Air Craft is a four piece band consisting of musicians who have been highly active in Buffalo's music scene for years (Dali's Ghost and (at sea)). While Dali's Ghost treated crowds to a  psychedelic audio experience - the new musical project, Aircraft, supplied members with the opportunity to explore a broader ranger of ideas while creating tighter songs- fastening in those new ideas so that they could fit into more solidified structures.  

    
The band's name was chosen due to it being a double entendre. On one hand, the term "air-craft" conjures the image of an airplane (Amerlia Earheart era of course), human technology that could defy nature, flying vehicles that can transport us to different continents.  And on the other hand,  "aircraft" may conjure up the concept of live music as a sort of organized chaos, with each member channeling and releasing their own sonic artillery into the air. What we hear is the remnants of that invisible combat. 

   
Now all of us with internet access can reap in the fruits of their labor, after 7 months of recording the band has released their first full-length album on band camp, entitled Sonic Boom. And on top of that, they're going on tour from August 22nd through September 4th. In the interview we talk about cake, balloons, and the band itself. 

buffaBLOG: So let me get this straight, Dali's Ghost dissipated and you guys formed Aircraft, talk about this conception.

Justin: We kind of stopped the Dali's Ghost thing to move onto something different, this is more structured, I considered Dali's Ghost more of a aim band in a way. In terms of Aircraft, I didn't think there was a super solid vision, like, "we're going to sound like this, we're going to do these kind of songs". I had a certain style of songwriting I was working on and I presented it to James and Ian and asked if they wanted to make music with it, they liked it and that's where we were going from. That direction. There is a vision within it, but it grows, this was around two years ago. I had these new song ideas. Ian and James were in a band, (at sea), that was dissipating as well, and I just saw the opportunity.

buffaBLOG: Can you describe the new material, how it was different? 

Justin: I felt the songs had a pop-hook, a catchiness to them. Dali's Ghost was catchy, but it was darker, but the Aircraft stuff is a bit more light and bright and colorful. There was more definitely structure to them, incorporated elements of punk music and surf music, I've always used 60s jangly pop as an influence. I think Aircraft has more of an edge than Dali's Ghost, and less room for getting really out there, less improvisational room and more concise crafting of a song. In DG, we'd write sections that were meant to go anywhere, we could fall apart, but that was the point. But in Aircraft each section is written to flow into the next section, it's more difficult to play in that way. Conceptually there's not too much a difference, at least from my end, I always write songs about similar stuff, I just like the way they come out better with this band.

buffaBLOG: Can you elaborate on that, the song writing process?

Justin: Sometimes I'll have a song and bring it to rehearsal, Ian will put a beat down, Tyler will put a guitar rift or keyboard line and James will put down a baseline, all of a sudden we'll have a song. Other times I'll get together with Ian and we'll just be jamming and suddenly there's a rift, and an idea pops up and we'll run with that. Both these ways happen. Lately, we've been getting together and seeing what happens. 

buffaBLOG: Are there ever duds?

Justin: Yeah, we don't like to call them Duds, we'll call them songs Tyler doesn't like to play.

Tyler: I'll call them songs that need more work, we'll have songs that we thought sounded good good and start to feel flat, and then they'll pop back up again when we feel like they're fresh, and then we'll work on them again.  

buffaBLOG: So what you triggered you guys to create a full LP?

Tyler: Eventually you wanna record your music and have something to give out to people. When you play live a lot you have people come up to you and ask you if you have a CD. With our first album, we were always trying to get things together to get it out, it took a little longer than we expected. 

Ian: It was just a collection of songs we had, we had this many songs we knew and had together. There was some thought in the sequencing of the album, it flows in a particular album.

Justin: There were some cuts, that didn't make the album. 

buffaBLOG: What was the actual recording process like?

Justin: It as fun at first, and very arduous, tedious, and delayed after that. The guy we worked with is a great engineer, unbelievable, and recording with him was a blast. When we got there and we were doing our thing, it was so easy and so fun, he has an amazing ear. The first time we set up in his barn, and we didn't play to a metronome so the mixing took a little longer than expected, we wanted it out in September, but it worked out and it got a good response and all that matters is we got a good end product.  

buffaBLOG: If you did have a concept album, what would the concept be? 

Justin: The fall of the illuminati and the actual super natural takeover of the planet. 

Tyler: I was thinking more like, balloons.

Justin: Yeah maybe, with each song being a different color balloon.

buffaBLOG: Judging from my interview with different bands, the recording process always seems to be more delayed than anticipated.

Justin: I guess it depends on how hard you wanna ride someones ass, cause at this stage in the game we're not paying people a lot of money to get work done. So we're kind of at the mercy of their time, if we had a shit ton of money we could have more leverage and that person would probably more motivated to get it done because they don't want to be fired from a project. So that's why I think it's harder for local bands to get things done in a timely manner. 

buffaBLOG: How would you guys characterize the difference between the record and the live show?

Ian: There's a lot more detail on the recording, sometimes playing live it's difficult to represent all the musical ideas that are actually there. Cause you're limited by the number of hands and feet to play instruments and pedals, but there's also a lack of audio fidelity in a lot of venues in Buffalo, you necessarily lose something playing at high volume into a PA system with somebody else at the helm. With the recording we were able to flesh out the songs, give them a bigger, crayon box so to speak. Justin overdubbed a lot of acoustic guitar, which really fattened out some of the tracks, it gave them a rusty shimmer. The live show is more about getting people excited, getting them into it, and making sure that there's some sort of connection with the audience. More sweating.

Justin: Definitely more sweating.

Tyler: It's tough to capture the energy of the live performance in a recording. You try to as much as possible, but energy is tough to capture in the recording.

Justin: I think a big misnomer is that people assume if you get a band together live in a studio and they just play you're going to capture their live energy, but that's not true because of the way the music translates through the recording process. It's like any art form, there are tricks to making a band sound energetic through a recording. That's why we do certain overdubs, like our song "Meteorite", it's an energetic song. For our album instead of using an electric guitar we used an acoustic guitar, it gave the song a very potent characteristic, not raw live energy, but more like a temporal energy that you could perceive when you're listening. So that's why using tricks, to create textures and rings of audio space is important. And that's what we did on this album that I'm really happy with. We know how it sounds live, but we captured the core live aspect and added to it in a way enhanced it close to its full potential. Live you have way less control, because theres the sound guy, there are the acoustics of the room, theres the mood of the crowd, the mood of the band, there are all these factors that go into the live show, but they also make the live experience an amazing experience.

buffaBLOG: Speaking of which, what is your favorite venue to play at?

Tyler: Mine was Mohawk Place, which sadly is gone.

Justin: I don't really have a favorite but I like playing at places where there isn't such a set up. Like, the Vault is always fun because with our band we don't need a huge PA system and we don't need to mic all the instruments, so the sound relies on the acoustics of the band. I also like the hardwood floors. 

Ian: I like playing at the Town Ballroom because there are an army of sound guys, and they have time schedules to keep.

Justin: Yeah, it's a lot more organized, it also has an amazing stage sound. 

buffaBLOG: So you guys are going on tour, where are you guys going? 

Justin: West, East, and then back home, a bit of a loop, we're touring with The Malones.

Tyler: Ok, the tour outline is Buffalo, Fredonia, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinatti, Pittsburgh, Philly, Brooklyn, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Rochester. 

Ian: We're trying to do a split 7 inch for the tour as well, split it with the Malones. 

Justin: We're going on tour for 2 weeks. 

buffaBLOG: Final question, "You can't eat your cake and have it too," how would you guys interpret that?

Justin: You become the cake. The nom nom.

Ian: I think people use that cliche to represent "well, you have to make a decision you can't live in this idealized world"

Justin: I think it's originally supposed to mean, you can't have something as it is, and have something as its not, like the cake that's just made from the Baker is beautiful and stunning, you just want it. But if you eat the cake, you disrupt the beauty of the cake in a way. I love cake by the way.