Taking Off - Air Traffic

“It’s really strange, everyone keeps telling us how fast everything is happening, but it’s the first time we’ve ever done it. So we just think ‘This is normal isn’t it?’.” But playing T In The Park, performing on ‘Later …with Jools Holland’, supporting Snow Patrol and being awarded ‘single of the week’ on numerous radio stations, means life for the Air Traffic lads has been far from normal.

Lead guitarist Tom Pritchard admits to Gigwise in their Newcastle dressing room: “Yeah actually…it does feel crazy. But it’s the kind of thing that when you get to one step you suddenly want to better that. Now we’ve played a festival, we want to headline it in the future. We were going around for years in the back of vans, then we got a tour bus and we were so happy as we’d always wanted one. But now we are like ‘we want a plane!’ When does it stop? That’s the thing.”

Ambitious yes, arrogant definitely not. Air Traffic are four south-coast lads who understand the significance of their roots and are appreciative of the chance they have worked so hard to create. Tom explains: “The main advantage of coming from Bournemouth was there’s not a massive music heritage there, if there is anything at all from Bournemouth. We didn’t have any competition or anyone to live up to. We could just be ourselves. When we moved to London it did help a bit but there are so many bands in London all trying to compete with each other and that can be a downfall. So it was kind of nice coming from the outside, in.”

The story of Air Traffic started nearly four years ago as Tom recollects: “Me and Dave the drummer went to school together and started the band. Then we came across Chris (lead singer) through various other friends we’d made and that’s when Air Traffic started. Jim our bass player joined a few months later as the guy we had before decided to do something else. Then we did the whole practising and playing around Bournemouth. When it became time to go to Uni we decided to all head to London.”

Although the success of their band was the ultimate goal, the safety net of also getting further education and a degree relieved any pressure to make it. Worries it seemed they didn’t have, as the lads’ views on London and the record label industry were firmly seen through rose-tinted spectacles. This was soon smashed by the stark reality of their first capital gig, as Tom winches: “Our first ever London gig was a complete shambles, we were so naïve. We had this mentality that ‘We are in London now, we are going to get signed straight away’. Tom lets out an embarrassed chuckle then states: “how wrong we turned out to be. Everything just went wrong that day.”

A little bit more realism set in and things started to soon pick up for the band and the big break was made. “We did a few gigs on the unsigned bands circuit, a guy turned up, who ended up producing our album and eventually got us signed to EMI, he just really liked us and saw potential.  He helped us with demos and paid for some rehearsal time so he really sorted us out and developed us. We started chipping away at the labels and eventually we were lucky enough to be signed to one.”

EMI were chosen for a reason. Air Traffic craved control of their own sound and EMI granted their wishes. Tom confirmed: “We went with EMI because of the fact they let us get on with it rather than commanding ‘do this, do that’. We had control of our sound and that was vital to us.”

Air Traffic are amassing fans at a huge rate thanks to stunning performances, a peach of a debut album and, of course, Myspace. Tom is aware of what a vital role Myspace plays in a modern band’s success and stated: “We try and keep the whole Myspace thing to ourselves and monitor it as much as we can. It’s obviously hard when you are touring because we don’t have the internet or much time. It is great to get the feedback and reactions straight from the fans. At the end of the day they are the ones who tell you what is real.”
 
Feedback from fans is one thing, gifts are another. As some Japanese fans have recently taken to the lads and have gone to some length to show their devotion. A bemused Tom reveals: “There’s a few Japanese fans and they give you the weirdest little presents. We’ve had a necklace that had little pieces on it that looked just like the cereal Lucky Charms” Gigwise obviously enquired if they had a nibble to check? Tom straight-faced, admitted: “Yeah…..they weren’t Lucky Charms! …. They were pretty hard. We’ve also had weird puzzles and some origami things, it’s quite funny.”