From releasing their exciting debut album ‘Nowhere,’ to preparing for their first ever UK tour, Friday Pilots Club have been busy putting “new vibes and new life” into their discography.
Guitarist James Kourafas begins explaining the process of Friday Pilots Club becoming a group of 5 and incorporating new influences after previously being a duo. “It wasn’t like this big abrupt thing where as soon as you add in these three other guys it’s like all these different opinions and stuff. But I feel like it was interesting because we had already started collaborating. Even back then when it was a duo, we would like still kind of write together and we were playing all the shows together.”
He smiles as he reminisces then continues, “Me, Sean and Eric were, at first, just playing in the live band. But then since we were spending a lot of time together, we would here and there start collaborating more and more. At a certain point we were like we should just make it official, right?”
‘It’s defiantly a darker album, which I didn’t really expect,’ says lead singer Caleb Hiltunen as he depicts ‘Nowhere.’ “I think a bit it is happy. It’s just this idea of searching for yourself in people and places as your life starts to transition to a career where you still have a hard time believing it or believing that you’re deserving of it.”
“I think the sounds embody that too” he adds. “There are a few happy ones on there. There’s ‘Nothing Or Forever’ but yeah, a lot of it is very pensive and just trying to make sense of this kind of nomadic lifestyle.”
Comparing the album to the groups past music James states there are “classic Friday Pilots Club signatures throughout the record” as well as, “some new vibes and new life to put into the discography.”
From ‘Nowhere,’ one particular track ‘Vampire Disco’ has been receiving a lot of attention from the press. James reveals why, “I think the way that that track came to be makes it unique and some of the things that make it unique are what made it a good first single for the record. One of those things is that it’s one of the few songs that the five of us wrote together, just us in a room. It had started with an electronic sort of instrumental thing that Drew had and we all took it in the room and turned it into what it is now.”
“Yeah, it was” Caleb agrees. “The songwriting process in this band kind of changes every single song. It always ends in the accumulated effort of all of us but ‘Vampire Disco’ is one of those ones where Drew brought in the demo and then we all worked on it together from square one.”
James jumps in to add, “You can really hear very distinctly every single member of the band in that song. Everyone has their signature thing that they contributed.”
On their favourite song, they both pause for a moment to think. The pair are obviously very proud of and attached to the whole album, “that’s a really tough question” say’s James, “it’s constantly changing.” He expands on his response, “it’s like two or three weeks ago or so, some of these songs became two years old, which is really wild to think we started kind of writing this record that long ago. I feel like throughout those two years we’ve had the old ones, we’ve had the new ones and the favourite is constantly shifting and changing.”
Eventually he does decide on the last track of the album, ‘Favourite Part,’ being one which means the most to him. “I just think that the sentiment that song conveys and the feeling that song gives you is a feeling that I’ve been looking for in a song for a while. It may not be the biggest banger but I think for me right now, that is the one that I just love. I’ve been practicing it to perform it at the shows, playing it for the very first time. I’ve just grown to love it even more.”
Caleb picks two tracks, “after three weeks of rehearsals, ‘Trading Punches’ is just so much fun to sing. It’s a good song too but, as far as my favourite song on the album goes, I do really love ‘Ultraviolet.’”
The group spent about two years crafting ‘Nowhere’ to ensure every song was a piece of art they were proud to put out. James breaks down the process, “like two years ago when we first went out to LA and we did ‘Coffin’ I don’t even know honestly if we were even planning to do this debut album back then or if we were just writing songs.”
Caleb continues the story, “I think that we were always focusing on whatever project we were doing at the time, whether it was ‘Robot Superstar’ or the singles that came after but, there was always this idea that there was going to be a full length album.”
“I think that because of what we went through with our last label, the idea of having like this hanging an album in front of us and us being like, let’s do it, then you know, there was always something that came up. We had a lot of reverence for the idea of creating an album. I think that we did a good job of giving it the proper time. But yeah, we started to identify threads on the album and things that could make it an album.”
“As far as the process goes” James illustrates, “it was literally just started out by writing a bunch of songs. We came in with like 50 songs and then I think maybe a unique thing, was the five of us went to a cabin in the middle of Georgia, kind of like really remote in the woods. We just brought all of our instruments and things and had a great time. We showed up there with the 50 demos and picked our favourite ones.”
“the process took a bit of time because of the way we did it where we really wanted to get in there and make sure we were stoked on every aspect of it” he concludes.
Playing festivals and big cities like London and Manchester, Friday Pilots Club’s first tour outside of the US is taking place this month. “I’m really excited for The Great Escape” announces Caleb. “I feel like a lot of artists that I love have played there and that just makes me super excited and honoured.”
“Yeah, I agree” nods James. “I’m also really excited for the show in London. I think that’ll be cool, It’s been great to see the reception from the fans in London and the excitement about that gig. Were stocked It’s our first time in any of these places.” In fact, James has just bought his first passport and it will be his first time leaving the US, “I’m so excited.”
From spending so much time creating ‘Nowhere’ to touring in the US, the band of course have tons of funny memories but there’s one which Caleb is quick to share. “We are the biggest idiots in the world. In Mesa, Arizona, we rolled up to this venue and luckily we got all the gear out but then somebody had to go back to the van to get something out and we realized that Sean had locked the keys in the van. We called a locksmith. It was like $150 to have them come out but the guy opens the van, we get whatever it is we need.”
Smiles creep across their faces, “then about an hour before the show started, somebody else went up to get something and we realized that once again, the keys had been locked in the van, so we locked the keys in the van twice in one day.”
James sees the brighter side of the situation, “we’re uniquely talented there. Most people lock them in once but not us!”
James and Caleb’s final note is they would love to see fans at their shows and festival appearance where they will be playing tons of songs off the new album. “We’re stoked and we’d be honoured if people would pop out” James concludes.
More on Friday Pilots Club and tour tickets: https://www.fridaypilotsclub.com/
