Hilarious

Hilarious
Aussie duo Flight Facilities are most famous for the
seductively chic and undeniably catchy house track ‘Crave You’ from
2010 and have finally released their new debut album, ‘Down to
Earth’. The long awaited album is a perfect balance of Balearic
house vibes infused with funkier tracks. With features from
Australian queen of pop Kylie Minogue as well as Bishop Nehru,
Reggie Watts and Emma Louise, it’s an absolute must-have. It was
only natural therefore that SUITCASE Magazine should check in with
the co-pilots.

SUITCASE Magazine: Has the choice to make your new album, ‘Down
to Earth’ been a natural progression from previous material or can
listeners expect something a bit different?

Hugo: I think it’s along the same band as the
stuff we’ve always done, we try to attack the same pockets of music
we’ve always been interested in but it’s allowed us to do things
that aren’t necessarily designated pop songs which is what we’ve
done in the past. Now we’ve done instrumentals that show a broader
range of our taste.

SM: Is there a strong community within the electronic music
industry or does it get quite competitive?

H: There is, but it depends on where you live.
We’re Australians so it’s much more shut out. But there’s a strong
community in Australia definitely.

Jimmy: We’ve made a lot of friends here in
Europe and in America as well, so there’s a strong sense of
community but everyone has to lose their egos, leave them at the
door and then you can collaborate and do great things together.

H: So it’s not competition, sometimes I think
it’s envy for the success of a more commercial side of it.

SM: Which genre do you hate?

J: We don’t understand dubstep.

H: And EDM’s a bit boring, it’s the same
formula.

J: But if you were in the middle of EDM and you
were the dude that was commanding 40,000 people…

H: Ah yeah, it’d be a high but all the people
that are sitting there watching it in the crowd, I don’t know how
they go, “this is so different to that last song” (laughs).

J: (mimics EDM) “Do do do do do psh psh psh
psh.”

H: And then you’ve gotta pick a word with three
syllables…

J: “Fifth Dimension” (said in robot voice).

H: That’s four!

J: I think four syllables is my thing.

H: I heard one the other day, well about six
months ago now, and the phrase was ‘Big Foot’, it was like “ch ch
ch ch ch… Big Foot” I was like, how lazy is this getting.

H: We don’t hate it we just think it’s really
unimaginative.

SM: Who have you taken inspiration from that would surprise
us?

J: Katy Perry. (laughs) OK, so I haunted Hugo’s
dreams. The first tour we ever did here I would sing Teenage
Dream…the main great bit, I still really love that song it’s a
great pop song. I sung it to him and he was haunted by it. Then we
got home and I downloaded that song, renamed it and sent it to him
on iChat and I was like, “Dude have you heard this new remix”, and
he opened it and was like “Fuck you, but I’ve got this new thing
for you to hear” and sent me back the trash can noise. So basically
yeah, Katy Perry is a big one.

H: I think classical music, maybe that wouldn’t
surprise you as Clair De Lune was based on it. We’ve referenced
people like Calvin Harris for bits here and there but before – God
I’m going to sound like such a wanker – before he got so
‘commercial'(in a wanker voice). He was already commercial then,
he’s got really great song structure.

SM: If you could record in one country using all local
musicians where would you go?

H: UK or USA

J: Maybe Sweden, dude. I mean the
producers.

H: Can you traipse through the past, even dead
people? Then you’ve got the Beatles at hand, and you can be like
“Oi, Paul. Write us a song real quick”.

J: Or Keith

H: And then America’s got like Elvis or Roy
Orbison.

SM: What other Australian artists are killing it at the
moment?

J: Chet Faker

H: You know Chet’s doing well when you have
breakfast in Germany and you hear his song four times.

J: Sia! All credit to her, she’s amazing

SM: What myths about Australians would you like to dispel?

H: I can just give you ones that are true.

J: We’re retarded and we’re loud… Our
alcoholism is completely true, it’s more than you think.

H: We say prawn, not shrimp and we don’t put
them on the barbecue.

SM: If you could choose one person from history to sit next to
on a long haul flight who would it be?

H: I’d say Steven Fry. I really like language
and he would teach me unnecessary words, I’d be a pompous dick
about it for the next week.

SM: What do pack in your SUITCASE?

J: I’ve got this thing from a Japanese shop in
Berlin, these incredible tiny little space saver things. One side
has all your shirts, one side has your pants, and there’s other
smaller ones with undies and socks, they have revolutionised my
packing experience. It’s really, really good.

H: Sectional organisers (creepy voice). One
thing I do have in my toiletries kit is a thing for my ears to
flush them out because sometimes the plane dries out and blocks
them and in music you can’t really afford to have that.