Nature TV have released their new EP ‘Mid Flight’.
Out now via Heist or Hit, the EP release comes ahead of the band’s 11 date UK tour including a headline show at Glasgow’s Hug & Pint on October 25th.
To celebrate the release, lead guitarist Jimmy Hunt shared with us five tracks that influenced the EP release with a breakdown of each track.
Track 1. Illusions
The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out | Listen via Spotify
I love what Solo (our mix engineer/producer) did to this track. This is a great example of him adding production to our tunes. He took one of my guitar chorus lines and swapped it over onto a synth, then because of a feature throughout the track and he took it further. It reminds me a lot of The Smiths’ ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’. The string parts that come towards the end of the song, and last through till the end are beautiful. They also came from a guitar line Johnny Marr wrote too – which is cool!
Track 2. Words
Men I Trust – Billie Toppy | Listen via Spotify
Initially we were going to go dirtier with this track. Especially when it came to Guy’s guitar. I remember initially sending this track to some of the guys as a reference for a cool sounding guitar that was on the bottom strings, down the low end of the neck (just like Guys riff on ‘Words’). But we ended up swapping that for a more organic acoustic sound. Though Guy’s electric guitar does make appearances later on. I feel like my guitar tones in ‘Words’ actually ended up sounding like some of the lead guitar in this Men I Trust track though. Which is maybe coincidental – that filtered wobbly sound. Men I Trust has a lot of cool quirky guitar tones, that somehow always manage to not sound aggressive.
Track 3. Frida
Connan Mockasin – Last Night | Listen via Spotify
This track gave me a bit of a Connan Mockasin vibe anyway. It’s not a very ‘in your face’ sort of song. It’s pretty chill and groovy, which reminds me of this Connan Mockasin album a bit. I really like the production on this album (Jassbusters). I’ve always liked the effects they use on the song ‘Last Night’ – they have a really close up vocal sound at the start for the dialogue. With the band sounding like they are in a different room, then all of sudden the band sound comes at the centre of the mix. This is kind of the opposite of what Solo did at the end of ‘Frida’. I didn’t mention to him that this track reminds me of Connan Mockasin, so it’s a bit of a coincidence.
Track 4. Summer in The City
Jono McCleery – The Gymnopedist | Listen via Spotify
I’ve always loved this tune. It’s quite simple at heart – and just a folk acoustic sort of track. But there are lots of cool quirky sounds that happen throughout the track and create this cool ambience. I really wanted to go this sort of direction for ‘Summer in The City’. As the song itself sounded quite traditional, and some of the band members leant into that which sounded really cool but I wanted to hear something a little more characterful – and I like how this track sounds quirky despite how bare bones the actual song is.
Track 5. Please
SEN3 – The Drop | Listen via Spotify
This is one of my favourite tracks of ours and it’s mainly instrumental. So, a big challenge was being melodic on the guitar and ensuring my phrases have melody, but still sound full and have a cool sound. Definitely took a lot of influence from SEN3, a cool instrumental band from London. Their guitarist Max O’Donnell is really great with his guitar effects and he has a lot of melody in his playing, but he fills out the sound with effects and nice extensions in his guitar melodies. Definitely thought of his playing a few times when I was writing my guitar for this track.
You can listen to Nature TV new EP ‘Mid Flight’ below:
Listen to the 5 tracks that influenced the release here: