FLY53 Blog » Friends

We love our customers

Troy — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:39:38 +0000

We are always getting messages about what people are up to, what bands they are in, asking if we can support them etc. It’s always interesting as we love feedback and we love knowing that our customers are as passionate about the things we love as we are. Music, bikes, fun times and parties are the most discussed.

Check out our new favourite customer – Alex and what he’s been doing in his spare time. Yeah he made this. Fabricated the whole darn thing of mad beauty and made us envious. What a bike and it’s only a few grams of weight (not quite but it’s light) with a maniac engine. His hair must be on fire when it’s driven full throttle. To our newest great customer, sir, we doth our cap to you. Click the image to see the whole deal.

Think you can match Alex and his project. Hit us up and if we are impressed we might just send you something to say thanks for the support.

V.E.N.O.M. – V.E.N.O.M.

jonfly — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:50:37 +0000

Pulled Apart by Horses have let rip with their new single aptly titled V.E.N.O.M. We say aptly because that’s what they spit on the track. Playing hard and heavy is the way we love them, but check the images; they have some serious middle fingers, foaming mouths and chop their own hand off, but don’t take our word for it, stop being so lazy and watch the pretty moving images. Whilst you are at it, watch James in his Profusion Jumper and after watching the video, get yer ass over to their site for news of the new album and tour.

More info here – www.pulledapartbyhorses.com

Regional Retailer Of The Week

Brigitte — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:11:17 +0000

‘50’ is one of our newest customers and is doing one hell of a job. Based on the corner of Old Compton Street in Soho, this thriving area never fails to bring excitement to your day. One day you’ll be watching a kids modeling shoot and the next Stephen Fry shouting to anyone who will listen….this is where’s its at.

Not only is it situated in a bloody good area but this shop also brings in the likes of John Waters. For those of you who don’t know him, he is a man of many talents, American filmmaker, actor, comedian, writer, the list goes on. This little gem is doing us proud with our clothes holding its own against older brands in the store.

We wouldn’t want to talk up Soho without giving you some recommendations from 50, so here it goes.
The first is 50’s favorite lunch spot, Mooli, an old deli meets Tokyo. Secondly a sick night out, Garlic and Shots. As the owner of ‘50’ puts it ‘its in a class of its own, its amazing’. A kitchen full of garlic and a bar loaded with 101 different flavored vodka shots, we’ll definitely be giving this one a go. Bottoms up.

Random Impulse Music Vid- Sneak Peak

Brigitte — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:11:35 +0000

Last week we got the privileged of attending the making of Random Impulses new music video ‘On A Roll’ and what a day it was! We arrived to catch Random Impulse smashing it out, lights flashing, music booming,….very impressive.

The atmosphere was energetic and the set looked wicked, however little did we know that going down there for support and to give out freebies to the extras would lead to us being more involved in the video then we originally anticipated, it was nuts. It was great to see Random Impulse at his best, he killed it, I think we knew all the words off by heart by the time we left.

Channel 4 was also in attendance filming part of a documentary, which will be aired soon. Here’s a quick peak into the making of the music video and make sure you keep your eye out for its release.

If you want some wardrobe inspiration, look no further. This jacket was hand picked by the man himself as his front of wardrobe Winter Jacket. It defines the word cool.

Joey Barton and The Book Club

Troy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:29:03 +0000

Football, for whatever reason has never been a big part of the FLY53 brand. We have always been more into the music scene, but that doesn’t mean we were have been living under a rock. Football happens and we have people here in the business that can banter with the best of them about it.

We work in conjunction with Artrocker to produce our bi-annual Zine and they had a chance to talk to Joey Barton and his band The Book Club, so we offered up our Soho HQ as a space that they could take over for the interview. Have to say, the guys were super nice. We don’t want to let on much about what they discussed, or what will be in the article, you’ll have to wait until next month’s issue of Artrocker for that, but we can tell you that the pictures and interview will be interesting.

When they did the photoshoot outside there was a large gang of people that just wanted to shake Joey’s hand and call him a legend. There was quite a bit of traffic stopping and double taking.

So anyway – have a listen to the music below and look out for something special on our twitter tomorrow, as well as the December issue of Artrocker out Mid Nov. Artrocker online – click here

We even blurred the photos (deliberately…) so you will have to see the interview to see it all properly…

The Gorrilaz feat Savvy – Phoner to Arizona the REMIX

Brigitte — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:11:52 +0000

Great to see our mate Asaviour aka Savvy wearing a Fly53 shirt in his new Phoner to Arizona remix, an unofficial Gorillas edit. He’s been pushing himself to become a major player in the Hip Hop scene. With his tour fast approaching, 3 albums under his belt and his own label, he’s a busy guy and really kicking up a storm.
Here’s a few of his scheduled live dates, make sure you keep an eye out for him in your barrio, you wouldn’t want to miss out :-
19th September The Music MashUp @Dbar Huddersfield
10th November Fresh Kids @Sedgwick Avenue Leeds
11th November SP Live @Vibe Bar East London
2 December Holding Court – Basingstoke

Check out his ace video, we really enjoyed this one, cant wait to get a hold of the Album. Flail them arms Savvy!

Win an exclusive Scroobius Pip prize with FLY53

Troy — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 09:33:14 +0000

Our good friend Scroobius Pip has just released an album of spectacular brilliance and we are so pleased that we are offering a one time exclusive competition to our loyal fans.

We are offering framed Hand Written Lyrics from the man himself, a copy of the album and £150 of clothing from us. That’s one hell of a prize and something you’ll not get anywhere else.

Pip’s new album is a who’s who of universally great music. From the man himself’s lyrics to Travis Barker’s drums, Mila Jovich collaborations (!!) and Sage Francis amongst others on the album that’s released on his own label… Our man has been busy. What we love about the album is the creativity of how its delivered and worked on. Pip has managed to get original videos (see below) as well as original promotion (see here for his fake torrent) all the way to the live shows that are going to be coming soon. If everyone in the music industry worked this hard and this creative, a lot more people would be into it. Big fans.

We encourage you to BUY his new album from iTunes, Amazon or anywhere else you can as you won’t be disappointed.

In the meantime watch the Introdiction video below and to enter our competition, it’s really really easy – Head over to our facebook page and under the picture of PIP – add the comment ‘Beard’ (do it through this link- BEARD) The comp will run until the end of Monday next week. One entry per person, judges decision is final and we will deliver the product/CD/Lyrics as soon as we can in one box for the lucky person. Get involved.

Jack Challoner wins European Championships

admin — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:48:46 +0000

JACK CHALLONER WINS EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jack Challoner is going to have to get an endorsement from Mr Muscle as well as FLY53 if he keeps dominating the way he is. The 20-year old Halifax born trials rider has bagged another trophy to go alongside his Youth World Championships in 2008, and Junior World Championship trophy in 2010. This time he’s taken home the European Championships, in relative comfort too. Going into the latest leg of the tour in the Czech Republic Jack only needed a 4th place or higher finish to win the Championships, but he won it anyway, just to make sure. Check out the round-up below…

Challoner Crowned 2011 European Champion in Czech Republic

UEM European Championships, Round 6

Tanvald, Czech Republic

29/08/2011

Jack Challoner, Miton Top Trial Team Beta, added the 2011 European Championship to his ever growing list of international titles. Having won the Youth World Championship in 2008, the Junior World Championship in 2010, the Relentless Energy endorsed rider from Halifax claimed the 2011 European Championship after a spectacular win at the final round held in Tanvald, Czeck Republic this weekend.

Just seven marks separated nearest championship rival Alfredo Gomez (SPA – Montesa) from damaging the Yorkshire riders finale, but it was Italian Matteo Grattarola (Gas Gas) who had the closest advantage arriving at the mouthiness venue on Friday. Challoner knew a top four finish would secure him the title, after three consecutive win’s at the start of the championships gave him a strong advantage.

Overnight rain didn’t make the going easy, the sections became very slippery and everything was to play for. Jack Challoner set off how he intended to finish putting in consistent good marks and very few maximum penalties to finish the opening lap with just 21. However, Spainish competitor Alfredo Gomez was eager to disrupt Challoner’s plans of victory and finished just two marks behind with 23 at the half way point. It was very much a two horse race from then on in, with nearest championship contender, Matteo Grattatrola on 35 after a time penalty on the opening lap.

The Miton Top Trial Team front-man kept his cool throughout the trial and was the only rider to secure a lap under 20, with Gomez worsening his competitive first lap result, a Relentless Challoner was able to taking the championship title in spectacular style. Jack, Speaking soon after the trial commented, “This season has been really good for me, to start of with three consecutive win’s I was defiantly looking to win them all, unfortunately Andorra wasn’t a great round and Italy was a disaster, so I knew that I wasn’t making it easy and had to ride well today…”

“…Today has been really good, I’m feeling really competitive on a great bike again and today I felt like anything was possible. To finish the Championship with a win and with the title is one of the best feelings ever, right up there with the Junior World Championship from last year. I have got to thank a few key people, Michele Bosi has been the top minder, and dad Si has been in the wings every step of the way – I also want to say thanks to all my sponsors for making this championship possible!”

Challoner, who now stands ninth in his first competitive season in the SPEA FIM Adult World Championships having missed the Japan leg of the series will be fighting hard against 8th standing Beta rider, James Dabill and 7th standing Michael Brown in the final two-day leg of the championships in France this weekend.

Interview: Random Impulse

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:55:41 +0000

INTERVIEW: RANDOM IMPULSE

Another week another amazing musical distraction. This time round we headed into London to meet up with Jóvel A.K.A. Random Impulse. This guy is about to drop an new CD (in October) and we are certain it’s going to go off like a rocket. He’s got an alchemists touch, fusing chunky guitar riffs whilst spitting quality lyrics. When he played the Viper Rooms he got a compliment off Jack White (true story). Check out what he had to say below…

FLY53: So, tell us about the name Random Impulse…

R.I.: Random Impulse, it got given to me. Everyone calls me Impulse, even my Mum! And then I just stuck the name Random on top of it. I wanted to be called Zero, originally, coz I wanted to go for the sympathy vote and everyone could be like ‘ohh, why are you called Zero?’ so I could be like ‘ahh, it’s coz I think I’m a 0 out of 10’ and they’d go ‘Nah, you’re alright, you’re good man.’ Yeah, so I tried to go for that but everyone was just like ‘Nah, fuck off mate, you’re Impulse’.

FLY53: You’ve got a good name anyway though, Jóvel…

R.I.: Yeah, it’s alright, you know the thing that’s messed up with it though, it’s got an accent over the ‘o’, so if someone goes ‘how do you spell your name?’ you have to go J-O, with an accent over the ‘o’ V-E-L and everyone just looks at you like ‘Fuck off mate’ and you just sound like a prick. My Mum thought she was smart, making some crazy name, but the person that delivered was like ‘Ohh, you’re from France’ and she was like ‘No?’ and they said ‘Ah, it’s a French train station’ so there you go, I’m named after a French train station.

FLY53: So what made you want to pick up a guitar?

R.I.: It was kind’ve like a transition, my first mixtape had 44 tracks on it and it had loads of different styles and genres on it.

FLY53: Decent value for money then…

R.I.: Yeah exactly, 2 CD’s – I did 44 tracks for £4.44, the alliteration sells it (laughs). But from that there was one song that everybody stuck to, it was a very heavily structured story, so I thought, you know, people like that so I started to make things more story based, like very heavily story based, and the song people picked up from that was ‘ The Heroin’ which had a sample of The Vines, and the hip-hop community picked up on that coz usually samples are just big obvious rock riffs, but not really indie and light things. With that I thought ‘ah I wish I could play that rather than finding a sample’, coz with a sample, you can’t think of an idea and then find the perfect sample, that’s like finding a needle in a haystack. So I thought I’ll just teach myself to play. Someone told me that that would take 10 years, and I thought ‘well, I can’t do that’ or it’d take 10,000 hours, and I thought ‘well, I could do that’ so I quit everything, absolutely everything, and started practicing drums, bass and guitar for 8 hours a day…

FLY53: Did you have a teacher?

R.I.: Youtube, just Youtube tutorials on how to play guitar, I became like a bum. Everyone thought I was mad, my mum, my best friend, my manager – did nothing with my days other than 8 hours of guitar, 4 hours of drums and 4 hours of bass just everyday. Then after 3 months I was like, right ‘let me try and put some stuff together, and boom, it worked (laughs) it just worked really.

FLY53: For most, you will have come to their attention from the 1Xtra appearance on Westwood’s show. 3 years on, what’s changed?

R.I.: Back in 2008 yeah, well I play live instruments now, I play guitar, drums and bass now, coz I was just a rapper then. There’s been an awful lot more mix tapes, sold 10,000 on my first one, 6000 on my second one. I believe the EP that charted independently. My music style has completely changed, again from that song ‘The Heroin” I’ve just branched out on that. I play live now, with a live band – playing guitar and rapping at the same time.

FLY53: Have you got the same mentality towards music?

R.I.: Nah, pretty much the same, I’ve always listened to a wide range of music, I’m a genetic engineer, that’s what I studied at Uni, and I didn’t really get into music until Jay-Z’s Blueprint 2, so to me Radiohead are 6-7 months old, Rage Against the Machine are 3 months old, everything’s just new to me, y’know? I’ve got all this information to just feed off of; I’m in a really good place.

I’ve also got a fan-base now which is kinda weird. I used to turn up to shows and be like ‘What song shall I play next?’ and just get a load of blank faces staring back at me, but now people are actually shouting out and stuff, some songs that I haven’t even taught myself how to play and rap at the same time to yet. So I’m like ‘ahh, can’t do that one’ (laughs).

FLY53: How did you manage to cut your fingers so badly in the last video for “Still they sing” – so much blood on the scratch plate of your guitar…

R.I.: Ah man, I don’t know if I subconsciously did this on purpose coz of my heroes. But I love Jack White, and I was so happy to hear that he was a fan of some of my stuff but I just love his approach to music. I was watching the documentary ‘It Might Get Loud’ and I just saw him rocking out and there was loads of blood all over his guitar and I just thought, God, I wish I could play with so much intensity that I don’t even notice my finger fucking up. And then just one day I went fucking mad in one song, didn’t notice anything and just blood all over my guitar, then the same happened the next night, just from the way I hold my pick.

Also, when I started playing guitar, it’s really weird but no-one ever told me there was such thing as a left handed guitar, I’m left handed at everything, so I just got a guitar thinking that was that, technically I play the exact same way Jimi Hendrix did with my weak hand picking, and now I’m kinda stuck like that coz that’s the way I play. I think that’s how the bleeding happens though, I’ve got less control with this hand, especially when I get excited, so I just end up mashing it into the guitar (laughs)

FLY53: If you played a game of guitar ‘horse’ with Ed Sheeran, who would win?

R.I.: Depends what style, if you were to ask me ‘Who’s got a better chance of playing Satriani?’ me, blatently, Ed hasn’t got a chance at playing Satriani. But he’s been playing a lot longer than me, he’s been playing for years.

FLY53: What about Spanish Flamenco then?

Ooh, I’d say Ed for that. It’d be hard for me to follow, coz he doesn’t use a pick, he does all that finger-picking doesn’t he, whereas I use a pick so I’m like solo-ing and heavy guitar riffs and stuff, but I don’t know man, I’m getting better…

FLY53: So what you’re saying is that you’re better on electric and he’s better on acoustic?

R.I.: Yeah yeah, if it was on electric it’s over. He’s still good at playing, Ed’s a sick guitarist, but when it comes to things that are usually played on an electric guitar, he couldn’t touch me. I’ve put too much work in.

FLY53: And lyrics?

R.I.: Ooh, can I drop awesome lyrics? Yeah easily. I’ve always said this though, Ed’s greatest talent is his memory, even more than his singing and everything, he can hear a rap once and copy it, he’s damn good at that.

FLY53: Ed uses the loop pedals too, can you?

R.I.: Yeah I can do all that too and stuff, yeah. I think Ed can play a bit of drums too, are we the same person? Weird (laughs)

FLY53: There seems to be good camaraderie through the UK scene at the moment with Ed, Tempah yourself and all the others. Is it a creative as well as social thing?

R.I.: Yeah, it’s a mix though. Some people are more friends for work, as in, they’re a fan of what you do, and want to work together. Then some people are just genuinely friends, like me and Ed. He’s on one of my remixes for a chorus and I’m on the collaborations EP but when we say ‘ah yeah we should write’ and yet we’ve been in the studio for ages but we just end up talking all night more friends, if you get me.

FLY53: London is getting pretty big right now, a lot of people are coming through, Wretch32 and the like, do you see those guys out? Do you hang out?

R.I.: Yeah man all the time, a lot of these people I grew up with, Wretch, Example, Chipmunk, Tinie, all these people I’ve known for donkeys years, so whenever you see them you do have a genuine chat, it’s not just like ‘cool man, good luck with everything’ they know about your private life and stuff so you chat about that. When we talk it’s rare we talk about music, its all asking how we are and stuff. A lot of love. Whenever we talk about collab-ing, everyone’s really up for it, like ‘yeah just let me know’ it’s all good.

FLY53: So who’s the ‘dream team’ for a collaboration for you?

R.I.: In the world? I don’t think its any UK people to be honest. Rick Rubin, Jack White, Alex Turner, oh wait he’s UK and yeah Wretch, throw some Wretch32 in there…and Tinie, Tinies sick. Dream team.

FLY53: Tell us what to expect from your new EP…

R.I.: I’m really really proud of it, I think my last EP was a bit scattered coz I can do so much. I’ve learnt my lesson from the old EP’s, its quality over quantity. This EP has 4 tracks on it, 3 tracks and a remix. But the remix has a different beat, different lyrics and people on it so it probably classifies as a completely different song (laughs). Every different song I’d want to put out as a single, that’s why it took me a while you know. I said ‘I want an EP where there is no stand-out song’ most EP’s has a lot of strong songs but one gets played out and goes to radio but no, I want all of them to go to radio, I want 4 solid singles.

FLY53: Is it genre defying? Hard to pin down?

R.I.: Yeah, it’s a lot more rounded though, my last EP was like, this is an indie song, and this is a hip-hop song whereas now everything is a lot more blended. The flow is a lot better. I’ve got a lot better at mixing a couple of genres together in one song.

FLY53: Ever going to do a Beastie Boys and release a country single?

R.I.: Nah, not gonna do a country and western single, apart from Johnny Cash I’m not really down with that, other than Cash it just don’t hit me right (laughs).

FLY53: What other genres are off the list then?

R.I.: Gospel, not gonna see any gospel rapping or rocking any time soon. Soca, it’s fun to dance to but not for me.

FLY53: Punk?

R.I.: There’s punk in there already, I like me a bit of punk.

FLY53: So what about a name and release date for it?

R.I.: It’s called ‘No Sleep For Winners E.P. and it’s out in October of this year. We’ll call it the 12th, but that’s a lie.

Random Impulse

admin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:00:21 +0000

RANDOM IMPULSE

(Jovel wears the FLY53 Mack Jacket)

Meet Jovel, known by you guys as Random Impulse.

Random Impulse has been causing one hell of a stir in the underground scene over these last couple of months, ever since the launch of his ‘Overload EP’ in March he’s been going from strength to strength. Unsurprising considering the company he keeps, namely one Ed Sheeran. Friends aside, there’s only one reason this guy is starting to make it big, and its his ability to cross rap/rock/dubstep/indie together into tunes that’ll blow your balls off. With a debut album due this Autumn, and gigs/festivals going off before that, he’s set to storm the charts. Catch him in an tiny venue while you’ve still got the chance. Check out the video for his latest single ‘Still They Sing’ below: