Inspired Flight
Inspired Flight
Inspired Flight

Bio

Rooted in hip-hop with branches of indie rock, electronica, downtempo, dub, and dance, Inspired Flight gives life to a hypnotizing and influential new musical experience that listeners are finding refreshing and authentic.  iF's use of turntablism and sampling along with live instrumentation and vocals, all centered around innovative songwriting, has given birth to a sound and an independently-released debut album featuring high-profile MC's sparking global attention, and a live show that has compelled audience members to scream, "Where have you been all my life!?"

 

Homegrown in San Diego, California, Inspired Flight fuses the talents of master turntablist, OpenOptics (Eric Poline), and seasoned guitarist/songwriter, Chavez (Gabe Lehner), who both discovered a passion for music at a very young age by falling in love with golden-era hip-hop.  As teenagers OpenOptics became obsessed with turntables, collecting records, and DJ’ing, while Chavez became fixated on blues guitar, British rock, and songwriting.  The two traveled their respective musical paths with true dedication and passion, honing their skills as musicians, and in 2006 they met when Chavez hired OpenOptics to do scratching on an electronica album he was making under the name of Mechanical Cats.  With their shared love of hip-hop, electronica, and recording and producing music, it didn’t take long for the two to collaborate on their own project.  The fusion of personalities, backgrounds, and musical interests provided the perfect balance for creating fresh, thought-provoking sounds, and what began as a casual collaboration quickly evolved into Inspired Flight.

 

An Inspired Flight show features live vocals and performance on guitar, keyboards, turntables, kalimbas, and melodica, used with multiple laptops and MIDI controllers. The euphoric, dance-inducing beats of an iF show merge what is mostly original production with tasteful and strategic sampling, leaving audiences "blissed out" and craving more.  While the duo has really dialed in their live show to be an unforgettable experience as just the two of them, they usually add the element of featuring powerful live female vocals, and often perform with Scarub of Living Legends as a live MC, if not both Eligh and Scarub.  As iF evolves they plan to add more live musicians and featured guests until eventually the live show is a huge, collaborative musical experience involving lots of players and performers on the stage, all centered around the production of the duo.

 

Since Inspired Flight's creation in 2007 the group has achieved many impressive feats for an independently funded, do-it-yourself act making music out of a bedroom and a garage.  Inspired Flight has woven remixes for several artists including Lyrics Born, Big Head Todd with BB King, and a notable piece for the Australian electronic group, Tra La La Blip, which got serious attention on Triple J, the Australian national radio outlet.  They also got much acclaim for their Wonderwall Remix as it held No. 1 on the Hype Machine's popular chart for a solid three days.  In 2008 iF released a four-song EP titled, Through Sight And Sound, to much critical acclaim, and on June 1, 2010, released their debut album, We All Want To Fly.  This first full-length album, released under Inspired Flight's own record label, Create Fate, and which includes eleven iF tracks and a bonus remix track, steps out of the conventional box in how it marries analog instrumentation with digital soundscapes and melodic, memorable vocals.  What is even more impressive about We All Want To Fly than the strength of it's groundbreaking sound is that the independent duo's album features performances by Inspectah Deck from the Wu-Tang Clan, Eligh and Scarub from the widely-respected hip-hop group, Living Legends, and Rugged Monk from the West Coast Wu-Tang affiliate group, Black Knights.  Since the release of the album Inspired Flight has been on the rise, and has notably shared the stage with Thievery Corporation, Bonobo, Beats Antique, STS9, Emancipator, Mimosa, EOTO, Buraka Som Sistema, Adam Freeland, OMD, Bitter:Sweet, Louis XIV, and more.  The duo has also spent much of 2011 touring outside of San Diego, and emerging as a new artist onto the festival scene playing Sunfest, Bella Music Fest, Lightning In A Bottle, and Re:Generation.

 

Inspired Flight, though unsure of what exactly the future holds for them, is sure of one thing:  they will continue to create original music with fervent passion and dedication, and work hard to be recognized as renowned producers, remixers, and performers.  As one fan of iF puts it, who is an accomplished MC, "The magnitude of strength is astronomical in length.  It's undeniable, the music that accumulates is great.  Create fate...peace."

MARKETING HIGHLIGHTS

  • "It's The Chemicals" reached number 6 on the most-popular charts on Hype Machine
  • Title track, We All Want To Fly, featured as the song on Jam Legend online video game
  • Song We All Want To Fly aired on UK's Amazing Radio and debuted in Top 20 at number 19
  • Inspired Flight is featured on two tracks from Eligh's solo album, Grey Crow, in company with other features such as Brother Ali, Aesop Rock, Scarub, The Grouch, Lucky I Am, and more
  • Opened for Adam Freeland, Buraka Som Sistema, EOTO, Bitter:sweet, Bonobo, Beats Antique
  • "Wonderwall Remix" reached the #9 most popular song slot on Hype Machine