PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
PlanetMosh: Hi Ignite the Sky, can you introduce yourselves and the band, what do you all play?
Adam: I’m Adam, I play lead guitar.
Luke: I’m Luke, I play the other guitar.
Rich: Rich, I do the shouty shout and angelic vocals!
Adam: We also have Dan Cross on vocal duties, Leo Craig on bass and Aaron West on drums.
PM: And what day jobs do you all have?
Adam: I’ve just recently started at Tesco. It may sound funny but I don’t care what job I have, as long as I’m earning money to feed into the band.
Rich: I’m a Youth worker at a charity Called Soundcheck, we teach kids music. I love my job.
Luke: I work for the Co-op and also with Rich at Soundcheck.
Adam: Dan works for Manx Gas, which is the Isle of Man’s version of British Gas, Aaron works for Shoprite, which is a Manx supermarket, basically Iceland really. And Leo works for Sure Mobile. Here on the Isle Of Man we have two mobile phone networks, O2, Virgin, T-Mobile etc doesn’t exist here! Leo and I also volunteer at Soundcheck from time to time, it’s nice to pass on our knowledge.
PM: So when did you all first meet, and what gave you the inspiration to start a band?
Adam: When I first met Luke, I told him he had red on him, hahaha! Dan I knew from when he worked in Game back in the day, Aaron I’m pretty sure I only met for the first time when our old band Bring Out Your Dead had our first practice. I genuinely don’t have a clue how I met Rich. Thinking about it, I reckon we’ve been brothers for longer than we both realise.
Luke: I’ve been friends with Dan and Aaron for about 12 years ’cause we met at school, I met Adam because we started another band in 2012, I met Rich through Dan because he knows more people than me and we all met Leo through Rich. My main inspiration for starting the band was boredom and pretty much the desire to do literally anything other than go into a hopelessly endless cycle of education and employment for the rest of my life…yay!
Rich: Well, I was asked to join by Dan I believe, and started on bass. Bass is cool, but I find actually saying lyrics I’ve written a lot more fun.
PM: How would you describe the band’s music?
Adam: Heavy and melodic. Does that make sense? I don’t know if it does but that’s what it is. “Post Metalcore” as we seem to be labeled as recently.
Luke: Lyrically miserable, musically melancholic, overall loud and angry.
Rich: What was it that woman said? “The worst gothic music”? That, that is what we are.
PM: So nothing like the infamous Malibu Stacy, believed to be the islands greatest ever rock band?
Adam: Hahahaha, far from Malibu Stacy. Funnily enough, they’re called Fügue State now and they’re better than Malibu Stacy ever were.
Luke: I maintain it’s because Adam left them.
Adam: I maintain Ignite The Sky got better when I joined…
Rich: Yeah, I definitely think we have a ‘KISS’ kinda sound.
PM: Living on the Isle Of Man, as beautiful as it is, are there many venues to play?
Adam: Here we go, you want to get us started on this one? For us, no there isn’t. We get a few gigs here and there, certain events, festivals and such… but as a regular normal gig? No. Due to the music we play, there is only one venue that is willing to have us play regularly. Unfortunately most of the pubs and bars here are unaccepting unless you’re a classic rock cover band, which we are not by any stretch of the imagination. Over to these guys now before I get annoyed with this subject again!
Luke: Wait, there’s a venue here?
PM: Judging by the amount of bands I have found on Facebook who live on the Island, and there’s not a lot, it must be a tight scene?
Adam: Not any more. It used to be, but it feels like we’re one on our own nowadays. We’re friends with a few bands, such as The Fletcher Christian Mutiny and Aeons (formerly The Water Is Rising) but in the grand scheme of things, no, it’s not a tight scene anymore.
Luke: Wait, there’s a scene here?
Rich: This island is amazing. But the music scene is absolutely dead. We are literally right now the heaviest band on the island. Which yes, it’s cool to say, but it would be nice to actually have other bands to play with.
Adam: Absolutely. It’s a nightmare trying to find support bands.
PM: Does everyone know everybody else? And do many bands simply swap members, or do a few play in other bands as well?
Adam: Yeah, as you come to do more gigs and end up on different line ups you do meet a lot of people, and as it’s a small island, everyone knows one another anyway, for better or worse. I wouldn’t necessarily say people simply “swap members”, but there are a good few people with their fingers in many musical pies, so to speak. For instance, Rich, Leo, and myself are also in a pop punk band called Honest Eyes, but that’s another story, haha.
Luke: I mean I’ve stayed in the same band for the entire time I’ve been playing so… Well there was Bring Out Your Dead but it’s pretty much the same lineup, so yeah I’ve stayed in the same band. I haven’t been around much. Dunno why, my personality is infectious…
Rich: Yeah there’s definitely a ‘clique’ if that’s the right term, you’re either in or out. I’m gonna go with we’re out.
PM: Who would you say are your main influences?
Adam: This is a tricky subject as we all have such a wide taste in music. Despite playing in a metal band, I myself love 80’s glam metal such as Tigertailz, Lizzy Borden and Enuff’Z’Nuff, I’m a big fan of rap, spanning from NWA, Ice T, Mobb Deep etc, to the newer batch of artists coming through such as Kendrick Lamar, Kevin Gates, A$AP Rocky etc. I’d say when it comes to heavy music I take the trophy in the band for liking the most heaviest disgusting shit, I swear by Black Tongue man, they’re incredible. I dunno, I just love music. And burgers. My main musical influences for contributing to Ignite The Sky, I’ll go for Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon (pre 2012), While She Sleeps and Atreyu.
Luke: Let’s open this can of worms then. Personal influences for me are Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails, Motley Crue and The Defiled. When it comes to writing music I’m mostly influenced by The Defiled these days, Still Remains, Architects, Julien K, Marilyn Manson, Of Machines…etc. I like to mix sounds to make it so obscure what the influences are and be as original as possible. Lyrically I guess…Manson? And Get Scared, although the latter purely by coincidence (they stole one of my lyric sheets, I swear it). Otherwise just a really weird and self-deprecating brain.
Rich: Hahahaha well, I love pop punk, and as far this genre goes I listen to like 2 bands similar to us, however I find it much easier to write for this kind of music, and fuck is it fun to play live!
PM: You’re known to have quite bad luck at times, any stories?
Adam: Well there was the fact that 2 gigs in a month got cancelled due to rain…
Luke: Or the fact that we were going for 4 years before we played a show, or the fact that we were going for 6 years before we got a stable lineup (and still haven’t), that kind of stuff.
Rich: Yeah we’re all pretty unlucky as a group, we’ve all got our own shit, but we manage.
Adam: You’ll never find a group of fuck ups quite like us, it’s amazing we all ended up in this together.
PM: What does the future hold for Ignite The Sky?
Adam: Well, long term, who knows? But coming soon, we’ll be releasing a new EP, and a full length album somewhere down the line.
Rich: We are also in the early stages of organising a tour for next year!
PM: What equipment do you boys use?
Adam: I’m currently using Ibanez and LTD guitars, through Laney amplifiers.
Luke: PRS and Ibanez guitars, Ibanez basses, Marshall guitar amps and Laney bass amps.
Rich: Shure SM58, not too exciting.
PM: Any last words?
Adam: Smoke weed, drink beer, get laid, hail Satan and listen to Ignite The Sky.
Luke: Praise Helen Lovejoy.
Rich: Jesus is no friend of mine.
PM: Thanks guys
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ignitetheskyuk
Instagram: @ignitetheskyuk
Youtube: Ignite The Sky
Download our EP “Rain” for free here: www.ignitethesky.bandcamp.com
