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• Talking tunes with World’s First Flying Machine

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World's First Flying Machine performs at the Highdive. Photo by Wallo Villacorta, buzz photographer.

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World's First Flying Machine with Flotation Walls, Jared Bartman and Good Night and Good Morning »

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• Canopy Club »
  708 S. Goodwin Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
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buzz spoke with Ben Campbell, lyricist and lead vocalist for CU locals World’s First Flying Machine about the process of song construction, from bit instrumentals and fragments of song lyrics into the finished product of a concert-ready track.

“Generally, the first elements of the song are written on guitar, and then other instruments are added later,” Campbell explained. “Musically, it is very much about a cohesion that has to be achieved. It’s a drawn-out process to find out what will really hit the nail on the head — we definitely work back and forth before the song is finished.”

While the aforementioned cohesion provides the musical element of song structure, Campbell is the sole lyricist for the act, often receiving the brunt of questions about meaning and content in songs. “A lot of the songs are situated in the context of other [songs]. There are definitely a few prevalent themes, and I would have to say that each [song] is inseparable from the others,” Campbell said.

Written during Campbell’s sophomore year of college, “Inefficient Machines” can be placed in the context of a time when the singer was going through a number of personal dilemmas. “I had recently made a new friend, and during this time, I realized that we were going through the exact same thing, and I was taken by how hesitant we had both been to talk to each other about this,” Campbell said. The title itself speaks to the idea of the superficialities that occur when you first meet a person, especially the notion that they don’t know your inadequacies. “Maybe the things that we think are bad are really what make us who we are, make us beautiful,” Campbell said.

Another World’s First Flying Machine standby, “Ferris Wheel,” works in tangent with “Inefficient Machines,” as the two were written around the same time. While Campbell realizes the song has received recognition for the references to Neutral Milk Hotel, the song is less a tribute and more a reaction to a feeling. “After I realized what [Neutral Milk Hotel’s ‘Two-Headed Boy’] was about, I felt like I had to follow up the beautiful, gut-wretching love song with a song about the ways we are inadequate. We’re never as good as we try to make ourselves out to be,” he said. The combination of the two tracks tells a solid tale of what can be found in the wake of recognizing, and embracing, one’s flaws.

Campbell and World’s First Flying Machine will take the stage again Saturday, June 20 at the Canopy Club with Flotation Walls, Jared Bartman and Good Night & Good Morning. The show begins at 9 p.m. with a $7 cover.