BY LARRY LeBLANC

Toronto

While many newcomer acts are often intimidated working in major studios with notable producers, that wasn't the case with Montreal based pop songwriting duo Sky - James Renald and Antoine Sicotte in recording their album debut, Piece Of Paradise, slated for release Oct. 13 here on EMI Music Canada.

"Studios and production didn't mystify us, because that's our thing,"

says James, who, like his partner, uses only his first name professionally

"We're 'tech heads' with quite an elaborate studio of our own. [Recording the album] was a collaboration. If one [of us] felt something was out of the question, it was dropped."

"We had to explain [to the producers] that we had a vision," adds Antoine. "We weren't looking for someone to rip [the music] apart and create something new. [The album] came out the way we wanted."

The 10-song album was produced by Peter Mokran at Metalworks Studios in Toronto and by Euro-syndicate Productions (LLC, the Berman Brothers, Jeff Coplan, and Joe West) at Gallery Studios in New York.

While James handled main vocals, guitar, and keyboards, Antoine played bass and keyboards and did the drum programming on the album. Among the album's backup players are Coplan, Melvin "Wah-Wah Watson" Ragin, Michael Thompson, and George Nash Jr. (guitars); John Acosta (piano), who co-wrote two songs; Neil Stubenhaus (bass); DeMonte Posey (keyboards); Dave Mann (sax); and Barry Danielian (trumpet). There are backup vocals by Acosta, Dan Metreyeon, and Dessy Di Lauro of the Quebec rap act Dubmatique.

The album will be released by EMI Oct. 26 in South Asian territories. It is slated for February release by EMI affiliates elsewhere in the world, except in the U.S., where plans, are still being made.

"This is our big [international] shot,"

says Deane Cameron, president of EMI Music Canada.

"The album has a great feeling. Ifs not pop fluff. James and Antoine are tremendous songwriters."

EMI Music Canada issued the album’s lead single, Some Kind Of Wonderful, to Canadian top 40 and AC stations Aug. 3. In the Oct. 5 issue of The Record, the track is No. 33 on the Broadcast Data Systems-based contemporary radio chart and No. 61 on the pop adult radio chart.

"It's a good radio song, and it's starting to do well for us,"

says Guy Brouillard, music director of top 40 CKOI Montreal.

"It reminds me a bit of "65 Love Affair'by Paul Davis in 1982."

However, after six weeks of airplay, Curtis Strange, music director of top 40 CKZZ Vancouver, dropped Some Kind Of Wonderful recently.

"It didn't test well," he says. "People said it was a cheesy record and a bit annoying."

A video of Some Kind Of Wonderful was serviced to Canadian video outlets Aug. 10. It is now receiving medium rotation at MuchMusic and its Quebec French-speaking counterpart, MusiquePlus.

"They are quite interesting,"

says Benoit Varnnasse, director of music programming at MusiquePlus.

"It's still early [for radio airplay], but they are picking up [AC and top 40 radio airplay] in Quebec."

To set up the album in Canada, James and Antoine will embark on a week of national media and retail promotion the week of release. The two will visit such Canadian centers as Montreal and Quebec; Ottawa; Toronto; Winnipeg, Calgary; Edmonton, Alberta; and Vancouver. The band's first national TV appearance will be on MuchMusic's Pop Goes Much program Oct. 11. EMI Music Canada is flying more U= 150 industry figures to Montreal for the album's launch party Oct. 21.

Stylistically, the album is a mix of varied pop styles, ranging from '70s R&B (Push and America) to rhythmic funk (Love Song and Powder).

"[The album] is a combination of our diverse influences," says James. "I grew up listening to mainstream disco, America, Stevie Wonder, and Southern bands like the Allman Brothers. I only discovered R&B from meeting Antoine."

Adds Antoine,

"The more urban sounds [on the album] are mine."

The two met in 1992 during a oneyear music production course at Musique Technique school in Montreal.

"Halfway through the course, we became partners," says James. "It was funny, because Antoine was the complete opposite of me. I was like this hippie with a beard halfway down my chest, and he was like [a member of] the Montreal jet set. We had little in common except music."

For the next few years, working in several makeshift studios of their, own, the two did extensive demo work for their songs and occasionally performed with different bands in local clubs.

"It's been a long process," says James. "We've done every style of music imaginable, and I think we did them all well. At one point, we formed a four-piece metal/rap group called Louder Than A Bomb, which never did any shows."

Sky's soulful pop style developed, the two say, from painstaking songwriting sessions and endless studio hours.

"We wanted to create some-. thing special, to bring flavor, quality, and good songwriting to pop and urban music,"

says Antoine.

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