It’s less than a year since First Time Flyers arrived on the UK country scene, but they’ve already been winning over fans with their harmonies, smart songwriting, feelgood melodies and multi-instrumental skills.
The quartet released their debut single ‘Happier’ back in January and have since followed it up with a slew of hits, combining country sounds with classic 70s rock stylings and poppy touches, as well as selling out their first ever headline show at The Grace in London in May and performing at a string of festivals over the summer. Now they’re about to head out on their first headlining tour, playing six dates across the UK next month.
I caught up with Jake, Tim, Poppy and Vicki ahead of their Interstate Stage set at The Long Road this weekend to chat about their festival experience, new single ‘Don’t Tempt Me’, how preparation for the tour is going and more.
How are you finding the festival?
Poppy: So cool.
Jake: So good to be back.
Poppy: Love this festival.
Tim: Yeah, we do love it here.
Vicki: I’ve never been so I’m having a lovely time!
When we were walking up to the press area you said you were cowboy boot spotting – have you seen any good ones so far?
Poppy: I’ve seen a couple of really good ones. I mean to be honest Vicki is rocking a pair herself.
Vicki: I’m a big fan.
Poppy: But yeah, I love seeing the fashion at this festival because people go for it. It’s really cool.
It’s fashion and dogs, basically!
[all laugh]
Vicki: Dogs in fashion!
Jake: We saw one in a denim onesie earlier! [laughs]
I know Tim you were here last year and Jake you’ve played this festival before as well. How is it being back here as a band compared to as solo performers?
Poppy: I mean funnily enough when Jake was here we were basically all here…
Jake: We were all in the bar!
Tim: I was in Jake’s band when he played.
Poppy: And when you were here last year I came with you…
Vicki: And now it’s so much better because I’m here! [all laugh]
Tim: It’s just been elevated by Vicki.
Jake: Like a ray of sunshine!
Poppy: Ultimately as a band it’s just a more fun journey. Like, the whole thing.
Jake: I think it’s because we’re all in it together. Like, it’s nice.
Poppy and Vicki: [singing] We’re all in this together! [all laugh]
Tim: We owe someone royalties for that! But yeah, Poppy and I came last year, and we knew about the band at that point, even though we hadn’t launched. We knew it was happening, so we were talking about it but couldn’t tell anyone. It was quite a nice little secret to have, and I think at some point we probably said, “next year”.
Poppy: “We wanna play here next year”.
Tim: Thankfully it’s happened.
Your new single ‘Don’t Tempt Me’ has just come out…
[all cheer]
Jake: It’s like we planned it! [laughs]
Tell us a bit more about that…
Vicki: Well, it’s a song, it’s called ‘Don’t Tempt Me’, and it’s really good, go and listen to it! Immediately!
Poppy: We wrote it with Jeff Cohen.
Vicki: It’s a proper party track isn’t it?
Poppy: Yeah it is. I think it’s a really feelgood… it’s become a fan favourite in the live shows.
Tim: Yeah, it’s great for the live show, for sure.
Poppy: And yeah, we knew it was a song we wanted to write for a while. The idea came to us before Christmas, before we launched. And it was one of those things where we were like, “let’s write it!” and then like, “no, we gotta wait, we gotta wait.” And then we got into a write with Jeff, we wrote something else and then we were like, “here it is, this is the song, this is what we need to make this work.” And it has become a bit of a fan favourite live, hasn’t it guys?
Tim: Yeah, I think just the energy of playing it.
Jake: People keep asking if it’s a cover.
Vicki: It’s not!
Tim: So we’ve either ripped someone off or it’s just really good! [all laugh]
You’ve got your first UK headline tour next month – how’s the preparations for that going?
Jake: Have we started it yet?
Poppy: We’ve just been so busy.
Jake: We haven’t started prepping yet.
I mean, this counts as prep, right?
Jake: [laughs] It’s practice. It’s a practice run.
Poppy: Yeah, we have been prepping for tour, but the thing is because there’s four of us we’ll have ideas all the time. So we’ll kind of know what we’re doing and then someone will go “what if we did this?” and then we’re like, “OK, let’s change everything!” So tour is definitely in prep.
Jake: Yeah.
Poppy: But we’re very open to new things that might drop into our minds.
Jake: We’re definitely adding new stuff. So what people will hear today, there will be added stuff on top of that.
Vicki: Absolutely.
Jake: Because we’ve got so much stuff ready to go. And we just can’t wait to share it with people.
Vicki: I’m excited!
Are there any songs you’re particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
Jake: I’m really enjoying playing ‘Happier’.
Vicki: You love ‘Happier’ don’t you? Not that I don’t! [laughs]
Poppy: I can’t stand that one! [laughs] But ‘Happier’ is gonna feel great on tour, because of the title, right?
Vicki: I love playing ‘Forget You’. I think that’s so much fun. I love playing ‘Don’t Tempt Me’.
Jake: Is that ’cause I’m not in it much?
Vicki: Yes [laughs]
Tim: That helps!
Vicki: I love playing ‘Gold’…
Jake: Basically our whole set!
Vicki: Yes! ‘Bad Guy’ I love. But yeah, there’s one song in particular that we’re doing for tour that nobody knows. I won’t say what it is, but it’s really great [laughs].
Tim: It’s another fun one, right?
Vicki: Yeah, it’s really upbeat, party. It’s gonna be next year’s summer song. There, I said it! [Jake whoops]
You’ve played quite a few festivals already this summer as well as Long Road. How do you find playing at festivals compared to your own shows?
Tim: From a personal point of view, I find festivals really… not scary, but there’s so much out of your control. Like things could run late, or you’re using other people’s equipment or other people’s sound. There’s so much… not stuff that could go wrong, but stuff that’s out of your hands a little bit. It just adds a little bit of uncertainty. But I think deep down, that can add far more excitement than the gig as well, because you’re hearing stuff differently, and you try new stuff because maybe you can’t hear something where you’re standing, so you move. It’s just stuff like that. So I think for that reason it’s exciting, but it feels completely different to tour where we’ll have rehearsed tour in a very particular way.
Jake: Not that we haven’t rehearsed for today! [laughs]
Poppy: You’ll have time in that specific venue won’t you. But my favourite thing about being here is the other artists being here, getting to meet them and getting to see them. It’s like getting a free ticket, all you have to do is play!
Tim: And catering of course!
Vicki: Festivals are an opportunity to convert new people to liking your music as well, which I really like. It’s so nice to see a crowd that doesn’t necessarily know who you are, know any of your music, and then by the end they’re bopping along, dancing along, singing along. And that’s really exciting. Whereas with tour, with a headline show you know that those people have come specifically to see you, so you don’t even really necessarily have to worry about those things because you know that they’re there to see you whereas at festivals they’re not.
Tim: It’s a nice challenge to have.
Poppy: Come join our cabin crew! [laughs]
Is there anyone you’re particularly looking forward to seeing whilst you’re here?
Tim: I mean, Tenille [Townes] tonight.
Poppy: We wish we were here all weekend, but Tenille for sure. We’ve got a couple of friends playing over the weekend.
Tim: Gasoline & Matches, Jeff Cohen of course who we write with.
Jake: I’m a little bit gutted that I’m missing Alana Springsteen.
Vicki: I’m so upset about that! My fiance is playing guitar for her and I’d very much like to be here for that. But alas, we’ve got work to do!
Tim: It’s a busy weekend for us but we’re very grateful to be playing all these shows and as Vicki said just trying to get our music in front of new people we wouldn’t ordinarily play for.
Last time you spoke to us was at BST in Hyde Park – what was that whole experience like playing there?
Vicki: Just your average gig really!
Tim: Nothing special.
Jake: Just kind of like playing in a pub [laughs].
Poppy: But no, it was the most amazing experience ever.
Jake: I mean the fact that that was our sixth gig is madness.
Poppy: It made me feel like I wish every artist I knew was here doing this too, because it just felt so good. The atmosphere was amazing, the audience were awesome, backstage with some of the people that have influenced you and really influenced you from a young age was… there’s no words. It was amazing.
What’s still on the list of things you’d like to do as a band in terms of people you’d want to work with, places you’d want to play and so on?
Vicki: We add to it every day I think.
Tim: We said earlier about this sort of manifesting box of things we wanna tick off, and when we do, we’ve all written them down and when you open them up there’s like a treat for us. So BST was one of them, so when we got offered BST we could open the box and we could treat ourselves to do something nice. So we’ve got a whole box full of these things. But as Vicki said we just add to them constantly, because there’s so much to achieve, so much to do, for us but also I feel for a genre of music that just needs elevating and getting in front of the mainstream media, TV, radio, all of that stuff. It’s a big job to do but we’re loving doing it.
Poppy: For sure.
Tim: Tours, gigs, song releases, you know [laughs].
What song do you wish you’d written?
Vicki: ‘Don’t Tempt Me’, because apparently it’s a cover! [all laugh] That’s an impossible question! Laura!
Poppy: One of the ones I wish I’d written was ‘Things A Man Oughta Know’ by Lainey [Wilson].
Tim: You didn’t write that with her?
Poppy: I didn’t, unfortunately. But there’s so many, it’s endless.
Vicki: YMCA. ‘Cause I’d be minted.
Poppy: The Friends theme tune!
Tim: I wish I’d written Bohemian Rhapsody. ‘Cause it’s just incredible and followed me throughout my whole life. It was the first thing I heard and was like, obsessed with.
Vicki: I thought of mine. It’s a song in A Star Is Born – ‘Music To My Eyes’. ‘Cause I just love that lyric. [sings] “You’re music to my eyes”. So nice.
Poppy: What about you Morrell?
Jake: I’m trying to think. I think it would either be ‘Babylon’ by David Gray or maybe ‘Fix You’ from Coldplay.
Tim: He’s a sad boy. [all laugh] What about you, Laura?
Oh I don’t know now…
Tim: Not nice when it’s on the other foot is it? [laughs]
I’m the one doing the interview!
Poppy: First Time Flyers? [laughs]
I mean, obviously ‘Don’t Tempt Me’! But as a serious question, I’d say ‘Follow Your Arrow’ by Kacey Musgraves…
Poppy: We should cover that.
Jake: I’d love to cover a Kacey song. That’d be great fun.
If I come to the tour there’d better be a Kacey song in the setlist now!
Tim: Let’s do it.
What’s next for you guys? Is there an album in the works at all?
Vicki: Good question.
Jake: I think we’re basically playing it by ear at the moment. Tim said this earlier in another interview but we’re quite flexible. We’ve just got so much material ready to go. I think we’d all like to do an album at some point but we’re not gonna do that until we feel the time is right.
Poppy: And we wanna curate it and really make it that sonically cohesive thing that we’re so proud of.
Jake: 100 per cent, yeah.
Poppy: We don’t just wanna… like you said we’ve written so much and we don’t wanna just shove it all on an album and go “this is the album”. It has to have a bigger message.
Jake: We got really excited when we started putting out a load of songs and were like, “let’s stick it on an album!” And then we went, “Actually, no, let’s relax on that kind of thing”.
Tim: You only get one opportunity to release a debut album.
Vicki: And I’ve already done it! [laughs]
First Time Flyers’ new single, ‘Don’t Tempt Me’, is out now.
See First Time Flyers on tour in the UK this September – tickets on sale now at firsttimeflyers.com:
22nd September – Gullivers, Manchester
23rd September – Mono, Glasgow
24th September – Oporto, Leeds
26th September – The Lexington, London
27th September – Prince Albert, Brighton
28th September – Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
