Barnard, whose jobs are to make sense of Darren’s musical concepts and to shape the core of the are living band when to be had.
“We’ve attempted to get a gentle are living band in combination,” Darren admits, “however Jack is amazingly busy. He’s a operating musician so he’s at all times out enjoying. Because of this, he wasn’t to be had for Wintry weather’s Finish Competition [in] Chepstow, for example. Thankfully, we’ve got different musicians to name on if we’d like them.”
It’s pleasurable to listen to that spontaneity is a significant factor when the musicians are recording. It’s one thing that Darren and Alice swear by means of. “We don’t imagine in over rehearsing,” Darren says. “The men paintings on their portions at house after which we opt for it within the studio. I really like folks that may flip up, have the vibe on and play out in their skins for an hour. Practise one thing an excessive amount of and also you get started selecting holes. The similar applies to mixes. A smart guy as soon as stated, ‘Mixes are by no means completed, they’re deserted.’ I really like that philosophy. We all know when to stroll away.”
Prog means that whilst keyboards aren’t essentially the most outstanding texture within the band’s track, performed in large part within the studio by means of the just lately self- taught Darren, they’re very a lot part of their total sound. Have they ever considered bringing in an enduring ivory tinkler?
“There aren’t many keyboard gamers in South Wales,” Darren admits with
a resigned shrug. “In all our time enjoying at the covers circuit, we by no means got here throughout one. At the present time we use sequencers are living, however that suggests because the drummer I’m at all times putting directly to a click on observe. For those who lose one beat, you’re completed, in order that makes gigging much less relaxing. However we’d like to discover a keyboard participant in the end.”
Random Karma, Destiny And Future, is a big advance over the primary two albums, with a better emphasis on melody and songwriting. With 9 songs reasonably than six, the common observe period has additionally come down by means of a number of mins. Crucially, this hasn’t made the album any much less prog.
Darren consents. “Up to now, specifically at the first album, the observe lengths had been all the way down to my naïveté as a songwriter. However then I realised that we’ve were given a truly excellent singer, so she had to be heard extra. I made up our minds that we would have liked verses and choruses. When I used to be presenting those shorter songs to Alice, she stated, ‘That is new,’ and after I informed the guitarists that their solos may just handiest be 8 bars lengthy, there used to be slightly unhappiness. In the end, what would Gilmour say?”
However the finish result’s that the songs, whilst shorter, pack an enormous quantity of data into rather temporary working occasions. A really perfect instance is We’re Being Rewired, a observe that has 3 distinct portions however gifts them over a concise six-minute working time, versus the 9 mins on previous Pluto albums that would possibly have felt only a contact flabby.
Darren consents: “Once Alice has stated what she must within the lyrics, we transfer on. Easy as that. Some bands nail lengthy, advanced compositions, however we really feel our taste is to now ram 20 mins into 5.”
Alice provides, “I name my age team the McDonald’s technology. We wish the entirety now, without cost and we’ve got nearly no consideration span. However we wish to get a more youthful technology on board with prog and I feel there’s an enormous hole available in the market ready to be tapped. If we will do the rest to attract them in, let’s do it.”
In addition to being the proggiest music at the album, We’re Being Rewired has some perceptive lyrics about society. “Such a lot of are being managed and residing a pretend way of life,” continues Alice, “being informed the best way to glance and the best way to behave. There’s additionally a keyboard warrior tradition, the place folks will submit issues on social media that they’d by no means say in individual.”
The quite hippie-sounding name of the brand new album grew out of the adversity that many of us have confronted during the last couple of years, which incorporated when a pal of the band – ‘Random’ Ross – a drummer named for his unsure courting with the beat – died simply because the writing procedure used to be being finished.
“It’s named for him and the remainder of the insanity that used to be happening on the time,” says Alice.
The subjects of the album – except for for one happier music, Round The Corners – are about adjustments in lifestyles; about shifting on, for higher or worse.
“Alice nailed the lyrics. We surely wanted a ‘genuine lifestyles’ means, in the end we’ve been thru,” says Darren.
“Those are real-life tales that folks can relate to,” provides Alice. “The music Some Of Us is set that flesh presser [Rishi Sunak] right through Covid that informed musicians to retrain and get genuine jobs. The lyrics are pronouncing that a few of us can’t do 9 to 5 jobs. We’ve got this interest inside of us that suggests we need to pass and make track. Many of us within the arts would say the similar. We will have to be celebrating track; we will’t take the urge to accomplish clear of folks. That music used to be principally me telling that flesh presser the place to move.”
Total, the album combines direct, tough and related lyrics with some extraordinarily various but sturdy preparations. Alternatively, we’ll depart the ultimate with Alice, to sum up how she and Darren understand the band. “I really like to mention that we’re prog however with somewhat of kick-ass rock’n’roll thrown in.” It’s laborious to argue with that.
