Indietracks interview #25: Stars of Aviation

We’re very excited that Stars of Aviation will be playing at Indietracks this year. They're a pop group from Brighton and London. Numbering around seven, eight and sometimes nine, they play pop music with trumpet, guitars, drums, accordion, violin, keyboards and bassoon.

The band released their new single – their first release since 2006! - on 24th June. It's called By The Shore, and is available from the wonderful WeePOP! record label. It's the form of a limited run of 3" cdr complete with beautiful artwork, as well as on iTunes and other online shops.

Hi, tell us a little bit about yourselves

Jonny and Andy from the band met in a Russian class at Cambridge University and formed the band with Nathan and Tim. Other band members have joined over the years so now we have added trumpet, bassoon and accordion to our line-up.

We once had a keyboard/stylophone side project called Dungeness which only lasted for one gig. Fortunately we decided that was the wrong direction to go down. We've been playing for 10 years but only just recorded our first album, which we're hugely excited about (the first single's out this week).

Tell us about an unusual place you've played a gig in the past

We played on the back of a moving pickup truck once, in Cambridge. It was driving around on a circuit through the town. It was a very cold day and halfway through our set it started to snow! Our hands were freezing so we had to keep moving by playing our fastest songs, but at the time we only had about two fast songs so we just played them over and over again. Fortunately the pickup truck and noisy enough so nobody could hear what we were playing anyway. That was probably our best ever show.

What are you getting up to this year?

We're putting out a single this month on WeePOP! records. It's called "By the Shore" and it's our first record for 4 years. We're launching it on Thursday 24 June with a free gig at JAMM in Brixton hosted by How does it feel to be loved?

(Gah! Sorry, we did this interview a few weeks ago and are just posting it up now, which is obviously too late for the gig. It was a fantastic gig by all accounts, but it's okay, if you missed it you can see them at Indietracks! Sorry again...)

Who are you most looking forward to seeing at the Indietracks festival, and why?

Particularly the Just Joans, the Smittens, Allo Darling, Give It Ups, Ballboy and White Town. But Indietracks is really good for discovering new bands to love as well so we're looking forward to that! Then we'll have loads more to look forward to next time.

Thanks guys!