The Night Flight Orchestra occupies a unique space in the rock and metal world. Known for their nostalgic blend of classic rock, AOR and disco-infused melodies they captivate a wide range of music enthusiasts. Formed in 2007 by Björn Strid and David Andersson during a North American tour with Strid’s main band Soilwork, the project quickly grew into a full-fledged band.
After years of developing their signature sound, The Night Flight Orchestra released their debut album, Internal Affairs, in 2012. Their breakthrough, however, came with Amber Galactic in 2017, an album that earned them a Swedish Grammis nomination for Best Rock/Metal. They followed up with Sometimes the World Ain’t Enough (2018) and the Aeromantic duology (Aeromantic in 2020 and Aeromantic II in 2021), further cementing their reputation for reviving the golden age of rock with a modern twist.
Tragedy struck in 2022 when David Andersson, the band’s co-founder and guitarist, passed away. Despite this, The Night Flight Orchestra remained committed to their vision, honoring Andersson’s legacy by continuing to make music. On January 31, 2025, they released their seventh studio album, Give Us the Moon, an album that showcases their signature mix of grandiose melodies, soaring choruses, and vibrant instrumentation.
We had the chance to meet Björn Strid before their show in Portugalete.
Your new album “Give Us the Moon” just dropped. How is it different from your previous work? How did your sound evolve over the years?
I would say that, considering what we’ve gone through – you know, with the passing of our guitarist, David Anderson – we needed to take our time, grieve, regroup, and try to find the joy in the music again. And some of the last stuff that David wrote, you know, was pretty dark, and I feel like we wanted to do something quite uplifting and positive after we managed to turn this around. After we had done all the grieving, we wanted to do something that felt really empowering and positive. That was sort of the guiding star. So I would say, compared to Aeromantic I and II, it’s a bit more uplifting, a bit more dreamy, and sort of atmospheric and even cinematic, I would say.
Losing David Anderson was very hard on a personal level, of course. But also, he played a big part in the formation of the band and the songwriting. How did the songwriting process change since then?
Yes, it was pretty tough at first. I mean, both me and Sebastian we’ve been writing a lot of material through the years but David was really the most driving factor when it came to songwriting. And me and David founded the band, so we had to sort of take his heritage and step into his world and take that with us, which was not easy because, you know, you can’t really copy David’s musical expression or lyrical expression. It was very unique. But at least we could feel that we had him with us – his presence in the way we were writing.
And I think we really wanted to make him proud, make ourselves proud, and also show all the doubters out there that we can pull this off. So that was another sort of mission. We had to dig extra deep and sort of widen our musical horizons a bit as songwriters. But I feel all the ingredients are in there in the new album. I think we did really well, and it’s very sincere. David was very present when we were both composing and also recording the album. We went to the same studio like we always used to do, and we could all picture him walking in the corridors, drinking beer in his underwear. It became a positive thing in the end. We remembered all the good memories, and so it became a big inspiration.
You already mentioned that you tried to create an uplifting musical experience. I think you were definitely successful in that regard. Is that also represented in the lyrics?
Yes and no.
I think we will always have the contrast between the Swedish-Scandinavian melancholy and sort of the more positive, uplifting stuff. Because if we were just like this happy disco band, positive all the way, things wouldn’t work out. I think it’s the contrast that makes the magic in that sense, you know? Not saying that we’re like a goth band by any means, but we are very multi-leveled in our compositions. But I think overall, it’s a more empowering and uplifting album than the previous two, for example.
By now, you’re already on your seventh album, so you’ve been around for quite some time. Can you give us a quick recap of how you even came to start a band like The Night Flight Orchestra that’s so different from your other work?
Yeah. I think it was something that we were aching to do. When me and David met in 2007, he was the session guitar player for Soilwork on our North American tour. And we really bonded over music and the aesthetics of the seventies and eighties, sitting in the back lounge of the tour bus every day, drinking beer and listening to music. And then, at the end of that tour, we said, “We need to start a band when we come home that captures this era – the way of producing, playing, and writing music.
And it was one of those drunken ideas that actually became reality. You know, you start so many bands when you’re drunk, but this is something that actually happened in the end. It took us some time to find the right people who sort of understood our vision. And when we did and got together for the first time in 2009, something really magical happened. It was a beautiful moment and experience, and I felt that there was something special from the start. And even though it started like a project, it very quickly became a band. So, it’s pretty crazy to look back, and now this is the seventh album. That’s quite remarkable. By now, we’ve toured Latin America, all of Europe, and Australia.
Were you prepared for that kind of success when you started?
I don’t know. I wasn’t even thinking about that. I just knew that I was aching to do something completely different from what I was doing with Soilwork. I treasure what I do with Soilwork, but I’m very diverse in my music taste – I’m all over the place – and I feel like with these two bands, I have just about everything that represents me as a person.
When you put together the group for making the music, you opted for people who are also making melodic death metal. Was that a conscious decision?
Yeah. I mean, we knew Sharlee before, and we knew that he had a lot of knowledge about other types of music, and he liked that stuff. And I think he was just curious to do something different as well. He had been playing with Spiritual Beggars, which is kinda like seventies rock, you know. So, we wanted to try it out. And it locked in right away, and we were like, “Wow, he can play a mean disco bass, we didn’t know that.”
Even though you’re very influenced by the seventies and eighties, obviously, you neither sound like a modern band trying to do something retro nor like a tribute band copying the good old times. What is your approach to making music that is retro influenced but not a knockoff?
I don’t know. How do you do that? Is it about knowledge? Is it about musicality? It’s hard to say, you know?
But what we know is that we want to be so much more than a bunch of metalheads getting together like, “Look at us! We can sound exactly like Foreigner in 1978.” We wanted to be way more than that. Of course, a big part of it is nostalgia, and it takes you back. But it also needs to make sense today. And then it's also tradition, like I mentioned before, it's a way of writing and composing and producing and playing, that we feel is timeless and that was lost along the way. We also felt that we're filling a void in the music scene. It's like this is needed out there.
Nothing wrong about early seventies, but it’s like most retro rock bands that were out there were either Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. We wanted to do something completely different. I also like the early seventies, but I would say I prefer the late seventies and early eighties. There was some magical pocket right there—’77 to ’83, if you want me to be specific. Of course, we moved beyond that as well, but it needs to make sense today as well.
A response I get a lot from people is, “Oh, I didn’t even know that I missed this kind of music, but it sounds so refreshing.” Somebody expressed it like that: “It’s bringing you back to tomorrow.” That’s a nice description – it kinda makes sense in the end.
What also plays into that is, of course, what you bring up on stage – the whole show, the costumes …
Yeah. I mean, we like to have a full concept. I always loved bands that have a full concept – that have the songs, the looks, the stage presence, and the production. I love that, the whole package. So that’s been really important for us since the very beginning, even though it’s been gradually coming. Obviously, with the addition of the two backup singers, Åsa and Anna, it brings a whole new dimension to the whole thing as well. Fantastic singers and great stage personas. We love to have the gimmicks and the tongue-in-cheek but we like to keep the balance and I believe we do. Because it's not a joke band.
Who’s responsible for designing the outfits?
Well, I’m very involved, and the girls are also involved in their outfits. But I guess it’s mostly me. I’m brainstorming a lot around it because I think it’s so much fun, and there’s really no limit to what you can do with this concept, you know? It’s just a matter of budget. Hopefully, in the future, sometime, we can play bigger stages where we have the side of a 747 and can do an entrance down the ladder.
Not only the music, but also on stage, must be a pretty, pretty big difference to what you’re doing with Soilwork. Yeah. Is it more fun? Is it just a different kind of fun?
It’s a different kind of fun. I connect emotionally very much with Soilwork too. It’s just different expressions. I mean, nobody can really say that I’m not allowed to dance with Soilwork, but it’s kinda easier here. In that sense, it’s quite liberating, you know? With Soilwork, I’m more in a cage, and that’s fine too. I can sort of appreciate that. But then, with Night Flight, I just go crazy.
Did you feel at any point that people were not accepting what you are doing with The Night Flight Orchestra because of your previous work?
I did not expect such a positive response. I expected to get a lot more shit thrown at me for doing something like that. But I would not have cared one bit because it’s something that I needed to do. I was so happy to do it, you know? And I didn’t even think about what people were gonna say.
But, of course, when you’re writing the music and you feel like you have something special, you wanna share it with the world. Of course, I was very happy to hear that people really could tell that there’s so much presence in the music and that we’re so sincere because I really feel that you cannot fool a metalhead, you know? Like, they can see through you. If you’re not doing it – if it’s just a vanity project – nobody’s gonna care. Some people probably like Soilwork a lot better, but at least they respect it because they see that it’s something that I and the rest of the band really want to do.
So, speaking of your other projects, it must be quite a full schedule you have. How do you decide when to work on what? How are your processes? I think there’s other stuff to do as well.
It’s a pretty full schedule.
We try to divide the touring cycles and album cycles between Soilwork and The Night Flight Orchestra. And then, obviously, we have Arch Enemy touring a lot, and Sharlee cannot always play with us. But then Mats Rydström [Author’s note: Knights of the Realm and Avatarium, among others] is stepping in.
This year, for example, will be mostly about The Night Flight Orchestra, tour-wise, and we will write a new Soilwork album this year. So, we’re trying to be in sync, you know? And then, somewhere in between, I need to rest—and so does Rasmus as well, you know? So, he’s also in both bands.
Have you thought about just combining both bands into one tour package?
We have thought about it, especially when you do the long journeys to Australia or South America. But it’s kind of hard to get them together. So, who knows?
So, last question – what further plans do you have with The Night Flight Orchestra? What are the goals you still want to achieve with the band?
We’re obviously playing a very intimate club here today. It kind of varies through Europe. London and Paris were really pretty big. Germany will be pretty big as well. But it’s still sort of a growing thing in Spain. We wanna take this to the next level and be able to present the band in the best possible way, on the best possible stages, in the best possible settings, where everything falls into place. So, I think that’s the next step – to give people even better experiences.
I obviously come from the metal world, where you’re so used to touring with a four-band package relentlessly for five weeks – you play every day. With this band, I want it to be a bit more like an “evening with” vibe and be a bit more selective, not do as long tours, rather put more energy into each and every show. Each and every show becomes more special rather than playing every day for five weeks, where everything just blends together.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. My pleasure.
Interview by Thomas Wunder
