Generally, when musicians from established bands announce a side project you can expect the music to be a little different to what they deliver in their main project, but not so different that the similarities between the two bands ends at the name of the musician in question.
Silent Skies – fronted by Tom S Englund from Evergrey – are about as far removed from what you would expect as you can get.
Completed by pianist/multi-instrumentalist Vikram Shankar, Silent Skies is a project that is both beautiful and cathartic in nature, stripped back to the bare essentials of music in a successful attempt to make their music more than just noise.
After stunning the world with their debut album Satellites, Silent Skies have returned with Nectar, which will be released on February 4, 2022.
Both Englund and Shankar spoke with HEAVY this week about the album and the natural beauty inherent in all forms of music.
“I'd say Nectar is, in some ways, a continuation of the groundwork that set up our first album Satellites which came out last December,” Shankar began, “but it takes things in a slightly more electronic and a slightly more song oriented direction while hopefully remaining enjoyable to those who really loved the first album."
"I agree,” Englund joined in. “For your first album you are searching for your identity and with this album we found our way a bit more. Not saying that this is the direction we will end up taking forever but everything feels a bit more certain from a personal point of view. It just feels more real in a way. The first album was full of eagerness and being young in the adventure of creating new music so it's great to be able to do a second album."
In the full interview, the boys run through the musical side of Nectar, the sonic landscape and difficult it was to create, why Englund shifted his focus from Evergrey, the formation of the band, finding the balance in music and more.