Theory Of Flight
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Music
Press
New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Luck Media & Marketing) - In just under a year, Theory Of Flight (theoryofflightmusic.com) front man Beau Hodges, lead guitarist Vince Casas, bassist Joey McMahon, drummer Tyler Williams, rhythm guitarist Stephen Goodrum, and keyboardist John Colombo have created quite the buzz in the Vegas music scene. Theory Of Flight's live performances at hip venues such as House of Blues, Hard Rock Hotel, Diablo's Cantina and Jillian's have helped gain the band's notable fan base. Tracks from the guys' 2008 EP A Brilliant Display landed on the airwaves of alternative radio stations Area 108 FM, KOMP 92.3 and X107.5 FM.
With the success of the radio airplay combined with the ever-growing fan base, it was time to hit the ground running to create their highly anticipated full length album, Within Reach, due out in the Fall of 2009.
To take Theory Of Flight to the next level, the band figured they would need to knock the ball right out of the park! Next to bat you ask? In comes talented L.A. music producer and engineer Mark Needham (Fleetwood Mac, The Killers, Cake, Chris Isaak and My Chemical Romance).
'Working with a legendary figure like Mark presents a huge opportunity for us,' says Goodrum. 'We had wanted to work with him and were so honored when he agreed to do the project. We chose the name Theory Of Flight to embody the idea that we want our music to be an inspiration to people, to encourage them to never give up. And now Mark is a great part of that story we're able to tell.'
The fans of the EP A Brilliant Display need not to worry! Theory Of Flight and Mr. Needham have got you covered as the debut Within Reach will feature five of the EP's tracks that Needham is perfecting, along with mixing of seven new songs that will be featured on the new album. The initial arranging and producing will be done by Casas and Colombo of Theory Of Flight.
Theory Of Flight recently came to L.A. to meet with Needham at his Los Feliz studio to discuss the project and put their creativity to work.
- top40-charts.com
For Las Vegas-based rock band Theory of Flight, playing music isn’t about success or accolades. “It’s about creating something you’re super proud of,” says lead singer Beau Hodges.
The sextet is prepping for the fall release its first full-length CD, Within Reach, and Theory of Flight recently shot a video for fan-favorite song “Set the Night on Fire.” Within Reach, recorded by the band at lead guitarist and songwriter Vince Casas’ home studio, was mixed and mastered by acclaimed engineer Mark Needham, whose other clients include Chris Isaak, Cake and another Vegas-spawned act, The Killers.
Needham’s name wasn’t simply drawn out of a hat. Much like the rest of Theory of Flight’s approach to music, his involvement is part of the band’s well-laid plan. “We took a lot of careful preparation with this project,” Hodges says. “We’re very careful about what we release and what we play.”
Manager Matt Slater asked the band members who they’d ideally want to engineer their record. They all agreed on Needham, and Slater, through a number of connections, was able to make that happen.
“Within an hour of Mark receiving the disc, I got a text message: ‘Mark loves the disc, he wants to work with you guys,’” Hodges says. “When we sat down with Mark, between the vision of the album and us being from Vegas, he got very excited. He’s now become family.”
Needham remixed five tracks from Theory of Flight’s debut EP, A Brilliant Display, for inclusion on Within Reach, complementing the seven new tracks Casas and keyboardist John Colombo produced.
Theory of Flight seems to be on the precipice of something grand, all the universal axes lining up properly. But though they won’t say things have come easy, the members agree letting nature take its course has yielded optimal results.
“All our connections just fell into place,” says drummer Tyler Williams. “Anything good we haven’t had to strive for. But all our mistakes were things we tried to force—it wasn’t natural.”
It was seven months ago when the band stopped trying to force things to happen. Hodges says he had a “revelation.”
“What are we about? How are we going to give back to the fans? We began to look at our strengths,” Hodges says. “We started writing music that was so much deeper. It challenged us musically.”
Hodges was also deeply affected by the death of Brandon Rayner, a 10-year-old Theory of Flight fan who passed away last Christmas after battling cancer for most of his short life. Hodges dedicated the song “Burn On” to Rayner’s memory. “That was a tipping point for us,” Hodges says.
The band has found its place in giving back to not just fans, but also the community, playing at and putting on charity shows, including Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation’s Camp Cartwheel last summer and the Rock for Freedom concert this March for local troops being deployed to the Middle East.
“If you have a voice and a heartbeat,” Hodges says, “you can affect and inspire everyone around you.”
- Las Vegas Weekly
For Las Vegas-based rock band Theory of Flight, playing music isn’t about success or accolades. “It’s about creating something you’re super proud of,” says lead singer Beau Hodges.
The sextet is prepping for the fall release its first full-length CD, Within Reach, and Theory of Flight recently shot a video for fan-favorite song “Set the Night on Fire.” Within Reach, recorded by the band at lead guitarist and songwriter Vince Casas’ home studio, was mixed and mastered by acclaimed engineer Mark Needham, whose other clients include Chris Isaak, Cake and another Vegas-spawned act, The Killers.
Needham’s name wasn’t simply drawn out of a hat. Much like the rest of Theory of Flight’s approach to music, his involvement is part of the band’s well-laid plan. “We took a lot of careful preparation with this project,” Hodges says. “We’re very careful about what we release and what we play.”
Manager Matt Slater asked the band members who they’d ideally want to engineer their record. They all agreed on Needham, and Slater, through a number of connections, was able to make that happen.
“Within an hour of Mark receiving the disc, I got a text message: ‘Mark loves the disc, he wants to work with you guys,’” Hodges says. “When we sat down with Mark, between the vision of the album and us being from Vegas, he got very excited. He’s now become family.”
Needham remixed five tracks from Theory of Flight’s debut EP, A Brilliant Display, for inclusion on Within Reach, complementing the seven new tracks Casas and keyboardist John Colombo produced.
Theory of Flight seems to be on the precipice of something grand, all the universal axes lining up properly. But though they won’t say things have come easy, the members agree letting nature take its course has yielded optimal results.
“All our connections just fell into place,” says drummer Tyler Williams. “Anything good we haven’t had to strive for. But all our mistakes were things we tried to force—it wasn’t natural.”
It was seven months ago when the band stopped trying to force things to happen. Hodges says he had a “revelation.”
“What are we about? How are we going to give back to the fans? We began to look at our strengths,” Hodges says. “We started writing music that was so much deeper. It challenged us musically.”
Hodges was also deeply affected by the death of Brandon Rayner, a 10-year-old Theory of Flight fan who passed away last Christmas after battling cancer for most of his short life. Hodges dedicated the song “Burn On” to Rayner’s memory. “That was a tipping point for us,” Hodges says.
The band has found its place in giving back to not just fans, but also the community, playing at and putting on charity shows, including Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation’s Camp Cartwheel last summer and the Rock for Freedom concert this March for local troops being deployed to the Middle East.
“If you have a voice and a heartbeat,” Hodges says, “you can affect and inspire everyone around you.”
- Las Vegas Weekly
Discography
Maybe in this world EP 2007
Brilliant Display EP 2008
Within Reach LP 2009
Photos
Bio
THEORY OF FLIGHT
FOR LAS VEGAS BASED MELODIC ROCK POWERHOUSE, A BIG IMPACT BEYOND THEIR HOME BASE IS ‘WITHIN REACH’—THE NAME OF THEIR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED FULL LENGTH DEBUT
While The Six 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.
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 six 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 frontman Beau Hodges, lead guitarist Vince Casas and bassist Joey McMahon. Vince had the vision of making TOF a six piece unit from the start, and soon added Tyler Williams (drums), Stephen Goodrum (rhythm guitar) and John Colombo (key) 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.
All of this has laid a perfect foundation for the upcoming release of their highly anticipated full length debut Within Reach.
One of the ways TOF is breaking beyond their geographic foundations is working in L.A. with producer and engineer Mark Needham, whose miles-long resume includes everyone from Fleetwood Mac and The Killers to Cake, Chris Isaak and My Chemical Romance. Needham is perfecting the five tracks from the EP that will be on Within Reach, as well as mixing the seven new tracks, including the expected first single, the powerful love song “Next To You.”
“Working with a legendary figure like Mark presents a huge opportunity for us,” says Goodrum. “It’s kind of a long story how we hooked up, one of those ‘we know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy’ things, but long story short, this person submitted our EP to him and he loved it the minute he heard it. We had wanted to work with him and were so honored when he agreed to do the project. We chose the name Theory of Flight to embody the idea that we want our music to be an inspiration to people, to encourage them to never give up. And now Mark is a great part of that story we’re able to tell.”
Hodges points out that while the final tracks are mixed by Needham, taking TOF to the next level sonically, all their songs are initially arranged and produced “in-house” by Casas.
“We all have unique musical backgrounds, so with six 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, Williams from Seattle and Colombo, a longtime studio musician and engineer, from Nashville. 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, 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’
Links
