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
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Having An Album Out Is Weird

So, it's been a very hectic, strange, exciting, overwhelming, exhausting and eye opening few days. For many reasons. Pretty much from Friday last week onwards, I haven't stopped. I've been busy sorting things out, getting things in order, preparing for the future, travelling, playing shows, doing interviews, working, and trying to get my head in order. All of this has revolved around releasing my bands debut album. And releasing it has been completely different to what I expected.

All of last week, I can honestly say that the approach to releasing the album didn't really feel special. We'd been sat on it for a while, and I almost felt numb I guess? I just wanted the material to be out there, and I thought that once it was it'd just feel like one less thing to focus on. No real internal release, no weight off my shoulders, just another thing that happened during my week. I was very wrong. As soon as it hit midnight and I realised it was out, I emotionally crumbled. The sheer realisation that something we'd worked so hard on was finally in the public domain completely flooded my senses and I didn't really know what to do with myself. I almost had an outer body experience where all the weight within me just lifted. I felt like I was floating. I can't really explain it any other way that I felt completely weightless, carefree. I was just hovering in that realisation. And it was very overwhelming. Messages from friends started to appear in my inbox, all complimentary, all saying something along the lines of "you should be proud". I honestly don't think I've ever had this much support and praise from anybody about anything I've done in my life, and I didn't really know what to do with all of this. I still don't. It all feels very alien. Nothing I've done with my life has felt like this before.

I managed to eventually get some sleep, and I woke up to more complimentary messages. People sharing screenshots of their Spotify app playing our album, people taking pictures of their album pre-orders that had turned up on their doorstep. And then I started getting messages about Gonvena. I wasn't ready for these messages. For those unaware, Gonvena is a track on the album that I wrote about my mums death. The name comes from two things. The first is a place in Cornwall we visited a few times when I was growing up. The second is the name of my Granddad's house, the house my mum grew up in. My Granddad has outlived two wives and his daughter, he's had various types of cancer and survived them all, he's an incredible and inspiring human being. But it's all taken it's toll and he's now quite frail, and had to move out of his beloved house. Naming the song Gonvena was my way of keeping mum and my Granddad together. I'd been listening to this song for months, but this was new to everybody else, and it's now impossible for me to listen to. The way I feel about my mum passing appears to have been portrayed in the song, and the support and praise I've had for that in particular has been a lot to take in. I was not expecting a response like this at all. From Friday onwards I've done a lot of crying and I'm not ashamed to say that. When it comes to my feelings, I am a bottler. I push everything real far down so no one can see I'm struggling. Releasing this album and, in particular that song, has allowed me to let everything go and feel a little.

I'm still receiving messages today. We played Macmillan Festival on Saturday, a festival I hold particularly close to me, and we were receiving compliments and praise whilst there too. We got played on Kerrang! Radio last week, and Alex Baker was very complimentary towards us. We're in this months issue of Rock Sound. A lot of things are happening at the minute and my brain and body don't really know what to do with it all. I can't explain what I've been feeling for these last few days in any way other than overwhelming. It really has been. I just expected a few "hey the album is cool" from some friends, but what we've actually had has been much more than that, and I honestly can't say thank you enough. This band over the last few months has been incredibly difficult to be a part of. There have been a lot of internal struggles that you haven't seen, a lot of arguments and disagreements, a lot of stress, loss of drive, frustration, depression. But everything we've heard, read and seen since the release has made everything worth it, and in all honesty it's probably saved us. So thank you.

Come and say hello to us at a show. We've got a brand new set to share with y'all.

Thank you for listening to us, thank you for watching us, thank you for talking to us, thank you for everything. Thank you for reading this.

D.S

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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

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How To Step Up Your Bands Live Set In One Very, Very Long Day

I had a very productive day yesterday. VERY productive. Also a very long day, where I was out of the house for about 15 hours, but it was fully worth it. I nearly had the most recent Game Of Thrones episode spoiled for me, I spilt some tea on my leg and briefly locked myself inside a toilet, but these are merely tiny imprints on an otherwise smooth day. Mainly because a large chunk of the day was spent making the Skies In Motion set more professional.

I woke up at 9am, feeling fresh (ish, not a morning person), had a bowl of fruit and fibre and a cuppa, and headed over to the Heroic Audio headquarters. Heroic Audio is an audio production and recording company ran by a very good friend of mine, Ben Gaines. An aural wizard, idea generator, ginger viking and also the brother of my drummer, Sam. He recorded our album (did I mention we're releasing an album that's OUT NEXT FRIDAY ON SEPTEMBER 1ST), gave us a TON of good advice throughout the recording process and made it sound better than we could have ever imagined. We frustrated him so much throughout the process by being difficult and picky and very hard to work with at times, and he has openly admitted he hates us on numerous occasions, but he is still willing to work with us which is good of him. I mean he loves us really, if he really hated us we'd all be chopped up and thrown in bins across Derby right now. Anyway, I digress. I went to visit Ben to create a bunch of interludes to integrate into our live set. And for good reason.

Every time I go to watch a band, I'd say 8 or 9 times out of 10 that band has a backing track of some form leading in or out of songs. Often both. This is generally done in a couple of ways. The band, or at very least the drummer, will be playing along to click track that will be triggered at the very beginning of their set. A backing track will be running in the background, and the band follow the click track to make sure what they're playing is completely in time with the backing, which sounds SUPER tight. Or, one of the band will trigger pre made intros and outros as a way of leading us in and out of songs, which if done right and crafted properly, sounds so slick and polished. The latter is what we'll be doing. We currently don't do this. We used to, and our set was so so polished, and we used to get complimented on our professionalism so often. Now, I'm not saying we don't now, as we still get good feedback and comments on our shows, but I think if we re-introduced this element, we could really become a force to be reckoned with. So there I was. Re-introducing.

We've been playing the same set for the last couple of years, with the addition of one or two songs here and there. It is time for change. Not just to make things more exciting for the people watching us, but to breathe a bit of life back into the set for us. So we started. The song we started the set with is no longer in the set at all. I wanted to completely changed everything. I do not want to spoil it, but our set is starting with something really cool. It has impact, it's memorable, and most importantly, it's nostalgic. I won't say any more about it. You just gotta trust me it's cool. Then the fun started. A few of the intros required a small amount of composing to be done. Tiny compositions to lead us into songs in the set. Ben has more sounds in his recording software than you've probably come across in life, and knows the library like the back of his hand. We spent hours writing, crafting, scrapping, reshuffling, adding, taking away, drinking tea, talking about Game Of Thrones and telling him to shut up because I haven't seen the newest episode yet, more writing and crafting. And at the end of the day, we had everything we needed for a new set. Everything I had envisioned for our set to make it more professional. We nailed it out in about 8 hours. Perfect timing too, as we had a band practice almost straight after, so I had my opportunity to pitch the new set and the interludes to the rest of the band.

I had no idea if they'd like the changes or not. We are all very different people and in turn that makes us all individually very difficult to predict and read. Legit they might have said "Yo Dave are you high, this set is awful and those interludes sound like an aural version of a dirty nappy". But luckily for me, everybody was on board. Completely on board. We played through the set with the interludes, and it felt like it flowed better than what we'd been playing until now. I think we all agreed, we were all on the same page. Mission accomplished. Now, to test it out at a show.

We'll be debuting our new set at Macmillan Festival in Nottingham on September 2nd. A great day of music for an even greater cause. There's so many good acts playing all day, so much variety. We've been a part of this festival in the past, and regardless of whether we've been on the bill or not, we've always been in attendance. This will double up as our album release show, so it's gonna be a good one. Come and party with us. To grab a ticket, click here.

See you in the pit. Well, I won't I'll be on stage, but I'll be able to see you in the pit.

Actually, thinking about it, I won't be wearing my glasses on stage, so I probably won't know if you're in the pit at all. I might not even know you're there.

See you at some point during the festival.

Thank you for reading. I'm gonna go and listen to the new Neck Deep album and do adult things like washing and cleaning.

D.S

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