an Interview by Andy Bucher - January, 2005
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Since the early 90s, The April Skies have been wearing this tag that screams
“one of the great alternative pop bands you should have heard of”. Whatever
that means? Does the label “alternative” music even mean anything these days?
I was lucky enough to watch these guys explode out of the central Pennsylvania
music scene way back then, playing to excited crowds at the Chameleon Club in
Lancaster, PA and then watching them move onto rooms like CBGB’s and DC’s 9:30
club. Often the skies were compared to English bands like The Cure & Echo & the
Bunnymen (something that hasn’t changed much). It was an exciting time when all
music didn’t have to be so angry, yet emotion and feeling were conveyed so
easily thru the ethereal guitar sounds and lush vocal melodies. There was often
a buzz that the band was on their way to a promising record deal. But obviously
it never materialized. I heard blips and rumors about the skies throughout the
mid/late nineties, but eventually they disappeared off my radar and into the
long list of bands that should’ve been king – at least for a day.
Then one day, I was completely surprised and astounded when someone handed me a
copy of “The Breathe EP”. The April Skies were back. And music started making
sense to me again. Recently, I chatted it up with the ‘skies’ founding member
Jake Crawford (vocals & guitars) about the glory days, the bands extended break
from music, their re-entrance into the music world a year or so ago with “The
Breathe EP” and their exciting new full length “Flood”.
Your new CD “flood” is about to be released. Is the excitement building?
Jake: “I am extremely happy it’s done. Yeah. Actually, we haven’t gotten the
CDs back from the printer yet so I’m holding out for the finished package. Once
it’s in my hands then I’m sure I’ll feel a little more festive.”
So in general how are you? You’ve been away from music for a while?
Jake: “I’m a little grumpy. But mostly okay. I’ve been back in music long
enough now that it already feels like I never left. The cynicism and jadedness
has returned. But I’m excited to be making music again. I’m excited people
remember the band and our music. That was a nice surprise. It’s always great to
see people from other bands that I’ve known forever still out there doing it.
But the real thrill has been new and old fans and how positive they’ve
responded to our new material.”
What music are you listening to these days?
I’m a huge Interpol fan. I like The Stills, The Killers and The Secret
Machines. Keane is growing on me. I’m also digging bands like The Arcade Fire
and Snow Patrol. Thank God for XPN (WXPN radio out of Philadelphia –
www.wxpn.org). I discovered The Autumns some time ago and I’m completely
fascinated with them. I’d love to do some shows with those guys. I’m thrilled
fellow Hershey residents The Ocean Blue are still making music and playing
shows. They definitely were one of the biggest inspirations on my life. I’m
very into the local central Pennsylvania scene more than ever. We have a
diverse scene but the caliber of songwriting is superb. Bands like Wayne
Supergenius, Milkshake Jones, Parallax Project, Bridges and a Bottle, The
Jellybricks to name a few.
How do you feel about the bands decision to work with producer Jeff
Feltenberger (The Badlees, Darcy Miner, Echotown).
Jake: “Oh, I still think it was a good decision on our part. Our previous
release, “The Breathe EP”, got some great reviews around the country. It got
radio play throughout the US and over in Europe in small pockets. But I like to
think it would’ve gone over more if we would’ve done as better job on the
mixing and mastering. I really like that EP. It has a great indie record sound
to it but on the flip side, a lot of radio passed because the overall quality
didn’t translate to radio. I mean, we can’t be too disappointed, hell, we
recorded it in my garage and it was actually intended to be more of a demo than
an actual release. But we felt it had a lot of life and charm to it. So we put
it out. When we approached making “flood”, our initial conversations with Jeff
were mostly us wanting to make sure that this record’s quality was as good as
anything else out there. Jeff spent the 90s making major label records with The
Badlees. He brought with him that experience which we thought was valuable.
He’s an amazing singer. I knew he’d demand great vocal performances out of us.
And when we were still in pre-production, it became clear to us that he’s all
about the song and making moments. The things that are important to creating
great songs and a great record.”
Where does this release stack with your other releases?
Jake: “Well, it’s certainly at the top – with most of the others. I don’t think
I’m able to rate them. But I’m really proud of this record. It was six months
of extremely hard work. All of us worked extremely hard. Everyone showed
patience. Everyone hung in there and remained committed to the cause. There
were a lot of good times and bad times making it. There was plenty of drama and
chaos. There were a few times I sat and asked myself why am I subjecting myself
to this torture? But listening to it now…I like to think I’d do it again if I
had to.”
Sounds a little painful?
Jake: “Well…it was early on - in a good way. Midway thru the recording, things
got weird. But towards the end, especially when all the songs really started to
come together and shine…it nulled out the not-so-good times and everyone got
REALLY excited. And we were able to preview some of the songs to friends and
family and we saw their faces light up. That definitely caused the mood to
shift and give us the inspiration needed to finish. And then we were able to
start thinking about getting out there to play shows and promote this record.
Yeah! All of us in the band were remarkably united during the making of this
record. We never had any drama between the five of us, except for a little
during the period when Mark Mazick left the band – which was something on the
verge of happening for quite some time. When we started the band back up, we
all agreed that doing this needs to be fun for us otherwise we should maybe
think about whether we want to continue on doing this. Which is such a
dramatic, either/or, goofball thing to say. Especially when my current
intentions are to keep making music for as long as someone will listen. Ya
know…we’ve all been through so much since the early 90s. And then I walked away
for all that time. We’ve spent so much time and energy cranking things up again
- I think it would take a little more than a few bad moments in the studio to
send me back into hiding again.
I must admit that I was surprised when I heard you guys were playing shows and
releasing music again.
Jake: “Yeah, me too. It was really an sort of an accident. I certainly didn’t
see it coming. But sometimes you have to just have to go with the flow. Mark
Mazick (who left the band during the making of “flood”) was really instrumental
in getting me playing music again. It was all very innocent and organic. After
a bit of tooling around for fun, it just seemed right. Ok, let’s crank the
April Skies machine up again and see what happens. But our goals aren’t chasing
a record deal and becoming rock stars. I think that window closed some time ago
(laughs). Our main focus is to continue making records on our terms and playing
as many shows as we possibly can, which we do have limitations now – and
hopefully making more fans and friends along the way.”
Is there still a lot of talk about the early/mid nineties version of the band?
Jake: “Sometimes. When we first started back up we obviously used the name and
the history to try to re-open some doors and make it easier opening some new
ones. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. It’s not like the early nineties
version of the band was as big as Pearl Jam or The Cure. Yeah cool, we were
always on the verge of a record deal, and we got some music of ours played on
MTV on Cindy Crawford’s fashion show and programs like that. Yeah, we had some
cool things going on for us but we didn’t sustain and we fizzled out like so
many other bands. I still talk to Cary all the time and it’s very cool that he
can still participate on stage and in the studio. But yeah, it still happens
every so often…someone comes up to me and says ‘I remember you guys played
back in .’ Not so much anymore but it happens.
Recently I got an email from someone who told me that he use to write reviews
for Alternative Press and that he thinks he wrote a review of our first full
length “A Strange Western Mood”. Now I never knew of a review in AP. If that
happened, I’d love to see it. I’ve never ever felt famous in my entire life.
But yeah, sometimes weird things like that still happen.”
Any one particular incident that sticks out?
Jake: “Yeah, I think it was the summer of 94 or 95. I had pretty much rebuilt
the lineup w/ Higgins and some other guys. But I was starting to settle down
and think about maybe doing something else that could actually pay the bills.
Remember that back in the early 90s, we played a lot of shows at the Chameleon
Club in Lancaster, PA and another band that played there then was +Live+. After
their second record exploded and they went from being unknown locals to MTV
stars and having their picture on the cover of Rolling Stone, they kicked off
their tour by playing Hersheypark Stadium and selling it out. Being big fans,
me and all my friends went to the show. And it was a great show. But me
remembering them as a band that use to play those Sunday Night all age shows at
the Chameleon – just like us. Well, it was hard not to feel sentimental about
what could’ve been for us. But I was actually feeling good from seeing those
guys put on a great show and started making peace with myself that I was
heading in the right direction in life. After the show, a long-time buddy and
me stopped at a bar to grab a few six-packs on route to a friends after-show
party. And as I’m spouting off about how its amazing that +Live+ is becoming
one of the biggest bands in the world and the April skies demise is an okay
thing – a girl, who was obviously at the +Live+ show walks by us to leave the
bar and we realize that she’s wearing an April Skies t-shirt. My buddy and I
both stopped and looked at each other in shock. I think we both felt like
someone was maybe sending me a message. Of course, I eventually took a few
years off anyway and wasn’t even thinking about coming back.”
And here we are in 2005
Jake: “And hoping to be doing this for years to come. We’re already talking
about the next record. We’re discussing songs. We’re pointing out things we’ll
do differently and new things we’d like to try. That’s a good sign. Two months
ago, everyone was looking at each other saying ‘I hope it’s a long time until
we make another record’. One thing that was really exciting to me was when Cary
(Brown, ex-lead singer during the early 90s who still performs on occasion w/
The April Skies) was here for a visit last fall. We got to play 4 or 5 shows
with him, which meant we got to crack out a lot of the older tunes we don’t
play anymore. But we were able to get him in the studio to lay some vocal
tracks down on a couple of songs. It just sounded right – his voice being on
our music. I’d like to see more of that down the road.”
So what’s next order of business for The April Skies?
Jake: “Play shows. Play lots of shows all over the east coast. Maybe travel a
little. Hopefully sell a couple of CDs. We’re just really excited to get out
there and play for people. We’re looking forward to doing shows for pretty much
the rest of this year. We’ll see what happens. We work with an awesome group
called The Roundtable Presents – who help bands by featuring them and exposing
them to a larger audience of people who are into live, original music. Mike
Powers is a great guy with a lot of energy and he has a strong vision committed
to helping the bands under the Roundtable’s umbrella. Another important project
we’d like to do that we did with “The Breathe EP” is to get a national press
campaign going so people find out about the new CD. We worked Rhonda Kelley at
Rainmaker Publicity and she did an amazing job at telling people about us and
our EP. And we’d definitely like to get some of these tunes out to radio around
the country so people can hear them. It wasn’t intended but I think there’s a
couple of songs on this disc that people would enjoy hearing on the radio.”
I can’t stop listening to “Crutch”
Jake: “Yeah, that seems to be the case for most everyone. It’s a real catchy
song. Funny, when we originally wrote it - it was much more shoe-gazer in
sound. Loud and dreamy with tons of feedback. In the studio, it just came to be
what you hear now. A pop song. I think it works.” 
“Long Way Down” and “You Are the One” seem ready-for-radio?
Jake: “Thanks. That would be cool. I’ll take whatever we can get! More than
ever, the goal for this record is for people to hear it - people that don’t
know about the band. I’d love to hear “Long Way Down” screaming from my car
radio. But I’m not holding my breath. I think there’s something for everyone on
this record. In that sense, this record reminds me of a Replacements record -
the diversity of styles from one song to the next. “Still” is a beautiful pop
song, “Shaking the Day” is classic Skies. Hopefully others get to hear it. I’d
really like this CD to get a chance to be heard by a lot of people.”
Are you working with a label or releasing “flood” independently?
Jake: “Initially, we’re putting it out on our own. We’ll sell it at shows and
thru our website, which will actually send you to CDBaby.com or whoever will
handle the online sales. Not sure about labels. We’ve talked to a few. We’ll
hopefully at least have a few songs on a few different label compilations this
year. We’d certainly be into working with a label if the deal made sense for
us. I’m not going to be a fool and promise some small indie that I’m going to
move a hundred thousand CDs or more with little-to-zero promotion or publicity.
I think we’re willing to work really hard enough that together us and the right
label could have a nice, mutually beneficial relationship. If that doesn’t
happen (and I’m not holding my breath again), I definitely want to get some
type of distribution going. I’m determined to make it easy for people to be
able to buy our CDs. That is a top priority.”
Any tours being planned?
Jake: “Maybe some small scale trips. Long weekend deals. We’d like to play the
west coast. We’d like to hit some of the Midwest like Chicago. We’re anxious to
play down South in NC and Atlanta. We’re going to play everywhere we can. We’ve
also had talks going on for quite a while about a 10-12 day trip to Europe in
the fall. With Cary living there and playing around France & Germany for the
last 10 years, that’s something not-so-unrealistic for us to set up. It’ll
require a lot of work but it’s something we’re really looking forward to doing.
We’re planning a pretty big year. Hopefully more and more people will discover
The April Skies and enjoy what we do.”