MUSIC- Sky Atlas IntervIew
Would you like to introduce yourselves ?
Louis: Were Sky Atlas, actually 3/4 of Sky Atlas because we’re missing Danilo (bassist) at
the moment. We’re a band form Dublin and we always find it hard to give ourselves a
genre. We’ve been together for 3 years since when Ryan joined. We played little gigs and
‘Stone’ is our second single.
How did you come to form as a group ?
Lughaidh: Louis was one of the first people I’d met. Danilo just happened to be in a class
with me and we ended up playing together one day. He was the only bassist I knew at the
moment and just happened to be this amazing bassist so it was quite fortunate. So I just
kind of bumped into them. Peter was the first drummer and he was with us for a year. It
was very much the phase when it was just meeting up, more just for the craic trying to
play a gig or two here and there. Then Peter left and Ryan got on board. I suppose from
then on it really started taking shape and we started taking it quite seriously, really
becoming a band.
You all come from different musical backgrounds. How do you incorporate these
different influences ?
Lughaidh: Most the songs would start with just me and my guitar and everyone puts their
own spin on it. We all understand where the song is going so it’s like trying to serve the
song.
Ryan: Before every rehearsal formerly starts we normally just jam randomly to warm up.
When we’re jamming if we come across a cool idea it will eventually turn into a song. I
think that’s where a lot of the combination of influences comes in, when we’re just playing
freely, jamming and everyone is injecting their own personality into it. It’s definitely a fun
challenge getting everyone’s ideas in there at once.
How did your style evolve since you first got together ?
Lughaidh: The first thing we wrote together was ‘Stand With Me’. At the time I was into
prog rock, getting into guitar and complex stuff. When you’re in a music college you’re
surrounded by all these amazing musicians and you just want to flex I guess, something
like musical flexing. And being a bit more mature you start stripping it back and not over-
compensating and letting a song be a song.
Ryan: Developing that facility on our instruments has been useful because with that
maturity we know when to cool it back a bit but we’re still able to inject interesting
instrumentals. I think we’ve come to a point where we can make interesting arrangements
without being over the top. At least that’s what we’re going for anyway, depends what
your personal taste is.
‘Stone’, that was very well received, is your second single, released on 14th May.
How is it a new musical direction for you ?
Lughaidh: I was really happy with how it was received just because it is very much a new
angle for us in our approach. ‘News Today’ is quite rock, almost like classic rock in the
sense of the guitar solos. ‘Stone’ is a more accurate blend of our styles. It’s got more of a
folky vibe and lots more soundscapes.
Ryan: I think only now we really know what we’re going for. We’ve been through so many
different genres because we all come from different backgrounds musically and we’re all
inspired by different things. So trying to find a home for all those different influences can
be challenging at times but I think we’ve finally figured it out, the right blend of genres
that we’re going for.
Louis: I think that something we often worry about is that we come up with sounds that
sound totally weird and that it’s not going to fit in either in a live set or in a recorded
sense. But there’s a lot to be said for the same 4 people in a room. I think that’ll always
come across as having a certain vibe and energy. There is always a certain thread that
runs through a lot of our music.
How did ‘Stone’ come to life ?
Lughaidh: I wrote it during the first lockdown when I went home. It was me and my
mother (fiddle player Dee Armstrong from Kíla) in the shed and we demoed it there. I play
with my mom quite a lot. That’s where the whole track began and then I sent the demo to
the lads. They liked it enough that we got back into rehearsal to put it together, rearrange
it and add more to it. That’s very much what the song’s about, that sense of home.
There’s a part of the track that sounded like it had tones of traditional music. What
exactly can we hear in the track ?
Lughaidh: The violin and cello. I did some EBow slides stuff in there that blends with
Louis’ mad violin sounds.
Louis: A lot of those noises we took not from the original demo, but the demo we did of it
ourselves. A lot of that stuff we had recorded because we just made noise for the sake of
it. A lot of that actually stayed and is on the track which is nice.
Lughaidh: There’s loads of stuff in the original demo like mom’s fiddle playing is also in
there which is just really nice to have her as well on the track. But yes, the tune. That was
from the original. I remember singing that at mom and it actually took hours because she
was doing her own thing and I was being a bit of a professionalist, almost shout singing
the tune at mom while we were trying to record it. Mom would be more from a trad
background so there’s very much of that trad influence in there. Even from my own
upbringing I would’ve been influenced by them (Kíla) from an early age going to their
concerts.
Can you tell us a bit more about your upcoming EP ?
Lughaidh: It’ll probably be out just after summer time and there will be a few singles
coming out across the summer time. I think a lot of the EP is quite cinematic. It’s closer to
the music that we want to create. It’s very much a stepping stone, it’s our first little body
of work put out into the world.
Ryan: The EP will have 5 tracks on it. The next single will be one of those 5 tracks and the
next one will be out at the end of July. We’re still putting the dots and crosses on that.
Daniel de Burca recorded the whole EP and we mixed it with Anthony Gibney.
Lughaidh: Except for that one track ‘I Will See You Again’. We recorded it with James
Darkin just before lockdown, the person we recorded ‘News Today’ with. It was another
single on the way but we never released it. We felt it needed a little more context as part
of a bigger piece of work. So we’ve been sitting on it ever since but it’s going to be part of
the EP.
Ryan: We’ve been delighted so far and we’re excited to share it with everyone. It’s been
like a year and a half since we’ve released anything so it’s fun to be back again. We
recorded a lot over the last couple of months and we’re looking forward to releasing a lot
more music over the summer.
You recorded the EP during overnight sessions while in lockdown. How did it impact
your creative approach ?
Ryan: We recorded the entire EP overnight. We did overnight sessions so all of it was
recorded between the hours of 9pm to 7am. It would’ve been so expensive to do it during
the day.
Lughaidh: It was tough enough, actually. I often listen back to the songs and I can almost
hear the tiredness in my voice. I remember, particularly for ‘Stone’ and one of the other
tracks ‘Red’, being like 3 in the morning trying to get the vocal take with eyes hanging out
of my head. But there’s a bit of character to it I guess.
Louis: Especially with being in lockdown, we met up and rehearsed a couple days and
then recorded, and did the same thing a couple weeks later. So it’s not like we were
hanging out a whole lot. A lot of the creative process was crammed into those pockets of
time which made for some really cool days but it’s definitely a different way to go about
recording.
Ryan: I think that contributed to a lot of spontaneity. It was ideas that we thought of on
the day. We had the songs written, we knew what we wanted and we had demoed them.
But there was a lot of scope for trying things out, experimenting, seeing what sounds
good. A lot of creative decisions were made on the spot, it is just spur-of-the-moment
ideas. We’re all open to that kind of thing and I think that comes across in the music.
As you are very much a live band, was there a performance in particular that was
memorable for you ?
Louis: At the start of 2020 or 2019, we had a few gigs at the Workman’s Club here in
Dublin. It was just really nice, we got a way better turnout that we thought. Obviously
being in college in Dublin a lot of the people there and the faces you’d see from the stage
were your mates. It must have been just after we put out ‘News Today’ because everyone
was singing along. It was the most surreal thing ever.
Ryan: It was one of those gigs as well where all of my friends from Belfast got the bus
down. It’s really cool to see our friends from all around the country making that effort to
come to Dublin to see that show. That was a special one for sure.
Apart from your upcoming EP and the singles that will be coming out soon, do you
have other things planned ?
Lughaidh: We played once in Belfast as part of a Queen’s event I think so we’ll definitely
be back in Belfast at some point. We have a few live sessions we’re going to be recording
and releasing. I feel like that’s an important side to us as a group, the live aspect of
things. We’re going to be releasing those across the summer along with the EP tracks.
What have you been listening to recently ?
Lughaidh: Me and Louis live together. He usually wakes up early and you’d hear some
mad instrumental jazz coming from downstairs while he’s eating his granola and it’s like
‘Jesus, right Louis is up’. The most recent thing I’ve really been liking is Half Moon Run.
They’re kind of folky and really interesting. It’s like every track almost sounds like a
different band.
Ryan: I’ve been listening a lot of an artist called Puma Blue. It’s like Jeff Buckley meets
hip hop. It’s very intimate in the way he records his music, the vocals are right in your ears
and it’s all very stripped back.
Louis: I’d listen to anything, anything at all. London Grammar put out a new album, it’s
relatively new. I only heard it the other day and it is class. It’s so good.
Finally, which local artists would you recommend listening to ?
Ryan: A lot of us are big fans of a band called Just Mustard who are based in Dundalk.
Lughaidh: nicetry and TOYGIRL are a great band. They’re all mates of ours from college
and all really talented musicians. Danilo is actually in nicetry, that’s his other group.
There’s Tortoise as well.
Ryan: And So I Watch It From Afar are one of the better Irish bands live. We’re really
spoiled here for being such a small country, having so many great acts.