Fighterpilot: Radelaide Rockers Fly High
» Fighterpilot: Radelaide Rockers Fly High - February 7, 2008
If you’re a regular gig-goer around Adelaide I’m sure you must have comeacross local Adelaide outfit Fighterpilot by now. If not – well what can I say – you are missing out that’s for sure.
You may have heard the name but have you seen these guys live? My first memory of a Figherpilot gig would have been at Adelaide’s Crown and Anchor Hotel late 2002 and needless to say I’ve been a fan ever since! These guys have what it takes to make it big time here in Australia. Why they have yet to be signed to a major label and supporting all the great Australian and international rock bands are beyond me!
Fighterpilot have been gigging around Adelaide for the last 7 or so years- a lot has happened for the band in this time - They’ve had a new line upchange, written a ton of new songs, released a couple of EPs and two singles from there soon to be released debut album “silver bullet”, played heaps of shows all around Adelaide and some intra and interstate shows, including taking out the '07 Grand Final of Adelaide’s Pure Blonde ‘ROCKWARS’ band compand played to over 5000 punters at last years Clipsal after party. These guys are heading places, that’s for sure!
I recently caught up with singer/frontman Daniel Randell and asked how he’d describe the sound of Fighterpilot to someone unfamiliar with the band.‘Essentially we are a rock band, or as Chopper (fps bass player) sometimescalls it 'power rock' or 'stadium rock'. I suppose in many ways our influences come through quite strongly, such as Stone Temple Pilots, Van Halen, Shihad or even Kiss. I love Chris Cornell’s lyrics also, so throw in sound garden and you probably get a good picture. The music is heavy rock with melodic vocals (no screamo here), energetic and tight with an intricate structure and guitar solos to the max’. The first couple of regular venues the band used to play at were the Austral and The Crown and Anchor - one of there current favourites now being Fowlers Live. “I love playing at Fowlers because the stage is one of the bigger ones. I always wanted to play the Tivoli but it’s been closed so long! Great sound at Enigma”.
The band have supported a couple of interstate acts – The Anyones and Grinspoon, and played hundreds of shows over the years so far. I had to ask what would be a couple of the most memorable ones thus far. “The biggest was probably Grinspoon in the Barossa - that was some serious fun, the crowd were so enthusiastic - they were just wonderful and gave us agreat response and we enjoyed hanging out with the Grinners after the gig.Another memorable one would have been the first gig in Melbourne at the Espy in St Kilda and we played to a packed room - plus a chick tried to climb into the trailer with our gear and begged us to take her on tour. The one band we would ideally love to support one day would be Velvet Revolver -just because of who they are and where they have come from. Plus I think their fans would like us!”
And as far as Fighterpilot's hopes for the bands future - “I think we just want to keep doing what we are doing and play the music we love - there is no goal to be rockstars. However we want to get our music out to as wider audience as possible - I believe it’s an achievable goal. When I started in the band my goal was to play the Austral (hottest live venue when I wasgrowing up, very iconic). The next goal was to record and tour the eastern states. The next goal was to record an album. Our current goal? Find a small label to release the album nationally, do some more tours and play targeted festivals”.
So where can we next catch the next Fighterpilot show? “We will be having an album 'preview' gig as a part of the Fuse Festival on the 28th of February at the Enigma bar. This will be basically a big party, and a chance to hear all the songs off the new album played as they should be - live, with 50 preview copies of the album to give away. You can expect loud rock, a super tight band, over the top guitar solos and an entertaining live set. We recorded around 15 - 20 songs over 18 months, then chose the final track listing based on what songs work well together and what songs best represent theband. We are ecstatic with the final product”.
