Flyte Announce New Album; Share “Tough Love” Ft. Laura Marling
July 19, 2023 BY Jason Currell
Today, British band Flyte announce their third album, the self-titled Flyte, set for release on October 27th on Nettwerk. Flyte is the most intimate record the London based duo have yet produced, but also the most optimistic. Recorded in a week at London’s Konk Studios with Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver) and engineer Dom Monks, who both “pulled the truth and flawed beauty out of things without you even realising it”, the concept of Flyte is one of love and stability, and how difficult that is to write about. “Tough Love” featuring Laura Marling is the second single lifted from the record, following the raw and exposing “Defender”. The critically acclaimed singer and songwriter Laura Marling connected with Flyte during the pandemic, and a friendship of mutual musical respect was born. On the second day of recording Flyte, Will Taylor and Nick Hill messaged Laura about coming down to the studio. When she arrived they played her the mesmeric, “Tough Love”, and a few hours later she had arranged and recorded her vocals. Reaching a hypnotic crescendo, Tough Love’s power is in its repetition of the term “Tough Love”, describing the torturous pain of love and asking how you don’t “smother a relationship”, but stay in love.
Flyte’s Will Taylor explains: “This song asks how two people might rattle free from a closed loop of bad habits and codependent tendencies. It takes two people to prop up an unhealthy relationship, so a duet seemed appropriate and Laura Marling felt like the perfect fit.”
Having led Barn On The Farm’s “Farm Band’ at this year’s independent festival, Flyte had 10 minutes to rehearse Neil Youngs “Old Man” with Norwegian pop star Sigrid, before playing it in front of thousands of fans, alongside Will Taylor’s partner Billie Marten and alt-pop artist Ber. It was clear that Flyte have established themselves as an influential mainstay in music culture, gaining notable fans from Florence Pugh to Paul Mescal, Bon Iver to Madison Cunningham and even Lewis Capaldi for their crafted and confessional writing style. Now the duo announce their biggest UK and Ireland tour to date, from Belfast to Manchester, culminating at London’s KOKO on 12 December. Singer and guitarist Will Taylor and bassist and vocalist Nick Hill continually inspire musicianship onstage by inviting their artist community on tour, having sold out Lafayette in minutes last year, and Shepherds Bush Empire. Flyte have welcomed everyone from Bombay Bicycle Club, Holly Humberstone, The Staves and Mystery Jets to perform alongside them, whilst the duo are regarded as one of the UK’s greatest lyrical talents, penning songs with artists including Sigrid, Madison Cunningham, Miya Folick, Courtney Marie Andrews and poet Simon Armitage.
The first single lifted from Flyte “Defender”, was written with the bands old friend M Field around the sitting room table with some classical guitars and a drum machine. Every element of the tender but immediate love song was recorded on instinct, with live instrumentation. “I know that you’re behind the door, spiralling away from me”, writes lead singer Will Taylor, about his long-term partner, British singer songwriter Billie Marten. Writing their independent records (Billie’s fourth album ‘Drop Cherries’) from across the room at one another in their North East London home, ‘Defender’ is an introduction into Flyte’s most intimate and vulnerable songwriting yet.
Taylor and Hill met at secondary school, eventually settling in Hackney, London. Taylor’s parents were both English teachers and inevitably, various literary influences trickled into the duo’s music – the band taking its name from Sebastian Flyte of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’. Flyte released critically acclaimed ‘The Loved Ones’ in 2017, recorded with Burke Reid (Julia Jacklin, Courtney Barnett) in the Australian outback, which explored the ways in which people struggle to process love. The album’s crafted storytelling and ambitious harmonic arrangements earned it the title “Best British debut of the year” from the Sunday Times.
Following the emotive 2019 EP ‘White Roses’ featuring The Staves on the title track, their 5* (Independent) second album ‘This Is Really Going To Hurt’ (2021), took them out to Los Angeles to work with Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver). This brought out a more simplistic and confessional approach in their writing style and focused entirely on the aftermath of a break up. Flyte have teamed back up with Sarlo, this time in London’s famous Konk Studios, to record their most confident and collaborative work to date, releasing through record label Nettwerk (Miya Folick, Matt Maltese).
Festival season
Thu 27 Jul Cambridge Folk Festival
Sun 6 Aug Wilderness Festival
Sat 12 Aug South Facing Festival
Headline tour
30 Nov Belfast Ulster Sports Club
01 Dec Dublin Workmans Club
03 Dec Edinburgh The Caves
04 Dec Glasgow Oran Mor
05 Dec Newcastle The Cluny
07 Dec Liverpool O2 Academy 2
08 Dec Manchester Gorilla
09 Dec Leeds The Wardrobe
11 Dec Nottingham Bodega
12 Dec London Koko
13 Dec Cambridge Portland Arms
14 Dec Bristol Strange Brew
16 Dec Brighton Patterns
17 Dec Oxford O2 Academy 2
