The In-Flight Safety Empire: An Interview

By Liem Vu

While the frigid Canadian chill has created a collective tendency to avoid Mother Nature, Canadian indie-rock darlings, In-Flight Safety, have been attacking it head on as they tour across Canada in support of the release of their second full-length, We Are An Empire, My Dear. With textured sounds and rich melodies, In-Flight Safety have been churning out titillating tunes without excess production ever since their 2004 EP, Vacation Land. JXM milked a few moments with IFS lead singer, John Mullane, to talk about everything from touring to starting their own label to miming.

JXM: Do you recall the first time that you performed as In-Flight Safety?

Mullane: I am not sure if I can recall the exact first show but I do remember one of the first shows when we became known as In-Flight Safety. I can recall performing back in those days as pure bliss. We created these lush six to seven minute songs with lots of atmospherics. In hindsight it was very self-indulgent but very innocent and, for us, very moving back then. The show was in a pub but [we were] making our own musical stand and it felt amazing.

JXM: Having toured in Canada and overseas have you noticed any differences when it comes to fans?

Mullane: We’ve only done a handful of shows overseas. We didn’t find much of a difference between the fans in Ireland/England and the ones back at home. I suppose Canada is so similar to those countries. It would be interesting to play in Italy or Spain or maybe Japan or India. Somewhere more "exotic."

Doing press in Ireland was a lot different; in particular they made us mime during a TV appearance, which I found really odd. We giggled through it. It was so musically unbelievable to any musicians watching. My guitar was plugged into Dan’s keyboard to make it look like it was plugged in somewhere.

JXM: From your debut EP to your first full-length album, The Coast is Clear, how did you end up being signed onto Emm Gryner's Dead Daisy Records? How has it been working with her and has she played an active role in producing your albums?

Mullane: Emm had been a fan of the band since she stumbled into one of our shows in Moncton New Brunswick back in 2003. She helped us promote our Vacation Land EP, and obviously The Coast is Clear in 2006. She worked so hard for us and we have been grateful since the day we met her.

Recently though we decided it time to start our own label and put out or last record. She taught us the ropes and we both decided it was time to put all our energy into our own projects. You wouldn’t believe the amount of songs and albums she’s involved with, both her own and other projects.

JXM: Speaking of your own label, Night Danger. How did this label come to be?

Mullane: We had been toying with the idea of starting our own label after The Coast Is Clear album cycle came to an end. It just seems like it’s a great way, given the state of the music industry, to be able to better roll with the changes of today’s music business. It also gives you complete control on how your brand is presented -– something that has been really important to us. For example, if you want to make vinyl, you make vinyl. You don’t need any approval from anyone.

JXM: Often times the first album has the pressure of being a commercial success while the sophomore album affords more creative liberty. Was your recent album, in a way, different from the first?

Mullane: We definitely approached our second full-length album quite differently than The Coast Is Clear. There was definitely more creative focus for the new record – we had a specific vision of what we wanted and then we proceeded to fill in all the blanks. Whereas with The Coast, we kind of “cobbled” together the best ten songs from our current and back catalogue.

We had very specific goals for We Are An Empire, My Dear. The first is that we wanted to be able to recreate every note of it in a live setting. That was a huge challenge with The Coast (only about six or seven songs were doable live night after night). We also wanted to write/produce an album of songs, not just a bunch of random songs, which I find a lot of bands are doing these days - just throwing together songs and calling it a record.

JXM: Did you encounter any difficulties while working on this album?

Mullane: I think the biggest challenge was the patience to get it done right. We are an end product kind of band, and don’t really revel in the process. Staying focused through months of writing and two-three months of recording is tough. The joy of making music is sharing it, not twiddling knobs in a studio – although that is a necessary evil.

JXM: Out of all the tracks on the album, is there a particular track that you feel most proud of?

Mullane: I am really proud of Amy Racina because for a while it didn’t look like it would make the cut, but it turned out to be this gorgeous little ditty. Amy’s story is very inspiring and I was proud to have a chance to embody some impressions of that story in this song.

JXM: For a East Coast band, you guys have accomplished a lot in a short time. What are you hoping to accomplish through your music today and in the future?

Mullane: We’ve always just written the music that is in our souls. You can simply break it down to that in a nutshell. We have no overarching plan, in fact, if anything we’ve always lacked from not having a “powerful” label or “powerful” manager. We write songs that we feel are relevant and then the next phase is a rather powerful need to share them with whoever will listen. That’s our M.O. for better or worse.

All we’ve ever hope to accomplish is to continue to be availed the opportunity to make more and more records. We don’t want to succumb, like many bands have, to the inability to make it work over time.