Fly By Midnight On Their New Album, ‘Fastest Times Of Our Lives’

Fly By Midnight, the New York indie-pop duo composed of songwriter Justin Bryte and producer/songwriter Slavo, creates music that people fall in love to, especially if placed in the backdrop of a meet-cute or a date setting. It certainly happened to my sister, who says one of Fly By Midnight’s songs was playing when she knew her partner was “The One.” Now, their music is forever connected with her love story.

The group’s music has often been described as a “cinematic experience” by many critics and fans, including my sister. It was as if they were characters in a movie and, at that romantic, magical moment, Fly By Midnight’s song plays, perfectly tying everything together.

“Yeah, cinematic is the word that you said is definitely threaded into what we do,” Slavo says over Zoom from their Los Angeles recording studio. “The romance aspect is definitely what we’re pushing for. We want people to feel something.”

Bryte and Slavo love hearing stories like this from their fans who have used their song for weddings, proposals, and other special occasions. Their infectious melodies and retro pop sound have captivated audiences as it is filled with nostalgic vibes and just feel-good music. Bryte thinks it’s the coolest thing to hear because it means their music is having an impact on people’s lives.

“Honestly, that’s one of the biggest honors because we’re making music here and it’s hard to realize the impact of [your] music when you’re in it,” says Bryte. “Hearing that story about your sister is really beautiful. Tell her thank you. That’s super cool.”

Now into their 10th year together, the duo are preparing for their North American tour and celebrating the recent release of their seventh studio album, Fastest Times of Our Lives. The album’s overall theme focuses on their growth in their career and in their personal lives. Now in their 30s, both of the guys are happily married to their wives and have settled their roots in Los Angeles after their move from New York six years ago. Slavo is expected to become a father any day now. They are in a completely different place in their lives, and their music reflects that.

“After working together for 10 years, there’s just a lot more confidence we had going into this album,” Bryte explains. “This album for us felt like we had things to say, and this was a really good time in our lives.”

Below, Fly By Midnight talks about their album’s inspirations and the story they wanted to tell, fatherhood, reflecting on their 10 years together and what they learned from that time, and where they want to go for the next decade.

LAURA SIRIKUL: I know people often write about what they know, what they’re going through, or what they’ve gone through. Where did most of the songs on the new album stem from?

SLAVO: When we first started making music in this project, the themes and the choices of what we decided to talk about were different than we’ve ever touched on. We wanted to challenge ourselves in so many ways.” A few of our songs dive into being mentally healthy and making sure that you’re there for your friend. I feel like, at this point in our lives, we’re at that place where we want to talk about that more. With romance, we want to look back on things instead of searching for them. For “Heart Race,” it’s very intentionally a song about looking for love. But it’s more like looking back, appreciating, and trying to keep up with what’s going on in life. That seemed to be the inspiration for a lot of it.

BRYTE: I don’t think we’ve ever approached an album saying, “What are things we want to talk about?” Even asking that in the room was not something that we’d done prior. On this album, we want some songs that challenge us and that aren’t only romantically driven, which is where we found “Try,” “The Weather,” and “SuperFine.” Then, we had a song like “Loveland.” It’s funny [because] we’re just a couple of dudes in the studio being silly guys just f**king around all the time. Then, we sit down and write a really important song, which is “Loveland” to me. It’s this feeling of escapism and the need for it, especially in our 30s. It’s relatable to everyone. The song “Running,” which we feel we’ve earned, talks about how we’re still going. If we had released that [song] three years ago, it wouldn’t have been impactful. Now, we’re 10 years in, and we just keep running. We’re still going. We’re not stopping anytime soon.

SIRIKUL: The title of the album is Fastest Times of Our Lives. What was the inspiration for this title, and what types of songs did you want to tell this story?

SLAVO: Justin remembers the story. A lot of these titles, even our band title, [is from the] middle of a conversation type of thing. We were at a holiday party – probably two years ago – and one of our A&Rs at our publishing company was talking to us and going over how we’ve been and stuff like that. [She said,] “Well, it sounds like this is the fastest time of your lives.” That just stuck with Justin. He brought it to me a few days later and was like, “Hey, she said this.” I thought it was really cool. At that point, we were trying to figure out a title. We had the vibe on how we wanted it to be reminiscent of our relationship over the years and stuff, and felt like [the title] was appropriate. We had been moving around so much at the time. We were back-to-back on three different tours, trying to keep up with friends, attend weddings, and stay in touch with our families on the East Coast, all while trying to keep up with ourselves. It just felt very appropriate from where we were in our lives.

BRYTE: It’s cool because, as we’ve been writing the album, we were recording and releasing songs while the rest of the album wasn’t done, and we make [music] as we go, as we always do. Our management doesn’t like that because it’s hard to keep up with, but we like doing it. That title ended up becoming more prominent in our lives because we thought it was the fastest time of our lives two years ago. But now, not only are we getting ready for our tour and wrapping up the album, but in our personal lives, too. Slavo is about to be a dad for the first time. We’re both married. I just bought a house with my wife, only five minutes away [from Slavo]. [laughs] So he can’t get away from me, even if he wanted to. There’s just a lot of change in your 30s that is just happening so quickly. People are getting older. Our parents, may they be with us for many more years, are getting older too. Everything’s zooming by. I think this album is just a really cool time capsule of what the last couple of years have been like for us.

SIRIKUL: Congrats, Slavo. You’re about to be a father soon. How are you feeling, and how has this affected your music? Do you think this new chapter in your life will inspire new music?

SLAVO: It’s funny. This is my first child, so I have no clue what to expect other than what I’ve been told. So, it hasn’t really hit me yet. I’ll definitely settle in once he’s here and we start that journey. I have no clue. We are at a point in our lives with music where we are not writing at the moment. We’re just focusing on the tour. We’re wrapping and getting this project out. We haven’t written a song in – yeah, too long. Who knows? It’s been a minute, which is nice. It’s a good refresher. I’m curious myself [on] how it [will] affect how I approach things towards work. I’m less worried about that and more [concerned] about our schedule, because we’re such creatures of habit when it comes to how we’ve operated for the past many years. This is going to be a big wrench. At this point in our lives, we’re really communicative about it. Things are going to look different. We know that for a fact. It’ll be fun to figure it out and, hopefully, the music is still as awesome as it’s ever been.

BRYTE: There are certain things that happen in our lives that [will] push us to slow down a second and take things in. Slavo and I are famously really bad at celebrating our victories. We’ve always had this “Go! Go! Go!” [mentality]. Starting from a little closet studio in Staten Island, New York, we’ve never been able to really take in things. If I could hope for something for us – [Slavo] bringing this kid into the world, me being an uncle soon, the schedule for the next album – it’s that we’re able to take it all in and breathe in this time in our lives – this next phase. Because I do think there’s a lot more to say in our music, and we’re just getting more and more confident in our craft. I hope the next project, even if we’re working on “dad” hours, where it’s 5 am to 2 pm or some shit, that we’re continually refining. I always think that our next piece will always be better than our previous one.

SIRIKUL: Was there a song or lyric that connected you to this album? Or you wrote it and recorded it thinking, ‘This is it.’

BRYTE: There are certain lyrics on this album that I’m proud of us for writing. I think some stuff in “Loveland.” You know the line, “I call my mom cause she’s still here.” That’s now in our discography. Our moms will live within our discography for the rest of our lives. That’s pretty cool. We’re sort of in the moment of the process when we write these songs. Often, it resonates with us when we play live, as we see people and hear their stories. I can’t speak for Slavo, but I don’t connect with our music as much while we’re writing it. I just want it to be great, but that’s a moment. “Divine Thing” is a fun nod to not wanting to put a label on things like a significant other because we were young and stupid. But this person in your life is so drop-dead everything you wanted that you have no choice but to [make them stay]. I always tell my wife, “I’m so glad I convinced you to stop looking.” That’s what that song represents.

SLAVO: It’s fun. As the producer of all this, I listen to the lyrics on a loop, trying to critique them. I mean, a million times. I always joke with Justin that whenever we need to put our lyric sheets, I’m like, “Let me do the revision” because I know there’s something wrong that I’ll catch, just because I know it all so well from hearing it a million times. But, there’s a lot of songs that were “Ah-ha” moments, but [for me, it was] “Heart Race,” because of the title and how it correlated to the theme of Fastest Times of Our Lives, and how that song feels. I know what our fans like from us, and I feel like that song is the one that will stand out on the album when it comes five years down the road. There’s a lot of things about that song. There’s the story of how it came about. It was really cool and very unique for us. We had a whole different version of the title and idea, and flipped it on its head and worked on it. It became something that was really special. That one stands out in a cool way. We worked hard for that song.

SIRIKUL: You’re celebrating your 10th anniversary as a group. When reflecting on your past music and the music of today, what have you learned? What are you most proud of?

BRYTE: From a non-technical perspective, I’m proud that we continually are inspired and excited. This is a sad thing to say, but when we started 10 years ago, there were a lot of other projects that were with us. A lot of those projects don’t exist anymore, and not because they weren’t talented, but it’s very easy to get burnt out in this industry. Even in the past year, we’re more excited than ever before. I know that doesn’t exist with a lot of people, especially in any industry after working together for 10 years. There’s a lot of fatigue that comes out.

SLAVO: I think when you listen to some of our earlier stuff, you can still tell it’s stuff we’re making today. There’s a common thread in some ways. That’s really cool just because the nature of us working together on it from Day 1 till now, we never really outsourced our production or our writing. We’ve always had it in-house. There’s something really special about that. You could put a song like “Just Say It” in a time capsule, and I think it represents us well. You could put a song like “In The Night,” and that’s probably the one that represents us best now. They all have a common thread and represent us. I wouldn’t be ashamed to put any of them in that time capsule.

BRYTE: I’m proud of us that we’ve learned a lot about how our trajectory of our career works where we’ve historically – maybe this album this week will be different – never released anything that had Week 1 success. It’s always been maybe six months to a year where a song really finds its footing. I think that’s taught us patience in life in a way that nothing else can. Because when you give art to the world, you want immediate gratification. We’ve just never been given that before. That’s something that we’ve continually learned more and more as we put out music.

SIRIKUL: In your decade of music, you’ve done six (now seven) full-studio albums and several EPs. That’s amazing for an indie-pop duo, let alone any artist not backed by large companies. What is that process like? Do you have so many songs that you just want to get out there?

SLAVO: It’s a combination of the way we’ve just decided to release music – and we’ve stuck with it. We wanted to consistently give our fans stuff. That was just what we decided. We were able to do it because it was all in-house. That’s always nice. Many bands to this day will take two or three years off, go into the studio, compile a number of songs, select a few singles, and then release an album. We just don’t have that mentality. Maybe we will one day. I don’t know. But, as consumers ourselves in a very consumer-friendly world, we see the nature of giving music and pumping it out. It’s fun. It’s an easy way for us to get better. We’re constantly working, and we’re not taking too much time off, which is funny, because we just said we’re taking the most time off of writing… so maybe we need to get back to it.

BRYTE: You brought up a really good point – we’re not signed to a major label. There isn’t an infrastructure of approvals. We [have this] sort of Kings of the Castle vibe. We do have a pretty tight-knit team around us. There have been times on this album where we’d say, “Oh, this song feels great. Can we put it out in two weeks?” And we press that button. I think that level of autonomy has always drawn us to be more excited about this project, because we’ve been blessed to have very successful artist friends. We sometimes see, in these bigger infrastructures, that things move quite slowly. In our experience, every song we’ve released, we’re pretty excited about it not living on a hard drive for years and years, where you’re trying to get it out. I think that reflects in our social media. You can tell we’re excited to promote this music. It’s not like we’re already exhausted before anyone else hears it, if that makes sense.

SIRIKUL: You guys are from Staten Island. I grew up in Staten Island in my early youth, but I am now an LA native. I often think about what life would have been like if I had stayed in Staten Island. Did you imagine yourselves living this LA life now, away from where you guys started?

BRYTE: Yeah, I do. We still have a lot of close friends there. I want to put a positive spin on Staten Island for a change. I know that historically, they haven’t cultivated the arts there, but I did have a good experience growing up in the arts. I do want to thank my high school chorus teacher, Mrs. [JoAnne Luthmann] Nolemi at Tottenville High School. I do think that they set me up not to stay in Staten Island. There were a lot of people who empowered me to get out, which is contrary to what you often hear in headlines about Staten Island. I do think about how life would be different for us. When we made that decision to move [to LA] together, it was me, Slavo, his wife, and their puppy. The four of us decided to move, and it was the scariest decision we had ever made. You’re leaving everything behind, and it feels so permanent. But, it could not have been conjured to our career, and I’m very grateful for it.

SLAVO: We’ve been here for six years now. We moved in late January 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic began. I think about it very often that if we had been [in New York] long enough to have COVID-19 happen, would we have ever moved, and when would that have happened if we did? But we moved just before it. It was one of those moments where that happened, and we were lucky enough to be together in quarantine and work on our music. There are a lot of things that I think about being here to this day, too. It stinks sometimes when you’re far from family. For me, it’s Florida. I grew up in Florida. I lived in Staten Island for a few years, which was how [Justin] and I met. Sometimes it feels further away than on other days when I wonder if we’ll ever return to the East Coast, when it would happen, and what it’d look like. It’s weird now because, being here as long as we have, it does feel like home. I’m about to have a first child in Los Angeles, and there are a lot of things about what’s happened here that make it feel like this is home now. That’s a nice thing. We’ve been able to create something really special here.

BRYTE: Our roots never change. That’s also what humbles us. No matter how successful we become, our group of guy friends in New York, who are firefighters and cops, will make fun of us. We’re having sleepovers like we’re 12 again. Nothing ever changes.

SIRIKUL: I always define things by their eras. In every stage of their life, they describe this moment as a specific era. What would you call Fly By Midnight’s current era?

BRYTE: There are so many different ways to go about it. I would say we are about to enter the “Our Lives” era. We’ve been building that slowly. This tour in North America and what’s coming next is going to be the “Our Lives” or “The Beginning of Our Lives” era, which may be a cheap answer there. [laughs]

SLAVO: To keep on theme with the album, I’ll say we’re in our “Buckle Up” era. Hold on. Keep everything together.

BRYTE: That’s great.

SIRIKUL: With 10 years together already flying by, what do you look forward to for your music in the next decade?

BRYTE: Just staying inspired. I want this next wave to be intentional. We want to be intentional with our music. As we meet more people on tour, we learn more about what they’re connecting to. Our fans are the reason we get to do this, so it would be silly not to include them in the conversation. I hope our next music is really intentional, and that we continue to challenge ourselves, explore [more], and try not to do the same thing twice, even if it doesn’t work. Sometimes, that’s what I’m most excited for.

SLAVO: Being fans of movies, TV shows, and video games, it’d be cool doing a hand-in-hand project with something [at that level]. We’ve never touched on that before. There are a lot of cool artists who are getting involved in special projects. I think that’d be really cool for us to get involved in [those too].

BRYTE: I agree. We’ve sort of teetered on it. We’ve had our songs featured in trailers and other projects, but it would be a dream to write something original for a project like that.

Fly By Midnight’s Fastest Times Of Our Lives is now available on all streaming platforms.