THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA // Golden Era Of Flying

Since coming to wide attention with his band Soilwork’s breakthrough Natural Born Chaos album in 2002, Björn “Speed” Strid has lent his chameleonic vocal talents to dozens of recording projects.

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Blessed with an enviable combination of range and sheer power, his style extends from a scathing death metal growl to well-pitched screams and a high clean mid-range that allows for robust harmonies. It has led to him being one of metal’s most in-demand singers, with an inventory of credits so long the list would take up most of the rest of this article.

Throughout his career, he has kept up an exhausting schedule of recording and touring that saw Soilwork’s first seven albums released at an average of one every eleven months between 1998 and 2007; if that wasn’t already enough, it was in 2007 that he formed The Night Flight Orchestra with Soilwork’s (then) touring guitarist David Andersson, Arch Enemy bass player Sharlee D’angelo, drummer Jonas Källsbäck and keyboardist Richard Larsson to explore a common interest in 70s and 80s melodic rock. With a line-up that has since expanded to include percussionist Sebastian Forslund and backing singers Anna-Mia Bonde and Anna Bryngård, The Night Flight Orchestra has just released their fifth album, Aeromantic.

“I can’t remember when I exactly came up with it, but since our albums are full of romance and telling stories based on a lot of personal experience with relationship dramas and things like that,” Strid explains, “and because we’re also romanticising the Golden Era of Flying, that felt like the perfect title for it. To combine “aero” and “romantic” was a given, when it popped up in my mind. It represents the band in a very good way and it totally fits in with our concept.”

Aeromantic expands on the group’s melodic rock infatuation even more than their two previous releases, adding further experimentation with New Wave and early synth-rock influences. The result is a deeply compelling album both coherent and wildly diverse. It’s a fine line to walk, but The Night Flight Orchestra has managed to do it.

Divinyls was an amazing band. We became aware of them through the 83 US Festival DVD doing an amazing song, Boys in Town. That performance was so stellar. It was just a crazy performance, we started watching that before every show. It was like a pre-show party watching that DVD, especially that song.
[ Björn “Speed” Strid ]

“Even though the previous two albums were leading up to this and they were both really amazing albums too, this one is even more diverse but sticks together even more,” Strid says of it. “I think we’ve found a really good balance, mixing it up. When you go through the album, it goes on a journey with a lot of unexpected twists and turns. When you listen to the first three songs, you might think, ‘I know where this band is going’. No, you don’t!”

Like any dedicated musician, Strid’s knowledge and appreciation of his art runs deep, and his inspiration can often be found in places of relative obscurity. A concert DVD that the band found “on tour somewhere” introduced him to the astonishing live power of early Divinyls, an act best known outside of Australia for their monster 1990 hit I Touch Myself. He was so impressed by what he saw, he named a song after them. Divinyls doesn’t sound anything like the band, but Strid kept the working title as a tribute after a suggestion from Andersson.

“Divinyls was an amazing band. We became aware of them through the 83 US Festival DVD doing an amazing song, Boys in Town. That performance was so stellar. It was just a crazy performance, we started watching that before every show. It was like a pre-show party watching that DVD, especially that song.”

ABBA have inspired us a lot, because a lot of people see them as a happy disco band, but their stuff was pretty dark at times.
[ Björn “Speed” Strid ]

The band show a distinctly darker side of their character on Transmission, which could have easily been influenced by Joy Division.

“It also has an Ultravox feel to it, as well,” Strid says. “I think that’s what David was going for, and sort of mixing it up with Scandinavian melancholy. It has that written all over it too, especially the violin outro. It’s definitely one of the best songs we’ve done, for sure. It has that 80s New Romance feel to it. We wanted to develop our sound, and the whole time we’ve had that element of Scandinavian melancholy running through our albums. It might be pop but we like to play a lot with different moods and vibes running through the music. ABBA have inspired us a lot, because a lot of people see them as a happy disco band, but their stuff was pretty dark at times.”

It would be pretty difficult to be a melodic Swedish band and not be influenced by ABBA in some way. Strid delights in the knowledge that The Night Flight Orchestra doesn’t have the creative limitations that a melodic death metal band like Soilwork has imposed on them.

“There’s really no boundaries with this band, and that’s what I like about it,” he says. “You get high on the fact that you can really do anything with it. We always manage to make it into our own. We found a very personal expression in the end, even though we throw so many references around, and I think it’s only natural that you would do that. But I think we have found something really personal here, and that’s why this album really sticks out. We’ve created our own little niche.”

Strid doesn’t suggest that lightly. He’s at a loss to name another band making music in the same vein that isn’t a veteran act from the 70s and 80s. Voyager, he says, might come close but “they have a djenty thing going on” and their roots are in power metal and progressive rock. Even AOR legends Toto pointed out how unique his band is when they played together recently.

“It’s really hard to find a band that’s doing the same thing. It’s funny that there aren’t other bands capturing this era of composing and producing and writing songs. When you do find these retro rock bands, they sound like early 70s. They have a different expression. It’s Led Zeppelinesque, Black Sabbathesque, psychedelic, Blue Öyster Cult … why is nobody capturing this [later] era? We’re really filling a void in the music scene. I really believe that. I feel like we’re on a mission because we’re really needed out there!”

With the tour cycle for Soilwork’s last album done, 2020 will be the year for Strid and Andersson to concentrate their touring efforts on The Night Flight Orchestra. While they have endeavoured to keep both bands separate, last year they appeared on festival bills within an hour of each other, and while the singer admits that it worked out better than he expected, it’s not something he wants to repeat if he can avoid it.

“We’re just trying to divide the touring cycles and album cycles as much as we can, because I don’t think anyone’s going to be happy in the end if we all try to do everything at the same time. Last year was pretty crazy. We ended up doing three festivals together, same day, same festival, with only one hour in between, and that was interesting to say the least!”

It still amounts to a lot of work, particularly for Strid and Andersson, but the workaholic vocalist probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We’ll do the Night Flight year, then get into Soilwork mode again, but we need both. We feel that we have the best of worlds and feel very balanced musically.”