Let It Fly are an upcoming punk rock band that seamlessly blends catchiness, energy, great songwriting and memorable live performances.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Mark Muench- Vocals, Bass
Frank De Luca- Guitar
Eric Iverson- Drums

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Let It Fly? How long has the band been around?

Me (Frank) and Eric played together as two members in a local Chicago metalcore band named My Inner Silence around 2010-2012. After My Inner Silence broke up, me and Eric decided to form a new band with a new direction in late 2012/early 2013, dropping the whole "core" scene and starting a backbone from scratch, embracing the best influences we grew up listening to together.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

We went through about a 3 month period of brainstorming lists of band names. Let It Fly was finally decided on due to its abstractness/meaninglessness, which we were drawn to so that any thinker could take out from the name a meaning that personally made sense. It was more universal and almost like it was missing a puzzle piece. This was in contrast to many band names that are complete thoughts which tell you what and how to think. That was something we were trying to stay away from for our name.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

The songs start with me writing all the guitar riffs, chord progressions, rhythms, etc. From there its learned and jammed as the full trio, with Eric modifying/updating the rhythms and beats to better fit live playing. Lastly Mark being the hardest critic of his own poeticism, goes through draft after draft of filling in the lyrics. Our debut EP "Buckit!" had a couple themes, most prominently non-conformity, individualism, post-breakup angst, and the track "Homeless In Hollywood" even touched on the liberating feeling of hitting the road for strangers to hear your music. The full-length record that we are currently in the middle of writing will definitely touch on new themes, but as is always the case with Mark, no draft of lyrics is final until he's done beating himself up over them.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

The sound that we're trying to achieve, particularly on the current record we're working on, is a "feel" that it seems there's just no bands touching upon these days. Punk bands who's music was as much classic rock 'n' roll as it was snotty punk are bands that have had the most impact on our writing style. Bands like Social Distortion, The Dropkick Murphy's, Rancid, etc. are punk bands that anybody could turn on and find something personal to them in the sound that they can identify with as inspirational. This new record is going to have as much rock 'n' roll swing as there is raw punk energy. It seems like a lot of bands nowadays are sterilizing their style from any and all fun. So all of us lately have been digging back farther and farther in our catalogs to find the inspiration to write this album that will make you want to dance and jump as much as it will want to make you put a whole through the wall.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Me personally (Frank), from being part of the stereotypical "musician" clique starting at every school I've been to since I was about 10, I've gone through just about every metal/punk/hardcore kick that there is- and started a band for all of them. But for Let It Fly in specific, after getting jaded with the local Chicago metalcore/deathcore scene being nothing more than just a dickswinging contest, there was something very inspiring about listening to anything and everything punk, all the way from The Misfits to Green Day and every band in between, that made me want to just start a band, write the songs that I wanted to hear, and not give a shit about what "sub-genre" label would be put on it, or what clique of bands mine would be thrown into by the same 20 hardcore kids at every show. For trying to be so "underground", the local metal/punk music scene we were experiencing in high school was very conformist- if you didn't sound like every other band you were tossed aside. That was a pretty discouraging trend to be part of as a band if you were serious about your songwriting highlighting individualism.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Us three being the drinkers that we are enjoy tossing a few back right before our set. But as a local band with limited resources- having to carry what seems like heavier and heavier gear multiple crowded city blocks just to load in and out- there's not too much control over a pre-show environment. Playing a show with frozen fingers because it's January in Chicago or arms you can't feel due to carrying a half-stack without wheels from your car parked two blocks away in the city is the norm.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Every show that we play when we're the only punk band on the bill, playing with metalcore and djent bands, acoustic folk artists- it always means more when we hear from them after a set that they dug our sound. Unnecessary comments from people you didn't think would understand your music in the first place are worth 10x more weight in our opinion then the average local punk scene insider that already knows what you're trying to accomplish blowing wind up your ass. But don't get me wrong, those compliments are cool too, by all means...

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

The Dillinger Escape Plan. They're already pretty famed for their live shows and the unpredictable environment they bring, but also for the reason they're another example of a band that's making the music and art they want to make, whether its a favorable "trend" in the scene currently or not. And for what they do, nobody can do it better anyway.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We're pretty confident we're ahead of the curve with what is going to happen to the music industry. We pride ourselves, as the trio we are, as being as raw, stripped down, simple and organic as possible, yet still making catchy music that could mean something to someone. People want to hear something catchy, a melody or lyric that will stick in their head. A drum beat they can't stop tapping their foot to. But history repeats itself as well. What happened to the disco of the 70's? The Ramones, that's what happened. What happened to the glam rock of the 80's? Nirvana happened. The music being shoved down everybody's throats right now by every media outlet available is getting more and more polished, sterile, safe, thoughtless, personality-less, and just fucking boring.

The near future IS going to be a musical environment of people trying to find the rawest, uninhibited, real art. That's what we're trying to accomplish right now before we have to rely on it even being a "fad". And song by song we're getting closer and closer to accomplishing that in a better and more fun, free and energetic way. That's the direction our new record is going to be heading and that's why people need to pay attention and stay tuned to what we are doing.