Members: Ana nowosielska - Vocals
Amy Blair - Drums
Neil Ramsay - Guitar
Richard Passe - Guitar
Ross Archibald - Bass
Genre: Rock
Description (from website bio):
Altered Sky formed in early 2010, releasing their first single “Apple Tree” in November of that year.The 5-piece embarked on their debut UK tour in March 2012 and are looking to build on this experience to promote their début EP “In This World”.Released in 2011 the EP received critical acclaim from the likes of Jim Gellatly, who played tracks on his weekly show on Amazing Radio, and Tony McGuire of The Evening Times who said “Finally – the homegrown Scottish rock kick in the teeth we’ve been waiting for. Altered Sky could be huge off the back of this EP – so if you’re not on board already, now would be a good time to start.”www.alteredsky.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/AlteredSkyOfficial
http://www.facebook.com/alteredsky
Hello fellow music lovers! I have one awesome profile here today for an awesome band from the UK called Altered Sky. I first heard these rockers about a month ago and fell in love instantly. The sound is fun and exciting with tons of energy. Yet another in my growing profiles for female fronted bands, I highly encourage you to pick up the EP's and singles to hear and enjoy this amazing band.
Last week I was fortunate enough to get my quick Q&A sent out to them and they promptly replied. I was excited to see the responses and I think you all will enjoy this interview as much as I did.
For those who don't know, who are you, what do you do and how did you all come together?
Helloooo! We are Altered
Sky – a rock band from Scotland, made up of two girls: Ana (vocals) and Amy
(drums) and three guys: Rich and Neil (guitars) and Ross (bass). We started as a
band in March 2010: initially as session players to rehearse and record some
songs Ana had written. We had so much fun at the first rehearsal together that
we formed as a band soon after, coming up with the name Altered Sky during a
very drunk evening which involved watching The Wizard Of Oz on DVD in a caravan.
We played our first show around a month later, and have been gigging as much as
possible around the UK ever since.
Who are your main inspirations for your writing?
Video games! Mainly Final Fantasy and Silent Hill, the
ones with really cool Japanese music. Also true crime stories and lots and lots
of Sonic the Hedgehog!
What band would you love to tour with?
Oooooh lots and lots! We’d love to get involved with
something like the Warped Tour one day! Watching the videos of the shows and the
backstage shenanigans, it looks insane!
What is each members hidden talent?
Ana does an amazing impression of Gizmo from Gremlins!
The wee song he sings, Ana can do it perfectly - it’s freaky! Neil’s stomach can
inflate to consume massive amounts of fast food without him getting fat (we call
his tray full of greasy burgers and things a Neil-Meal) Rich is a geologist by
day: he gets to swing around on ropes and look at rocks. Amy can make a really
loud clown horn noise (which is the BEST way of communicating at gigs) also ask
Ross about his pumpkin impression!
What brands of instruments and mics do you play/use?
Ana: Sennheiser E950 – it’s soooo good to have my own
mic on stage! I used to have to use a different one every night, so the sound
was always different and I had to learn it as the set went on. The Sennheiser
sounds good and I know what I need to do to get the best from it: I feel more
comfortable using it, so can hopefully sing better!
Rich: Fender Telecaster Blacktop and Blackstar HT-Stage
100 – I love the versatility and sheer number of different noises I can get from
the Blacktop! It copes beautifully with smooth clean tones right through to
crunching distortion and solo lead lines. (It’s also a pretty shade of red!).
The Blackstar head running into my ENGL cab is a mighty sounding combination:
loud as hell and solid as a rock (also brutally heavy to lift up stairs). For
effects I keep it pretty simple: just a Vox Time Machine for delay and a Boss
CH-1 Chorus. The one thing I can’t gig without is my earplugs – I take them
everywhere with me!
Neil: The Marshall JCM900 and Gibson Les Paul
combination is a tried and tested rock classic! I keep my gear as simple as
possible, being a guitar tech I spent some time modding the lester to allow me
to get Strat sounds as well, beyond that it’s pretty much Guitar into amp.
Minimal effects, Boss DD-3 Delay, CH-1 Chorus and an absolutely brilliant pedal
called the MXR Micro-Amp which I use for a solo boost. I do use my Cry-Baby
Classic Wah from time to time and keep a Metal Muff distortion handy in case the
Amp breaks down.
Ross: Yamaha RBX JM - a completely excessive 6-string
monster! It has such a smooth tone one minute then a crunching top-end punch the
next. I use Hartke amps – they deliver the ultimate punch and clarity that lends
me the tone I desire, plus my 4x10”+1x12” stack is almost as tall as me! (Ross
is 6’4”!)
Amy: Mapex shells and Zildjian cymbals. My Mapex kit was
the first I ever bought and I’m still in love with it! Zildjian have made the
best cymbals in the world forever and so many great drummers have used them.
They’re also really shiny! I use a Mapex Black Panther snare and I also use Vic
Firth sticks: in my opinion they’re the best weighted sticks out there and I
swear by them!
What was the greatest show you ever played up to this point?
The best show so far is probably the one we played at
the HMV Picturehouse in Edinburgh in September supporting a band called Lost In
Audio. It was by far the largest show we’ve played so far: to a crowd of around
900 people. The loudness of everyone in the crowd was incredible! We were really
spurred on to play better and also to enjoy ourselves and bring more energy to
our performance. There were loads of photos taken that night - in virtually all
of them at least one of us (usually Rich) has a big cheesy grin on their
face!
When are we getting new music? New videos?
Soooon! Two new videos for songs on the In This World EP
are in the pipeline and we’re also hard at work in the studio writing and
recording demos for a new release which will be unleashed sometime in the new
year! If you want a sneaky peek at the new songs, come to a show: we love
testing new songs out on a live audience!
Social Media like twitter, plays such a huge part in spreading the word of a band, you guys are fast approaching 10,000 twitter followers. If you could say one thing to them all in 140 characters or less, what would you say?
“Thank you ALL so much for your support! Wherever you
are in the world, we WILL come and see you on tour one day and thank you in
person! <3”
(yes it’s a REALLY soppy 139 characters, but it’s
true!)
Why should people pick up an Altered Sky album?
IT’S GOT A GIANT GOBSTOPPER ON THE FRONT!!! If that’s
not reason enough, we don’t know what is… It also contains a CD with five songs
that we’re really proud of: Each showing something different about what we do.
There’s a wide range of styles on the EP - from the clean ballad Shining White
Star to the hard rocking title track In This World. There’s also wee hints of
pop-punk and prog thrown in there as well! Hopefully you’ll have a listen and
enjoy the songs… they’re just a gobstopperry taster of what we’ve got coming
next!
This is the spot to plug anything and everything you got going on!
We're going on tour this month!! Second UK tour to date
and we can't wait. We also have a new video coming out very soon (which we
haven't actually announced yet). Find the dates at www.alteredsky.com/tour, hope you can make it to a show
near you!
So to sum it all up, this band seems like epic people. Please support the band, pick up the album, pass them along to friends, go watch the music videos and if you're near any city they're playing in, stop by say hi, tell them Chitty B sent ya and enjoy the show!
Don't forget to check out my sponsors and to read the previous interviews for other bands follow these links!
Happy hunting!
~ChittyB
Twitter@chitty_b
No comments:
Post a Comment