In this interview spotlight, I chat with Learn To Fly about their music, challenges, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)

We are from Spartanburg South Carolina. If I had to describe our music, I would say melodic alternative rock with a lot of turns and twist.  We don’t really follow a specific style for writing so it really varies by song but you’ll always find some form of rock tones with meaningful lyrics sprinkled on top. The Song “Cherished Ruins” is really a good blend of the musical rollercoasters we build. 

What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?

 We grew up in musical families. Music was pretty much our “Sunday Dinner”. Its never really been something I think about on terms of pursing or getting motivated to do, Its simply just our way of life…. If family trees had fruit on them ours would definitely be notes and melodies.  

How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?

Cherished Ruins is the first release for Learn To Fly ( we do have a second release “Broken Nation” right behind Cherished Ruins and a third to be released in August-ish.)

Our primary goals is to get the name and sound of the group out digitally and find some friends that enjoy rocking out. If they want more after that, we will give it to them. Honestly these are our songs that we have written and recorded ourselves and we are happy just to get them released and publicly available.     

Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this over saturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?

Indie artist have a difficult time  competing with the marketing strategies of major label and just generally getting heard. But…the major labels invest a lot of time, resources and of course money in their artist and run the business to make money, what else do you expect. They have the process down to the T.  

Technology is everything for us. We are able to record, publish and release our songs. This wasn’t an option for most  groups even as little as  10-15 years ago. Great time to be an indie artist if you are like us and love just getting your musical arrangements out.  

What was the last song you listened to?

 Doesn’t Remind me by Audioslave. The amazing late Chris Cornell. 

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?

•  I am Vinyl guy myself. I have pretty large collection handed down from my dad. I love record hunting  at thrift stores and  flea markets. Something about that raw recoding brought to life on vinyl with a slight whispering hiss in the background is soothing to me….

How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why? 

I like them all but primarily I use Pandora Radio and Spotify at the gym and at work. I like that I can put on a radio station, especially bring a multi-genre musician and listener, based on my mood and it pulls up artist in that a similar styles. 

Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?

Cherished Ruins will be available mid-July at all major digital platforms. To name a few: Spotify, Pandora Radio, Amazon music, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, etc….. We also just started a FB page www.facebook.com/LearnToFlyband

Anything else before we sign off?

Learn To fly “Cherished Ruins” members are:

Aaron McMahon – Guitar and vocals

Shaun McMahon- Drums

Gavin McMahon- Bass Guitar

Ghost McMahon- Lead Guitar