Jono and Simon talk about the creation of the Aphrodisia album… Jono: It was one Thursday evening in Simon’s house early in 2003. We’d just started writing again. I had the bass, and Si had the acoustic out. Simon was churning out some great commercial sounding melodies – as he seems to do with unbelievable ease. Simon: But then, for some strange reason, all this weird sounding stuff – unlike anything we’d come up with before – started pouring out. There were some scary and bizarre riffs occurring back then… Listen to Jealous for an idea of what I mean. It’s like the “Bagpuss” theme meets Killed by Death! J: And these tunes just weren’t suited to normal run of the mill “boy meets girl” lyrics and I can have quite a fertile imagination when writing lyrics. S: That’s how it tends to work with us. I tend to come up with the music and maybe a working hook line, Jono then goes away and writes the lyrics, either using the working hook line or coming up with new one that fits equally well. We both then get involved with the music and lyrics when the two come together. To be honest though, a lot of the early stuff was too odd to use, although some did actually end up on the album, songs like Claw, Crawling, Hole and Jealous. J: We had about 14 or 15 songs, half of which we ultimately dropped. They were either too odd or production nightmares. We went into Jam Studios in Leeds and started rehearsing them – through cranked up amps and with drums. It’s in that environment that you get a feel for the songs as they really are. It’s a real warts an’ all experience. S: We’d sort of unknowingly developed a certain style and a lot of the early stuff gradually fell away from that. Also, over the course of the next few months we came up with several other songs, which outshone those that we’d been planning to record. Songs like Aphrodisia, Summer and Red Light. So we did those instead. The original title for the album was going to be “Eye Spy”… J: …from a song we’d done about a stalking paparazzi photographer. It was actually a great song – quite evocative. We were going to put a haunting, Italian sounding mandolin trilling away in the background – make it really creepy. But we just couldn’t make it work live. We’re keeping it to one side though. One day we might resurrect Eye Spy … S: Songs that had once been our favourites we no longer liked. So we thought, “If we’re not keen, how can we expect anyone else to be?” As said, we now had others, which to us seemed better and more suited to the record. It was a natural progression. As we developed, so did the style of song we produced. We were writing better music, with better, darker, lyrics. J: The lyrics do tend to take a swipe at the shadier side of human nature. I can write happy songs, but it just didn’t suit for Flyz. Aphrodisia for instance, is about a sadomasochistic guy who likes to pay to be tortured for sex kicks. Though you wouldn’t think that if you just saw the word “Aphrodisia”. We chose it for the title track of the record just for the sleaze factor alone. S: None of it is really blatant though. It’s all about hint and suggestion. Take a happier tune like Susan. You wouldn’t think when you first hear it, that it’s about a drug addict girl who tries to convince her partner that she’s clean – and isn’t. The reason you don’t get that, is because it’s got such a catchy hit melody, a real commercial edge. J: The other extreme to that is Summer - about a person trapped in the rigours of old age and yearning for their youth. It’s someone in the last hours of life. Just memories left. Listen to the cello chords. They give it a real sinister feel – in a fun kind of way! And Jealous, mentioned earlier, sounds as if its all about a man who‘s been jilted at the alter. You get that impression all the way through. Then right at the end of the last verse you realise it’s not the jilted groom bleating at all – but the best man! He’s jealous about his best mate marrying the girl. What you never work out though is whether he’s jealous of him or her! Jealous is a cracker. There are some real sweet touches on it. S: By December last year, we’d settled on the 10 or 11 songs that we wanted to record. However, we weren’t going back to the grind of endless gigging in the hope of being picked up by a company tout. We’ve both done that for years before. So we decided to attack it from another angle and to self finance the album on our own label “Bad Blood” first. J: Shows we do following its release will then be in full support of the record. S: Why did we record it at Pro-Two Woodlands? Well, we researched loads of studios, both locally and nationally. However, to make sure that our finances went into the recording – rather than hotel bills, we chose a good facility within travelling distance of where we live. Also, Pro-Two supports unsigned bands rate wise. So after visiting them, and discussing our plans, they cut us an excellent deal and the studio is class. Check out their site at www.protwostudio.co.uk. Musicians and techies will like that bit. J: When the album was finished we did a kind of unofficial launch in Prague – as much to celebrate its completion than anything else. There was the band, Darren Thompson – who co-produced the album and our best mate – Jez Lunn. It was a riot! We gave away CDs and literature in the bars of Prague, and the Urquell Pilsner is nectar and very cheap! It’s a stunning place with lots to see - and I don’t just mean the architecture! S: People ask why we got Darren involved with the album. We were set to produce the whole lot ourselves, but he came along to the rehearsals with us and he’s got some good ideas. He has a subtle way of introducing some neat touches to a song, without flogging it to death. He can come up with some interesting and original ideas to improve how the song develops. J: He’s the “fresh ears” approach. He’ll listen to a song objectively – and give an unbiased opinion. He won’t suggest altering it just for the sake of it, or to make a mark. If he puts forward ideas, it’s because he believes the suggestion will enhance the song rather than alter it. We’ve known him a long time. And he knows we’ve been at it long enough to be able to produce a good song anyway. So he’ll look to bring ideas to areas he thinks we may not have explored. S: Suggestions on vocal expression, guitar or drum sound, effects, that sort of thing. It really worked. There’ll be an official launch in Leeds, which we plan to follow up with more launches in rock clubs and bars around the UK, along with a national ad campaign. So please look (and listen) out for us and please support us. The more the merrier. This is enterprising rock at its best. J: Then of course will come the live shows and it will be a great show. Just pure, raw, undiluted rock and roll – the best aphrodisiac of all! So watch this space. In the mean time, please purchase a copy of the CD. You can purchase it at an amazingly cheap price online by clicking here. Thanks for visiting – and keep looking in.