On a daily basis for round 3 months, Evergrey singer Tom S Englund and prolific pianist Vikram Shankar would meet just about over Zoom to peer what musical concepts would possibly blossom between them. The outcome was once their 2d album Nectar, and in spite of its virtual roots, the wealthy file brims with emotive soul that manages to be intimate but completely grand.
“It was once gorgeous, as a result of if I sought after to take a possibility on one thing I may just simply stroll over to my Moog synth or one thing and simply take a look at it,” Shankar recollects. “It was once an excessively free-flowing procedure the place we have been throwing a large number of stuff on the wall to peer what caught.”
For a gaggle that pivot at the rudimental pairing of vocals and piano, Silent Skies make a hell of a valid. Now not in a brash approach, however there’s a minimalist-yet-full, cinematic air of mystery streaming thru their spine. And Nectar is ear-catchingly out there too, in spite of some melancholic detours, with massive melodies have compatibility for an excellent larger target audience and an unashamed pop veneer outlined by means of some chic vocals – increased prime up within the combine – which can be married to deft piano.
“We’re taking affect from such a lot of various things,” Shankar explains from his house studio in North Carolina. “They vary from the reasonably arcane, whether or not it’s digital song like Aphex Dual, or we speak about Radiohead or Anathema and Katatonia, after which we adore song like Adele as neatly. All of it is available in our melting pot of items that we care to do.”
Silent Skies act as one thing of an outlet for musical yearnings no longer all the time explored within the day process. Englund’s Evergrey sit down at the fringe of the innovative steel sphere, whilst Shankar has arms in lots of pies, having labored with Haken’s Ross Jennings and Head With Wings whilst additionally burning up the keys in instrumental trio Lux Terminus. He and Englund rock up in prog metallers Redemption too.
“We’re surroundings ourselves unfastened from some preconceived notions of what somebody would possibly be expecting after they placed on a Tom Englund file or a Vikram Shankar file,”
the pianist ponders. “We’re open to making an attempt some issues that perhaps we don’t do in a few of our different tasks.”
Their genesis serendipitously stemmed from an Evergrey quilt Shankar uploaded to YouTube, which stuck the eye of Englund. Suitably inspired with the emotion streaming out of the pianist’s arms, he were given involved and debut album Satellites adopted in 2020.
So what’s subsequent for Silent Skies? The duo, self-described workaholics, are already staring at over the musical horizon. “At any given time we’re like one or two albums forward of what the general public is listening to,” Shankar says. “We’re already running on our 3rd album and fourth albums, and we’re additionally running very intently along with an organization known as Saber Interactive, which makes video video games.
“It’s tough to mention precisely what the following Silent Skies endeavour goes to sound like, as a result of we’ve got such a lot of other irons in numerous fires. However we’re all the time seeking to do issues that excite us.”
