Fear of Flying

The history of local rock act Fear Of Flying is a slow-establishing one, but certainly a good one. It has taken almost five years for the band to finish and release their new EP 'Migration' since their well-received debut album 'Park For May', though it's not as if the band started out only five years ago. Fear Of Flying got together all the way back in 1995 - then known as Timothy - and managed to release three EPs before 2002.

Fast forward to 2006, these days Fear Of Flying have had two members leave the band, another join, one get married, and another one get engaged.

"People take new directions," bassist Phil Lewis says, "we recorded and re-recorded demos over and over to only write new things. But it was a pretty big effort to get this EP out."

After Nathan Yabsley left Fear Of Flying in 2002, Paul Banythis took the role as the lead guitarist and, with his musical competence, enabled the band to reach a new level and broaden their musical scope, as well hone their skills.

"We all had some rather weird ways of playing," vocalist and guitarist Scott Doherty confesses. "Paul is an established technical musician and he has really held everyone down and made sure that we have learned how to play properly."

Following the release of 'Park For May', the guys headed off on countless national tours which saw Fear Of Flying support bands like The Living End, Pete Murray, You Am I, Ben Lee, and Ben Folds' national sell-out 2002 tour, as well as the band's good friends Eskimo Joe.

"The first gig we played with Ben Folds was at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney and we had to play a fairly stripped-down set because Ben was playing on only a piano so we couldn't really rock out. We came out and the house was packed, there were about 2,500 people there so it was pretty scary, but we sold about 30 discs at that show alone which wasn't far off from what Ben sold that night!" Doherty explains.

"You have to be into something a fair bit in order to actually purchase a CD, so people definitely seemed to like what we did. Although, we had different reactions in different cities, mostly the response was really positive."

The other new member in the band is Phil Lewis who had substituted for bass player Jade Robinson in 2005. Under circumstances like these, one would expect Fear Of Flying's sound to have changed during this four-year period - but Doherty assures me that, "The music is still basically the same. I think the songs in general and the way they come out are pretty much the same, but there is an overall improvement across the board."

Early in 2005, with a new member and the Nice Cup Of Tea management behind them, Fear Of Flying quickly returned back into the studio to begin recording demos for 'Migration'. In March 2006, the public finally got to hear and see an act that stood out like a sore thumb at the Fringe Festival. In fact, the effect Fear Of Flying had on its audiences and the management of the Fringe was so brilliant that they were invited to play at other Fringe events in the years to come. The band's next move seems to have become a key one in terms of Fear Of Flying's future.

After having basically self-tracked the EP and having worked with Adelaide producer Evan James, as it turned out the band realised the convenience of having some good friends in the same business.

"We were talking with the guys from Eskimo Joe about the different directions in recording and they were basically like, 'Look, we did our last album with Paul McKercher and he won an ARIA for it. It was amazing, so we'll put you in contact with Paul.'" And that's exactly what Eskimo Joe did, resulting in Fear Of Flying overcoming their fear and taking off to Sydney to complete the mixing and mastering of 'Migration' with McKercher in his famous 301 Studio.

According to Doherty, "It was a huge thing for an independent band to work with a guy like him, because he usually only works with major acts on major labels."

And hopefully a broad audience will soon get the chance to see the results of this collaboration for themselves.

"We're definitely planning on putting together a tour on some of the east coast centres to promote the EP and to try to get us playing on the radio just to get our name out there again. And if we can get some decent support we will get in there as well!"

Gesa Pielok

'Migration' is launched at the Rocket Bar on Sat 29 July.