Low Level Flight Use Lesbian Affairs As Song Fodder

It's rare to see people mature in the music industry, considering the heavy pressure that comes with record deals and so-called fame and fortune.

But it appears that Ryan Malcolm — yes, the Ryan Malcolm of Canadian Idol fame — has managed to do it and keep a level head about things.

Now in a pop-rock band called Low Level Flight with Shaun Noronha, James Rooke and touring members Dave Carter and Brandon Merenick, Malcolm has released a debut LP titled Urgency. They're eager to establish themselves as a tight, polished group.

"We're so hard on ourselves in rehearsal for a good reason," Malcolm says. "We still want to rehearse more 'cause we know that when we do play in front of the critics and skeptics, we got to be tight as hell."

Low Level Flight's first single, "Change For Me," deals with a guy's bittersweet fantasy of having his girlfriend cheat on him with another female. As much as the song might sound like a feeble attempt at appealing to Girls Gone Wild fans, it turns out that Rooke was the unlucky — or lucky, depending on how you look at it — band member who suffered this kinky twist of fate.

"It was my girlfriend with my ex-girlfriend — in my bed," he sheepishly admits. "I was pissed. It was too weird."

Perhaps what's weirder is having to hear the track over and over, reminding him of the sapphic tryst.

"I always look at his face and he looks a little bit angry when he hears that song," Carter offers.

"It's humorous, it's fine," Rooke later says, shrugging the situation off.

The band also dealt with some bigger issues on the record. The reggae-influenced "Holiday" touches on the universal theme of war and how it affects not just a country, but individuals living in that country as well.

"I was just thinking shit happens everyday all over the place and I know a lot of artists would write about it with a specific cause," Malcolm says. "But I don't really believe in centering one cause out. I wouldn't want to write just about what's happening in Iraq.

"I'm not a political person, but I did want to get it out that it's kind of like you're losing your identity to war."

Although Malcolm delved into some deep political waters with that song, the remaining tracks on the album were written on a more personal level. The haunting ballad "Turnaround" talks about his bruised relationship with his drug-dependent brother, while "Hate You" blatantly confronts an ex-girlfriend about her wicked ways.

"Most of [the songs] are pretty autobiographical," he says. "I had so much that I wanted people to hear."

What listeners can't hear on Urgency is the colourful camaraderie among the group members. They've been able to "make the record they wanted to make," as Noronha puts it, without losing their comical personalities.

At one point Noronha playfully admits that Malcolm has "a lot of issues," to which the frontman responds with an abrupt, "Shut up, you've said too much."

It sounds like a sour sparring of words at first, but it's really just another example of LLF's twisted sense of humour.

"We've been having so much fun," says Malcolm. "When you're doing stuff for the first time, you want to experience it with your friends." Low Level Flight play at Hamilton's Casbah on May 5 and Barrie, Ont's Memorial Square on May 21.