March 20, 2024 • 20 mins
Catch up with London-based indie folk duo Flyte in this bonus Acoustic Guitar Sessions episode. We talk first and favorite guitars, writing for two voices, and enjoy a performance of “Chelsea Smiles” from their latest album. Visit Flyte’s website to hear more of their music.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nick Grizzle (00:00):
Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Podcast.
I'm your host, Nick Grizzle,for this bonus Acoustic Guitar
Sessions minisode.
I had the pleasure of catchingup with London-based indie folk
duo Flyte.
We talked about their first andfavorite guitars, writing for
two voices, and much more.
Flight kicks things off with aperformance of "Chelsea Smiles
(00:21):
from their latest self-titledalbum.
Flyte (00:50):
The West End and the Blue's rolling the windows down.
This is our town.
Nothing will ever stop us now,because when we're in blue once
(01:14):
in a while, chelsea smiles,chelsea's hands on the bonnet of
(01:34):
her riot fan, on the cornerscorned for a beating.
There'll be meeting Chelsea'seyes making trouble under
Chelsea's skies, calling all herD-announcement speakers, rating
(02:00):
the lost and found.
Because this is our town,nothing will ever stop us now,
because when we're in blue oncein a while, oh, chelsea smiles.
Will Taylor (02:46):
I'm Nick.
Will (02:47):
yes and I'm Will, and together we are Flyte.
Nick Grizzle (02:52):
How did each of you get started playing guitar
and what brought you together?
Nick Hill (02:58):
I think we actually have a very similar story about
how we started playing guitar.
Will (03:01):
do we?
Yeah?
Nick (03:02):
Well, we both had the same sort of 15 pound guitar
from Argos, 50 quid.
Will Taylor (03:08):
Was it 50?
Yeah, it was 50 quid.
Nylon classical guitar fromArgos which is like your Sears
catalogue and it's like the most.
.
.
It's the most non-committalthing that your parents can do
if you say that you're wantingto start the guitar.
Yeah, and you're, I was.
I was a 10, 11?
Will (03:26):
I think I was about 11, 12.
Nick (03:27):
Yeah and they're like well , let's see.
So let's get you this 50 quidhunk of junk from Argos and see
how it goes.
I got a lot of miles out ofthat.
Will (03:36):
I got a full-size.
Nick (03:37):
but did you get a?
Nick Hill (03:38):
full-size one, I got a little mini kids one.
Will Taylor (03:40):
Yeah, I got the full size.
Nick Hill (03:42):
But maybe that's why mine was 15 quid and yours was
50.
Will Taylor (03:44):
Maybe.
Maybe that's why I'm morelegendary than you are on the
guitar.
Nick (03:47):
Yeah, that might be that way.
Nick Hill (03:49):
That's what it is, dang shots fired.
Nick Grizzle (03:52):
What brought you guys together to play music?
Will Taylor (03:54):
It's kind of a slightly.
.
.
it's a story of a few chaptersbecause we actually did know
each other initially from beingin the kind of council run
musical theater like everySaturday morning when you're a
kid.
Very bad productions of WestSide Story and Half a Sixpence,
and but there was, I remember,guitars flinging around then at
(04:15):
that point already.
Nick Hill (04:16):
Yeah.
Will Taylor (04:18):
But we would then again then.
The second phase of that wasthat we went to different state
schools and there was a battleof the bands and Nick's band
beat my band in Battle of theBands and then years later then
we actually were collaborating.
So there were a few littlelittle steps to get there.
Flyte (04:40):
Yeah, run-ins.
Will Taylor (04:42):
When enemies become friends.
Yeah.
Nick Grizzle (04:46):
I love that kind of story.
Can you tell us a little bitabout your process for
songwriting?
Do you write songs individually?
Is it more collaborativetogether from the get-go?
How do you go about it?
Will Taylor (04:59):
For both these days .
It's very collaborative.
I mean, where we're talking tonow is sort of where we do.
We write songs for other peopletoo, and in you know, when
we're not writing songs for theflight records Because we like
to avoid using production earlyon at all, you know even
(05:21):
actually when making the latestFlyte record, we didn't, I'd say
, use production necessarily.
We did it with tape and thedesk.
Nick Hill (05:28):
And we didn't demo anything at all.
Will Taylor (05:29):
No demos or anything like that.
So our process is very muchbased on acoustic guitars and
voices.
And when we write for otherpeople, even if they're like big
pop people, one of our things Iguess that they're getting from
us is that they come around tomy flat and they sit here at
this table and we write withacoustic guitars and there
aren't you know what we considerthe distractions of logic or
(05:53):
pro tools, you know, andbuilding up the sound too soon,
making sure the actual songitself is solidified at its core
and the important things arethere, and then you can take
that song and it can then, youknow, step up a gear outside of
the context of you know, I thinkit's made us better players as
well.
Nick Hill (06:10):
Acoustic players we sort of we sort of learn how to
kind of arrange entire songs,kind of just with two acoustic
guitars, because when you'replaying guitar and writing a
song it becomes prettymonotonous.
You start playing the song overand over again and you sort of
start coming up with parts tomake it more interesting.
And I think a lot of ourarrangements and melodies, that
the counter melodies and stuff,are just from just sort of
messing up, mucking about whywe're trying to, you know, get
(06:32):
the lyrics.
Yeah, at the time that's such agood point.
Will Taylor (06:34):
And with two guitars I mean even with one
guitar you have the, you havethe, the entire scope really of
you know, low and high andeverything in between, and when
you have two you can createevery kind of harmony and
counter melody you can.
Yeah yeah, when we're touringand we haven't come with a band,
when we're with the band, nickis on bass and he's part of the
(06:54):
rhythm section.
I'm on lead guitar, rhythmguitar.
Nick (06:57):
don't tell them that Will
Nick Hill (07:00):
Oh, we're talking to a guy.
Flyte (07:01):
I forget who we're talking to here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, full stringsfor life.
Nick Grizzle (07:06):
You know it's, it's all good, you know stringed
instruments we're a fan of hereIs it now Is it?
Will Taylor (07:11):
But then you know, when it's just the two of us
sometimes if we're opening ontour for someone, especially in
the States, because it's a veryexpensive thing at this point
for us to go out with a fullband we'll actually just make it
as we are as writers and we'llgo on stage with two of us, with
two acoustics, and we'llactually use the acoustics as
extra voices.
Like Nick, for instance, willtune his lower strings down so
(07:33):
he can represent the bass andthen play up high simultaneously
.
And I can kind of cover themiddle ground and in a sense,
what we were able to do is sortof represent the, you know, like
a full band arrangement, butwithin two acoustics.
No.
Nick Grizzle (07:49):
So Will?
You said in an interview oncethat you think of your guitars
as actual voices rather thanjust strings to strum chords on,
and I kind of wanted to diginto that a little bit and ask
how you develop guitar partsthat just aren't like typical
accompaniments.
Will Taylor (08:03):
You know, like you said, you know, we've been
writing, we've been writing alot with Madison Cunningham
recently and she and well, wewere all three of us kind of
like bonded over the fact thatit's like we're very shape-based
.
You know, we always like to relyon, like, the shapes we know
and then what we can do with theshapes and we can change the
tunings and some of those shapesmean something different and we
become quite reliant on shapes.
But what's quite nice is is Is,I'd say, in the you know more
(08:28):
recently, what we, especially onthis last record, what we've
been able to do with chordshapes and chord voicings is
really just like lead with thetop line, lead with the melody
and lead with where we kind offeel we want the chord to go,
and we might have to just invent, seemingly invent the chord
like, invent the shape that weneed, that's required for the
(08:49):
purpose of the melody and theharmony that's in our heads.
So that's been a nice thing.
Like I think for the first timea huge kind of wealth of new
shapes and movements and andkind of tools on the, on the
guitar have kind of emerged fromjust having to sort of I don't
know piece together the rightnotes we think we want to hear
and you know, I don't thinkeither of us are people that can
(09:10):
, you know, entirely speak thelanguage of musical theory.
So you know it's not like oh,at the ninth and the sixth, and
then the augmented to something,or that.
You know, it's like it's stillwe're still just using our ears
and we're still guessing to acertain extent, and that's been
a very lovely new world to stepinto.
Nick Hill (09:25):
Yeah, I think, I think our first producer that we
worked with on our first albumhad Really instilled a good
thing with acoustic guitar,which is that and every and
arranging in general, is thateverything has to hold melody
and everything should be therefor a reason.
I think with acoustic guitarnot going for, you know, so
something that's just paddingbasically just like to something
that's just sort of to likeconstant or anything like that,
(09:48):
so you have to like add and thenstill rid the man melody into
all guitar parts, I think, tomake it really.
That's what at least what wetry to do, to make it same.
Will Taylor (09:56):
Yeah, just a gen general sort of strumming
pattern is very upsetting to usthese days.
Nick Grizzle (10:02):
I'd say, I saw that, that song, that video that
you did with Madison,especially the making of it.
It was so fun to watch from amusician's perspective, seeing
that creative process and then,honestly, the recording is so
satisfying to listen to afterseeing that because it came out
so well.
Who are some artists that haveinfluenced you like over the
(10:24):
years and that kind of areinfluencing you now?
Will Taylor (10:27):
Good question, I think.
I think it's been a funny onewith influence because, well,
for me I'm not gonna speak forNick but, like for me, the, the
influence is growing up in myteens and very much in my own
terms, my parents weren'tparticularly influential with
what music I was introduced to,which is a good and a bad thing.
I think took me maybe a littlelonger to find my find those old
(10:49):
artists that you know wereworth listening to throughout my
teenage years, but I was very,I was very much fixated on the
past in terms of the things thatwere making me excited, and I
would say Paul Simon was areally big influence in terms of
being a guitar player.
And you know, I guesssongwriters that you used that
(11:10):
used the guitar.
You know, I mean, you could yousay that about so many of the
great songwriters at that time?
They were using the guitar inwonderful ways, Joni Mitchell,
for instance.
And I think there was a periodof time in which it felt a
little bit like I was a littlelost in terms of who the
contemporary influences were,and I think that perhaps we've
(11:33):
reached a point when I mean justgenerally in the world, there's
a point has been reached whenenough people like us, who had
that same conundrum, have allstarted making their own music.
And now there's like loads ofinspiring people, I think you
know, writing songs and playingguitar in particular ways or
just making music in general,who have this wonderful wealth
(11:54):
of influence and and and somepeople who are clearly very,
very influenced sort of solelyby past, past things, but
they're alive now and they'remaking music now and they are
fresh still.
I think that Adrianne Lenker isa good example of that.
Nick Grizzle (12:09):
Let's talk about your guitars, the actual
instruments that you play.
What, what guitars do youtypically play and what do you
like about them?
Will Taylor (12:20):
They're in the room right now.
You know what's interesting is.
This one that's sat right hereis quite crucial guitar in terms
of the sound that we have onthe last two records.
Nick Hill (12:35):
It's a beautiful J45 Gibson guitar.
I think it's 50s, I think it'slike late 50s.
Will Taylor (12:48):
It's absolutely lovely.
It's a 1958, I think, j45.
And then this is the Martin D35, 1973.
So these two are the guitarsthat we've used.
This one is actually mygirlfriend Billy's.
She's an artist called BillyMartin.
She passed me that Gibsonbecause this is one of the ones
(13:11):
where it just has a distinctivesound.
It's very hard to top thisguitar.
But there's a song calledEveryone's a Winner.
[plays] It's a song called Evenon Bad Days, which is on the
(13:41):
new record.
[plays] It's a bit out of tune.
Nick Hill (13:53):
It's got a lovely dark woody instant.
.
.
It's one of the nicest recordedacoustic guitars I've ever had
in my life.
Will Taylor (14:06):
Anyway, yeah, I think the video we gave you guys
there, or Perfect Dark,actually is the guitar that was
being used and Nick was playingon the Martin D35.
But I think a really reallystrong kind of character in
(14:29):
obviously its age.
But then obviously on top ofthat it is a fantastically made
guitar even at the time, just avery reliable.
You know, it's uncontroversial,but we do use these guitars on
stage and off in the studio andeverywhere else, just because
it's very tricky to kind of doanything else really once you've
(14:49):
gone there.
Our sound engineer in therecording studio is called Dom
Monks.
He records, like Big Thief, forinstance, very beautifully, his
particular skill, whichactually he learned from Ethan
Johns, who you saw producingMadison and I, so the Perfect
Dark documentary.
In fact I think Dom pops in atthe end and listens because he's
(15:12):
working with Michael Kiwanukain the other room and he's such
a well, him and Ethan, both justbeautiful, just sound engineers
.
You know, in the most sort ofbog standard way you can think
of.
They are just phenomenal atputting a mic in front of
something and just making surethat it comes out sounding like
(15:33):
a record that Perfect Darkversion with Madison at Rack
with Ethan.
It's not produced.
You know, we just worked outthe arrangement, stood in front
of the microphones, sang thesong.
I think we sang it twice.
We picked the second take andhe bounced it off the tape
machine and that was it.
(15:55):
That was the mix.
There was no production.
I don't think I even saw himtwiddling EQ or anything.
Nick Hill (16:01):
That was just the end of it, yeah sticking the right
mic in front of the right thing.
Will Taylor (16:04):
Yeah, and I think to be able to work in that way,
I think guitars like this are apart of it Totally.
Nick Hill (16:12):
Yeah, it's crucial, I think, and they complement each
other so well.
It's like the dark Gibson justsort of giving this woody and
the Martin is sort of a littlebrighter.
The Martin is quite poshsounding.
Yeah, it is, it's quite poshand sort of like.
Will Taylor (16:27):
And I know that they're a little unfashionable,
those early 70s D35s but it'sjust a workhorse, it just works.
It just sounds fantastic.
Especially if you're loweringthe tuning a little bit, it
really starts to sing in a veryspecial way.
Nick Grizzle (16:44):
Can you tell us a little bit about what "Chelsea
smiles is about yes.
Will Taylor (16:46):
Yes, there's words.
There's a quite long story.
That's why we paused and lookedat yeah, well, obviously.
Well, chelsea smiles as a thingis an act of football violence
the Chelsea fans would do to.
Yeah.
Nick Hill (17:00):
They would slit your mouth to make it a big smile,
both sides your lip other, theJoker, smile.
Will Taylor (17:08):
That would be a move that the Chelsea fans, at
one point or another, would doto their rivals.
So a Chelsea smile, so it'slike a pretty, it's a pretty
sinister thing to sing about.
But, um, you know, really wejust love that phrase because of
how many meanings it held.
You know, had you know three,three and four maybe angles you
(17:28):
could use with how that.
So actually, you know what we,what we did is we wrote many
different versions of a song butwe actually had the, the chord
progression and the melody therefor for some time and you know,
not long before we went torecord the, the last record, we,
we managed to get the lyricsdone, kind of pretty much in the
(17:48):
nick of time, and we wouldwrite them down on the South
Bank in London, which is abeautiful view of London.
So you know, kind of up on thebalcony, the tape, modern, near
St Paul's, and so there was akind of a sort of sense that we
wanted to write about Londonitself.
(18:10):
The murder mile which isreferenced is the street we live
on, is Clapton, clapton Road,which is the, the street you go
up if you were going to go watchTottenham play, and so you know
, there's just a lot of likegeographical references to the
parts of London we live, andalso Chelsea is in the West
(18:30):
London, which is, which is whatwe would consider, a very posh
area of London.
We wouldn't go, it'd be quitean upper-class part of of London
or always famously has beenknown, you know, in the last few
decades, as as somewhere wherequite wealthy people live, you
know, and there's a lot of moneythere, and East London, I
suppose, is sort of sort of theopposite, so.
(18:53):
So there's also a kind of Eastand West Rivalry thing happening
there and there's that, youknow it's nodding to a lot.
And then we also wrote aversion of the song you know as
just a straight footballfootball song, you know, and
then kind of mashed it alltogether.
Nick Hill (19:11):
There's is also there's also just a girl's name.
It's a love song about a girlcalled Chelsea.
Will Taylor (19:16):
Yeah, yeah, who's into her music and you know I
like the sound of her, you know.
And so it's really just acollage of all the different
versions of the song we couldhave written kind of mashed
together and we thought therewas a kind of a lovely poetry in
that and I think that the factthat the melody and harmony of
the song itself does such a lotof work, it's a very, it's a
very kind of meandering andquite complicated.
(19:37):
.
.
Quite sinister as well, pieceof music and, yeah, with
definitely some sinisterundertones in the harmony itself
, we felt like it was best tonot write anything on the nose
in terms of the lyrical content.
Nick Grizzle (19:50):
To hear more from Flyte.
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(20:56):
Dalbroi.
Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Podcast.
I'm your host, Nick Grizzle,for this bonus Acoustic Guitar
Sessions minisode.
I had the pleasure of catchingup with London-based indie folk
duo Flyte.
We talked about their first andfavorite guitars, writing for
two voices, and much more.
Flight kicks things off with aperformance of "Chelsea Smiles
(00:21):
from their latest self-titledalbum.
Flyte (00:50):
The West End and the Blue's rolling the windows down.
This is our town.
Nothing will ever stop us now,because when we're in blue once
(01:14):
in a while, chelsea smiles,chelsea's hands on the bonnet of
(01:34):
her riot fan, on the cornerscorned for a beating.
There'll be meeting Chelsea'seyes making trouble under
Chelsea's skies, calling all herD-announcement speakers, rating
(02:00):
the lost and found.
Because this is our town,nothing will ever stop us now,
because when we're in blue oncein a while, oh, chelsea smiles.
Will Taylor (02:46):
I'm Nick.
Will (02:47):
yes and I'm Will, and together we are Flyte.
Nick Grizzle (02:52):
How did each of you get started playing guitar
and what brought you together?
Nick Hill (02:58):
I think we actually have a very similar story about
how we started playing guitar.
Will (03:01):
do we?
Yeah?
Nick (03:02):
Well, we both had the same sort of 15 pound guitar
from Argos, 50 quid.
Will Taylor (03:08):
Was it 50?
Yeah, it was 50 quid.
Nylon classical guitar fromArgos which is like your Sears
catalogue and it's like the most.
.
.
It's the most non-committalthing that your parents can do
if you say that you're wantingto start the guitar.
Yeah, and you're, I was.
I was a 10, 11?
Will (03:26):
I think I was about 11, 12.
Nick (03:27):
Yeah and they're like well , let's see.
So let's get you this 50 quidhunk of junk from Argos and see
how it goes.
I got a lot of miles out ofthat.
Will (03:36):
I got a full-size.
Nick (03:37):
but did you get a?
Nick Hill (03:38):
full-size one, I got a little mini kids one.
Will Taylor (03:40):
Yeah, I got the full size.
Nick Hill (03:42):
But maybe that's why mine was 15 quid and yours was
50.
Will Taylor (03:44):
Maybe.
Maybe that's why I'm morelegendary than you are on the
guitar.
Nick (03:47):
Yeah, that might be that way.
Nick Hill (03:49):
That's what it is, dang shots fired.
Nick Grizzle (03:52):
What brought you guys together to play music?
Will Taylor (03:54):
It's kind of a slightly.
.
.
it's a story of a few chaptersbecause we actually did know
each other initially from beingin the kind of council run
musical theater like everySaturday morning when you're a
kid.
Very bad productions of WestSide Story and Half a Sixpence,
and but there was, I remember,guitars flinging around then at
(04:15):
that point already.
Nick Hill (04:16):
Yeah.
Will Taylor (04:18):
But we would then again then.
The second phase of that wasthat we went to different state
schools and there was a battleof the bands and Nick's band
beat my band in Battle of theBands and then years later then
we actually were collaborating.
So there were a few littlelittle steps to get there.
Flyte (04:40):
Yeah, run-ins.
Will Taylor (04:42):
When enemies become friends.
Yeah.
Nick Grizzle (04:46):
I love that kind of story.
Can you tell us a little bitabout your process for
songwriting?
Do you write songs individually?
Is it more collaborativetogether from the get-go?
How do you go about it?
Will Taylor (04:59):
For both these days .
It's very collaborative.
I mean, where we're talking tonow is sort of where we do.
We write songs for other peopletoo, and in you know, when
we're not writing songs for theflight records Because we like
to avoid using production earlyon at all, you know even
(05:21):
actually when making the latestFlyte record, we didn't, I'd say
, use production necessarily.
We did it with tape and thedesk.
Nick Hill (05:28):
And we didn't demo anything at all.
Will Taylor (05:29):
No demos or anything like that.
So our process is very muchbased on acoustic guitars and
voices.
And when we write for otherpeople, even if they're like big
pop people, one of our things Iguess that they're getting from
us is that they come around tomy flat and they sit here at
this table and we write withacoustic guitars and there
aren't you know what we considerthe distractions of logic or
(05:53):
pro tools, you know, andbuilding up the sound too soon,
making sure the actual songitself is solidified at its core
and the important things arethere, and then you can take
that song and it can then, youknow, step up a gear outside of
the context of you know, I thinkit's made us better players as
well.
Nick Hill (06:10):
Acoustic players we sort of we sort of learn how to
kind of arrange entire songs,kind of just with two acoustic
guitars, because when you'replaying guitar and writing a
song it becomes prettymonotonous.
You start playing the song overand over again and you sort of
start coming up with parts tomake it more interesting.
And I think a lot of ourarrangements and melodies, that
the counter melodies and stuff,are just from just sort of
messing up, mucking about whywe're trying to, you know, get
(06:32):
the lyrics.
Yeah, at the time that's such agood point.
Will Taylor (06:34):
And with two guitars I mean even with one
guitar you have the, you havethe, the entire scope really of
you know, low and high andeverything in between, and when
you have two you can createevery kind of harmony and
counter melody you can.
Yeah yeah, when we're touringand we haven't come with a band,
when we're with the band, nickis on bass and he's part of the
(06:54):
rhythm section.
I'm on lead guitar, rhythmguitar.
Nick (06:57):
don't tell them that Will
Nick Hill (07:00):
Oh, we're talking to a guy.
Flyte (07:01):
I forget who we're talking to here.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, full stringsfor life.
Nick Grizzle (07:06):
You know it's, it's all good, you know stringed
instruments we're a fan of hereIs it now Is it?
Will Taylor (07:11):
But then you know, when it's just the two of us
sometimes if we're opening ontour for someone, especially in
the States, because it's a veryexpensive thing at this point
for us to go out with a fullband we'll actually just make it
as we are as writers and we'llgo on stage with two of us, with
two acoustics, and we'llactually use the acoustics as
extra voices.
Like Nick, for instance, willtune his lower strings down so
(07:33):
he can represent the bass andthen play up high simultaneously
.
And I can kind of cover themiddle ground and in a sense,
what we were able to do is sortof represent the, you know, like
a full band arrangement, butwithin two acoustics.
No.
Nick Grizzle (07:49):
So Will?
You said in an interview oncethat you think of your guitars
as actual voices rather thanjust strings to strum chords on,
and I kind of wanted to diginto that a little bit and ask
how you develop guitar partsthat just aren't like typical
accompaniments.
Will Taylor (08:03):
You know, like you said, you know, we've been
writing, we've been writing alot with Madison Cunningham
recently and she and well, wewere all three of us kind of
like bonded over the fact thatit's like we're very shape-based
.
You know, we always like to relyon, like, the shapes we know
and then what we can do with theshapes and we can change the
tunings and some of those shapesmean something different and we
become quite reliant on shapes.
But what's quite nice is is Is,I'd say, in the you know more
(08:28):
recently, what we, especially onthis last record, what we've
been able to do with chordshapes and chord voicings is
really just like lead with thetop line, lead with the melody
and lead with where we kind offeel we want the chord to go,
and we might have to just invent, seemingly invent the chord
like, invent the shape that weneed, that's required for the
(08:49):
purpose of the melody and theharmony that's in our heads.
So that's been a nice thing.
Like I think for the first timea huge kind of wealth of new
shapes and movements and andkind of tools on the, on the
guitar have kind of emerged fromjust having to sort of I don't
know piece together the rightnotes we think we want to hear
and you know, I don't thinkeither of us are people that can
(09:10):
, you know, entirely speak thelanguage of musical theory.
So you know it's not like oh,at the ninth and the sixth, and
then the augmented to something,or that.
You know, it's like it's stillwe're still just using our ears
and we're still guessing to acertain extent, and that's been
a very lovely new world to stepinto.
Nick Hill (09:25):
Yeah, I think, I think our first producer that we
worked with on our first albumhad Really instilled a good
thing with acoustic guitar,which is that and every and
arranging in general, is thateverything has to hold melody
and everything should be therefor a reason.
I think with acoustic guitarnot going for, you know, so
something that's just paddingbasically just like to something
that's just sort of to likeconstant or anything like that,
(09:48):
so you have to like add and thenstill rid the man melody into
all guitar parts, I think, tomake it really.
That's what at least what wetry to do, to make it same.
Will Taylor (09:56):
Yeah, just a gen general sort of strumming
pattern is very upsetting to usthese days.
Nick Grizzle (10:02):
I'd say, I saw that, that song, that video that
you did with Madison,especially the making of it.
It was so fun to watch from amusician's perspective, seeing
that creative process and then,honestly, the recording is so
satisfying to listen to afterseeing that because it came out
so well.
Who are some artists that haveinfluenced you like over the
(10:24):
years and that kind of areinfluencing you now?
Will Taylor (10:27):
Good question, I think.
I think it's been a funny onewith influence because, well,
for me I'm not gonna speak forNick but, like for me, the, the
influence is growing up in myteens and very much in my own
terms, my parents weren'tparticularly influential with
what music I was introduced to,which is a good and a bad thing.
I think took me maybe a littlelonger to find my find those old
(10:49):
artists that you know wereworth listening to throughout my
teenage years, but I was very,I was very much fixated on the
past in terms of the things thatwere making me excited, and I
would say Paul Simon was areally big influence in terms of
being a guitar player.
And you know, I guesssongwriters that you used that
(11:10):
used the guitar.
You know, I mean, you could yousay that about so many of the
great songwriters at that time?
They were using the guitar inwonderful ways, Joni Mitchell,
for instance.
And I think there was a periodof time in which it felt a
little bit like I was a littlelost in terms of who the
contemporary influences were,and I think that perhaps we've
(11:33):
reached a point when I mean justgenerally in the world, there's
a point has been reached whenenough people like us, who had
that same conundrum, have allstarted making their own music.
And now there's like loads ofinspiring people, I think you
know, writing songs and playingguitar in particular ways or
just making music in general,who have this wonderful wealth
(11:54):
of influence and and and somepeople who are clearly very,
very influenced sort of solelyby past, past things, but
they're alive now and they'remaking music now and they are
fresh still.
I think that Adrianne Lenker isa good example of that.
Nick Grizzle (12:09):
Let's talk about your guitars, the actual
instruments that you play.
What, what guitars do youtypically play and what do you
like about them?
Will Taylor (12:20):
They're in the room right now.
You know what's interesting is.
This one that's sat right hereis quite crucial guitar in terms
of the sound that we have onthe last two records.
Nick Hill (12:35):
It's a beautiful J45 Gibson guitar.
I think it's 50s, I think it'slike late 50s.
Will Taylor (12:48):
It's absolutely lovely.
It's a 1958, I think, j45.
And then this is the Martin D35, 1973.
So these two are the guitarsthat we've used.
This one is actually mygirlfriend Billy's.
She's an artist called BillyMartin.
She passed me that Gibsonbecause this is one of the ones
(13:11):
where it just has a distinctivesound.
It's very hard to top thisguitar.
But there's a song calledEveryone's a Winner.
[plays] It's a song called Evenon Bad Days, which is on the
(13:41):
new record.
[plays] It's a bit out of tune.
Nick Hill (13:53):
It's got a lovely dark woody instant.
.
.
It's one of the nicest recordedacoustic guitars I've ever had
in my life.
Will Taylor (14:06):
Anyway, yeah, I think the video we gave you guys
there, or Perfect Dark,actually is the guitar that was
being used and Nick was playingon the Martin D35.
But I think a really reallystrong kind of character in
(14:29):
obviously its age.
But then obviously on top ofthat it is a fantastically made
guitar even at the time, just avery reliable.
You know, it's uncontroversial,but we do use these guitars on
stage and off in the studio andeverywhere else, just because
it's very tricky to kind of doanything else really once you've
(14:49):
gone there.
Our sound engineer in therecording studio is called Dom
Monks.
He records, like Big Thief, forinstance, very beautifully, his
particular skill, whichactually he learned from Ethan
Johns, who you saw producingMadison and I, so the Perfect
Dark documentary.
In fact I think Dom pops in atthe end and listens because he's
(15:12):
working with Michael Kiwanukain the other room and he's such
a well, him and Ethan, both justbeautiful, just sound engineers
.
You know, in the most sort ofbog standard way you can think
of.
They are just phenomenal atputting a mic in front of
something and just making surethat it comes out sounding like
(15:33):
a record that Perfect Darkversion with Madison at Rack
with Ethan.
It's not produced.
You know, we just worked outthe arrangement, stood in front
of the microphones, sang thesong.
I think we sang it twice.
We picked the second take andhe bounced it off the tape
machine and that was it.
(15:55):
That was the mix.
There was no production.
I don't think I even saw himtwiddling EQ or anything.
Nick Hill (16:01):
That was just the end of it, yeah sticking the right
mic in front of the right thing.
Will Taylor (16:04):
Yeah, and I think to be able to work in that way,
I think guitars like this are apart of it Totally.
Nick Hill (16:12):
Yeah, it's crucial, I think, and they complement each
other so well.
It's like the dark Gibson justsort of giving this woody and
the Martin is sort of a littlebrighter.
The Martin is quite poshsounding.
Yeah, it is, it's quite poshand sort of like.
Will Taylor (16:27):
And I know that they're a little unfashionable,
those early 70s D35s but it'sjust a workhorse, it just works.
It just sounds fantastic.
Especially if you're loweringthe tuning a little bit, it
really starts to sing in a veryspecial way.
Nick Grizzle (16:44):
Can you tell us a little bit about what "Chelsea
smiles is about yes.
Will Taylor (16:46):
Yes, there's words.
There's a quite long story.
That's why we paused and lookedat yeah, well, obviously.
Well, chelsea smiles as a thingis an act of football violence
the Chelsea fans would do to.
Yeah.
Nick Hill (17:00):
They would slit your mouth to make it a big smile,
both sides your lip other, theJoker, smile.
Will Taylor (17:08):
That would be a move that the Chelsea fans, at
one point or another, would doto their rivals.
So a Chelsea smile, so it'slike a pretty, it's a pretty
sinister thing to sing about.
But, um, you know, really wejust love that phrase because of
how many meanings it held.
You know, had you know three,three and four maybe angles you
(17:28):
could use with how that.
So actually, you know what we,what we did is we wrote many
different versions of a song butwe actually had the, the chord
progression and the melody therefor for some time and you know,
not long before we went torecord the, the last record, we,
we managed to get the lyricsdone, kind of pretty much in the
(17:48):
nick of time, and we wouldwrite them down on the South
Bank in London, which is abeautiful view of London.
So you know, kind of up on thebalcony, the tape, modern, near
St Paul's, and so there was akind of a sort of sense that we
wanted to write about Londonitself.
(18:10):
The murder mile which isreferenced is the street we live
on, is Clapton, clapton Road,which is the, the street you go
up if you were going to go watchTottenham play, and so you know
, there's just a lot of likegeographical references to the
parts of London we live, andalso Chelsea is in the West
(18:30):
London, which is, which is whatwe would consider, a very posh
area of London.
We wouldn't go, it'd be quitean upper-class part of of London
or always famously has beenknown, you know, in the last few
decades, as as somewhere wherequite wealthy people live, you
know, and there's a lot of moneythere, and East London, I
suppose, is sort of sort of theopposite, so.
(18:53):
So there's also a kind of Eastand West Rivalry thing happening
there and there's that, youknow it's nodding to a lot.
And then we also wrote aversion of the song you know as
just a straight footballfootball song, you know, and
then kind of mashed it alltogether.
Nick Hill (19:11):
There's is also there's also just a girl's name.
It's a love song about a girlcalled Chelsea.
Will Taylor (19:16):
Yeah, yeah, who's into her music and you know I
like the sound of her, you know.
And so it's really just acollage of all the different
versions of the song we couldhave written kind of mashed
together and we thought therewas a kind of a lovely poetry in
that and I think that the factthat the melody and harmony of
the song itself does such a lotof work, it's a very, it's a
very kind of meandering andquite complicated.
(19:37):
.
.
Quite sinister as well, pieceof music and, yeah, with
definitely some sinisterundertones in the harmony itself
, we felt like it was best tonot write anything on the nose
in terms of the lyrical content.
Nick Grizzle (19:50):
To hear more from Flyte.
Be sure to check the show notesfor this episode.
If you're enjoying the acousticguitar podcast, please head
over to our patreon page atpatreon-dot-com-s lash- acoustic
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Plus, you'll get instant accessto a whole bunch of great perks
(20:13):
like exclusive live streamworkshops, song transcriptions,
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(20:34):
the more guitarists who tune ineach month, the better.
Thanks for listening and foryour support of the acoustic
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The acoustic guitar podcast isbrought to you by the team at
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I'm your host, Nick Grizzle.
The acoustic guitar podcast isdirected and edited by Joey
Lusterman.
Tanya Gonzalez is our producer.
Executive producers are LyzyLusterman and Stephanie Campos
(20:56):
Dalbroi.
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