The Foreign Exchange have travelled a road most independent bands only dream of, from literally meeting through a foreign exchange on a message board to Grammy Awards and achieving longevity in an ever changing musical landscape. With the recent release of their 4th studio album, Love In Flying Colors, Kristie Nicolas had a chat with Phonte and Nicolay from the band to discus. Amongst other things, how “Love In Flying Colors” came together, their craziest tour story and what success means to them. <\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the inspiration behind your latest album, \u201cLove In Flying Colors\u201d?<\/strong>
\nPhonte: Just, wanting to show the brighter side of things, you know what I\u2019m saying? The last album, Authenticity, was very dark and so this was an album that we wanted to bring the colour back. Lighten things up a lot more. The writing definitely reflects where I am now in my life versus where I was during Authenticity. So I wanted to write an album that reflected that.<\/p>\n

What do you want fans to take away from the album?<\/strong>
\nNicolay: If anything, hope would be a good thing; hope, optimism. Looking towards a better day, whatever it is, as long as it\u2019s something that makes people feel better. That\u2019s really what I love for them to take away from it.<\/p>\n

What inspires FE in daily life, and musically?<\/strong>
\nPhonte: For me, just life on the regular basis. My life is really simple. I spend time with my family, take care of my kids and you know, that\u2019s pretty much it. I try to write songs that people can live to. Somebodies cooking dinner for their kids \u2013 they can cook dinner to it. Or if somebody just wants to ride out, take a drive by yourself, this is an album you can do that to. So I guess, I\u2019m inspired by wanting to write songs that fit into people\u2019s lives. You write a song and after it\u2019s done you can listen to it and you think OK, how will people utilise this? Is this going to be something that they will listen to before they go out? Is it something they\u2019ll listen to wind down from work? You never know how people are going to use your music, so that\u2019s always exciting.<\/p>\n

Can you talk us through how a FE song comes together \u2013 Does the idea, beat or lyrics come first?<\/strong>
\nNicolay: Normally, it will start with me and it will start with a musical idea, with the track. I\u2019ll send the track to Phonte and for there on out he takes it and he will write the song and figure out what to do with it vocally and who to have on it with him. It\u2019s really been like that from the start, from the moment we started collaborating, that it starts with a track. But there are notable exceptions; you listen to \u201cThe Rain\u201d or other exceptions where maybe the lyrical idea will come first, but most of the time it starts with the musical blueprint.<\/p>\n

FE is a completely independent project, so do you see as the pros and cons of being an independent artist?<\/strong>
\nNicolay: The con is definitely that it\u2019s a lot more work. You know, A LOT more work. The pro of it is that really we don\u2019t have anyone to blame but ourselves if anything goes wrong. We have our fate in our own hands and we make our own decisions and make what we want to musically without somebody telling us that we can\u2019t. Ultimately for us, the pros, averagely, outweigh the cons in a major way. There are obviously cons to any situation.<\/p>\n