Pop-Culturalist.com

Singer Caleb Hiltunen and multi-instrumentalist Drew Polovick are the creative geniuses behind Friday Pilots Club. Since meeting four years ago, the band has struck gold with each new release, emerging as one of the hottest alt-rock acts today. The key to their success? Being true to themselves and their self-expression.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Caleb and Drew about their careers, their latest single “Look Better In Gold”, embracing the entire creative process, and their upcoming debut EP.

PC: How did you both discover your passion for music?
Drew: I come from a family of music lovers. I grew up in a house where there was always a ton of music being played. My mom was very into ’80s funk and early R&B. My dad was really big into classic rock.

What really got me into everything was when I went to see School of Rock with Jack Black. I was in first grade and I remember being so amazed. On the car ride home, I asked my dad, “Do you have rock CDs?” He looked at me, eyes so bright, and said, ”Do I?!” That was the beginning of me loving rock music.

Caleb: I always forget about School of Rock. That was a big moment for so many people. I remember watching Sister Act, School of Rock, and all those movies and being like, “Man. I want to perform. That’s awesome.” But, for me, it was more a band thing. It was being in high school. I didn’t have a group that I identified with. Then, I fell in love with The Strokes. I was like, “Man. I love the storytelling element of all of this. I want to do this.” That’s what started it for me. I spent years writing terrible music and eventually got around to writing songs that I liked.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your careers?
Caleb: Right off the bat, I’ll say John Fields. I mean, Drew, without any question—Drew above everyone else. But John Fields was the first person that, as a vocalist, was somebody that we looked up to because of his career. It was the first time that I’d ever had somebody in that position look at me and be like, “You’re great. You’re super talented. You can do something special.” I remember that being the fuel to be like, “I want to be better at singing. I want to be able to do even more than what we’re doing right now.” That was a big moment for me.

Drew: I second that. Caleb has influenced me in so many ways. I have never worked with a musician like Caleb and his unique approach to music. His musicality is very unique and something I hadn’t experienced. But John Fields was the person who helped us learn this is what you’re supposed to do in a studio—this is what’s supposed to happen when you want to make and produce music. I feel like he laid the groundwork, showed us the ropes, and was instrumental in all of our early records. As a young producer, being able to look over his shoulders and watch everything and learn so much was life-changing.

PC: You’ve both had a lot of musical experiences leading into forming Friday Pilots Club. How did those experiences prepare you for this next chapter?
Caleb: That’s a really good question. One thing that Drew and I both acknowledge is that, as things pick up and progress and the possibility of a career starts subtly becoming one, you have to learn what the backend looks like. The frontend is always changing; we’ve accepted that as our reality. We embrace it. We try and make it part of the sound of the band. We’ve accepted that change and we want to constantly be making new things.

But on the backend, learning how to choose the people that help us choose our direction has been something that we’ve learned. It’s about being honest and trying to be as honest as possible with the label about what we see, what we like, what we don’t like, and learning how to be respectful and forward about anything that might come across as questionable.

It sounds like I’m making a big deal out of nothing, but it’s a huge part of it. We are collaborating with the label, management, and other bandmates because they’re channels to get that music out. They’re helping us decide where it’s going to land and who’s going to hear it when it lands. Learning to be honest about that and being collaborative and open is what we’re trying to learn right now and be the best at. That’s something that most of the time fans don’t see. It’s opened my eyes to The Black Keys and The Strokes, and how they’ve approached things.

Drew: I agree with all of that. Personally, all my past musical experiences have prepared me for Friday Pilots Club and the road ahead. I’m learning to love the process and not just the product of the process—understanding that you have to love rehearsing for the shows because you’re not always going to play a great show. You have to love writing music and recording music because your song isn’t always going to be received the way you think it’s going to be received. That’s such an important lesson for staying positive and reminding yourself that through all the bad days and weeks and all the industry bullsh-t, you have to love the entire process of what you do. I learned that from being in the orchestra, being in musical theater, doing tech week, playing in other bands, and being a producer with other bands before I played in Friday Pilots Club. Loving every bit of it makes it so much easier.

Caleb: You have to get really good at just making yourself find enjoyment in the moments that aren’t on stage.

PC: Tell us about “Look Better In Gold” and the inspiration behind the song.
Drew: “Gold” was a very spontaneous, fleeting thought that Caleb and I had one day. We naturally gravitate towards making very big and bombastic music. I feel like it started because we were like, “We have no songs in a major key”—like really kind of uplifting. So, we started cooking on that instrumental and it was definitely inspired by a lot of early ’90s hip-hop and late ’80s Beastie Boys and Public Enemy with the drum sounds and everything. It turned into this huge, f-cking ridiculous, almost comical noise. I remember we were trying to think of what other crazy things we could put in. There are sounds of shotguns cocking and shooting in there. You have to listen for them, but they’re in there. It’s ridiculous.

Caleb: It’s very grandiose. I get such a kick out of people that criticize wanting to make grandiose songs. I remember we had a producer that we worked in the beginning, before Drew was actually in the band, and we finished a song and he was like, “Man, we don’t want this to sound too grandiose.” In the back of my mind, I was like, “Why? Why not?” But at the time, I was like, “Sure. Okay. Sounds good. We’ll turn down the guitar instead of turning it up. We’ll not add these background vocals.” But it’s in our nature—that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we gravitate towards so much.

As Drew said, there’s a positive thing about this song. The lyrics and the meaning behind the song are all a stream of consciousness about trying to reach a place of being less judgmental and loving people, because they are trying to love themselves, and respecting that.

I love that it seems like people have picked up on that. We’ve seen so many cosplayers and people on TikTok that have been using the song to do these sort of transformation videos. I love seeing that. That makes me so happy. People don’t have to dig too deep; that’s just the way that the song feels. That’s a testament to Drew’s and our guys’ musicality. We were able to talk about morbid ideas and acknowledge them, but in a positive way because of the way it’s enforced by the music.

PC: The single was part of your debut EP. What can fans expect from that release? What do you hope to say as artists?
Caleb: That’s an awesome question.

Drew: In true Friday Pilots Club fashion, the EP is very diverse. There are moments that you would expect from us. There are moments you won’t expect from us. There are songs like “Gold” that are almost borderline comical, over-the-top ridiculous. There are also minimal moments that are very somber, melancholy, and chill. But I hope the one thing people get out of what we’re trying to say is honesty is so important in music and self-expression. It’s important to be true to yourself, be honest about the way you feel, and talk about your feelings. That’s what all these songs are. They’re a true reflection of what we’ve been through.

Also, we want it to be fun. We don’t want people to necessarily think that our music has to have this crazy, deep, meaningful message all the time. Sometimes we write songs because it’s fun. There are songs on this record, one in particular that I’m thinking of called “I Don’t Care”, that’s just supposed to be fun. I hope people get that out of it too. Music can be an escape from whatever they’re doing. They can relax, enjoy it, or start a f-cking mosh pit.

To keep up with Friday Pilots Club, follow them on Twitter, Instagram, and Spotify.

Photo Credit: Emma Zanger