The Night Flight Orchestra

This is the story of the Night Flight Orchestra.

They have been drifters for a thousand years, victims of circumstance. Now, the erstwhile classic rock pariahs of the NFO have finally found a place to call home.

Björn Strid, the infamous singer of Soilwork, made a name for himself as one of the best metal vocalists out there around the turn of the millenium. What no one expected was that had been hiding a classic rock heart behind that titanium ribcage of his for quite some time. When he spent some time in 2006 with David Andersson, who was then the new Soilwork live session guitarist, on tour somewhere in the US, he knew he'd found a kindred spirit. It might've happened when the local runner drove them over the bridges of Asbury Park, NJ blasting Layla on classic rock radio, it might've happened when they got drunk in the morning and drove from LA to Palm Springs to do a radio interview, and ended up doing acoustic Whitesnake covers instead. Actually, no one knows what really happened. But one of those American highways, they found out that they had a mission; to start a classic rock band and play it the way it’s supposed to be played.

Sharlee D'Angelo had long been a fan of Chris Glen and Dick Kemper. While playing high-profile metal shows with Arch Enemy at night, he spent the early mornings thinking about David Hungate's note choices, sometimes with a bottle of champagne, sometimes with two bottles of champagne. When David and Björn and David offered him a third bottle of champagne in exchange for being an adventurous bass consultant and phase manipulator, he didn't have a choice but to say yes.

Richard Larsson is a ladies' man. He drives a Jaguar and has one brown and one green eye, and has once described himself as a semi-psychopath from the South of Sweden. Apart from those qualities, he's also a keyboard wizard with a silver-haired chest that he's very fond of exposing.

Jonas Källsbäck is the mad-man drummer. He's entered drum solo competitions in Tokyo so drunk he could barely walk, but he still won. He has ruptured his spleen in Cyprus, he has experienced dirty living in Greenland, and he has played drums with the likes of Mean Streak and Jupiter Society. In short, he is one of Sweden’s secret weapons.

Sebastian Forslund is a musical prodigy that was just too good to not have in the band. He's a proficient drummer, percussionist, guitarist, back-up vocalist and songwriter, who's been around ever since mixing the first album. He participated in our first live show on a whim, armed with only a pair of congas and a plastic owl, and shortly after, he became a permanent member.

And in the middle of all this talent, this whirlwind of emotions, this primal purging of raw, unadultered feeling, stand Björn Strid and David Andersson, still not quite knowing what to do with it all. Björn recently came out of Lou Gramm rehab, and David has recently undergone treatment for his Tommy Bolin psychosis. Stil they show no signs of improvement.

After so many years battling northwinds, fire, water and walking in the shadow of the blues, Nuclear Blast have finally agreed to sign them on, starting with their new LP Amber Galactic, coming this spring.

We, the Night Flight Orchestra, will continue to push the boundaries of classic rock; we will continue with the unecessarily catchy choruses, the unecessary solos, the atmospherics that no one will understand but us, and the female voices that seem to stem from your unconscious.
Will you be there for us? We probably won't be there for you, but since when did rock-star public availability ever become classic?

You'll see us in the videos, during the shows and in the mug shots from Palm Springs.

Yours truly,

The Night Flight Orchestra