www.facebook.com/darkenedskiesband
From: Canada
Sounds like: Hard Rock/Progressive Metal
1. How did you get started with music and how did you develop your sound? How did the name "Darkened Skies" come about and is there any meaning to it?
Darkened Skies started in 2018, we were a local cover band and wanted to explore writing original music. We dropped the covers and started writing only originals. Each one of us was always influenced by Rock music (whether that be Oldies, Metal, Thrash) but mostly we were heavily inspired by Progressive bands (such as Pink Floyd, Tool, Mastodon, Katatonia, Tesseract, Rush) and wanted to put our own spin on it with also mixing other genres.
I wish I could say Darkened Skies had a really cool meaning behind it, but truthfully, it's one we as a band could agree on and it has this spooky feel to it that we all liked.
2. What do you want people to take away from your music?
The main thing is I hope people feel something after listening to our music. "Ancillae" is a concept album telling the true story of Colleen Stan from various perspectives, through both the captor & captive's eyes. It doesn't dwell on gory details so much as tries to place the listener in the emotional state of each of these people.
3. How would you describe your sound to the average listener?
I would say our music is a good blend of Hard Rock, Progressive and Metal. While there is obvious Metal influence it is very light on the harsh vocals, and while each member of the band is talented in their own right on their own instrument the focus is songwriting first and not just a bunch of displays of technicality.
4. Who are three bands you’d like to tour with?
Tool, Porcupine Tree, Devin Townsend, and Spiritbox.
5. What's your thoughts on AI generated music?
It's lazy and not art. Taking the emotional communication of actual artists in whichever media and distilling into a statistical model for regeneration/reprojection is ... well there's something impure about it. It serves to diminish the work and value of that work.
6. What’s your take on the current state of Hard Rock/Metal?
I don't think there are enough mainstream Hard Rock and Metal bands. That being said, there is (even in my home town) a ton of Hard Rock and Metal bands that are amazing and should be more mainstream but are often overlooked. The biggest problem we seem to have these days is connecting artist to audience. More incredible music is made now than ever before, and with the digital age the barrier to entry of creating and publishing your music is lower than ever before. How does the audience find what they are looking for?
7. What’s the current music scene like there in Canada?
Edmonton has an amazing music and arts scene. Our area leans heavily into country music, and there is a thriving electronic scene as well. We are more involved in the Indie/Rock/Metal world here and there's something for everyone's tastes in Edmonton. The heavy music scene in particular has a ton of talent in it, so every gig we play, with every band we join on stage, we get to have our mind rocked!
8. What’s your take on the royalties that streaming services pay out to artists?
It's crap! Artists don't make enough to live on streams alone.
9. What’s next for Darkened Skies?
We are currently in the writing phase for new music and are working to have a single or two out this year and another EP ino later than 2026. We also have some exciting gigs lined up for 2025 and we can't wait to get out there!
10. Any shoutouts?
To our friends and family who supported us in this music dream you all are amazing folks.
To the local venues who took a chance on us and let us play!
To the Edmonton music people who cheered us on and supported us.
To Jackie Daniels for all your wisdom and support. She taught us to treat our band as a business rather than a hobby.
Brad Simons our recording and mix engineer. He put in the work and made us sound incredible.
