The Coast Is Clear For In-Flight Safety

In-Flight Safety may not have conquered their fear of flying, but that doesn't prevent them from touring. The New Brunswick quartet are teaming up with Raising The Fawn for a group of dates scattered throughout southern Ontario and the Maritimes.

"I wrote a song before the band was really getting going and it was this little instrumental ditty called 'In-Flight Safety,'" says singer/guitarist John Mullane over a coffee at Halifax's Paper Chase Cafe. "It was a neat song, as it was about the last minute-and-a-half before a plane crashes."It was kind of spooky. I was writing a lot more about anxiety and the darker side of humanity back then."

Life certainly has perked up for the group, as their The Coast Is Clear album was recently released on Emm Gryner's Dead Daisy record label. Gryner first took notice to their atmospheric pop soundscapes a few years back at one of their early gigs.

"Emm strolled in after her set at the neighbouring bar in Moncton," says Mullane. "There was only like five people there.

"It was just a weird bit of serendipity, as she just really got what we were doing. She bought all of the copies of our first record, Vacation Land, that we had with us and gave them to some pretty influential people."

Of those people, the one that topped the list was David Bowie, whom Gryner knew through being one of his backing singers.

"He was given a copy of the album and enjoyed it, which was crazy at the time," says Mullane. "This sort of stuff just happened right then and there, and that's when we sort of realized that we should continue with this band."

Mullane and his fellow passengers — bassist Brad Goodsell, drummer Glen Nicholson and keyboardist Daniel Ledwell — artfully blend the pop melodies of The Cardigans and Wilco with moodier elements akin to Sigur Ros and Radiohead.

While In-Flight Safety's name came from a song that Mullane wrote, the album title was taken from someone else.

"I haven't told anyone this yet, but I stole that line from a Sarah Harmer song about the coast being clear," confesses Mullane.

"I think it's a song from her album All Of Our Names [the song is 'Almost']. I like to know what those little phrases mean, like 'six in one and half in a dozen.' Some of them must come from the military, like 'the coast is clear.' That probably came from shipping or naval lingo, or maybe the World War II era."

Here are the dates of In-Flight Safety's Deer In The Airplane Lights Tour with Raising The Fawn:

April 29 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe
May 2 Barrie, ON @ Foundation
May 4 Kingston, ON @ Elixir
May 5 Ottawa, ON @ Zaphod Beeblebrox
May 6 Montreal, QC @ The Main Hall
May 8 Charlottetown, PEI @ Baba's Lounge
May 9 Charlottetown, PEI @ The Arts Guild
May 10 Moncton, NB @ The Paramount
May 11 Saint John, NB @ Elwood's
May 12 Fredericton, NB @ The Capital
May 13 Halifax, NS @ Stage Nine
May 16 Windsor, ON @ The Avalon
May 18 Cambridge, ON @ Fiddler's
May 19 Guelph, ON @ Club Vinyl
May 21 St. Catharines, ON @ Merchant Ale House