Sometimes we take our friends for granted. Don’t worry, we’ve all done it. But in the case of Interfly, the five man band from Jitra, Kedah, Malaysia, they’re happy to say that they wouldn’t have pushed to produce their self-released demo without “lots of soul support from [their] friends.”
The band began writing their music in 2002, during their school days, until they were able to release their demo, Where’s My Damselfly? on July 16th 2007. The demo features seven songs with Ikmal on lead guitar, Didi on bass, Lutfi as a vocalist as well as on guitar, Beng on guitar, and Ikhwan on drums.
The demo opens with Plaster, a song dedicated to Palestine during the outbreak of violence between Palestinians and Israelis. The song features some great guitar solos and a catchy beginning melody. It’s easy to see why this song was selected as track number one for the demo and in response Plaster has become somewhat of the single of Interfly.
While the band considers their genre alternative/experimental/rock, don’t be surprised to find some jazzy sections in their songs. Haberdasher, especially has a bit of a bouncy flair, but still holds on to the rock-edge of Interfly’s sound.
Many of the other tracks of Interfly’s demo focus on the same aspects of Plaster, some heavy rock topped with catchy melodies and flourished with some guitar solos. One of the greatest features of Interfly’s music is their transitions, which are seamless and impressive. They seem to have no problem merging easy and heavy rock with elements of jazz, as mentioned before.
There is a bit of a downside to Interfly’s sound. Some would consider it insignificant while others would say the complete opposite. The vocals of Interfly can be rough at time, okay at others. In other words, if you’re big into listening to bands who only have amazing vocalists, you may want to leave Interfly off of your playlist. Those of you who can, however, appreciate these musicians for their music writing skills, enjoy away.
The band’s influences include Dream Theater, Incubus, Weezer, Deftones, Creed, Green Day, Muse, Led Zeppelin and many, many more. At times, it’s easy to hear some classic rock roots within Interfly’s music.
Many of the band’s online profiles highlighted that a new album was supposed to be in the works by 2009. However, since then, there’s been little to show that Interfly is releasing a new CD, besides two new promos of Plaster and Name Tag, both already featured on the previously released demo. Unfortunately, the promos are too short to tell if Interfly made any changes to the songs themselves, the band’s style or sound.
Overall, if you can appreciate great musicality while looking past rough vocals and the need to look up hard-to-find lyrics to understand the song, Interfly is definitely worth a listen and their new album is worth the wait.
