ALBUM WORSHIP // All That Remains - The Fall Of Ideals

Back when metal started to really become popular, we had the big four. Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer. There was always a band that was skimmed over, a band that I always thought should have made them the big five, and that band was Testament. They did everything the four big guns were doing, but with their own identity, and they did it well. They deserved it in my opinion. In more modern metal, I feel like metalcore also had a big four. Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Unearth and Shadows Fall. And I feel that the band missing from that is All That Remains. And that is mainly based on the strength of The Fall Of Ideals. In my opinion it's one of the most perfect albums from that era of metalcore, setting a very high standard from albums that followed it in the genre, and setting All That Remains apart from the pack as a band that needed your attention.

Opener "This Calling" throws you straight into the oncoming storm at breakneck pace, with thundering kick drums and snares ringing out over the melodic but heavy riffing. The riffing never holds back, dipping its toes in crushingly heavy sections as well as tearing through soaring and melodically complex leads. Phil Labonte (vocals) also shows off his chops here, demonstrating his control of his vocals with a range of different pitches of screaming, and showing off his vocal range with memorable and hook laden cleans. It acts as the perfect appetiser for what's to come. "Not Alone" features more of the same, starting with an intricate guitar harmony before erupting into a choppy guitar riff sat behind the robotic precision of drummer Shannon Lucas. Labonte uses clever vocal phrasing during the verses, matching the rhythms of the choppy guitar pattern which instantly makes it sound catchy. "We Stand" and Guitar Hero anthem "Six" feature more perfect blends of melody and heaviness, the latter showcasing exactly how to play around with dynamics and build suspense in metal. Roughly halfway through the track, the music completely strips back to a beautiful clean section, gradually introducing an octave guitar to the mix. Slowly edging forwards, it explodes into the full band, blazing through solos and then finding it's resolve in the form of returning to the chorus.

There are some much darker shades on this album, especially noticeable on tracks like "Become The Catalyst". Labonte kicks off the track with a long held out low vocal, immediately setting the tone for the 3 minutes that are about to follow. The riffs are all fast and evil sounding, a dark and winding road through a melodically chaotic scenery; without doubt the heaviest on the album. Closer "Indictment" is like a summary of everything you've heard up to this point, slowly moving through both the heavy and light elements of the album complete with brutal vocals, decorative guitar parts, soaring harmonies, crushing breakdowns and enormous walls of chords. The highlight for me is "Whispers (I Hear Your)", an expertly structured slice of riffage and melody. The riffs all progress and develop in the right places, continuously grabbing your attention throughout. The chorus vocals are so catchy too; they're instantly lovable and they sit with the rest of the track perfectly. It's essentially structured like a pop song, repeating certain sections in all the right places, adding a sense of familiarity throughout and ultimately making it memorable. The entire album is structured that way, really, which is probably why I think it's so good. Because it's so memorable. The album is everything you could want from a metalcore album and more. If you've got to the end of the album and you aren't hooked and wanting to listen all over again, you've been listening to the wrong album. This is absolute gold.

The album is, quite simply, a masterclass in metalcore. It contains everything that is good about the genre, and it's delivered with precision, feel and aggression in all the right places and in all the right doses. If you're a fan of the genre and you haven't indulged in this album, you absolutely need to. This sits right up at the top of the essential albums list alongside The End Of Heartache, An Ocean Between Us, The War Within and The Oncoming Storm. It might even be one of the best metalcore albums of all time. They're still going to this day, still releasing solid album after solid album. If you haven't indulged yet, make sure you do. They were pioneers of the genre when this album was first released back in 2006, and they still are today. 

D.S

x

Life Lessons - The Albums That Inspired Us

We've been having a lot of people, interviewers, friends and fans, ask us what our musical influences were when we recorded Life Lessons. It's such a hard question to answer. The 5 of us all listen to different things, we all draw inspiration from different places. But, there are a number of songs and albums that I know we all share a love for, and know that we drew influence from whilst writing and recording this album. These are some of the albums that inspired me and some of the band when we were recording. But mainly me. This is my blog ain't it, if those guys wanna write about what influenced them they can start their own blog. Ahem. Sorry. I'll carry on.

The Ghost Inside - Get What You Give

Musically, we wanted to create something that was like The Ghost Inside but with a more metalcore edge. We wanted to production to sound similar to this record, as punchy and as huge as this record, as clean cut and defined as this record but still with a hint of rawness. I think we all collectively think of this as one of the defining albums within the genre, and this was an enormous influence on us both as we were writing and recording.

Underoath - Define The Great Line

My favourite album of all time. Hands down. Everything that they do on this record, the builds, the dynamics, the riffs, the melodies, the way the album paces along, everything is flawless. They are such a tight and clever band, but have such a rawness, an almost unpolished feel to them, and that completely adds to the punch of the album, adding a sense of unpredictability. I wanted to take parts of all that and implement it into our album, and there are hints of it running throughout.

Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache

One of the most perfect metalcore albums from that era. I think a lot of people, not just us, have this album on a pedastal as being one of the best, if not THE best metalcore album of all time. It has everything. Changes in pace, riffs for days, punishing vocals and soaring melodies, all accompanied by solid production and an almost perfectionist delivery. Killswitch Engage are one of our all time favourite bands, to say they had no influence on our writing would be a flat out lie. We grew up listening to them and learning their songs, our writing style has indirectly been shaped by them.

Unearth - The Oncoming Storm

Much like The End Of Heartache, this was another of the perfect albums from that era. A lot heavier and more unrelenting than Killswitch Engage, but just as riffy and technical if not more so, with breakdowns appearing all over the shop and with blistering leads where necessary. A lot of the breakdowns on this album were approached with a "what would Unearth do?" kind of vibe, and a lot of the breakdowns we feel turned out great as a result of that.

While She Sleeps - Brainwashed

One of the few torches keeping British metalcore alight, While She Sleeps made an absolute corker of an album with Brainwashed. The punishing pace, harsh vocals and raw punchy guitars were expertly balanced alongside enormous anthemic singalongs, exquisite melodies and harmonies and tasteful guitar decoration. We look up to While She Sleeps as an example of how to work hard and knuckle down, how to not give up and push for better things.

A Day To Remember - Homesick

The album that broke A Day To Remember is arguably their best, and that blend of catchy infectious pop punk and hard hitting metal isn't done half as well by anybody else. The perfect example of a metal pop band, structuring songs like pop songs with strong verses and memorable hook laden choruses, this album is essentially a masterclass in how to blend genres. We knew we wanted to put more singing in this album, and we knew we wanted to structure the songs better, and this album was the perfect example of how that's done.

Gideon - Calloused

We referenced this album a LOT when it came to the mixing process. The way all the instruments blend together and burst through the speakers makes the already heavy riffs sound even heavier. Everything has so much weight behind it, and none of the weight gets lost. You can hear every single instrument. We wanted that same impact from our recording.

Architects - Lost Forever//Lost Together

This album was nothing short of monumental when it first came out. Architects are a band we've all been following and paying attention to for years, but this was probably the heaviest and most brutally honest they'd been so far in their career. Both lyrically and musically, this was an album that really set Architects apart from the crowd. Adam is an enormous fan of Sam Carter, and the way he delivered his vocals on Lost Forever//Lost Together was a big inspiration to how he delivered his. Musically it was a huge inspiration too, pushing us to be creative and not do what everybody else is doing.

Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal

Similar to A Day To Remember, this album was a masterclass in song writing, but also at how to write structured commercial songs without wandering too far away from the sound you're known for. This was a perfect transitionary album for them, bridging the gap from the heavier side of them to the side we now know about from That's The Spirit. This was a great reference for us, for how to progress forwards without straying too far from the sound we'd already established. We also looked at how our songs would sound when performed live after seeing Bring Me The Horizon perform songs off this album in Cardiff, which greatly helped our writing and recording process.

Stray From The Path - Rising Sun

Stray are a very unique band, and almost nothing like us. They're like a blend of Rage Against The Machine and Every Time I Die. Basically they're Rage Against The Machine but even more angry and the world. Their drummer is an absolute powerhouse, and some of the drum parts on Life Lessons were inspired by a lot of the drum parts on this record. Not drums you'd predict, not drums you'd expect, but musically impressive and often unexpected drums.




Let me know if you can hear any of the above in the record! A couple of album reviews that we've had have picked up on a few of these influences, some have compared us to some cool other bands we didn't even spot. Just the simple fact that it's being listened to is amazing, so I'm beyond happy with anything we get compared to. Even if you compare us to 5 Seconds Of Summer. I don't know why you'd make that comparison, but I'd appreciate it all the same.

Regardless of whether you can pick any of these out or not, thank you so much for checking out the album, it means the absolute world to us.

Thank you for reading.


D.S
x

A Week Today...

In exactly one week, Skies In Motion release our debut album Life Lessons. We have waited a very long time for this moment. It feels like a lifetime ago. It's been an especially painful wait for me, as all the material currently available in the back catalogue doesn't have me on it. I joined the band after they released the Dreamer EP and just after they recorded the standalone single The Light. I've been dying to get music I've had a hand in writing into people's ears. We've released a few singles, so that's started to happen, but releasing this album is a milestone, and I can't wait to reach it. The end of one road and the beginning of another.

Not long after I joined the band, we played a string of really cool shows all over the UK. The stand out show, however, was with Killswitch Engage at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. Just us and them. Supporting our idols and heroes, but not just as A support band. We were THE support band. I held a door open for Adam Dutkiewicz and he said thanks to me, and I tried to respond but instead said "eeeiihhhhhh". The most surreal and stand out moment of my time in this band. I don't think any of us came away from that gig uninspired. And not long after that, the conversations began. "When are we going to start writing the album?". And after a practice a few days later, me and Andy sat down and started. The first thing we wrote was a very early version of what ended up being the chorus in Cascades. I had some riffs to contribute from when I was at University. I recorded a bunch of material for some coursework projects, part to prove songwriting ability, part to prove I'd paid attention and knew how to record stuff and not make it sound like a 5 year old did it. I sent all of this to Andy, and he took what I'd done and began to develop it. The backbone of the songs stayed, but they became something more than what I'd written. They essentially became the way I initially pictured them being in my head, but couldn't create alone. The process had begun. And we were all excited.

All the above was the easy stuff. The parts that flowed out of us or were already written took little to no effort to develop. It was everything that came after that that was the challenge. Sitting in my flat for hours jamming riffs to each other trying to find something that we could develop or something that was cool and needed tweaking. Some days we wrote a couple of riffs. Some days we wrote full songs. Some days we wrote nothing at all. Bare in mind this would be 4 or 5 hours at a time, and we were meeting up 2 or 3 times a week to try and get this all written whilst also juggling full time jobs, gigs, practices, relationships, eating, sleeping and so on. Some days we thought we'd never finish. And eventually, after many months, we decided to take a look at what we'd written, and when it was all put in a folder, we realised we had enough. More than enough. We'd done it. We sent it to Adam so he could write lyrics over it, turns out he'd had lyrics written before we'd even finished writing the record. So there we had it. We'd written the album. Now we needed to record it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we recorded the album with Ben Gaines, our drummers brother. The recording process basically began with us giving Ben everything we'd done, him laying it all out into an organised project file, and then recording everything again, only with guitars that don't sound they're underwater and drums that don't sound like they've been imported from a SEGA game. The drums were the first thing we addressed, and mapped them all out in the software to a drum program. Even at that point they sounded great, but they weren't permanent as Sam wanted to record his drum parts (which he did like an absolute boss, I'll get to that later). Then me and Andy spent a few weeks smashing the guitar parts out. We wrote a LOT of intricate guitar parts and layers, this took longer than we expected. Some of the riffs really came to life when we recorded with Ben, and started to really stand out and become more impacting than we initially realised. It was a really enlightening and uplifting process. We finished everything apart from a couple of clean parts, we were on track. We recorded a few vocal parts, a decent chunk of them. But then, shortly after this, the hurdles began presenting themselves. We went on tour, preventing us from recording. I don't regret those tours, Europe is one of the best things I've ever done in my life, and the fact music allows me to travel and see the world is something I can never be thankful enough for. But when we got back, we were exhausted, and we didn't get back in the studio for months. And then we started arguing. Getting at each others throats. Nit picking, blowing things out of proportion, getting stressed out and burnt out, and it was swallowing us. It was becoming like a musical ocean. What I mean by that is, when you go out to sea, people always worry about sharks. About having a swim and a shark swooping in and making you its dinner. In reality, sharks don't kill that many people. The water kills thousands, people drown all the time. The sharks were the issues we were blowing up over, but these issues didn't really matter, we were already in the water. I feared we'd never get the recording finished. So I sat everyone down in the back of our van after a show in Birmingham, a sort of realigning pep talk of sorts. No shouting, no voice raising, a conversation between five friends, planning a route forwards and a goal at the end of that route. And it worked.

One of the first things raised was getting the drums recorded. So we booked studio time, 5 days of it, and Sam spent months preparing. He'd sit in his drum room for hours with headphones plugged into his phone and drum along to the entire album, time after time after time. He became a machine. And when we came to record the drums, he recorded everything in 2 and a half days. Normally beast mode is used in reference to people with big biceps and snapbacks that forget about leg day at the gym, but that day, Sam was the sole definition. He absolutely didn't forget leg day, there's some double kick patterns on this album that sound like actual thunder. He killed it. And now all that was left was the remaining vocals and a couple of guitar tweaks. Adam, Andy and I all have vocal parts on the record, and we spent a solid week or two honing everything in. Tweaking, adding things, taking things away, rewriting melodies, restructuring patterns and lyrics. Ben came up with a ton of good ideas and helped write one of the catchiest choruses on the entire record. And then, we recorded a tiny vocal part, one of the tweaks I think, and realised we'd finished. Like actually finished. The album was done. I can't explain the feeling of all that weight that lifted off me. It was a genuinely emotional moment. I mentally and physically felt lighter. We all had a celebratory pizza party afterwards which helped put some of the physical weight back on, just watched some videos on youtube and hung out as friends. Probably the first time we'd all sat back and just enjoyed each others company in months.

We both lost and gained a lot of things during this whole writing and recording process. We lost Pete, guitarist and founding member (who I replaced). We lost Lou, bassist and founding member (1st picture). We lost Daryl, bassist and Greggs no.1 fan (2nd picture). We've all lost relationships, both friendships and romances. Sam's lost some family members. We lost Adam for a few hours in Barcelona. For a big chunk of 2015 and 2016, we'd all lost our minds. But we have gained an album. A documentation of all of this. 12 tracks of music that we're proud of, that tell a story that's much bigger than the 5 of us. And we hope you enjoy it.

September 1st. This album will be available everywhere. PLEASE check it out.

You can pre order a physical copy by clicking here.

Thank you for supporting us.

D.S

&

Skies In Motion

x

A Man & His Music. And Quiche.

Hi. Hey. Hello. My name is Dave, I'm 28 and I'm a slightly Brummy sounding fella currently living in Derby, UK. I don't have a lot of hair on my head but there is quite a lot on my chin. I get told that I smell nice on a regular basis, and I don't really do anything special to create that smell. I can't tell you what my secret is because I don't even know what it is. Maybe it's because I worked at Lush for a while and the scent has stayed with me? Probably not. I realise I've started this sounding like a sort of weird dating ad, so I'll move on.

Ahem.

I love music more than I can accurately put into words. It's been there for me for as long as I can remember and it's never let me down. It took me under it's wing at a very young age, showed me a path to walk down, and I chose to sprint. I've been playing instruments since I was 4 years old, been performing in front of audiences since I was 8, been playing in bands since I was 14 and have been composing and recording my own material ever since. I'm currently in a metalcore band called Skies In Motion, and we're on the verge of releasing our debut album Life Lessons. Like. We're releasing it next week. Next Friday actually. It's that close. I'm also craving a job in the music industry, specifically working with PR or Journalism. Before I get into all that, though, let me back track a bit and give you a bit more background on my journey to where I am now. I'm not going to give you a full telltale history of my life because that would take forever to write and you'd probably die (or at least wish you'd died) before you reach the end, so I'll try to keep it brief. That said, I am going to start right at the very beginning...



....When I was still in the womb (I did say I'd start at the very beginning), my mum used to play Cliff Richard records to stop me kicking and calm me down. From that moment on I decided I'd try and avoid Cliff Richard as I progressed through life. I think. I have one of my mums old Cliff Richard cassettes, and part of one of the songs is missing because I pressed record on the sound system and decided to start laughing, probably out of pure joy and pride for making the music stop. I'm pretty sure I had been born by this point, I don't think I reached out from the womb to press record. Anyway, I'll skip forward a few years to where things really started to happen. I also promise I won't bring up Cliff Richard again, I've written his name more times in this paragraph than I've said it in the last decade.

I don't remember a lot of the music I grew up listening to, as my parents weren't overly musical. They'd listen to the radio sometimes, but wouldn't go out of their way to purchase music or have it on in the house all the time. The only thing I do remember listening to is Queen. I remember my dad playing Queen a lot, and I remember really liking it. I suppose if it's the only thing I can remember listening to when I was a kid, I must have liked it, as that has stuck with me all the way up to now. It made me curious about music and about how it was done. What were those sounds I was hearing? What was making them? And then, at Primary School, at 4 years old, I was given a recorder. Everyone in class was given a recorder. Most kids in class would just blow down it and laugh. Some would just hit other kids with theirs, like a musical baton. But I realised if I put my fingers over some of the holes and blew, the noise changed. That was my first experience of playing an instrument, and it hugely intrigued me. I took it seriously very early on. I attended extra curricular music classes and as the years went on, learnt how to sight read. I can't remember the first piece of music I learnt to play, but I do remember learning the Titanic theme at some point and annoying my parents with it because I was so chuffed that I could play it. I wasn't the biggest fan of the film (there was room for Leo on that door and I'm bitter about it), but I was proud of myself that I could play something recognisable that didn't sound like a whistling kettle.

A few years later, when I was in Year 4, a nice lady called Mrs Lewis came into the class and asked if anybody was interested in playing a stringed instrument. I shot my hand up into the air straight away, excited at the prospect of learning something new. I was taken out of class and into the schools assembly room, where a number of other kids from different classes and of different ages had also gathered, and we were all given the choice of what instrument to play. I chose the violin and, on that day, I started playing music as part of an orchestra. I approached the violin exactly the same way I approached the recorder, by attending classes after school, learning to sight read for my new instrument and making my parents wish I'd taken up a quiet hobby like drawing. Initially, as an ensemble, we were terrible. At the time we thought we were the best in the world, but in reality we sounded like an orchestra falling down an unfortunately lengthy stairwell. We were playing simple things, things like nursery rhymes and camp fire songs. We performed them to parents at cute little matinee events where all the parents could go "ooh look over there that ones my child aren't they talented" to each other. Even though we sounded awful, gotta be nice to your kids haven't ya? It wasn't until I went to High School that things began to develop. Mrs Lewis worked with the High School too, and it was then that the more challenging music began to be introduced. We started learning some of the simpler classical compositions, pieces of music with distinct motifs meant for specific areas of the orchestra. At this point everyone had been playing their instrument for a good 4 or 5 years. We actually sounded good. We also did performances for parents, but this time the applause felt genuine, and teachers and parents alike were actually impressed. This was the first time I started to feel a buzz from performing, and I liked it. A lot. I wanted more than the school orchestra. So I joined a second orchestra. Tamworth's Youth Orchestra.

I think I was about 12 when I joined that orchestra. And it was daunting. I thought I'd played with talented people at school, but this was full of people that were something else entirely. I was part of the lead violin group at the school, but here I slotted into violin 2. Part of the rhythm section. The caliber of musicians was so much higher here. And the music was far more challenging. Actual big time classical pieces. Adaptations of pop songs for ensembles. I remember we did a version of Yellow Submarine. I think we also performed Montagues and Capulets from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet suite. I was being challenged every single time I attended a rehearsal, and being surrounded by superior musicians and hearing those soaring melodies made me jealous. I wanted to be good enough to play the tough stuff. So I started to practice more at home. I took gradings so I had something to show for my hard work. It's worth noting, by the way, that when I had the opportunity to choose my GCSE's, I didn't choose music. I didn't feel like I needed it. Because I was learning so much outside of school, I felt I could dedicate study time to something else (because I was complete nerd) and leave music as an extra curricular activity. And so I continued to grind. The orchestra performed at schools, local town halls, not-so-local town halls, concert venues, special events. I finally got my violin one spot. I was so happy. I was technically able to play the music I'd been yearning to play for the last few years. And then, when I was 14, something unexpected happened. Something that completely changed the course that I was on. My best friend showed me Linkin Park.

Until this point in my life, the most aggressive music I had heard was by Red Hot Chili Peppers. By The Way was the first album I bought with my own money. I loved it, but not enough to avert my focus from playing violin. At this point, classical music had all of my attention. Now, I can try and encompass exactly how I felt when I heard Linkin Park for the first time. What ran through my skin and made all my hairs stand on end, what hit me in the chest when Papercut kicked in. But, I can only really explain it one way. Hybrid Theory blew my mind. I had never heard music that aggressive before. I'd never heard guitars distorted like that before. I had never heard vocals so full of pain and anger and emotion before. I spent a large portion of my childhood being bullied (because, as mentioned before, I was a complete nerd), and this was the first time I had heard something that I could really connect with. Music that didn't just impress me and grab my attention, music that spoke to me and understood what I felt. My friend burnt me a copy of the CD, and I had it on repeat for weeks. I started holding my violin on my lap like a guitar and tried to pluck out the notes and play the riffs. I stopped practicing for the orchestra at home because I was too busy trying to play guitar on my violin. And then I thought to myself, "why don't I just get a guitar and learn how to play one properly?".

I pitched it to my parents. They were not cool with it. "We bought you a violin and you don't play that anymore, what if you do the same with a guitar?" they said. I mean fair play, valid point, but at the time I was just like "I HATE YOU YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING I WANT TO DO I'M FOURTEEN I'M BASICALLY AN ADULT GODDDDDD". And then they pitched to me that I could have a guitar if I paid for it myself. That way if I don't play it, I'm wasting my money and not theirs. Smart parenting, that. So I got a Littlewoods catalogue (like the internet but in a big thick book), and found an Encore Stratocaster copy with a sunburst finish that came with a softcase and a tiny 10 watt amp. I think it cost about £100 for the lot. At the time, I'd never seen anything so beautiful. I was still scared of girls that weren't my mum at this point, so all of my love could be poured into wanting this guitar in my life. I went to my local corner shop and got my first job, a local paper round delivering the local newspaper to local people. It got me about £10 quid a week. My mum saw how much I wanted the guitar and offered to give me a few quid here and there to do chores around the house, allowing me not only to raise the money quicker, but also potentially waste their money that they made a big point of not wanting to waste, which means I sort of did reverse psychology on my parents. I quickly raised the money, ordered the guitar, and a few days later, it came. I think I cried. It was the first thing I'd wanted with all of my being since I was bought a Thunderbirds playset when I was a kid. I then became a teenager that spent all of their time in their bedroom listening to music and trying to figure out how to play it, only appearing outside of my room for toilet breaks and food. The school didn't have guitar lessons, so I decided I'd try and teach myself by playing songs on my CD player and pausing after every single note until I found the note on the guitar. It would take days to learn, but when I finally learnt a whole song I was so happy. By this point I'd branched out from Linkin Park and I'd found Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Funeral For A Friend, Sum 41, Killswitch Engage, Guns N Roses and a whole host of others, and I was trying to learn songs by all of them because I was completely in love with playing guitar.

I joined my first band, called Above Ruin, by knocking on someones garage door with my friend Matt and telling the people inside they were playing Slither by Velvet Revolver wrong. We showed them how to play it, we all got on, and from then we ended up jamming every week. We covered Metallica songs initially, and a few Diamond Head songs too, and then we started to write our own material. I'd never written my own material before, and I fell in love with the process almost immediately. Writing a riff and hearing the drums one way in my head, only for our drummer to play something completely different and better over the top. The combination of minds, I couldn't get enough. I stopped learning other bands songs, because now I needed to write my own. Before we knew it, we'd entered a local Battle Of The Bands competition, and we played our first show. My first performance with a band. I had never experienced a buzz from performing like the buzz I got from that show. I knew straight away that this was leagues above what I was doing with the orchestra, so I quit. We didn't win the competition but it didn't matter, I got the taste that I needed. I needed to dedicate all my time to guitar and being in a band.

During this time, I finished my GCSE's and decided I wanted to continue my studies into Sixth Form College. I'd also decided that I wanted to pursue music fully, yet I'd shot myself in the foot by not doing it at GCSE. Enter Mr Moss and Ms Møgelmose. Two very important people who completely inspired me and allowed my love for music to flourish. Mr Moss is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever come across, and his love for music was unmatchable. Sometimes we'd have lessons where we wouldn't get to cover the subject matter because we'd all end up waffling about music instead of doing what we were supposed to. He was an incredible flautist, pianist, vocalist, multi instrumentalist, and his passion for his subject made me hungrier in my pursuit. Ms Møgelmose treated us, her first A Level group, like a little family. I remember when we left school, she gave us all a notebook with a recipe written in the front to get us started in our adult lives, something to continue to build on. These two teachers were pivotal in me being where I am today, I just didn't know it at the time. I explained to them both how badly I wanted to do Music as an A Level, and they agreed to let me on the course provided I could catch up with the work I should have covered at GCSE level. Challenge accepted. I worked my ass off. I studied other things at A Level, but not really, I was only bothered about Music. I also didn't play guitar once in lessons, Mr Moss thought I was a drummer until my parents told him I played guitar. The school had a drum kit and I wanted to play it so I said I was a drummer (I'm not a nerd anymore by the way, I'm a cool rebel with highlights in my fringe and a camo hoody). I learnt how to play on a non existent air kit in my bedroom with a singular drumstick that my friend Dan threw into the crowd at a show. Not even kidding. Worth noting my parents didn't know I could play drums either. And somehow, I pulled through. I did it. I got an A. I'd begun to travel down my path, and my parents fully got behind me and encouraged me to pursue music. My parents are an enormous reason that I am where I am today. They never once tried to mould me a certain way or send me down a specific path. They taught me right from wrong and not to let anyone dictate to me what I can and can't do. So I began to do exactly what I wanted by furthering my education.

Shortly after finishing Sixth Form, Above Ruin split. We all remained friends, but musical tastes had changed and we all went our own ways. I joined a band with some friends I'd met since turning 18 called Embrace The Plague, which ended up changing its name to Thrones due to the personnel change. Just as we'd started to jam together, I started a course in Birmingham at The Academy of Music and Sound, studying Music Practice. The course was essentially a 2 year performance and theory workshop, teaching me the ins and outs of my instrument and all the necessary skills to go forwards and be able to perform at a professional level. I musically developed a lot during this time, learnt a lot of different techniques to aid my playing, learnt a lot more theory, and learnt how to sight read for guitar which I hadn't managed to teach myself at home. I also learnt how to headbang and run around a bit on stage without either falling over or making it look like I was mentally ill. The way I perform, compose and approach music has a lot to do with those 2 years, I owe a lot to The Academy. And it showed in the music I wrote with Thrones. It became the first band that I played shows with outside of my hometown, and we made it to final rounds of Battle Of The Bands competitions both locally and regionally. We recorded 2 EP's, and I began to find my feet and my writing style. I passed my course, and I planned to go to University where I could continue to broaden my knowledge and also stop annoying my parents by coming home at 4am and falling up the stairs.

I applied for 5 Universities, and got offers from 3, but decided on the University of Derby. I studied for a BSc in Music Technology and Production, a course that was focused on the recording side of the industry. I had to leave Thrones to fully dedicate my time to my studies, but we all remained close friends and still are today. Going into University, I felt like all I needed to learn was how to record music, and then I would essentially be a jack of all trades. I could write music, record music and then perform music. A literal one man band. And so I went in with open eyes and ears, hoping to become a human sponge and absorb every piece of information floating around. My first year went great, passed everything I needed to pass, and set me up nicely for my second year. All smiles, eagerly awaiting another year of trying to balance learning and drinking heavily, the biggest roadblock appeared near the beginning of my second year.

On the 14th of January 2011, my mum passed away. It wasn't a surprise at all, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with. 6 years on, I'm still struggling to deal with it now. For 4 years she had been suffering from Mesothelioma, a form of cancer that attacks the lungs that is commonly associated with coming into contact with asbestos, which was connected to some of her work environments in her late teens anf early twenties. You breathe in the asbestos, and the disease can lay completely dormant until one day it just decides to wake up. It chose to wake up for my mum when she was 55. She was initially given 6 months to live, and that was when I was 17. She was determined to see my 18th birthday, and she did. Then she set a new goal, which was to see me finish college, and she did. Then to see me turn 21, which she did. Then she wanted to see me graduate from University. She didn't. She is the strongest, most resilient, kind hearted, loving, thoughtful, passionate and beautiful human being that I have ever known, and the reason I am still pursuing music is because she would murder me if I strayed away from my dreams. My sole purpose in life is to do right by her and make her proud. I refuse to stop until I do. Flat out refuse. I am a reflection of her, and I pick up where she left off.

After some time off of University, I plunged straight back into my studies. Learning whilst grieving was a real challenge, but I was surrounded by good people and the tutors were all incredibly understanding and helpful with the situation. I struggled but I knuckled down and finished my course. I graduated with a 2:1. I learnt everything from how to operate Pro Tools and analogue mixing desks, all the way to how to acoustically treat a recording studio and the acoustic properties of a range of different materials. The course covered a lot of the business side too, explaining performing rights laws, copyright laws, marketing, how a record label operates, the growing demand to consume music digitally rather than physically and so much more. The course was great, I loved it, but I learnt so much that I came out of University not really knowing what to do or where to go with my degree.

Fresh out of Uni, I decided I'd get any old full time job, save up money, buy a ton of recording equipment and essentially build my own sort of home studio. I'd start recording bands and artists from home, build a business for myself. I meant well, but I lost my way. I ended up slipping into a routine of paying my bills and spending the money I was earning on not being miserable. I'd been a couple of bands with friends back in Tamworth but couldn't commit to having a full time job in Derby as well as the band, the distance became an issue. I had the exact same equipment I had whilst I was at University and wasn't saving enough money to upgrade any of it. A large chunk of my friends I made in Derby had moved either back home after University or just generally moved out of Derby. I ended up feeling kind of lost, until I joined a band called Vectors with a group of friends I'd made in Derby. We wrote some cool, super heavy material and I felt like I was starting get my mojo back. I was dying to play some shows again and really get some music back in my life, but things started to slowly fizzle out as everyone had their own commitments to adhere to. And then I saw a local band advertise on social media that they were looking for a guitarist. That band was Skies In Motion.

Initially, I did nothing about this information. I took it in and remembered I'd seen it, but said nothing. Didn't send any messages, just sort of thought "oh that's a shame I hope they find someone". And then I bumped into Andy, the guitarist, whilst at work. We worked in the same nightclub at the time. I just asked him what was happening. And then some noises came out my mouth that sounded like "I want to try out". I didn't know I was going to say that when I went into the conversation, but I said it. And Andy told me "Record a video cover so I can see your technique and playing ability". The next day I got straight on it. I taught myself the song by ear in less than a day, a skill I picked up from all those years of pressing pause and play when I was a teenager, recorded my video and sent it. If you want to watch that video, click here. The quality is awful, and it's by no means a perfect cover. However, they watched it, they liked it, and a few days later I got invited to a practice. What they didn't know was that I'd begun to reignite my fire and I'd spent those few days learning the rest of the Dreamer EP by ear. I turned up, we played the entire EP in the first practice, with a few cock ups of course, but it was enough for them to give the job to me. I had a month to get things tight, and then we started playing shows. My life was musical again. I was beyond happy. A step in the right direction. A step forwards.

In the last 4 years I have jumped from job to job to allow this band to have the breathing room it needed to flourish. We've lost members, gained members, argued, made up, but most importantly we have done some incredible things. We've toured across Europe and the UK. We've supported a ton of bands that inspire us, most notably Killswitch Engage who were one of the first metal bands we fell in love with. We've been on the radio, we've been in magazines, we've been on podcasts, we've played festivals, and now we're almost at the biggest milestone of this bands life so far. We release our debut album on the 1st of September. I never ever thought I would release an album, and I'm about to. An absolute dream, and I'm going to be able to cross it off my list next week. We're so proud of it. We're smack bang in the middle of a PR campaign at the minute, all in aid of this release, and I'm so excited for what comes next.

As for my job situation, I recently thought to myself "Why am I getting jobs that I don't want, to fit around doing something I do want? Why can't both things be something I want?". And so that's what I'm doing. I have finally figured out what I want to do, what direction to head in with my degree. So one of two things is going to happen. I'm either going to get a job in journalism or PR, which is the preferred outcome. Or I'm going to die of old age looking for a job in journalism or PR. I'm 28, I've got a lot of gas in the tank, I'm prepared to hunt and grind for as long it takes. Getting what's necessary for this career path is my new sheet music. This is the beginning of that push. A new chapter of my musical journey.



Well, that wasn't very brief was it? When I started writing this I literally intended on saying "I love music, give me a job I want please and also come and see my band at a show maybe" and it kind of became something more than that. Perhaps I needed to write all that. Perhaps I needed that release. But that is exactly what I intend on this blog being. A release of sorts. A sort of ongoing documentation of my journey from here on out. Things that happen in the band, things that happen with me, music I find and fall in love with. Music is everything to me, and this blog is going to be one way of expressing that.




.....Oh right, yeah, the quiche thing. So. Uh. I love quiche. A lot. More than anyone else I know. Possibly more than anyone else ever. For example, if you invited me to your wedding reception and quiche wasn't on the buffet, I can't describe how disappointed I'd be. Like legit I wouldn't be angry or upset, I'd be a whole other level of disappointed. One of my friends bought me a quiche and wrote my name on it at his wedding reception. True story. Just remember that. A man literally catered for MY love of quiche at HIS big day. He got married and had to worry about the general smoothness of the entire day and had to cater for a ton of other people, and he put something on the buffet that was SOLELY FOR ME. I didn't even ask him to do it, he just understands. That's how much I love quiche. Ironically I probably won't post that much about quiche, being a music blog and all. But occasionally I might. Who knows?


Thank you so much for reading. Sorry if any of you died reading this, completely unintentional.

D.S
x