Personally excited to share Hollowed Sky‘s latest album, Bound By Nightmares, with you!
In this interview spotlight, I chat with members of Hollowed Sky about the new release, adapting during the pandemic, other challenges and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?
We are from the Annapolis region of Maryland, USA. Our music might best be described as heavy alternative rock, or alternative rock with metal elements. At the same time, we aren’t necessarily trying to sound like anything, we kinda just write the tunes as they come to us. We are constantly redefining our sound in that sense, but also in the sense of trying out new instruments/amps/pedals/cymbals/microphones, etc. We don’t ever want to feel like we’re stuck in place, or get too complacent with our sound at any given time.
How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?
Berchielli: I think, probably for all of us, playing music became something we were interested in at a young age, maybe early or mid teenage years, and thankfully there have been enough positive experiences involving music throughout the years that the initial drive we each had to create music has remained. Legend has it that my musical journey began with me and my friends playing in a dumpster in the summer of 1994, and someone said “We should start a Nirvana cover band!”
Bradshaw: I played guitar a solid year before I could afford my first drum kit from my taekwondo teacher.
How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?
We think that it’s overall a much darker and heavier album than our previous releases; which wasn’t necessarily done on purpose, and is probably more of a sign of the times, and the crazy things that have been going on all around us. This one will sound significantly different in terms of the mix than our previous albums. One reason for that is that for half of the songs on the new album, we are using a 5-string bass along with a baritone guitar, so those songs tend to sound very dark. Another is that there was a big change in the way we tracked the guitars. This is the first album where we used tube amps and traditional effects pedals to create the guitar sounds, as opposed to direct line recording and digital amp/effect simulation on all of our previous albums. We think it sounds much more tangible, gritty, heavy, and real.
Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?
Berchielli: For us, playing music is our weekly therapy session. So we try to take all of the negative feelings that get generated from the things that are happening in the world, or in our lives, and channel those feelings into creating music.
Rupertus: I would say that the pandemic in the beginning was a big halt in our process, but what came out of it was huge to me. When we got back to it, a lot of songs came together quickly. A few of the songs I thought I disliked in the beginning of the writing process turned out to be some of my favorites.
Orem: I was a fuckin’ mess when I wrote these lyrics. I really didn’t realize it until today, listening.
What was the last song you listened to?
Berchielli: “The Scientists” by Hum
Bradshaw: “Icky Thump” by the White Stripes, but my favorite band is Big Germ 🙂
Rupertus: “My Wave” by Soundgarden
Orem: “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?
Berchielli: Streaming services are cool because they put our tunes directly in the pockets of millions of humans. I still have a certain affection for physical forms of media, so CDs are cool in that sense. Cassettes give me a certain nostalgia for how it felt when I first started listening to music in the 1980s.
Bradshaw: I like CDs, vinyl, mp3s. Cassettes break, and 8 tracks suck. But I still have a shitload of tapes. My first 2 tapes were Led Zeppelin 4th album, and Black Sabbath Paranoid from Sam Goody in the mall. They still exist somewhere.
Rupertus: I prefer CDs and digital. My first CDs were an import live Metallica, Rage Against the Machine – Evil Empire, and Prodigy – Fat of the Land.
Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?
hollowedsky.com is where you can find all of our social and streaming links, and Twitter is where we are the most interactive with our followers. Our Twitter handle is @Hollowed_Sky
I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?
Thanks for chatting with us. We really just want everyone who might be interested to please check out our new album, Bound by Nightmares.
