Flight Facilities: “Posing As Daft Punk Would Be An Amazing Feeling”

Aussie electro duo Flight Facilities have just announced the biggest coup of their career to date: a surprise feature by Kylie Minogue on their debut album, Down To Earth. Set for release on October 27th, Kylie appears on an acappella reprise of Jimmy and Hugo’s previous hit single, ‘Crave You’.

Also starring in the new ‘Crave You’ video, Kylie undoubtedly brings further interest to the already mysteriously elusive double act, who MTV UK just happened to chat to before we even knew there was any Minogue occurring!

Read on to find out more about FF’s debut album, their penchant for pranks and what to expect when Jimmy and Hugo hit the UK in November.

MTV UK: You've been huge in your native Australia forever, but for any Britons who haven't heard of Flight Facilities, please introduce yourselves…

Flight Facilities: We are Jimmy and Hugo, and we are aeronautically themed DJs / producers. Sounds a little like an AA meeting, huh?

MTV UK: How did the name Flight Facilities and the costumes come about?

Hugo: My grandfather owned and operated a search and rescue company on the east coast of Australia. The logo, the ties and the planes all were all part of it. In the late ’90s the company stopped operating and we decided to take the legacy on, along with the theme.

MTV UK: Where is the coolest place you've ever flown to?

Flight Facilities: Tough question. Visiting little mountain towns is always a highlight. Places like Brexen or Perugia have left a lasting visual memory. Flights over the Swiss Alps and even skirting close to Antarctic continent on the way home from South America are certainly highlights in our long listed plane-trip memories. But then there's scenery at actual gigs like overlooking Sydney Harbour at Harbourlife, or surrounded by the Andes in Chile.

MTV UK: What should we expect from a FF live show when you come to London on tour later this year?

Flight Facilities: We’re bringing our full production this time. Our crew seems to grow everyday and our manager's hair gets greyer with each tour. We'll be traveling with Owl Eyes, Kurt Kristen, and a new lighting and visual show that brings the entire record to life. Hopefully we'll have a few guest surprises along the way.

MTV UK: The video for your single ‘Two Bodies’ is beautiful – who comes up with those visual concepts?

Flight Facilities: We worked closely with Lorin Askill to guide the imagery for ‘Two Bodies’. It's something in which we always like to have a strong input. We like to work with directors that understand our vision for our music, and we love that we’ve been blessed some great videos.

We can thank the likes of Rhett Wade Ferrel, Dimitri Basil, Dave Ma and Ben Drake for putting up with low budgets and constant changes. As with all creative arts, it's best not to hover over the product too much, and allow directors to do their thing.

MTV UK: How did you end up working with Emma Louise on the vocals?

Flight Facilities: Emma is one of the most talented girls we've ever worked with. We knew about her previous releases and followed her musical career. She was originally someone we thought we'd get to sing ‘I Didn’t Believe’, but we found Elizabeth Rose first. We sent through the instrumental, which was basically as you hear it now, and she agreed to work with us even though she wasn’t into collaborative ideas at the time. I think we’re all really proud of the results of ‘Two Bodies’. It’s a track we’ve listened to 200 or more times and we still find little nuances on each listen.

MTV UK: You released tracks like ‘Claire De Lune’ and ‘Crave You’ a while ago, but now we're finally getting to see them on your debut album; how does it feel to be taking them to a wider audience?

Flight Facilities: Those tracks are really important to our development and the FF story over the past 5 years. We wanted to make sure our debut record was something we could potentially show our grandkids when we’re old and deaf. We personally feel as though the story is incomplete without those tracks. They complete the musical spectrum on the album.

MTV UK: Which track on the album are you most excited for people to hear and why?

Flight Facilities: We both have our favourites, but I think jointly ‘Down To Earth’. The title track is something we wrote together over a couple of days. We worked with our incredibly talented studio friend and neighbour, Dennis Dowlut. It referenced acts like Chemical Brothers, Stardust and Mylo, who are all acts from our golden age of music collection, blogs and learning to DJ. It was that 2006 period when acts like Klaxons, Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts, Bang Gang and the Ed Banger crew introduced us to a wider world of dance music.

MTV UK: You like to prank journalists, once pretending to be Calvin Harris; are you fans of his music?

Flight Facilities: We liked to lie about things early on. It meant that the only thing the fans could rely on was their ears. "Did it sound good?" That's all we cared about, and any other stretch of the truth was purely for us to have a laugh, and see how ridiculous it could get before everyone found out the far more boring truth.

MTV UK: What's the best prank you have ever pulled off?

Flight Facilities: On our first festival tour of Australia, we brought Giselle to sing Crave You. When we got to the hotel rooms, we realised we had an adjoining door that was unlocked. We hid in her room before she got there, and burst out from behind the bed and the curtains once she arrived. She let out a blood-curdling scream, which was quickly drowned out by our laughter. We did exactly the same thing to Jess (Foreign Language) in a house at SXSW two years later. It seems to be an initiation ceremony.

MTV UK: If you could pose as any other music artist who would it be?

Flight Facilities: Daft Punk would be an easy one. Slap the helmets on and no one would know. Staring out at 50,000+ people would be an amazing feeling. But being a back up dancer for Todd Terje during the live Inspector Norse performance would be just as fun.

Flight Facilities’ debut album Down To Earth is released on October 27th. The band play London’s Brixton Electric on November 29th.