Skywalker: A Pendulum Swinging Between Two Ends

Life is a journey full of trials and tribulations, whether they be questioning your independence, or having to delay an album you’ve been working on due to a global pandemic, you know, the normal stuff. This was the case for Prague based quartet SKYWALKER, who tackle the themes of loneliness and other such matters in their new release, Late Eternity.

Vocalist Jay Kucera spoke to us about the new album, which happens to be their first released on record label Pale Chord. All of SKYWALKER‘s previous albums and EPs were released by the band themselves, tackling every element of production and promotion which can be a hefty job. Kucera spoke of how signing to the label has positively impacted this new album. “The biggest positive is that we don’t have to worry about is as much, it takes a lot of responsibility off our shoulders. We can kind of focus a bit more on the artistic side of things which I appreciate.” This reduction of pressure allowed the band to produce songs they felt they could fully commit themselves to, and resulted in a collection of heartfelt songs. “I used to be so stressed out with all of those aspects of being in a band, and I guess I still am to an extent but not as much. We have already seen with the singles we have released with them that the difference is really huge.”

SKYWALKER‘s sound has definitely evolved since their release in 2017, Sugar House, with Kucera speaking about how the new elements came about gradually as the members have evolved themselves. “It’s been quite a process. I remember right after Sugar House, we thought we were going to go a bit heavier at first. We started writing more metal than post-hardcore at the time, but then I started to jam and demo stuff at home myself, and I’m pretty bad guitarist for one, so I really got into synthesizers. So what I started doing was getting into more electronics and stuff like that and layering very simple guitars, which created this sort of new sound we started working with.”

This new electronic element can be heard throughout the duration of this new album, adding depth and impact when paired with the bands great mix of beats, riffs and both clean and unclean vocals. The band has really enjoyed changing up their sound for this release, saying it was cool to try something different. “We never were 100% metalheads or punk rockers or anything like that, we always really enjoyed 80s synth based music, so we were really happy to find this cross of the two. I think I also changed lyrically as well as I’ve been trying to investigate deeper layers of my psyche and how I feel regarding the world around me.”

The theme behind this album means a lot to Kucera, battling the pulls of wanting to be independent, but then also needing people to help you along your journey. Many people may relate to this inner struggle, and SKYWALKER wanted the album to portray this topic in an honest way. “What I really wanted to do was like a quest for finding some sort of authenticity. I always wanted to be individual and never liked people telling me what to do, but at the same time at the end of that process you find yourself really lonely. Not only do you want to find your own way, there’s also no one to help you.” It’s fitting that signing to Pale Chord has almost allowed SKYWALKER this sense of independence, whilst also giving them a support network, which they have struggled with a lack of before, “…coming from where we’re from, there are not a lot of people who are going to hold your hand or help you along the way. It’s kind of the story of our lives really. It’s a kind of pendulum swinging between the two ends: do I want to do this alone or not, am I lonely or am I a strong individual?”

The pandemic has interrupted everyone’s lives, leaving SKYWALKER with a cancelled tour and a delayed release date for this new album. The band started releasing singles such as Ignis in 2019, with the intention to release the full album not long after. Clearly these plans had to change. “We changed our plans for the release like a hundred times. At first we were going to follow with a bunch of singles after Ignis in 2019 and probably release the album that same year and that never happened obviously. But then the idea was we would go on our cancelled tour which would have taken us all around Europe, and then we thought we could release the album a month after that, and then go on tour again to promote it properly.”

This may have been difficult, but it gave SKYWALKER time to really develop the album further, and come out with something they were 100% happy with. “We had this idea that, hey, if we’re not going to be able to tour now, which is the thing we enjoy the most, we need to stay very active or we are going to lose all motivation. Honestly, I’m afraid that happened to a lot of bands and we didn’t want to end up there. So we took a step back and actually started writing more songs for the record. Charon’s Song was one we wrote around May 2020, way into the pandemic. We kind of went back to the drawing board and just changed the whole concept, and stopped forcing a release date because we thought hey we have nothing to lose here. As far as writing and recording goes we have our own studio, so we are the masters of our own time and schedule.”

Speaking of the influences the band had for this new release, Kucera went into more detail about how they wanted to merge metal and electronic elements. “We all grew up on American skate punk and then sort of moved into hardcore, which then lead to us discovering metal and all that kind of stuff. Metalcore really changed a lot for us and we kind of left the punk behind, so maybe that’s really the main source of inspiration for us, I guess you could still call us a metalcore band but I’m not so sure on this record. But alongside that not so much modern day electronic music but more like we’ve always been huge fans of THE CURE and DEPECHE MODE, so British new wave 80s music. We really wanted to bring that element into it on top of that metal sound of our music.”

Asking a musician what song they like the most off of their new album can sometimes be as hard as asking a parent which of their children they prefer. Every song takes time and dedication to complete to the standard desired, but sometimes this long process can be a little straining. “Because we wrote some of the songs a long time ago, I’ve heard the demos a thousand times, and you can imagine I’m kind of sick of some of those songs, but I love them I really do. We definitely didn’t write any songs as fillers.” Kucera did go on to say the song For You // Through You was probably his favourite, even though it’s the softest song on the record, and after hearing the back story his choice is understandable. “The song is about someone close to me who is in a sort of dysfunctional one sided relationship. As a reaction to this weird encounter with a person, I just thought, fuck, I need to write about this. So I just sat down and I literally finished the lyrics in about five minutes maybe, so it felt super authentic and it just needed to be out there. It’s probably the most honest and heartfelt song on the record, but it also manages to sound kind of poppy, and maybe even kind of cheesy, but I’m cool with that.”

Late Eternity is out now via Pale Chord. 

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