Famous Last Breath

Lost In Flight are a different kind of band. Listening to their polished take on modern indie, their melodic songs of love and regret, you might not think so. You might be led to believe that they’re just another of many Irish groups with a clutch of good songs struggling to get heard. But you’d be wrong. Lost In Flight are a band with a marketing plan.

Clicking on their impressively professional website, you can read a rundown of their aims. This is a band in a hurry – there’s talk of music videos, PR campaigns and key target markets. In an age when the record industry is on its knees and musicians are scrabbling around for loose change, it’s a smart move. Older acts and the indier-than-thou may wince, but these are tough times. No longer can a bunch of guys with decent haircuts who know a few chords stumble into a million-dollar-deal. Selling out isn’t an issue when it appears that nobody’s buying.
Speaking to lead singer Dan Fox, his aim seems true. “For our band, and myself personally, music is what we love doing,” says Fox. “If there’s a way that you can play music for a living, you have to take every opportunity that’s given to you. Times have changed. I don’t think people can afford to be too precious over the exposure of music.”
What’s interesting is the innovative manner in which Lost In Flight are making their big push. Teaming up with media company JaBoost, they plan to run a series of 30-second TV ads promoting the video for their ‘Last Breath’ single. Viewers can then download the track for free. We’re used to bands getting a boost from a strategic placement in a car commercial, but this is new territory.
Fox explains how the initiative came about: “Jaboost.com heard a couple of our tunes and came down to see a couple of our gigs. They thought ‘Last Breath’ was something that could be quite commercially viable and could work with the advert. You freetext your e-mail address to the number provided on screen and get a link to a free download from iTunes.
“It’s really great in three ways,” Fox continues. “It benefits us in giving us a platform to get our music to a large amount of people. It’s also good for the fans because obviously it’s free music. Thirdly, it tests out this new model of selling music for the company. We’re really excited to get going and see what the reaction is. Hopefully it will be a positive one.”
The hope is that people will be sufficiently taken with the song to go pick up the EP or see a show. It might just pay off – Lost In Flight have developed a sound that hits the sweet spots for mass appeal. Tailor-made to follow The Script. And, as the singer tells us, it will be seen by a lot of people.
“Yeah, it will be going out on Sky One, E4, MTV and TV3, most notably during six X Factor slots. Around 1.2 million people in Ireland alone watch that show every weekend. It’s the biggest thing that we’ve had happen to us.” For bands playing to twelve people at a time, the prospect of instantly having the eyes and ears of a nation focused on your music is potentially mouth-watering.
This hasn’t happened overnight for the members of Lost In Flight. Though the name is new, the group has been around since 2003. It started at Wesley College, Dublin, with Fox and two schoolmates. Now, after seven years of changes in direction and personnel, they are a solid four-piece all pulling the same way.
“Basically, we relaunched about two months ago. Before that we were a five-piece called VIC. When you’ve been in a band for that long, people want to leave. It was just becoming too much of a commitment for some. There was a different focus on the music as well. The end result of all that was the change.”
Aside from the adverts, Fox says that they’ve been approached to appear on RTÉ’s reality drama Fade Street. “I’ve been in discussions with them, there’s definitely a big interest in featuring us. There are also other production companies we’ve been talking to that would put us out there on an international scale.”
So how important is it to find new ways to promote yourself as a band starting afresh? “It’s absolutely crucial. At the end of the day I’m a realist,” confesses Fox.
“We all know that there is so much competition and so many incredible bands in our country alone who are all fighting to get exposure. I think it’s progressive and vital that things like this come about.”
With the industry forever changing, it’s nice to hear that some things remain the same. Following that old cliché, Lost In Flight are big in Japan. “We’re in talks with Japanese promoters at the moment about doing a small tour next year. You might be wondering how an unsigned band does that!”
We are.
“Randomly enough, a Japanese girl heard our music on the internet and approached us on MySpace asking whether she could be our street team co-ordinator. We obviously said yes. Gradually she started building up a fanbase and we started getting communication from all these Japanese people. Right now, we’ve over 6,000 Japanese fans who we’re in constant interaction with. There seems to be a real demand for us.”

The ‘Last Breath’ single is available for download on November 12 and the official EP launch is in Crawdaddy, Dublin, on November 17.