Inside Flyte’s Intimate Show At The Lodge Room
Los Angeles, California - April 21, 2026
Where honesty knocks, Flyte can be found behind the door, waiting to be let in. At its bare bones, London-based indie-folk duo Will Taylor and Nick Hill’s music is rooted in tender truths. Be it an end-of-the-world kind of love or sparring with your own vices, the pair isn’t interested in sugarcoating their emotions. Working to unearth any feelings beneath the surface, what comes to light in their lyricism is storytelling at its simplest and purest form.
Flyte’s brilliance lies in the band’s ability to follow through with their musical instinct, an ethos to be present in the process. What you hear is exactly how it was recorded in the studio. Teeming with vulnerability, their discography takes the form of confessionals about deep love and connection, which span across four albums.
The pair brought this sincerity to the intimate Lodge Room stage in Highland Park last Tuesday, where it would be the first of two sold-out nights in Los Angeles for their BETWEEN YOU AND ME Tour.
Taylor and Hill shuffled onto the stage with soft smiles, followed by William Blackaby on keys and guitar, and Roy Lowe on drums. Though the band spoke few words in those first moments, “Emily and Me” did the Los Angeles greeting for them. “Somewhere on Sunset / Wrapped in a rainbow,” Taylor hummed into the mic with an entrancing, quiet power that drove the atmosphere for the next hour. Earthy, grounded guitar chords showered the crowd with pangs of nostalgia as he sang of familiar scenes down Laurel Canyon, whereas the more rugged strums in “Alabaster” took a turn at a fork towards the end times, holding a lover close: “I know it's the wrong way to want you / But we're already here.”
Their recent full-length release, Between You and Me, crawls with a candid perspective on self-reflection and consolation, leaving no room for overthinking their feelings. But Flyte welcomes their listeners as they are, because they, too, shed some layers in the songwriting process. The band’s performance and setlist mirrored this sentiment, never staying on one record for too long, or dragging a note a second more until you can hear the subtle strain in their voices.
Meandering harmonies traveled through “Even on Bad Days” off their third album, Flyte, where love still exists in crossed wires, or inside the selfless desires of “Defender,” where Taylor sings in a register higher than he is used to.
For “Perfect Dark,” they decided to physically bring the studio overseas. “We’ve made our lives as hard as possible by bringing all our gear from England. And it’s all kind of broken, especially once it's been flown over. And instead of bringing everything digital that makes our life easier, we just recorded everything onto individual cassettes,” Taylor shared. “But it sounds good. It feels right.” The cassette tape rang with the band’s instrumental recording of the track, guiding his soft pleas for healed love and tangled sheets: “I’m trapped now / Nothing else matters / When I’m moving through her perfect dark.”
Warm lights flooded the stage for the jangly delivery of “White Roses,” which Taylor shared was an ode to his late grandfather. “I’d written it for my grandfather after he passed away, and it was for his funeral. It wasn’t supposed to be for general consumption. And we released it as a song. Do you have the telly program, Love Island?” he asked the room, who responded with excited cheers. “That was too enthusiastic,” he responded with a chuckle. That song for my grandfather was synced over the top of some questionable people having a date. And it was on BBC, so we don’t even get paid for it,” he joked. “So we’re gonna play this song now and reclaim it.”
Moving as a collective entity is second nature for Flyte. Their desire to collaborate is arguably what separates their sound from the rest in their genre. Whether it be with one another or with close friends singing backing vocals, their search for authenticity leads them to turn to each other for answers. Well-loved tracks like “Everyone’s a Winner” and “I’m So Down” were joined by Kenneth Pattingle from Milk Carton Kids, while the duo’s opening act, Samantha Crain, supported a fiery duet for “Tough Love.”
Stripped of any instruments apart from their voices, time stood still as the whole band gathered around one mic for a mesmerizing cover of Alvvays’ “Archie, Marry Me,” each harmony seamlessly hugging one another over a silent room.
With hands outstretched for the taking, the duo pressed on into the thick of the darkness one last time in the gentle lullaby, “Speech Bubble,” determined to be the flame of kindness and hope that burns forevermore. “Here I am willing and able,” Taylor and Hill sang in selfless surrender with closed eyes. It was at this moment that I realized Flyte’s offering to show up in their music has always stayed true.
Flyte will continue touring in North America until May. Be sure to get tickets for a show here.
