‘Fortnight In Florida’ are a London three-piece that considers Toro Y Moi, Holy Ghost! and Hot Chip as some of their biggest influences. Born from a shared love of disco, synth-pop, and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Alan Partridge quotes, Fortnight In Florida symbolises the will to escape the daily grind, expressed by their inimitable brand of blissed-out Electronic Pop’.
After finishing a tour as keys player for Lianne La Havas, the band’s singer/songwriter Simon Middleton met Eamonn Dawe (bass/guitars) on a previous musical venture and ‘Fortnight In Florida‘ was formed. Shortly after, they were joined on drums by Andrew Gallop.
With six singles and a debut EP So Long released in 2016, Fortnight In Florida made the ‘Glastonbury 2016 Emerging Talent’ longlist and the ‘Unsigned Guide’s Emerging Acts of 2017’ list having already been featured in their Spotlight blog. Their tracks ‘Cameo‘ and ‘It’s Alright‘ both made the ‘Fresh On The Net’ Fresh Faves, and received radio play on BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio.
In 2017 they launched a crowdfunding campaign to help them raise funds to record their debut album In-flight Entertainment at Rockfield in South Wales, UK.
Their second single ‘I Can’t Wait Forever’ was released in late 2019. It premiered on GigSlutz and has gained 40,000 streams on Spotify to date.
WHAT DO I DO WITH FORTNIGHT IN FLORIDA?
I play drums and percussion with the band and we’ve been gigging and creating music together since 2014. Together so far we’ve recorded numerous singles, a 3 track EP and an album at the legendary Rockfield Studios. As well as playing many adventurous gigs and festivals around the UK and Europe.
I first met Simon Middleton (Lead Vocals/Keys) and Eammon Dawe (Bass/Backing Vocals) on the advertising website Gumtree when I was searching for some new projects to get involved with.
I was first drawn in by their strong brand identity that was visible across all of their socials and website. The second and most important thing that really got me excited about this band was that I actually really liked the demos that they had up on SoundCloud. To the best of my memory those demos were; Your House, So Long and Heartbreaker.
It’s taken an extremely long time and endless experimenting with various setups and members to find something that we’re currently happy with performing in a live setting (at least for the time being). Initially, there was far too much technology and instrumentation on the stage and it was a logistical nightmare!
Laptops, synths, headphones, endless cables, drums, mics, pianos, vocoders, more cables, sample pads the list goes on and on…
Dy-Na-Mi-Tee-Hee
My first gig with the band was at a festival near Stevenage, just north of London called Wilkestock. It’s a really fun small festival and is still one of the best festivals I’ve been to as a punter.
We had won a competition by collaborating with a producer and he had remixed our songs Heartbreaker. We won the competition and as a prize, we were offered a slot on the main stage supporting Ms Dynamite who put on a much better show than I was expecting, there was a confetti cannon and everything.
We did come across some technical difficulties during the second or third song of the set. A miscommunication between myself and Simon’s computer-driven backing tracks.
I now control the backing track, the backing vocals, click track, samples and acoustic triggers all from my SPD-SX sample pad. Each track comes out of a separate channel which gives the front of house sound technician greater control of the overall mix.
Here are some of the recordings I’ve done with Fortnight In Florida:
MAKING THE EP SO LONG AT SNAP! STUDIOS – MANOR HOUSE, LONDON
CAMEO AT AIR STUDIOS – HAMPSTEAD, LONDON
LIVE AT SIMON’S NAN’S HOUSE – FOLKESTONE, ENGLAND
MICKY’S STUDIO DIARY – ROCKFIELD, WALES
EASIER TO LOSE – DARKJOINT REMIX
EASIER TO LOSE – SINGLE 2019
In 2018 we teamed up with an independent London record label based in Dagenham called JPM Recordings or ‘Just Play Music’. Roy, the main man, and our new partner in crime made some remixes of Easier To Lose.
The single was promoted with help from Chris and his team at Lost In The Manor. He helped us gain a lot of traction around the globe getting us into radio stations and blogs in countries that we thought were inaccessible to us at the time. He also helped to craft an amazing Electronic Press Pack (EPK).
In our EPK Chris asked for a short quote about the song. Simon usually writes most of the lyrical content for the band. So he came up with this.
“This song is about trying to remain focused on following your dreams in a world where it’s too easy to coast through life and settle for mediocrity.”
In the first month, the single managed to get over 25,000 streams of the original mix on Spotify.
I CAN’T FOREVER – SINGLE – 20th SEPTEMBER 2019
We released our second single with JPM recordings on 20th September 2019. Once again we used the PR services of Chris and his team at Lost In The Manor.
This is what Simon had to say about this track.
“Inspired by Edward Hopper’s painting ‘Nighthawks,’ this song imagines the aftermath of the encounter at Phillies. Set in a nostalgic ideal of our world, ‘I Can’t Wait Forever’ is a declaration to the woman in red; she is now absent from the frame.”
We had a stunning animation music video made for I Can’t Wait Forever by Ed Micu.
2020 is looking to be Fortnight In Florida’s best year to date.