Air Traffic Controller is an

indie pop Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and sub ...

band that started in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts. The lead singer, singer/songwriter Dave Munro, had previously served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as an

air traffic controller Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCS, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control ...

, inspiring the name for the band. While he was serving in the navy, he sent home demos from his music and later met singer/songwriter Casey Sullivan.

Reception

The band was a 2015 ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Hot 100 Fest performer. Additionally, they have over 15 million

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

plays. They were selected as a Showcase Artist for

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

2016 and made the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Hot 100 List for

. They have also been featured a 'New Band of the Week' in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''. They have also been featured in multiple ''Guardian'' and ''Boston Globe'' articles. Their first album, ''The One'', was nominated for

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's "Best Breakout Artist" award in 2009. Their song, "People Watching," is featured in EA SPORTS

NHL 17 ''NHL 17'' is an ice hockey simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by EA Sports. It is the 26th installment in the ''NHL'' game series and was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in September 2016. The develo ...

. In 2016, they won the Independent Music Award in the categories of Best Indie/Alt. Rock Album (''Black Box''), Best Music Producer (Bleu, also on ''Black Box'') and Best Indie/Alt. Rock song ("The House").

Discography

Albums

* ''The One'' - December 8, 2009 * ''NORDO'' - June 26, 2012 * ''Black Box'' - March 11, 2016 * ''Echo Papa'' (EP) - June 23, 2017 * ''Dash'' - November 11, 2022

Singles

* "Sometimes" - August 25, 2020 * "After Party" - May 12, 2017 * "The House" - July 28, 2016 * "People Watching" - April 14, 2015 * "On the Wire" - May 26, 2015

Awards and nominations

Independent Music Awards

, - , 2016 , ''Black Box'' , Best Indie/Alt. Rock Album , , - , 2016 , "The House" , Best Indie/Alt. Rock Song , , - , 2016 , Bleu - ''Black Box'' , Best Music Producer , , - , 2016 , "The House" , Best Video , , - , 2018 , "Echo Papa" , Best EP - Rock ,

References

{{Authority control Indie pop groups from Massachusetts Musical groups from Boston