[Biography]
On the surface, Sky is a clean, polished,
R&B-driven pop band, but underneath, the
Montreal-based duo of Antoine and James are
disparate personalities whose edgy and
introspective sides are evident in the songs on
their EMI Music Canada debut Piece of
Paradise.
James and Antoine are about as odd a couple
as Oscar and Felix. Housemates for five years,
in the very same space in which they write and
demo on their home studio, the pair rarely agree
on anything besides music. "There's even a bit of
tension when we're working," admits James.
Strangely, it's not the frontman, James, who is
out-going and sociable, but Antoine, James is
shy and prefers to stay home and read a sci-fi
novel, or if he must venture out, chooses a movie
theater over an Animal House party. Even more
out of character, though, James has sky-dived
five times. One would think, then, that James, the
quiet type, would be the clean freak, Not so. That
honor goes to the tattoo-adorned Antoine.
Musically, their personalities can't help but seep
into Sky's songs, "What I bring to it is more the
energetic groove," explains Antoine. "The whole
sound, the drums and bass track, the 'going out'
vibe in a song is me. James brings the deeper
side to the song."
Where the guys' minds meet is in their
determination, their creative instinct and their
headstrong vision of what Sky is and can be.
Both songwriters, producers and
multi-instrumentalists, who met in 1992 at a
music engineering school in their native
Montreal, James and Antoine have honed and
nurtured Sky's sound independently. They
self-produced and played all the instruments on a
five-song EP in 1997, and released it on the
band's own Phat Royale label. It was serviced to
radio in Quebec and landed on 43 stations, A
video for "America" was also put into rotation at
MusiquePlus and the band started playing
locally. They signed to EMI Music Canada in
February of 1998.
Bringing in internationally renowned producers
Peter Mokran (Maxwell, R Kelly, Michael
Jackson) and Euro-Syndicate Productions,
whose members include The Berman Brothers
(She Moves, Hanson, Real McCoy), Jeff Coplan
and Joe West, for two separate sessions, Sky
wasn't intimidated by the producers' experience
and know-how and made no apologies for their
own, "We have very defined ideas," says James
"We have the gear at home to build our songs up
and our goal is to become good producers."
Working first with Euro-Syndicate at Gallery
Studios in New York City, Sky says the
production team translated the ideas behind the
songs beautifully, especially for "Love Song".
"When you write a song, the idea and the
feelings you have in your head are easier to
express lyrically," says James. "That song is my
life in a nutshell with all the disturbances and
happy moments, and The Euro-Syndicate was
able to put a track behind it that makes you feel
the same way."
For the next half of the album, Sky laid down the
more urban material -- no rapping, but phat,
chunky bass and beats -- with Peter Mokran at
Metalworks, just outside of Toronto. Antoine
often hovered over the producer in the studio,
speaking his mind and offering suggestions. "He
didn't make us feel at all like he's the big
producer and we should sit back and listen,"
says Antoine. "Most musicians don't have
knowledge in the studio, so some producers are
happy when they know about sequencing and
sampling and working in a recording
environment.
"I had the record built in my head," says Antoine.
"I really wanted to get drum and bass from hip
hop -- the sound, the texture, the phatness. But
then all the piano and guitars are real, real
players, organic." To that end, the album features
guest appearances by Wah Wah Watson, a
Motown vet who played on "Papa Was A Rolling
Stone" and the Tower Of Power horn section.
For Sky, whose whole album is a combination of
urban beats with pop melodies, its worldwide
appeal is undeniable, Employing top-name
producers is only part of the global strategy. The
main thing is that James and Antoine are
recognized as songwriters and musicians in their
own right, something that cannot be said about
most contemporary pop groups.
-Written by Karen Bliss in 1998
-Taken from Phat Royale
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