26/01/11
Bournemouth founded Air Traffic, received high praise for the release of their debut album, Fractured Life, last year, which featured singles Charlotte and Shooting Star. They moved to London for University to keep the band together, where they impressed industry types and themselves with their material, and eventually signed to EMI Records in 2006.
They return to Norwich in April, supported by Doncaster trio, The Wallbirds, with new material, and another breathtaking show. So before this, Outline caught up with singer and main songwriter Chris Wall to find out a little bit more about the band…
You formed when you were at school and then later reformed, what was it that made you realise you could go further with the band?
I guess we just knew from the start that we were writing decent enough music, and knew something good was going on. I always knew I wanted to be involved with music, I just never realised I wanted to be in a band. As soon as we started playing, it worked, and it just felt right from the beginning.
So when you were younger who were your main influences?
It’s a bit of a funny one for me, because I didn’t really start getting into music until I was quite old, I used to listen to loads of weird stuff, I was a weird kid, my Dad’s record collection, Simon and Garfunkel, things like that, and then download odd bits of classical music and the odd track or two that I liked a the time. I never really got into individual bands and bought music until I was about 16 years old. One of my kind of, big loves, was Muse and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, then I slowly worked my way back through their collection, and then came across Radiohead when I was about 18 and got massively hooked on them.
If you weren’t in the band, what would you like or think you’d like to be doing then?
I don’t know really, there’s nothing else other than music that’s what I really want to be doing with my life. Maybe trying to produce records, or working in a studio. At a total push, if music was banned, I’d probably do something with mechanics, working on engines that kind of thing, I really enjoy that.
You played Latitude Festival last summer, how does that compare with playing cities such as Norwich?
They’re totally different things. I don’t know which I prefer, festivals are an exciting opportunity to get more people interested in your music, and everyone’s there having a good time, it’s generally okay weather, so they’re really fun and have a really good vibe, but not a very serious one. If you’re doing your own show, there’s going to be more pressure to perform, but you can put on a better show because of the anticipation that is created, just by the fact that it’s your own show.<