1999-2001 ©
Some acts jettison like lead balloons; others take off like rockets. For EMI's edgy, urban pop recording act Sky, the flight's been supersonic. As surprised as anyone is Sky co-pilots James Renald and Antoine Sicotte. Reaching a mainstream audience was never unplanned, but Sky is literally breaking the sound barrier across the globe! A study of the groundwork for their successful launch starts at the beginning . . . call it 'flight school'.
FLIGHT TRAINING
Gaining technical skill led James (Sky's key lyricist and lead vocalist)to investigate Montreal's music education schools.
"I wanted to work as an assistant; that was my goal - to plug in wires!"Attending Musitechnic was attributed to
"basically, their sales pitch. 'Computer-Assisted Sound Design' is what they called the course, and that really impressed me. I'd been looking into it, did the audition and it seemed like the right thing."Antoine (who handles the programming and musical arrangements) enrolled in the course for similar reasons:
"We both had mini-studios at home and were songwriting, and wanted to get our technique up to another level -try to develop our sense of production and make our songs better. When we got there, that's what we expected to do, but we soon realized that's not exactly what we were going to learn."While James said the course is perfect for someone with little or no foundation,
"it was too much of a re-hashing of what we already knew. We thought it would be much more advanced because to get into the school, the screening process is pretty tough - I mean, you think you're getting into something that is really high-level."Although the year, educationally, didn't measure up to their expectations, Antoine put a positive spin on the experience saying,
"In a good way, that's where we met each other and started songwriting and working on all kinds of different projects."
PILOT PROFILES
A mult-instrumentalist (bass, drums, and keys), Antoine's influences range from jazz, R&B and funk to more urban grooves like house, rap, dub and hip-hop. His insatiable yearn for new sounds made him a fixture on Montreal's nightclub circuit:
"I was always involved in all kinds of different stuff,"he said of his experience performing and DJing in the clubs. His affinity for the bottom end gives Sky's writing a solid, funky foundation on which to build upon.
"Actually," offered Antoine, "my evolution in music is a little strange in the sense of bass playing. When I first started I was a big fan - being from Montreal - of Alain Caron from Uzeb, and then naturally with that, Jaco Pastorius. Then, my whole sense of music changed at a certain point in my life when I understood something that Miles Davis said, which is 'less is more'. When I understood that whole 'less is more' philosophy, I got into players like Marcus Miller and guys who just played the time and really locked up grooves."Antoine exercised that theory masterfully on Piece of Paradise. The tracks are edgy, never over-the-edge; solos are stated, not staying; songs are short enough to satisfy radio, yet leave the listener longing for more. Restraint's written all over it. While Antoine noted his role in songwriting is generally instrumental arranging, certain album tracks illustrate where he's flourished his lyrical pen as well.
"Ballads like All I Want, I Will Survive and You and I - these are all songs which I got involved a little bit in the lyrics."While the press had made a big fluffy deal over these two "disparate personalities", they miss the point. It's precisely this duality that is deficient in most songwriting teams. Antoine, for all his piercings, tattoos and attraction to the technical, is the Lover. James, on the other hand, is the Thinker, or dreamer.
"The stuff that's more 'out there', that's really the personality of James,"said Antoine.
"Imagery, a little crazy and innovative - that's his style."Citing bands like America and Steely Dan, James' early taste in music was "all over the board". "As a kid, I would listen to what my parents had in their collection, and there was an uncle I grew up around who had a home studio." That's where James first heard the Beatles, old Genesis and Peter Gabriel.
"Really, the musical influences and the lyrical influences came from different places,"James revealed, remarking that his lyrical side didn't emerge until later, when he began listening to bands like Jane's Addiction.
"I actually went back to some of the stuff I listened to as a kid and would really get into the lyrics. Like Supertramp - I found they painted a nice picture in a very simple way."Revisiting the past also exposed him to the late John Lennon (whose influence on songwriters and music in general make him perhaps the most important lyricist of our time). Specifically, Lennon's novel In His Own Write made significant impact on James' developing talent.
"I must have read that seven times trying to figure out what the hell was going on,"remembered James, who became intrigued by
"that who Lewis Carroll thing - the way you can read things into something that was written by someone else that wasn't what he mean, or that wasn't his intent. It's sort of transparent. That's always been something I got off on . . . it uses a different side of you brain."
SKYWRITING
"Once I started paying attention to other people's lyrics, I noticed there was a whole side of music that I hadn't explored," said James. "For some reason, being around Toni, who really is not a lyrical person, I didn't think anyone was that into the lyrics - it was something I did for me. The music is what drives me, but when it comes time to write the lyrics, it doesn't really have to do with music - it's more about storytelling."EMI didn't discourage the 'impressionistic' lyrical flair of James' songwriting, something he'd feared in the beginning.
"They don't mind that a lot of these lyrics are very abstract. It doesn't work all the time - some songs really scream out for something a little more straightforward and from the heart. But as far as layering these strange, picturesque, stream-of-consciousness lyrics on songs you wouldn't expect to find them on, it's something the label has given us a lot of freedom with."Take Some Kinda Wonderful for instance. James quickly sketches the perfect nuclear family - but all it not quite right on Highball Way. Maybe it has something to do with that stunning wife . . . just the kind of woman you're liable to meet in a Stephen King novel.
"I never thought that a lyric like that - on a track like that - would fly,"admitted James. With Sky inking their US deal with Arista just days before our interview, I asked James if there existed the possibility America would be left off the US release.
"I don't know how they're going to see that lyric,"James wondered. Whatever the track's eventual fate, I'm strangely satisfied knowing this bit of socio-cultural comment (and its astute juxtapostion with music steeped in 'Mellencamp Amercian Epic') comes from a Quebec-based act.
INSTRUMENTAL PANEL
James related his writing is split between piano and guitar.
"I did a brief stint at the Conservatory when I was a kid,"he said, but seemed to reject the confines of formal music lessons and is largely self-taught.
"When I get into the position of where someone tells me what to do, it just loses its whole appeal. I think I did two years at the Conservatory and quit. Then I thought guitar lessons were my thing, and had the same experience."James prefers to write the guitar-based tunes on his Ovation acoustic.
"It's not the greatest-sounding guitar, but if feels really nice. And strange enough, the guitar that I like to record with at home (he used an older Takamine belonging to Jeff Coplan for the album) is a Seagull. The action's horrible, so it's really painful to play, but it sounds amazing."Antoine's primary writing instrument is the bass. He play a MF piccolo MIDI bass (by Quebec luthier Michel Fournier).
"What I do most of the time is I'll use the real sound from the piccolo bass, which is the same octave as the guitar, and use the MIDI bass to drive the keyboards and I'll layer the two. It gives it an old '70s song flavour. I also use an Ibanez 5-string bass. I've always used Ibanez, since I started. I don't know why; I think I really like the neck."
FLIGHT RECORDING
Piece of Paradise was recorded in two halves.
"Definitely the system that we had going with Peter Mokran was pretty much ideal,"said James of his preference,
"but it was a learning process. Initially, we wanted to produce the record ourselves, but we hd never worked at that level, so we didn't know what to expect."For the first half of the album, their label paired them with Euro-Syndicate Productions (the Berman Brothers, et al), working with hot 'up-and-coming' producer Jeff Coplan. Sky arrived at Gallery Studios in New York City to find that a lot of tracks had already been worked on. Unfortunately, James revealed,
"they were totally off the mark."Being up-front about their displeasure, James said they had it scrapped.
"We told them, 'This isn't going to work out like this. We're going to start again, but we're going to work together, because obviously we have a very fixed vision of what we want, and this isn't it'."
"They were great guys," said Antoine, "but I just think that was a strange match, and I guess we made the best out of the situation."Working through those initial sessions was tough, but the positive side was that Sky came away with a better understanding of what they should and should not do for the second half of the album, and first was finding the right producer.
FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR
Sky spent a lot of time looking into the backgrounds of several producers before settling on Peter Mokran (R. Kelly, Maxwell).
"We found that Peter was really a hands-on producer," said James, noting that "he was a programmer before he was a producer."The second half of the album was recorded at Metalworks. It was understood from the outset that producing the album was going to be a shared responsibility. The system they'd set up with Mokran gave them freedom to work on the vocals independently.
"We wanted to produce those ourselves," said James, "because that was really our 'trademark'. We spent so long in our own home studio trying to get that perfect, so we didn't want to throw all that experience to the wind. I was back in a room - with my own gear, actually - and he would do his thing with Toni, and we'd marry the two at the end."
"For me," said Antoine, "this record is really about Peter Mokran and us. Most of the tracks under Euro-Syndicate we had to completely remix with Peter."The obstacle was actually the lack of continuity between the two camps'production styles, which would have proven problematic during mastering.
"Mokran's got a lot of low end," said James, "and the Bermans had rolled off all the low end and he couldn't compensate."Mokran's varied abilities as a producer/engineer/mixer/programmer/re-mixer got a real workout.
FIRST CLASS PASSENGERS
Mokra also brought a stable of talented musicians to the project, like keyboard player DeMonte Posey (who'd worked with Mokran on Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite). James said he was "blown away" by DeMonte's virtuosity.
"He was recording one of the tracks (playing Moog bass into a sequencer) and I had to videotape it - it was just amazing. Everything that would come out of this guy's fingers was like cheese."George Nash Jr., who performs the very "blackcat" solo on Shave, co-produced with DeMonte on Eric Benet's album True To Myself (and is also Benet's cousin). Other guest appearances include noted R&B guitarist Melvin "Wah Wah Watson" Ragin, studio bass ace Neil Stubenhaus, and Tower of Power alumni David Mann and Barry Danielian. But not every guest came from across the border. In addition to Dubmatique's Dessy DiLauro, the album features a 'yet to be discovered' vocal talent in rap artist Meesah, who throws a saucy maneuver into Powder.
"Keep an eye on that girl, she's gonna blow up," predicts Antoine, "cause she doesn't just rap, she sings R&B, too; and her boyfriend Tyson (Kuteyi, who did some scratching on Piece of Paradise) is a really good producer. These two together are going to be something to look out for, definitely."Powder is by far my favourite track on Piece of Paradise. A 'read between the lines' reveals a penetrating double entendre of libidinous desire and the seductive nature of addiction. It's got erotic groove, intense lyrics, and devasting side effects that make me wonder if that powder's not Spanish Fly. Mokran also added his own flavour to the album, like the 'telephone effect' the vocals received on Some Kinda Wonderful. While the original version (done in New York and released to radio) used just EQ, James said Mokran added a bit of retro sound processing using the Lo-Fi plug-in (part of Digidesign's D-Fi sound design tools) when the track was re-mixed for Piece of Paradise.
FLIGHT CREW
While it's been reported that Sky's live ensemble at one time comprised of 11 musicians, Antoine said that number actually never made it to stage. The trim but tight core of four musicians is still pretty fresh, having barely completed the first month of tour dates. Antoine, who discovered
most of these players on the Montreal club scene, is amazed at the chemistry between the members.
"Tony Albino (drums) has been playing with us since way back in the days; even when we were doing our own demo stuff. The second I heard him, it was clear that I wanted to work with him because I just love his swing and his soul and the way he's totally in the pocket."Bassist Ben Comeau had worked with Albino before in another project, says Antoine.
"It took me a long time to get to know him before I actually asked him if he wanted to come play with us, but I knew these two together were a totally locked rhythm section."Michael Litresits commandeers the keyboards.
"Because I knew that we had to cut down the band formation to a minimum, I needed someone who was used to working with sequences and sampling - who could do all of that kind of work and play a lot of different parts."Antoine caught Litresits running sequences with a Montreal band,
"and just his attitude onstage - very positive, very energetic - sold me right away on him. On guitar and backing vocals I have John Acosta, who used to be with Acosta/Russell," noted Antoine, "and who also co-wrote two songs with us."Acosta, based in Toronto, is the only band member that also performs on the album.
"When it came time to start getting the band up for shows, it was a sure thing that I was going to have him come with us."James related that it was EMI/Blackwood ("the greatest publisher on the planet, by the way") who hooked them up with Acosta.
"At that time, they didn't think we had any strong ballad, and apparently John was quite the balladeer."After swapping tapes, they agreed to meet in Montreal for what Antoine described as "an unbelievable weekend in creation and songwriting." The result was the tracks I Will Survive and All I Want.
"We wrote those and recorded the demos in two days," said James, "which, for us, was unheard of - we could spend a month on a song."
"We're actually writing two new songs right now with John,"revealed Antoine, saying that along with a new tune entitled Strange and one other demo, these will be presented to Clive Davis at Arista,
"and hopefully one of these four will be chosen as the second single in the US."
READY FOR SOLO FLIGHT
NO strangers to the studio, Sky was still able to extract valuable insight from working with Mokran. Most important, said James, was becoming more aware of counter-productive work habits.
"My way of thinking, my way of working, was just not linear - I would start a lot of stuff and never finish it because I was really all over the place. Peter has this really methodical, mathematical way of working.His ideas still get across, but everything is just so organized that it makes working much easier."James said he also gained equipment savvy through the experience.
"We found out what it was we needed to finish our records ourselves from watching and seeing Peter had and what he takes with him on the road."Since the release of Piece of Paradise, the two haven't had much time to do any recording at home.
"I did buy some equipment," said James, "I bought a (Roland) VS-880, some compressors, that Antares box - just enough so that I could do my vocals on the road, and it's a very portable system."Antoine mentoined that prior to the album, the home studio he shares with James
"was pretty basic - we had a four-track/sequencer/keyboard/sampler set-up."After signing with EMI Publishing,
"We bought the digital 8-track, which gave us the ability to do a lot of editing, bought ourselves a good compressor, a good studio mic and guitar monitors."Recognizing their studio's purpose as a writing environment, Antoine said they didn't go nuts on unnecessary equipment.
"We bought the best we could buy, but to a minimum. We really tried to have the best sound- you can still get some pretty good sound on a homemade demo."If you think demo quality doesn't matter, think again. According to Antoine,
"I honestly think that's the only way to go. I've learned now that, even people like Dianne Warren, when she does her demos they're fully produced and when she presents a song, it's totally loaded."
"We like to take our demos as close as we can get them to the final product. We really feel that production is half of a song- and it can make or break your song as far as letting the song 'come through'."It's a lesson James learned first-hand; Love Song is his favourite album track,
"because we really missed the mark as far as production goes on the demo."While James wasn't thrilled with the song at the time, EMI was convinced it had merit, and the track was one of five recorded in NYC with producer Jeff Coplan and engineer Joe West.
"I had spent the day with Jeff doing the guitars," James recalls of the track session. "We went through hundreds of loops trying to find the perfect loop, because in my mind, that song wasn't that perfect."Once the basic tracks were down, Jeff and the engineer mixed the song,
"and that's when he added that guitar with the envelope filter in the beginning," related James. "We went back in that night and heard the track and it was so perfect. I'll always remember it was one of the few tracks that he didn't play on the big monitors, it was just on the NS-10s and it wasn't loud. I had goosebumps; and when the track was over we stood up and hugged Jeff and the engineer and it was a moment - it was just the perfect marriage of the production to the song. That's why it really does it for me - every time I hear it, it's just like, 'yeah, we got it right'."Sky is and always has been a product of the studio. They make no apologies for the fact they're not "superschooled" players. That they could step away from performing most of the instrumental tracks on their debut, despite the question of credibility, is a point thta should be noted by mediocre musicians everywhere.
"We're so not about that; we're really about producing and songwriting,"explained Antoine, who looks at Sky's first major recording as
"a great experience. We are living the dream that any songwriter/producer could live. We had been working a lot in the studio - six years, just me and James - so encountering new musicians was very exciting for us at that point in time."Although he hopes they'll play more on the next album, perhaps even self-producing it,
"we really didn't feel that whole problem of credibility; anybody who has been to our shows can see we play, and can see on the record that we wrote all the songs."Sky is used to charting and navigating its own course. Their label, Phat Royale, was launched in '95 and released a five-song EP; Antoine, who's worked as a production assistant (his father's an actor, his mother, a fashion designer), directed Sky's independent video for America. The results were heavy radio and video rotation, rabid fans and major signings. Even with the EMI/Arista deals intact, Sky plan to keep Phat Royale operational, and look forward to producing new artists under the label in the future. The Phat Royale website[www.phatroyale.com] collects and presents data on Sky's ever-changing flight conditions. According to Antoine,
"We're using ot as a source of information from our fans. Right now, we have a survey asking them all kinds of questions, from what type of merchandising they want to have, to what they think should be the next single. I think it's really important to connect."This is an act with both hands on the controls.
Keep your eye on Sky - they're soaring!
1999-2001 ©