London-based artist Sky_A returns with his second single “Walker” taken from his upcoming debut album, due later in the year.
The project name for writer and producer Sky Ainsbury, Sky_A expands on his palette of electronic, acoustic and progressive rock music with this track, to bring a darker edge to his intimate yet cinematic sound.
Sky has synaesthesia, and seeks to share with listeners his own experience of music as something deep and immersive, comprised of shapes, colors and textures. Working professionally as a filmmaker and motion graphics artist, he also brings a strong visual element to this project, with a focus on long-form storytelling and beautiful, hypnotic abstract visuals.
Describing the impact of his perception, and his work in visuals on his music, Sky explains: “This is world-building for me. There is a big story to be told. Each track is a scene, and as far as possible I have instruments representing characters. It’s my “Swan Lake”. I’ll shut my eyes and see these elements like a rolling landscape – sometimes it’s serene and beautific, and sometimes it’s like barbed wire and collapsed concrete buildings. That’s what I want a listener to see when they hear this.”
The follow up to August’s debut single “Spider Silk“, “Walker” was self-performed and produced, with the addition of virtuoso drums by Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Squarepusher, Pulp) and additional production and mixing by Aneek Thapar (65daysofstatic, Rival Consoles). Lyrically it explores self-knowledge and finding inner strength.
When to celebrate, and when to keep the powder dry
When to medicate, and when to metamorphosise
About the inspiration for the song Sky_A says: “It’s an angry piece of music. Like, anti-imperial levels of anger. It’s about having been lied to, having participated in awful things on a huge scale, and becoming aware, resolving to undo the damage that has been done. It’s a bit like a war march, sonically. Built around the sound of my thumb on an unearthed guitar lead – a sound most musicians will recognize, barely musical – it has this feeling for me of molten rock, this tectonic movement, as this person is accepting their pain as a gift, of purposeful anger. I like it being called Walker, I hear the rhythm as a kind of limping gait, wounded but resolute. There’s a lot more to it than that – every song on the album is a scene, and the sounds are characters – which won’t make much sense out of context, but it comes at a decisive point, it’s the squaring up to the challenge ahead, it’s about seeing the horror and brutality in the world and not looking away.”
What do you think of Sky_A’s new single “Walker”?
