Skyharbor Plot New Album, Europe Tour

Skyharbor on their 2015 US Tour. Photo: Akshat Nauriyal

Delhi-based guitarist-producer Keshav Dhar is just being modest when he jokes that Skyharbor’s upcoming headline Europe tour is a way to “remind people we still exist”. On the contrary, the progressive rock/metal band is one of the few outfits who have an inter-continental fanbase, just like their lineup. After all, fans from around the world pleading for shows from the multinational progressive rock/metal band and eating up every new transmission, including, most recently, their music video for the 2015 single “Blind Side.”

Skyharbor will head out on a three-week Europe soujourn starting October 1st, alongside Glaswegian prog metal act Sithu Aye and Czech instrumental metallers Modern Day Babylon. Their second tour with American vocalist Eric Emery [who joined in mid-2015, replacing UK’s Dan Tompkins], Dhar says the band is now thinking long-term with both, touring and recording. The yet-to-be-named third full-length album, which includes their singles “Out of Time” and “Blind Side,” is nearly wrapped up. This time around, Dhar is keeping it in-house, mixing and mastering the album himself, similar to their breakout 2012 debut Blinding White Noise: Illusion and Chaos. Dhar adds, “We were always a studio band and sometimes a side project for people in the band. So we used to spend all the money on the music, creating music videos and stuff as well. But when you’re a live band, you have to spend a lot to be on tour.” With a set at the Pune edition of Bacardi NH7 Weekender also announced, Dhar says there’s also an India tour in the works for December.

It helps that they had a good amount of revenue pour in from digital sales of their 2014 album Guiding Lights to divert it into the touring expenses. On the 10-track third album ”“ their first that might be self-released ”“ there was originally a vast concept story themed around characters (as the artwork for their first two singles hinted) but Dhar says there’s only a vague concept behind the songs. He adds, “Stylistically, there are some really aggressive songs, some screaming and stuff that’s a throwback to the first album. I feel like Guiding Lights wasn’t all that dynamic, but this is bipolar. There are some really pretty songs and some really heavy songs.”

The next single off the album is tentatively slated to release just before the tour in October, for which a music video is also in the works. The band has roped in Montreal-based filmmaker and animator Michael Di Lonardo, who worked on their video for “Evolution.” Dhar says, “It’s mostly animation. There’s us playing and a story as well. It’s got this insane Hollywood-level action shit going on.”