The Flying Oysters have just finished a UK tour wrapping up with two shows at the London Apollo. They announced a new album coming next spring. Frontman Mark Donald discussed the tour, new album, and playing the London Apollo. The band enjoyed the tour and fan support. The new album features deeper songs and was produced by Gil Norton over a longer period. Playing the London Apollo twice was a dream and honor for the band. Future plans include album promotion and their first festival appearances next year.

1. The Flying Oysters
hit Back with tour and album
The band have just performed two breath
taking shows at the London Apollo to wrap
up their UK tour and with the announce a
new album, so we thought that we would
catch up with frontman Mark Donald to we
what is install for him and the band.
Hi, Mark so you have just finished your
UK tour, how was that?
It was wicked. The whole tour was in fact it
was just nice to get out on the road, as we
spent a long, long time trying to put this tour
together. Also we appreciate how much we
have grown as a band over the past couple
of years and how our fans are so supportive
and each time we play live we get such a
buzz from the audience – in fact I have a
video of the whole crowd singing along to
Adam at the London Apollo and it is mo-
ments like that that you really appreciate.
With us starting to work on a new album this
tour also gave us a chance to perform some
new songs of the album as well as old songs.
As we know you have a new album out-
next spring, what can we expect?
We haven’t really changed in terms of
sound wise as we sit have the crazy guitar
riffs and the heart pounding drum beats, but
I feel that a lot of the songs are much deeper
and have a lot more meaning than they ever
have done before. I mainly think is partly
of where we are as a band and in terms of
our personal lives we are very happy as we
have family who support us in everything
that we do. More than anything we had much
longer deadline than we have had for our
other previous albums, we still have another
two weeks after Christmas to
finish tweaking bits of the
album since we started
recording in Septem-
ber.
I hear that you
worked with producer
Gil Norton how was
he to work with
This was the first album
in which we could chose
who we wanted to pro-
duce it and Gil Norton
was the man to do it.
We were all aware
of him from the
work that he had
done with Jimmy
Eat World, Foo
Fighters who are a
massive inspira-
tion to us. It was
amazing to work
with him and he
really understood
us as a band and
what sort of al-
bum we wanted
to create. he
is a
very hands- on kind of guy and he doesn’t
meddle with the signwriting as such, Norton
is very much about making such that the
melodies and the guitar riffs were high qual-
ity sound.
This is a much bigger tour than you
have done, so what has it been like to
play in these new places.
It’s been great; you know this tour has
meant so much to us that we get
to play in new places is just
mind blowing. But this has
lead to us getting really
nervous before we play
just because it is a whole
new experience for us as well as
we have never even played in the
buildings before.
What was it like finish the tour
of in the London Apollo?
You know what I can’t believe
that we played that arena it
still feels like a dream,
because we had
worked so hard on
this band and to
be playing the
London Apollo,
you just cant
take it in, we were pinking
ourselves backstage moments
before we were due to go on stage as
if to say is this really, like is this really
happening to us. You count yourselves lucky
if you get to play the London Apollo once but
to play it two nights in a row is a honour and
were not the biggest band in the world right
know but it just goes to show that anything
can happen to you.
Were you nervous about playing at the
London Apollo?
Man I was so nervous I think it was mainly
to do with the pressure as well. Like it is
insane the amount of pressure that can be
placed on a band in one night is just unbe-
lievable. But to play it twice in a row
is incredible especially when you
are still tying to imprint your mark
in the music industry it is the most
amazing achievement and a great
way to end the year.
Do you have any major plans
for next year
As of yet no, well nothing excit-
ing, as it is mainly going to be
promotions for the new album
we are thinking about doing
some festivals next year
which will be fun because
we have never done them
before. Then i think mid
year (around September.
October) we go back out on
the road with a new tour for
the album.
The Flying Oysters new album is out
next spring