Shattered Skies
Shattered Skies’ second album examines the effects of social media and reality television on our mental health. From the idea of the ‘tortured artist’ to their forays into synthwave, they discuss the creation of Muted Neon.
The Anglo-Irish proggers muse on the impact of social media in today’s world.
“Ithink it’s a trope in pop culture. That the ‘tortured’ artist is going to produce the best, most beautiful and most emotional piece of work. I’ve been through that, and that’s not what depression is. That’s not what anxiety is. It doesn’t make you create.”
Shattered Skies’ frontman Gerry Brown is pondering over the dangerous idea of the ‘tortured artist’, that mental health problems will result in the most stunning work. As
someone who has struggled with his own mental health, Brown believes that this idealised view is misguided.
“It’s only when you come out the other side that you get that required energy and passion back in your life,” he continues. “You can take things from it, those experiences, but they’re not what make the art. There are stigmas surrounding mental health, but as someone who has struggled with it, I just don’t have time to worry about them. You’ve just got to be who you are and do what you have to in order to get what you want to do done!”
Shattered Skies certainly do get things done. It’s been a sometimes bumpy ride to get to where they are today: the band uprooted from Ireland to London in 2013 to further their career, only to have their original singer Sean Murphy leave amicably two years later. But thankfully, they found Brown, and the rest is history.
“Long term, I don’t regret the move, we have had more opportunities here and the line-up we’ve ended up with I think is the strongest we’ve ever had, but it was difficult,” guitarist Ian Rockett explains. “Trying to get up on our feet in a new country in terms of living, financially and everything else. Upheaval like that takes its toll.”
The band are all also very aware of the toll that mental health problems can take on a person, both generally and within the music industry itself. Indeed, their second album, Muted Neon, examines a very modern mental health issue: warped societal ideals depicted on reality TV and social media, and the resulting damage we inflict upon ourselves in that constant quest for validation.
“These societal and cultural trends make you want to compare yourselves to other people’s bests – and subsequently, you’re thinking about your worst,” says Brown. “The fact that you’re connected to everyone all the time means that you don’t ever feel properly connected and, more than that, you have got to think about the fact that social media is a tool. A tool that is being controlled and developed by someone else or some other organisation.”
Rockett admits that rising above all of this is not easy.
“When I was writing those lyrics, I was basically picturing being like the average person you see trying out for stuff like Big Brother or Britain’s Got Talent. People are literally willing to compromise their own
“These societal and cultural trends make you want to compare yourselves to other people’s bests – and subsequently, you’re thinking about your worst.”
Gerry Brown
character to try and get some sort of relevance,” he sighs ruefully. “Initially when I first started to use stuff like Facebook, it was just a handy means to speak to your mates and post pictures and promote your band a bit. As it’s progressed, it’s become how people identify themselves by it. That said, there is no way you don’t get a little adrenaline rush when you post something and it gets a lot of likes. All of us experience it, including me!
“It’s a weird place to be right now,” he continues, “and that’s happening in conjunction with people confronting the mental health issue. I’m sure there are a lot of artists covering this right now, but that’s because it is the main issue of our day. This is our approach to it.”
The video for lead single You Will Know My Name examines these ideas further: conceived by Annie Batten, friend of the band and interdisciplinary artist and owner of visual arts company Tabula Rasa, it is a reflection on society’s desperate and insatiable need for relevance.
“You’ve got this person staring down the camera trying to get in people’s faces and getting weirder and worse and more desperate as it goes on,” Brown explains of the concept. “The powder and the UV paint – that was someone trying to be as eye-grabbing as they could, even if they are masking themselves. The ‘neon’ part was the idea of getting someone to look less and less human. But as eye-catching as they can, because they’re doing it on purpose.”
“It represents him constantly trying to change and shift to become relevant in some way,” says Rockett. “It’s also a visual metaphor for the whole ‘I’ll turn myself into whatever you want as long as you just look at me’ thing.”
Boasting a vibrant, dynamic exploration of sound, Muted Neon takes the heavy prog of Shattered Skies’ former material and adds even more memorable hooks, pushing further into accessible territory without compromising on the aggressive intensity or sense of hopeful exuberance that makes them so captivating.
From the grandiose bombast of opener
The Disaffected, which arrives with heady twists and turns, to the uneasy sprawl of electro-tinged earworm The First Circle, the 11-track album is a powerful force.
Between the album’s moniker and two members of the band specifically handling synth programming, the 80s aesthetic throughout is undeniable. There are nods to Escape From New York-era John Carpenter sitting alongside the darkly melodic melange of classical composition and synthesisers mirroring the futuristic film noir of Blade Runner. But forays into synthwave aside,
Muted Neon has more than enough substance and sonic complexity to keep any fan of progressive music gripped, with additional influences rooted in a range of acts associated with the genre.
“Devin [Townsend] is definitely one of those artists that we listened to when we were writing. Especially his earlier solo stuff,” Rockett recalls. “I also took a lot of influence on the keyboards from early Dream Theater. Images And Words and Awake – specifically the keys on those. Their first keyboardist, Kevin Moore, did some really interesting things with these strange string patterns and pitch bends, and almost slightly computer game-esquesounding synths and the way they mixed against heavy guitars.”
“We’ve also got to give credit to Ross [McMahon, drums, programming],” Brown interjects. “He did all the mixing and mastering. We wanted to fit so much in, and to get that warp of sound without it becoming less was a huge ask. In all honesty, the drumming only comprises 30 or 40 per cent of what he actually does in the band!”
Shattered Skies have already conquered festival giants ProgPower, Euroblast and the UK’s Bloodstock, and Muted Neon has just been released, but they’re not about to rest on their laurels.
“It doesn’t matter what type of band you’re in – whether it’s one that plays in the pub on a Friday night or one that’s hitting up huge tours on a regular basis. Whatever category that band fall under, it needs to be part of the puzzle that makes up your life,” Brown declares emphatically. “Because if that band is not essential to who you are as a person and what your life is, then you’re never going to stick it out.”
“I think we can probably speak for that more than most bands, having moved countries and having had those line-up changes,” Rockett concludes. “Some would argue it’s all about perseverance. Idiotic, relentless perseverance. You’ve got to need to do it – because if you only want to do it, something along the way will demotivate you enough to stop you doing it. When you get that feedback that people really love what you’ve written, and that they’ve gleaned something from it, that always drives you forward. That makes all the difference. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t making a huge amount financially – it’s the passion that will drive you forward.”
“I also took a lot of influence on the keyboards from early Dream Theater. Images
And Words and Awake – specifically the keys on those.”
Ian Rockett