Inspired Flight

Rooted in hip-hop with branches of indie rock, electronica, downtempo, dub, and dance, Inspired Flight gives life to a hypnotizing and influential new musical experience that listeners are finding refreshing and authentic. iF's use of turntablism and sampling along with live instrumentation and vocals, all centered around innovative songwriting, has given birth to an independently-released debut album featuring high-profile MC's and sparking global attention, and a live show that has compelled audience members to scream, "Where have you been all my life!?" Homegrown in San Diego, California, Inspired Flight fuses the talents of master turntablist, OpenOptics (Eric Poline), and seasoned guitarist/songwriter, Chavez (Gabe Lehner) who both discovered a passion for music at a very young age by falling in love with golden-era hip-hop. As teenagers OpenOptics became obsessed with turntables, collecting records, and DJ’ing, while Chavez became fixated on blues guitar, British rock, and songwriting. The two traveled their respective musical paths with true dedication and passion, honing their skills as musicians, and in 2006 they met when Chavez hired OpenOptics to do scratching on an electronica album he was making under the name of Mechanical Cats. With their shared love of hip-hop, electronica, and recording and producing music, it didn’t take long for the two to collaborate on their own project. The fusion of personalities, backgrounds, and musical interests provided the perfect balance for creating fresh, thought-provoking sounds, and what began as a casual collaboration quickly evolved into Inspired Flight. Adding a third dimension to the iF live show is vocalist/pianist Ashley Marie Mazanec. Ashley not only sings on four tracks of iF's debut album and one track from their earlier EP, but was the vocalist for Chavez's Mechanical Cats album, the prior musical project that lead to OpenOptics and Chavez meeting. With a unique voice and a talent for playing piano nurtured since the age of five, Ashley makes a strong addition to the sonic and visual aesthetic of iF's live show. An Inspired Flight show features live vocals and performance on guitar, keyboards, turntables, kalimbas, and melodica, used with multiple laptops and MIDI controllers. The euphoric, dance-inducing beats of an iF show merge what is mostly original production with tasteful and strategic sampling, leaving audiences "blissed out" and craving more. Since Inspired Flight's creation in 2007 the group has achieved many impressive feats for an independently funded, do-it-yourself act making music out of a bedroom and a garage. Inspired Flight has woven remixes for several artists, including a notable piece for the Australian electronic group, Tra La La Blip, which got serious attention on Triple J, the Australian national radio outlet. In 2008 iF released a four-song EP titled, "Through Sight And Sound," to much critical acclaim, and on June 1, 2010, released their debut album, "We All Want To Fly." This first full-length album, released under Inspired Flight's own record label, Create Fate, and which includes eleven iF tracks and a bonus remix track, steps out of the conventional box in how it marries analog instrumentation with digital soundscapes and melodic, memorable vocals. What is even more impressive about "We All Want To Fly" than the strength of it's groundbreaking sound is that the independent duo's album features performances by Inspectah Deck from the Wu-Tang Clan, Eligh and Scarub from the widely-respected hip-hop group, Living Legends, and Rugged Monk from the West Coast Wu-Tang affiliate group, Black Knights. Inspired Flight has also notably shared the stage with Buraka Som Sistema, Adam Freeland, Bitter:Sweet, and Louis XIV, though their most memorable show to date was their album release for "We All Want To Fly" at The Casbah in San Diego on June 5th, 2010. Eligh and Scarub of Living Legends, and Rugged Monk and Crisis Tha Sharpshooter of Black Knights, all came down to perform with iF, along with many other less-known friends and family who were part of the making of the album. Since that show iF's buzz in San Diego has been undeniable. Inspired Flight, though unsure of what exactly the future holds for them, is sure of one thing: they will continue to create original music with fervent passion and dedication, and work hard to be recognized as renowned producers, remixers, and performers. As one fan of iF puts it, who is an accomplished MC, "The magnitude of strength is astronomical in length. It's undeniable, the music that accumulates is great. Create fate...peace."