The Skies In Motion EP dropped a couple of days ago and I’ve already listened to it seven times. The band play post-hardcore/metalcore/hardcore/whatever with a very melodic tinge. The first time I saw them, they blew the roof off the tiny room and I fell in love with them. I spoken with Adam (vocals) about the band and his influences as a vocalist.
Would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little about the origins of Skies In Motion?
I’m Adam, the vocalist of Skies In Motion and we’re a metal/melodic hardcore band from Derby. Skies In Motion had been together for a few years but not released anything and I joined this year in January and that’s when it really began. We started playing shows up and down the country and we worked on recording our EP.
You released your EP a couple of days ago - What was the writing process like?
We were still trying to get used to being a band together and we just got more comfortable as time went on. The rest of the band wrote all the music and I was sat in my room trying to write lyrics to all these demos. I was going through a rough time so I had a lot to talk about.
Speaking of lyrics, which topics do you touch upon?
Vagabond is about all the things I’ve been through in my life and some of the lyrics are to try and give other people hope. House Of Dreams is about not having a real place to call a home, never having felt at home and stuff like that, as I’ve been constantly moving all my life. Hardships is a message to give people hope and to believe in themselves and never give up. Glaciers is about a lot of stuff, getting up off your ass and making something of yourself, basically.
So what was the recording process like?
We recorded it all ourselves with a bit of help from Ben Gaines tracking drums, but mostly my time was with Andy, the guitarist/backing vocalist.
How long did it take to record and master the EP? The production’s absolutely perfect.
We recorded it ourselves and then sent it off to a producer from Michigan U.S. Joshua Wickman, and he mixed and mastered it.
How did you get a producer from the US to help out? That’s incredible.
We listened to some of favourite bands and researched their producers. We came across Within The Ruins and decided their production would suit our band.
Sweet. Have Skies In Motion embarked on any tours yet?
We toured in August and we have two tours booked for next year, practically. [The first one] was a bit of a weird one. We played Leicester twice, because on the first date of tour our guitarist Pete couldn’t be there because of work, he couldn’t book it off so we got our mate Roy Taylor from Doomsayer to fill in and then Pete drove to every show on his own after that. We played Milton Keynes, high Wycombe, Brighton and Nottingham. For our first tour next year we’ve booked a south coast tour with Mighty Mosh promotions and we’ll be playing Brighton, Isle Of Wight, Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth. The second tour is a hometown brodown tour! 5 bands and we played all of our hometowns. I’ve arranged it with Skies In Motion from Derby, Atlas from Leeds, Fed To The Ocean from Manchester, In Arms from Sheffield and Embrace The Tide from Milton Keynes.
Rad. Speaking of organizing shows, tell us about Crownfest.
My friend Thomas put on a show in Mansfield, a Halloween alldayer with Odessa and such. It was a really good night, it inspired to me put on a good show! So the next day I started booking! I can’t reveal the headliner yet, I do have them booked but I have not yet revealed it! The main support for them will be The Elijah who are incredible and 7 awesome local bands.
On a more personal note, when did you first start getting into heavy bands?
I’d probably say 2000, with Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. I’ve always had a various taste in music though, but I’d say that’s where it started. I got into all the older bands like Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and eventually my taste started getting heavier and heavier. I listened to Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Silence and The Devil Wears Prada at school, which made playing with The Devil Wears Prada insane!
Tell us about that show!
Well we’d been trying to get on Hit The Deck Festival for 2013 and we randomly got an email from the promoter one day asking if we wanted to support August Burns Red. I couldn’t believe it, we were so happy and shocked, I still can’t believe it. But yeah, we sold 40 tickets for that. I had sleepless nights thinking about whether I would fuck up or get bottled or something, but come the day I wasn’t nervous at all, we went out and did our best, people were all banging their head, there were a load of mosh pits, we felt like we belonged there for the first time.
I heard you guys were pretty rad. As a vocalist, who are your main influences?
I have a lot of influences, and I love putting many styles in to my vocals. I was very inspired by the late Mitchell Adam Lucker (ex-Suicide Silence) because he was my first inspiration as a vocalist! I used to replicate his highs in my old bands and sometimes in Skies In Motion. I also love Sam Carter from Architects and James Ian File from It Prevails.
Nice. As a unit, have you started writing a follow up to the first EP yet?
Yes! We’ve started writing again straight away! We almost have one song written already but we really like to perfect the song before we settle on it.
Sweet, I look forward to hearing it!
For fans of: Counterparts, The Devil Wears Prada, August Burns Red
http://www.skiesinmotion.bandcamp.com
