INTRODUCING: Skye
For a band to hit the sweet spot between a classic 2000’s metal feel and a modern rock sound is like catching lighting in a bottle these days. It’s not an easy formula to get right, and many miss the mark. But north west based SKYE have been blowing it out of the water for a couple of years now; From their first EP Foundations in 2022, SKYE have honed a sound of slight nostalgia and perfectly contemporary music. The five piece play with massive hooks and that can range from nu-metal, grunge and prog. We caught up with the band about their latest single What Am I, set for release at the end of January.
It’s hard to pin SKYE into one box with the direction of their music. They have a clear sound that identifies them, no question, but it feels that each new creation has its own flavour. “I think our influences find their way in to the songs one way or another and sometimes I think it can depend on what we might be listening to at the time! However, the songs that we write do naturally have that ‘SKYE’ sound and we lean into the big riffs and big choruses.”
That’s exactly what you get with the latest offering What Am I. Bombastic, snarling, there’s a pulse and a quality immediately that resonates. “We think What Am I is a great representation of everything we have done to date, which makes it a great place for new listeners to be introduced to SKYE. Our existing fans will be treated to (we think) our best song and production to date. The song is mastered by Stefan Brown at Abbey Road Studios, he did an amazing job and stepped up the song another level.”
What listeners will instantly notice about SKYE the thoughtful concepts and execution thereof. The band’s previous release, last year’s Last Memory EP has a vast scale and weight contained in super catchy hooks that really land. “With Last Memory, we had made a conscious decision to make a collection of songs that were very impactful and heavier than anything we had previously done, and with this we had developed the lyrics again to match the feel and vibe of the songs. We always want to create a big, sweeping chorus with a catchy melody and the Last Memory EP tracks were screaming out for this.”
While SKYE obviously curate their songs to a pretty top calibre, producing massive songs that feel like they’re from a band with many more years behind them, they know how to tap into the moment when inspiration takes hold. “The writing process usually starts with a guitar riff/part and a full demo of a song is built up from there. Songs are written in full demo format in two to four hours, this captures the moment of inspiration, natural creative flow and progression of ideas. From the demo we delve deep into the individual parts, and really build the songs from there.”
“What Am I started differently from other songs we have written in that the synth part in the verse was first thing recorded.” They expand on how this particularly special release came together. “We wanted to create a deep rhythm in the verses and really lean into our modern metal influences. The main riff you hear in the beginning of the track came really naturally as we wanted something clear and hard hitting to really provide a contrast between the verses.”
There’s a sense of cosmic pondering to What Am I. That’s essentially one of the best things about the whole song in many ways, and what make SKYE such good writers. The personal element to ponder yourself, but also scale of impact of you in the universe is tied together, in the song- or not, if that’s how you interpret it. The groove and singability of the song making playing with the theme in your mind pretty easy to do, and draws you back in for more listens. “When we write our lyrics, we purposefully leave them very open to interpretation so the listener can really place themselves in the lyrics and the song,” they agree. “As a band we were discussing the work of Carl Sagan and the vastness of the universe and where we stand in such an endless space. It got us thinking about what our everyday choices and struggles really mean.”
With songs that tick so many boxes, audiences can resonate with everything SKYE are putting out.
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