THEORY OF FLIGHT
FOR LAS VEGAS BASED MELODIC ROCK POWERHOUSE, FAME AND FORTUNE BEYOND THEIR HOME BASE IS ‘WITHIN REACH’—THE NAME OF THEIR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED FULL LENGTH DEBUT, RELASING APRIL 20. THEIR FIRST SINGLE, “SET THE NIGHT OF FIRE” HEADS TO RADIO IN FEBUARY
While The Five Piece Unit of Friends Has Racked Up Gigs At Local Hotspots Like The House Of Blues, Hard Rock Hotel and Diablo’s Cantina, Tracks From Their Popular 2008 EP ‘A Brilliant Display’ Spun On Numerous Vegas Rock Stations And Various College Outlets Across the U.S., As Well The Band Has Opening For Major Recording Artists, Everclear and Train
Let Celine Dion, Elton John, Cher, Bette Midler and Prince have Las Vegas.
Melodic rock powerhouse Theory of Flight (www.theoryofflightmusic.com) may hail from the “Entertainment Capital of the World,” but like their fellow desert dwellers Panic At The Disco and The Killers, the longtime friends—first a three piece, now a dynamic five piece unit—find that their explosive energy is just too intense to be confined to The Strip and its surrounding area.
Both airplay and gig-wise, Vegas has been a great proving ground for the band (www.myspace.com/theoryofflight702), which was formed in 2007 by front man Beau Hodges, lead guitarist Vince Casas and bassist Joey McMahon and soon added Tyler Williams (drums) and Stephen Goodrum (rhythm guitar) to the fold.
While TOF has been cultivating a growing fan base with explosive live performances at hotspots like the House of Blues, Hard Rock Hotel, Diablo’s Cantina and Jillian’s, tracks from their 2008 six-song EP A Brilliant Display have received significant spins on every significant rock station in town, including alternative giant Area 108 FM, KOMP 92.3 and X107.5 FM.
The band recently won the chance to open for major recording artist, Everclear while in Sin City during the “In A Different Light” tour and was the opening act for Train at Hard Rock Strip Hotel in Vegas.
All of this has laid a perfect foundation for the upcoming release of their highly anticipated full length debut Within Reach, releasing April 20. Within Reach’s (Blue Beet/Edgeware Records/EMI) original mixing was done by renowned L.A. producer, Mark Needham (Fleetwood Mac, Chris Issak, and The Killers), and produced by Grammy winning duo Bob Cutarella (The Police, Elton John, and Cyndi Lauper) and Fran Carthcart (Sting, Sevendust, and Beyoncé) of NYC’s East Side Sounds.
Their first single off their album is the pop-rock and catchy track, “Set The Night On Fire.” The single was released to radio this February and the band is in the works of shooting a music video for the track in their hometown on Saturday, March 6.
Hodges points out that while the final tracks are originally mixed by Needham, and produced by Cutarella and Carthcart taking TOF to the next level sonically, all their songs are initially arranged and produced “in-house” by Colombo and Casas who is group’s chief songwriter and band leader. “Before we began playing as Theory of Flight, some of us played together informally in jam band situations,” he says. “Vince came to me with some really strong songs and said, ‘how would you feel about working with me on this music?’ He felt it was time to form a group, but since he’s not a lead singer, that I would be the right choice. We immediately saw the potential and began developing the sound. Vince is the perfect choice as band leader because of his extensive knowledge of music and songwriting, plus a real gift for organization.
“We all have unique musical backgrounds, so with five guys, you’re bound to have some disagreements on occasion,” Hodges adds. “So we decided early on, if we want to resolve these issues quickly, the buck needs to stop with Vince, who’s the most experienced musician of all of us. Theory of Flight lives up to its uplifting name because we are all very close friends in addition to being musicians who are very dedicated to our craft and to further developing our career.”
Considering the backgrounds of all the band members, perhaps it’s not surprising that though the band formed in Vegas, TOF doesn’t exactly embody the glitzy, glamorous, hedonistic lifestyle the town is famous for. Their origins are uniquely scattered, actually–Hodges is originally from Alaska, Goodrum (a veteran international touring artist) from Ohio, Casas from Maryland and Williams from Seattle. Casas graduated from Greenville College of Music, while McMahon has a finance degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Naturally, McMahon was tapped to handle all of Theory of Flight’s finances!
Despite the diversity of their musical backgrounds, the guys in TOF all agree that, even before they’ve “made it big,” it’s great to give back whenever they can. In March 2009, they conceived, hosted and headlined “Rock For Freedom,” an event in the parking lot at the new Red Rock Harley Davidson dedicated to getting people to come out and support the recent deployment of troops from Nevada—the largest in the state since World War II.
The midtempo ballad “Burn On,” an uplifting song about pressing on and overcoming adversity and honoring the innocent in a dark world gone mad, was partly inspired by their young friend Brandon Raynor, who died of leukemia caused by the chemo required to fight his brain tumor. The band’s friendship with this boy led to a longstanding association with the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. They performed a concert last year for the organization’s annual Camp Cartwheel event, which is dedicated to the support of the families of kids with cancer and leukemia.
“One of the dreams we have,” says Hodges, “is to parlay any major success we achieve into organizing a large scale stadium tour, doing 20-30 stadiums on a bill with major acts, that will raise money for these kids. We would call it the ‘Bald Heads and Big Hearts’ tour. This is just one of the major goals we have for ourselves in the coming years. We anticipate a lot of recording and touring all around the U.S. and hopefully the world.”
“Being in a band is like a marriage, because the chemistry you have with your mates is such a vital part of spending so much time together and in the creative process,” says Goodrum. “There are so many different dynamics that are hard to define in words. Besides that cool element, the most exciting part of this is being able to share my dreams and my passion with a broad audience. I think of how many garage bands, how many kids, are out there, who dream of the opportunity to play onstage and make people happy making music. It’s really such an honor to have this chance.”
Beau adds, “How can it get any better for a music junkie like me? The minute I wake up, there’s an iPod on my ear, I’ve got the rock music cranked up in the car, listening to anything and everything that turns me on musically and emotionally. Music just has that power to wake everyone up! To be able, right here and now, to live this dream…nothing brings me more joy than singing to people with purpose and integrity.”
