Formed in New Dehli, India, Skyharbor bridge the gap between the postmodern prog-metal movement and the rock world. Creativity, dedication to their craft, and composure, but with the ability to shake your foundations! The band’s ability to deliver atmospheric and emotional moments via walls of sound, relatively ambient silence, and a monstrous groove have given them rise like few other acts. The anthemic soar of Linkin Park, the fury of the Deftones, the uplift of Incubus and the sonic tapestries of Devin Townsend combine to give Skyharbor a dimension all their own. With multiple accolades from the heavy music media around the world, and an ever growing legion of fans, the band (spread between India and the USA) are truly a progressive global powerhouse in every sense.
The band are set to perform in Australia for the first time ever as part of this year’s Progfest so we caught up with guitarist Keshav Dhar to find out more about the band, the new changes that have occurred with their lineup and much more.
Andrew: We have plenty to talk about, you have the tour, a new album that came out “Sunshine Dust”. A lot has been happening with the band so how’s things been since the release of the album?
Keshav: I would say it’s been a lot of work honestly. More than anything else we realized that the fun stuff is when we are writing and when we are being creative in between album cycles which is obviously like a very euphoric and exciting time because we are finally getting all this music we’ve been working on for years for the people. But at the same time now with the touring is where we really have to grind it out and put in all the time and hours and weeks. The shows are all great, don’t get me wrong but we’ve never toured this heavily in our career yet so it’s great, it honestly feels like we’re doing something much like we’ve seen our peers do where we are due on course to making it a full time thing. It’s an inspiring time for sure.
Andrew: Yeah I think with any band the busier you get is a good sign that things are going in the right direction I suppose.
Keshav: Yeah absolutely it’s just the amount of work you have to put in and you have fewer times to pursue other interests but at the same time this is what we’ve all fought so hard to achieve. From the beginning this is what we dreamed of doing, just go out and play our music to people and being content doing that so it’s great.
Andrew: Yeah sure and before we get to the touring side of things the new album that came out in September 2017 “Sunshine Dust”, what kind of feedback were you getting from the fans and the critics so far?
Keshav: I would say the critics, if you’re talking major publications and things like that, I would say it’s almost unanimously very positive, we’ve had everyone react very well. On the fans side of things and a lot of webzines, it was understandably mixed. I can feel where everyone came from because I know how hard I found it to get back into a band once they lost some early core members. Especially since we lost a singer and a drummer and as a result it’s very different to anything that we’ve done. I remember when Alice In Chains lost their first album many years after Layne passed away, I remember thinking there’s no way I can get back into this band again but over time I learned to appreciate that they are still a beautiful band. I think in our case as well, initially of course there were people who loved it, there was some great feedback and people said this is the best thing we’ve ever done, strongest songs, which I do agree with. I feel this is the most mature we’ve ever been in terms of writing songs, I feel like the songs themselves are the strongest we’ve ever written.
But in terms of how well it went down with people, a lot of people found it hard to get over th fact that it’s not Dan [Tompkins] singing but I think over time, which is the kind of band that we are where the band kind of grows on you and we’re not writing top 40 chart topping hits with instant gratification type of thing. We’re writing music where you have to chew on for a while, you get more juice out of it the more you get into it. So Yeah I think it’s been a little hard for some people to get used to the fact that it’s a different band now but they’ve all been very supportive in a sense, even the people who can’t get into it have said, ‘Well I get it but it’s a different band and it’s probably great, I’m just having a hard time getting into it now but I have no doubt that I will come around and enjoying it thoroughly once I’ve given it more spins’. Which is really good.
Andrew: I suppose the next album, the follow up will sort of be the important one where fans will maybe start getting used to a different singer and band.
Keshav: Yeah I think so too. I think when we went to start writing 3 years ago where we really started the process of working towards this album, and we were still feeling it out with this new dynamic and we have to write music like this, it’s kind of like rediscovering each other all over again. In many ways it did feel like the debut because it felt like a very clean slate but like you said, the next one everyone will know each other and will know each others strengths.
Andrew: So your first time coming to Australia must not only be exciting for the fans here but also must be pretty exciting for you guys as well.
Keshav: Oh yeah we’ve been looking forward to doing this for a really long time. I know that a lot of the fans we have in Australia have been around since the times of the first album and we’ve been getting requests to come down there ever since 2012 when we put “Blinding White Noise” out and as a result it feels like it’s something that’s definitely been well over due for a long time. But with all the logistics it’s so crazy, just the process of getting down there is so complicated that we acknowledge that if we had to do it at some point, we had to do it right and I can’t think of a better than Progfest. But having said that, it’s going to be amazing and we’re so excited. Usually we don’t even start think of the setlist and preparation and that kind of stuff until maybe a couple of weeks before a tour begins, but here even though we’re just playing 3 shows, we’ve been thinking for over a month now, ‘Oh what do we want to do? What kind of songs do we want to play for these guys? It’s Progfest!’ We’re just like little kids so we’re excited to do it.
Andrew: [laughs] It’s a good lineup as well with The Ocean and Monuments and a whole bunh of local Aussie acts as well. Have you done stuff with The Ocean or Monuments before in the past like touring wise?
Keshav: Yeah kind of. I think we played Europe at a festival in 2013, it was the 3 of us on the bill. None of us were the headliners – I think Dead Letter Circus was actually the headliner, which again ties into the whole Australia thing – but we’ve toured with Monuments a bunch of times. The ocean just that one time when our paths crossed, great band though. But to do it in Australia seems very fitting, it’s funny we’re going to a place where we’ve looked up to so much of the bands that have come out of your country. I know for a fact that the making of this last album, we were so particular that we wanted that Australian flavour to it. I remember when we were in the studio with Forrester (Savell, producer) and asking me at the beginning, ‘This is the third album, I’ve been involved with one previously. What do you guys want to do this time that you feel like you haven’t done in the past? Is there a vision that you have for this album?’ And I was like, ‘Dude you produced the genre defining albums that have come out of Australia, I want you to make this album as Australian sounding as possible’, so that as funny!
But beyond the fact that it sounds silly, there’s definitely something to it because I feel like Aussie bands, especially this wave of Aussie prog where it’s not just self indulgent, repetitive, overly technical flashy chops. It’s really tasteful songwriting where it’s beyond the verse-chorus kind of routine but at the same time it’s really interesting and really challenging. It’s just progressive music as it was always meant to be without it being this nerdy sort of wanky guitar thing. That’s one thing that really drew us to it, the three core songwriters Devesh (Dayal, guitars), Krishna (Jhaveri, bass) and I really just got into Karnovool and their back catalogue up to their Persona EP. Dead Letter Circus we are obviously big fans, Butterfly Effect, Cog, even Chaos Divine who are a young band who I have been following quite loosely but I think they are doing some great stuff. They are playing at the festival too which is going to be lit, there’s Polaris which even though they are more on the metalcore side, again they are friends of ours and it’s really inspiring to see the bands coming out of your neck of the woods .
Keshav: Yeah and it’s interesting to hear you say that progressive music is considered more of a technical sort of spot but I think you are spot on that it’s not really about the technical aspects, it’s really more about the songs and the different layering and the structures and all that kind of thing. I think that’s more important than the technical aspects that come out of that.
Andrew: Yeah and I think it’s something that has always been our strength as well from the beginning. You look at “Blinding White Noise”, there’s some technical stuff on it but nothing in the lead of say Animals As Leaders or Periphery or that kind of thing, or even Tesseract where you got moments where you are playing at a hundred miles an hour or you got these bizarre time signatures where it’s like, ‘Oh my god what timing is that? What kind of groove is that?’ I mean even though bands like that are sick and that’s what I love about the whole djent thing, these are prog bands who didn’t subscribe to the idea of prog as we knew it like the whole Yes and King Crimson thing. The whole Aussie scene took that a whole step further and was like, we take the best of the songwriting from like the classic great song writing bands like Tool and Deftones and these bands and then take the ambience and the layering like you say. There’s this big drench of wetness to the sound which I think comes from certain sound selections, the use of ambience and delays all these very characteristic things which I was always very influenced and inspired by growing up to bands like that. So it’s reflected a lot in my songwriting as well.
Andrew: Was there a particular musician or band growing up that sort of really defined your particular style?
Keshav: You mean me personally?
Andrew: Yeah you personally.
Keshav: Well let me list 3 as I can;’t pick one! For the rhythmic side there’s Meshuggah obviously, there’s Devin Townsend just for that whole wall of sound, it’s like you’re painting this multi layered picture with sounds. That is how I came to Devin Townsend, not Strapping Young Lad but “Terria” and “Ocean Machine” and those albums. And there was this British band called Oceansize which to me are one of the crying shames of all time in rock music is that they never got bigger or more known than they were, it was like just 3 guitar players just always playing the most beautiful orchestral…it was really lush. It was kind of like the prototype to bands like say Dead Letter Circus are doing a more defined version to now but back then it was a really sprawling ambient soundscapes mixed with really tasteful songwriting. So yeah these 3 bands growing up when I was in my teens and then once I came into my 20’s in the mid-2000’s I discovered Karnivool and that was it, the rest is history.
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to seeing you in Australia for the first time ever, I think the fans are going to really dig you guys. Congratulations with everything that’s been going on with the band, we’ve been following what you guys have been doing so it’s great to see. Apologies for the line stuff ups today so appreciate your time!
Keshav: Absolutely, thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure, we can’t wait to get down there.
PROGFEST TOUR DATES 2019
Saturday, January 26: The Croxton, Melbourne
Sunday, January 27: The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Monday, January 28: The Valley Drive In / The Brightside, Brisbane (Public Holiday)
Tickets and Presale Info from wildthingpresents.com
