Forming in 2015, Airways consists of Jake Daniels as the lead singer and guitarist, Alex Ruggiero on guitar, Jamie Reynolds on bass and Brian Moroney on drums. They released their debut EP ‘Starting to Spin’ on the 19 th of May 2017 and recently released the single ‘Alien’. During their time as a band, Airways have opened for such acts as Nothing but Thieves and The Hunna as well as having their own European headline tour. I met up with them ahead of their first ever concert in Nottingham at the Bodega Social Club to ask them some questions about what’s it’s like for them in the band.
Who would you say are your inspirations musically or otherwise? Jamie: My dad Alex: Yeah, your dad Jamie: My dad inspires me, my mum inspires me, my grandad inspires me Jake: Elon Musk inspires me Jamie: Leonardo DiCaprio inspires me Alex: Matthew McConaughey Jamie: Cause they’re all just beasts, aren’t they?
I understand there’s a story behind ‘Alien’. Could you explain that one? Jake: Yes, we were going to ‘South by South West’ in 2017 and we applied and had been accepted, and then a couple of weeks before we were due – actually a couple of days before we were due to head out, the visa process got declined on us and then we were like “What the f**k are we gonna do now?”
Jamie: Brian was already in America and we were supposed to be flying out within like 48 hours of Brian landing. And while Brian was in the air we got told we couldn’t go, potentially. But we went anyway.
Do you have a favourite place you’ve played live? Alex: Poland Jamie: Amsterdam Alex: Poland is mine, and I like Poland because the conversion rate is so insane. You can get a pint for a pound. Jamie: You know how in England you buy someone their ticket into the club and they get you a drink back inside? I bought his(Alex) entrance to a club in Poland and I was like “Just get us all a round inside” so he bought a round and it didn’t come to the equivalent of like a fiver. Alex: It was outrageous Jamie: You got three pints for like £2.50 or something like that. It’s ridiculous
Whenever you go to new cities you tend to have new support acts that are quite local. How do you find them? Jake: To be honest they just get in contact with the promoter of the show or our booking agent. Jamie: Brian does a lot of research into bands that are local that he likes the sound of and stuff like that Alex: We have a lot of bands that come forward and ask us if they can be on a show
Do you have a favourite song you have written? Jamie: There’s a song that we, on our little Europe headline, we threw ducks into the crowd and every time someone caught a duck and brought it to the merch table we’d give them a CD which had a song called ‘Gold Graffiti’ on it. That’s one of my favourite songs we’ve written. Alex: I would say a song called ‘Blue Gasoline’ Jake: I prefer green gasoline Jamie: Green petroleum
What moment, in your time as a band, has made you feel most successful? Jamie: The Birmingham show? Jake: Sometimes I’d say you do a big support show and you think you’re much bigger than you are. Alex: Like Amsterdam
Jake: Yeah, when we played our first live show with Nothing but Thieves we had a massive dressing room. Had a big f*****g cheese board. Jamie: They were like “Which dressing room do you want? They have a choice of these two?” We were like, “We’ll take the bigger one” Jake: And it had a great shower. That’s so important. It takes you to another world. The right kind of shower Jamie: And we had a guitar hero arcade game backstage.
Is there anyone in particular you’d want to work with in the future? Jamie: Josh Homme Jake: Josh Homme Jamie: John Frusciante. Dr Dre
What would you say is your biggest aspiration as a band? Jamie: To headline Glastonbury. I want to be able to do this as a career. Not have to go home and worry about working a job. Stuff like that. Jake: Just to make enough money to live comfortably, with private jets and strippers and enough to have a glass of milk at the end of the evening Jamie: Where they don’t have to cut my hair and I can actually afford to buy a haircut. Jake: Just to live comfortably I think
And finally, what can we expect from Airways in the future? Jake: Lots of music Jamie: Uh, yeah. Music. And Rubik’s cubes
Featured Image: Emma Viola Lilja, In review image: Teri Cwiek
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