Another Sky and 10 Questions with TotalNtertainment. Out this Friday, 7th August, arty/indie band Another Sky release their debut album “I Slept On The Floor” so we had a chat to Catrin and Jack from the band about mental health, Catrin’s healthy diet plans for touring and the album.
1. Thanks for your time. The album is out on Friday, how have plans been affected by the lockdown?
Jack – It was originally coming out in June or July when we originally planned it last year so it’s not really changed much. Obviously not being able to play gigs isn’t ideal but people are at home a lot more so hopefully, they’ll have a chance to listen to the album properly in this situation.
2. Do you think the fact that people can now afford to listen to the album will help them appreciate what it is about?
Catrin – I hope so. A lot of people are going back to comfort music. I mean I was listening to Alanis Morissette the other day. Hopefully, we exist in this sphere of alternative music that people want to hear and will set aside time to listen to.
3. On the new single you talk about moving from a small town to a big city. How did that change your view on life and your music?
Catrin – It changed everything really. I’d be a completely different person if I’d stayed in my home town. I think you meet new people and your friendship group changes. You have to change and I think it shows a progression in your life as you’re constantly learning. Especially to a city to study something. You’re learning from an education perspective as you’re constantly bombarded with information. It was an international university but it wasn’t as international as it could have been. I know Goldsmith’s prides itself on being international although it’s had its issues. We had a friend who is big in music in Estonia, we had friends from Spain, it just opens up your life as it’s a culture clash in the best way possible.
4. When describing the new album you said how you don’t appreciate a small town until you’ve left it. What is your favourite memory from growing up in a small town?
Catrin – We were talking about this the other day. [laughs] You know when you’re really small and you go to your parent’s BBQ in a field? My favourite memory is that I had these flashing trainers and I would spend ages running around the field and rolling down hills and, for some reason, that memory has stayed with me [laughs]. I think that was the last time I didn’t really have to care about anything and that is what I think people latch onto from their youth.
5. Were you involved in music before you moved to London?
Catrin – For sure, the Midlands though, there is not enough opportunities for people to do music. It’s a bit of a wasteland for musicians. There is amazing scenes there but they just never seem to have the support to take off. It was different for Jack on the Isle of Wight because there was a big musical scene up there.
Jack – Everyone is from different places as well, I’m from the Isle of Wight, Naomi is from Newcastle, Max is from Bournemouth and Trin is from the Midlands near Coventry. For me, there was a great music scene but I think all of us were involved in music in varying degrees from wherever we were from. That’s why all us of got together in London where we met because I think we all felt that we couldn’t get what we wanted musically from where we each lived. It was a challenge to ourselves to move to a big city. Like Trin said, you learn so much about how much you actually don’t know when you move to a city and we picked London. It was a massive eye-opener!
6. Band life isn’t a particularly stable life. How do you as a band and friends keep your mental wellbeing in order when you’re touring?
Catrin – That was a real struggle when we did our first UK tour because I got this huge chest infection. We just had to learn how to be with each other. We’re best friends now. I think when you tour then you either come out hating each other or amazing friends. We’ve really come out good.
Jack – We had to work at it though, we had group therapy sessions on the road where we would sit down and get whatever was on our chest out in the open. Everyone in this band takes it very seriously and we’ve always been very proactive in dealing with these kinds of situations. It’s as much a job to make sure everyone is happy as it is to make music.
Catrin – I’ve learned to cook during lockdown so I’ve got some big plans for healthy food on tour. Some big, big plans. You eat shit on the road. You eat at Service Stations as you don’t have enough money to eat at M&S every day. With their carrot and hummus dips. I’ve got big plans though!
Jack – I’m concerned I’m not going to get my Mcdonalds or my Greggs or my KFC but I’ll work it in there.
7. The album looks to have some personal songs in there, is that the case?
Catrin – Yeah, I think so. It’s inevitable really. On songs like “The Cracks” and “Avalanche”, I would say that I was writing from this birdseye point of view. The thing is that, you’d don’t want to say you write about yourself but, eventually, over the years, I got the guts to talk about my personal life and about the things I talk about and it’s been quite nice. I’ve only discovered that through doing interviews.
8. Do your fans talk to you about your music and how they can relate to it?
Catrin – A fan came up to us at a show once and said how he felt like he’d been asleep for years and, hearing our music, he felt like it had woken him up. That doesn’t happen very often but, when you hear how your music has affected people, how can you not carry on making music? Fans who have messaged us to say how our music is helping them get through things, I love that.
Jack – We’ve been a band long before Another Sky and, for a long time, we felt like people either didn’t get it or didn’t care. To hear things like that though is emotional and it does make it feel real for us and the fans. It’s a big thing for us and a lot of fans come to us and tell us how they’re connecting to what Catrin is talking about.
Catrin – You feel really weird. You learn that although you’re having these feelings that they’re universal and you’re not special or weird at all. That’s been the revelation from this album. It feels like an identity crisis but then to discover that so many people are struggling in the ways you are or think the way you do, it’s really fascinating.
9. Just for fun. On the subject of travel, if you could go back in time, is there a place or era you would have really liked to have lived?
Jack – I’d love to have lived in the ’70s in LA when the Americana thing was happening with Tom Petty and James Taylor and all that stuff. I’d love to have been at the Troubadour because, for me, I’m sure that would have been the number one place to be.
Catrin – I was going to say the ’70s as well before shit got hit the fan. You don’t want to live before then and then after that things went really bad but I think that would have been a good era for technological advances.
10. Just to finish, good luck with the album, the tour is scheduled for later this year. What is the current situation?
As of now we’re planning for it going ahead as normal and working towards it. Obviously everyone I think is planning the shows in a way that they’ll be socially distanced and how that will happen. We’re going to try our hardest to make it happen but, if it can’t, it’s out of our hands like the rest of the world. We’ll just have to see what happens. We’re just being positive.
We got the chance to review their new album, you can dear about that here; https://www.totalntertainment.com/music/i-slept-on-the-floor-another-sky-album-review/
