Quickflight was a new wave

New Wave music

New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 band formed in Kelowna

Kelowna

Kelowna is a city on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, in the southern interior of British Columbia, Canada. Its name derives from a Okanagan language term for "grizzly bear"...

, British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The band released two albums in the early 1980s: Breakaway on Tunesmith and their second Decent Beat on Star Song.

History

Musically their style, particularly on the first album "Breakaway" is similar to that of early OMD, which was in turn influenced by Kraftwerk. Vocally, however they were closer to The Cars or Devo.

The second album of Quickflight, entitled Decent Beat, was recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios

Little Mountain Sound Studios

Little Mountain Sound Studios was a music recording facility located in Vancouver, British Columbia. In its day, it was the most successful recording studio in Western Canada and was the home for many years to producers Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock...

 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and was released by Star Song Records of Houston, Texas, in 1983. It was groundbreaking because it was one of the first Christian Contemporary releases in which the instruments used consisted almost entirely of synthesizers and sequencers. "At the time," recalls deGroot, "this was not the most common way of recording, so we had to keep in mind that we weren't trying to duplicate acoustic and electric instruments, but that we were trying to create our own electronic sound, all the while keeping it accessible." The album was also one of the first Christian Contemporary Music albums that was digitally mastered although it was never released on CD.

Quickflight toured through the Mid-West and West Coast of the U.S. and parts of Canada. Being managed by California-based Cavali Artists, the band was able to perform at several outdoor festivals, playing with a variety of Christian artists who included The Steve Taylor Band, The Rez Band, Kerry Livgren, Sheila Walsh, Undercover, and Larry Norman. "It was an unbelievable time for us," says deGroot. "One day we were in a coffeehouse in Surrey, British Columbia, and a couple days later we were playing a 25,000 plus festival in Southern California!"

Through recording at Little Mountain, Ric deGroot met the members of the Capitol Recording group Strange Advance

Strange Advance

Strange Advance was a Canadian New Wave band formed in 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. They were nominated for a 1983 Juno Award as Most Promising Group of the Year and again in 1985 as Group of the Year...

 and joined them in 1984. They toured Canada in 1985. deGroot currently lives in Vancouver and works in production in the film business.

Band members

• Ric deGroot
  Ric deGroot
  Ric deGroot is a Canadian musician who was a member of several 1980s synthpop bands including Quickflight, Strange Advance, and Rent Party. He is currently in the line-up of The Lookaways.- References :...
  
  
• Dale Dirksen
• Greg Johnson
• Gary Hendricks - drummer
• Pete Cordalis
• Doug Giesbrecht- bass
• Mike King

additional musicians

• Paul Iverson
• Scotty Hall
• Chris Livingstone
• Ruth Shareski (Evenden)

Albums

• Breakaway (Tunesmith Records, 1980)

1. Breakaway
2. Pink Shirts
3. Atheist
4. Feelin' Sad
5. OK
6. Shuttle
7. Modern Romans
8. Rendezvous
9. Between the Lines
10. Fine Line
11. I Saw You

• Decent Beat (Star Song, 1983)

1. Water of Life
2. Remote Control
3. In the World
4. Safety in Numbers
5. System Breakdown
6. Fantasy
7. Fade to Glory
8. Messages
9. D.M.X.
10. Metro Alien
11. I Dream
    • Musical Production: Ric deGroot
    • Audio Production: Ron Obvious
    • Executive Producer: Bob Brooks
    • Art Direction & Design: Joan Tankersley
    • Illustration: Denise Chapman
    • Layout: Lori Cooper
    • Source: Ric deGroot Star Song Records