Flyte Collaborate with Florence Pugh on 'Tough Love' Live Session

Florence Pugh and Flyte have been admirers of each other's work for a few years, always keeping in touch and looking for an excuse to collaborate.

This summer, the Oscar and Bafta nominated actor Pugh visited singer and guitarist Will Taylor’s flat in North East London to sing a stripped down version of Flyte’s recent BBC Radio 6 playlisted “Tough Love”, Pugh taking on Laura Marling’s part, who sings the duet in the studio recording.

Flyte, the band's highly anticipated self-titled third album is set to be released on 27 October 2023, and was recorded over 10 days at London’s Konk Studios with LA’s Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver) and legendary engineer Dom Monks. Notoriously tricky songwriting territory, their third album explores the themes of love and stability, showing Flyte at their most honest, confident and collaborative.

“Tough Love”, described as “a conversation between two people trying to unlearn unhealthy patterns”  follows the raw and exposed “Defender”. “Amy”, a lucid guitar laden song about worrying how the pair were going to pay rent and wondering what the future holds for a modern musician, was released earlier this month.

In transit, breaking up, while weathered old rock stars advertise fast cars, Taylor sings, another lens into their sublime third album. Performing the song live with five guitarists this festival season, it follows “mission statement” opening song “Speech Bubble”, which signifies that this record will be “the dock leaf to the nettle of the last one” says Taylor.

Already reaching just under 1M views on Instagram Reels for the self-directed official video, “Speech Bubble” asserts, Heartbreak, it takes practice, and I think I'm getting better at this, with backing vocals from Will’s partner and collaborator Billie Marten. Writing their independent records (Billie’s fourth album ‘Drop Cherries’) from across the room at one another in their North East London home, their third album is an introduction into Flyte’s most intimate and vulnerable songwriting yet.

Having recently led Barn On The Farm’s house band at this years independent festival, Flyte had 5 minutes to arrange a rendition of Neil Youngs “Old Man” with Norwegian pop star Sigrid, before playing it in front of thousands of fans, alongside Will Taylor’s partner Billie Marten and alt-pop artist Ber.

It was clear that Flyte have established themselves as an influential mainstay in music culture, gaining notable fans from Florence Pugh to Paul Mescal, Bon Iver to Madison Cunningham and even Lewis Capaldi for their crafted and confessional writing style. Now the duo announce their biggest UK and Ireland tour to date, from Belfast to Manchester, culminating at London’s KOKO on 12 December. Flyte will also be supporting Half Moon Run on their 15 date European tour, and Rayland Baxter on his 16 date USA tour.

Singer and guitarist Will Taylor and bassist and vocalist Nick Hill continually inspire musicianship onstage by inviting their artist community on tour, having sold out Lafayette in minutes last year, and Shepherds Bush Empire.

Flyte have welcomed everyone from Bombay Bicycle Club, Holly Humberstone, The Staves and Mystery Jets to perform alongside them, whilst the duo are regarded as one of the UK’s greatest lyrical talents, penning songs with artists including Sigrid, Madison Cunningham, Miya Folick, Courtney Marie Andrews and poet Simon Armitage.

Taylor and Hill met at secondary school, eventually settling in Hackney, London. Taylor’s parents were both English teachers and inevitably, various literary influences trickled into the duo’s music - the band taking its name from Sebastian Flyte of Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’.

Flyte released critically acclaimed ‘The Loved Ones’ in 2017, recorded with Burke Reid (Julia Jacklin, Courtney Barnett) in the Australian outback, which explored the ways in which people struggle to process love. The album’s crafted storytelling and ambitious harmonic arrangements earned it the title “Best British debut of the year” from the Sunday Times.

Following the emotive 2019 EP ‘White Roses’ featuring The Staves on the title track, their 5* (Independent) second album ‘This Is Really Going To Hurt’ (2021), took them out to Los Angeles to work with Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Bon Iver).

This brought out a more simplistic and confessional approach in their writing style and focused entirely on the aftermath of a break up. Flyte have teamed back up with Sarlo, this time in London’s famous Konk Studios, to record their most confident and collaborative work to date, releasing through record label Nettwerk (Miya Folick, Matt Maltese).

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