It’s summer. The wasps are coming for your ice cream, the flies for your park-bench picnic… but before you start swatting, have a listen to Rights For Flies. We spoke with Tobi from the Nottingham based band and activist collective to hear about hoverflies, breaking boundaries, and how art gives us the chance to champion environmental action.
Who are Rights For Flies? How did you guys come about?
Rights For Flies is an alternative Rock band consisting of myself (Tobi), Kaito, Stan Charles, Grace Reeves, Chlöe Smith, Elyiz, Georgia Corbett, Joao Estorninho, Jas Underhill and Cam Baxter-Allen.
We were brought together by a shared understanding that people should be kinder to flies. It’s more than just a band, it feels like a movement or idea. We roll our sleeves up to do art projects and community events, frequently collaborating with our friends Hugh Jart, D4LT, HOTMESS, Zofia, Jodie Pengelly, Blu, Acid BBQ, Oskar Golunski and SCAM to make our events the best they can be.
Can you give a bit of an explanation behind your name? Why flies?
My grandma was appalled when I told her about Rights For Flies, she said, ”Why do you like flies Tobi? No one likes flies. Why don’t you do dolphins?”
It all started with a hoverfly… which landed on my finger and watched the sea with me.
I was writing my lyrics out of anger and emotional confusion, until I had this encounter with a fly that just made me think differently. I grew to feel a huge guilt around how I had treated insects and when I started to explore this, my music changed and became about something really different. When I listened back I realised that my phrases were double edged and described not just the hoverfly but about how complex we are as humans.
(Eleanor here - you can read these lyrics on Instagram, @rightsforflies. You’re welcome).
How would you describe Rights For Flies? A collective/band/project/eco-artists?
It’s a computer jam packed with some organic virus and we love it. It’s a rebellion of love. An uproar for all things unloved. A celebration of love for the dispossessed and outcasted. We often use cheap, off-kilter setup techniques with projectors, screens, silhouettes and handmade structures to allow us to transform the venue and disorientate the audience.
What does your creative work typically focus on? How do you use your collective creativity to produce work with an environmentalist message?
Meeting new people, bonding with the group and sharing skills with one another is our typical focus, the best ideas come over time so we keep talking and encouraging. Meetings are scheduled for once a week where we discuss new ideas and refine old ones.
Our song lyrics contain loads of messages and I think it’s now really a matter of who is going to champion the rights for flies? And making sure people see and interact with these messages.
Bit of a big question here... How do you guys feel art/music/poetry may be used to explore or expose environmentalist topics? Would you say it's a tool or a means of communication, or is there an interconnectedness?
I’d say art/music/poetry may definitely be used as an outlet, or relaxation tool to explore ourselves - and therefore the environment around us. When I was working on some music a couple years ago I remember getting so hyper-focused that afterwards it felt almost like something else had been working through me. I think entering a creative flow can bring out parts of us that we never knew were there.
We’ve built boxes that are secure, clean and life-proof and we live inside them. It’s time to form a peaceful campaign for the unheard, against modern developments that look to divide humans from nature.
Do you have any recent projects you'd like to highlight?
We held a market at Green Hustle festival back in June, where Bo and Dalt provided a free Rights For Flies clothing customisation service for the attendees, while Georgia and Kate sold RFF merch!
We’ve been a supporting act for the amazing Wizards can’t be Lawyers and Marvin’s Revenge, where we played our songs Fly Love, Out of Space, Biodiversity, Soft Flesh, and Hanging out the towels. It’s our third time so far. Back in April we held a big Rights For Flies event at Billy Bootleggers with Djs, bands and alternative performers.
Break the boundary, humanise the non-humans, let them have rights.
And is there anything in the works we should look out for?
RFF music releases on Spotify, live gig footage releases, RFF outdoor gig at the Hopkinson Hop Garden on Saturday 24 August, Halloween at Billy Bootleggers on 26 October, RFF handmade costumes, music videos, sculptures and props, public stunts, frequent collaborations, RFF DJ livestreams at Swingdash and in public, RFF decoration workshops, RFF public protests with free placard sign making workshops and merch markets!
Finally, can you give us a bit of a Rights For Flies playlist? How can we take our first steps into eco-art?
Watch: The Fly by David Cronenberg and the music video Love is the drug by Grace Jones. Read: The Book of Lilith by Robert G. Brown. Listen to: Rights For Flies Radio on Swingdash radio - monthly. Listen to our favourite club selections, local productions and look out for up and coming dates, event teasers, competitions and hidden codes… Broadcasted live via Mixcloud every last Friday of the month 8 - 9pm. Also listen to the RFF original Fly Love production via our media player.
Break the boundary, humanise the non-humans, let them have rights.
You can find Rights for Flies music, events and videos over on their Instagram - @rightsforflies. Listen to their music on their media player at rightsforflies.com.
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