Still Flyin’
Words by Sean Williams
Ask musicians why they do what they do and most will tell you it’s not about the money. The love of making music and the lifestyle (along with groupies, naturally), will generally rank higher than financial gain on most rock stars’ wish lists. That said, we’re in the midst of a global financial crisis so severe that Michael Jackson has been forced to take on work as a Michael Jackson impersonator just to pay Bubbles’ vet’s bills. So, in such bleak economic times, it’s not unusual for integrity to be replaced by an appetite for the dollar bill.
Clearly no-one’s told San Francisco’s Still Flyin’, a band who, when they divvy up profits amongst their 15-strong ensemble, would be lucky to scrape together enough cash to be still walkin’, let alone flyin’. Surely one of the clan is skimming profits somewhere? Front man and guitarist Sean laughs off the idea. “We’re pretty democratic, we’re just trying not to lose money right now!”
Take a listen to his band in action and your monetary woes might just be temporarily suspended too. In fact, not just monetary woes, but woes full stop. Still Flyin’’s infectious breed of Californian pop, sitting somewhere on the spectrum of euphoria between the psychedelic soul food of The Flaming Lips and the dance-y goodness of The Go! Team, is the perfect antidote to the credit-crunch; the feel-good beach-pop remedy to wash away those recession blues. So how would they describe themselves? According to Sean, they’re like “Dexy’s Midnight Runners with Jimmy Buffet’s mindset”. But there’s plenty more there. Listen closely and you can hear undertones of Eddy Grant, Manu Chao, Prince…in fact pretty much anything that makes you feel like you’ve just been drenched in some of Mr Sun’s finest Californian rays.
As a matter of fact your average Still Flyin’ show is so frantically festive it’s not uncommon for the crowd to get a tad overexcited. “Sometimes the audience sees so many people on stage and think it won’t make a difference if they get up as well, then people in the actual band start spilling off,” jokes Sean. “It’s just a big party, and that’s the way we like to have it.”
And that’s the way it is. Judging by the glowing opinions coming from the blogosphere, your typical Still Flyin’ gig-night resembles a New Orleans Mardi Gras, with bodies flyin’ everywhere, not least the band themselves, who are quite happy to take time out from the boring stuff like actually playing music. “It’s not really as big a band as it seems because there are a lot of people who just stand around and hang out giving each other high fives and getting beers for everyone. So probably five out of the fifteen do that.” And the others? “There’s two trumpets, a trombone and a saxophone, then two drummers, bass, keyboards, two guitars, and that’s it.” Not your average bunch of sultry, pouting pretty boys and girls with guitars, then.
So there you have it. Still Flyin’ - the antithesis of sincerity, the antichrist of constructed cool – ready to pump some fun and sun back into your life. “Right now the world needs more happy music, like a positive force, and we’re not really about taking things too seriously”, Sean declares. Too right Sean, too right. Now if only they’d just change their name…
http://www.myspace.com/stillflyin
Photo copyright Daniel Boud - boudist.com
Posted Fri, March 06, 2009