February 26, 1999
Montreal's Sky Looking To Catch Pop's Big Wave
By ANDREW FLYNN -- Canadian Press
With pop music riding a
huge surge in global popularity, Sky is
hoping there's no limit to what its own
catchy, hook-laden material can achieve.
Antoine Sicotte and James Renald, the
Montreal duo behind the rookie act, are
counting on the fact that being considered
"pop" -- a term that could freeze a rock
musician's blood 10 years ago -- is no
longer uncool.
Unapologetically, they trace their musical
lineage to cheerful, cheesy '80s pop acts
like Wham! and Michael Jackson. But they
also cite older influences like Stevie
Wonder and Steely Dan.
"We have all kinds of influences. We love
good songwriting to start with," says
Sicotte.
"Stylistically, we don't craft our songs to fit
any kind of niche," adds Renald.
"We tried a lot of different styles. Since
we're musicians, we didn't find a lot of that
stuff challenging enough for us. After you
write 15 songs with drums, bass and a
heavy guitar, you can only do so much."
Sicotte and Renald were eager to join in
with the hype that EMI, their record
company, poured out to promote the band's
first record.
"We knew that for the music we were doing
we needed a good push to get out there,
because it's not really like rock where you
can do a whole lot of clubs and build a
following slowly," says Sicotte.
"You've got to come in with a big bang and
then if you can get through that you're OK."
Though the single Some Kind of Wonderful
was released to radio in October, the
album Piece of Paradise was held by EMI
to avoid getting lost in the Christmas rush.
The big bang came later. When it was
finally released in early February, Piece of
Paradise debuted at No. 6 on weekly sales
charts nationwide.
"We got a lot of flak for the fact that it's so
poppy," says Renald.
"When you listen to the lyrics they're not
pop at all, they're completely twisted kind of
crazy lyrics," Sicotte interjects.
"For us even though it was musically pop,
we always wanted to offset that with a
different element," Renald continues.
Sky began when Sicotte and Renald met in
a Montreal music college in 1992. They
worked on class projects together, and
began collaborating on extracurricular
music, writing songs and playing together.
"Once we found out what we could bring to
each other in songwriting, our different
strengths, we started recording a whole
bunch of songs with that kind of vibe, that
dynamic," says Sicotte.
In 1995, they started their own record
company, Phat Royale, recorded a
five-song demo CD and self-produced a
video. Soon after, they were getting played
on radio in Montreal and the video made it
into rotation on MusiquePlus, MuchMusic's
French-language video station.
On the surface, Sicotte and Renald are
unlikely pop stars. Where most Top 40 acts
these days opt for a squeaky-clean
Backstreet Boys-style image, Sky is a little
more outlandish. Sicotte has a shaved
head and tattoos and Renald has a
dyed-blond alt-rocker look.
"The whole image thing came surprisingly
easy for us," says Sicotte. "My mom's a
fashion designer in Montreal, so all the way
through my life fashion was always
something that I've enjoyed -- put colours in
your life. I've always loved to dress with cool
stuff."
So far, they've also refused to resort to
relying on image at the expense of playing
their own music.
"For now, everything that's happening on
stage is completely natural, there's nothing
prepared," Sicotte says. And when they
perform live, they bring a band along --
there's no relying on taped music.
"No way would we ever, ever do that," he
says.
"A live show for us is about live -- it's about
the moment. If a dynamic is there at that
moment, that night it will create an energy.
"The second you start playing with a
(digital audio tape) or a machine in the
back you cut all that possibility of being
spontaneously creative."
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