Skyfall

Comments

There are no comments yet. Click here to start the conversation!

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Printer friendly

More Music News

• Who's afraid of puberty? Not Justin Bieber
• Fred Eaglesmith happy to keep rough edges in shows
• Jo Dee Messina's music is no longer held hostage

Share and Enjoy

MARYVILLE, Tenn. — Together less than a year, Maryville band Skyfall has made great strides in a short time. Having already released a five-song EP in late August, the group is eager to return to the studio to polish off its full-length in November. Having played only a handful of shows in the communities surrounding Knoxville, Skyfall hopes its upcoming performance at Maryville's Foothills Fall Festival will serve as the resume boost it needs to book sizable shows in Knoxville and neighboring areas.

Most of Skyfall's members came together through previous spiritual-oriented outfits, before finding vocalist Laura Bloomfield in a chance encounter following one of the band's initial practices. A server at the time, Bloomfield expressed an interest in filling the band's vacant vocalist position and was drafted immediately following her powerful audition. As winner of the 2009 Rising Star of Tennessee Competition, Bloomfield adds quality as well as diversity to the Skyfall lineup.

Recording its first EP at Nightsong Studios shortly after the band's formation, Skyfall claims to have increased its level of technicality in the material written since. With enough new songs to complete a full album, the group hopes to return to Nightsong to add the remaining content to the album which will also include the original EP tracks.

"We have written all the songs that will be on our first full length album," says guitarist Kevin Bailey. "We are planning on returning to Nightsong Studios in November to record the final six or so songs. Jesse Jones did the work on our EP, and we just had a blast working with him. The untitled album will include the songs from the EP and will have six or so new songs that have a slightly edgier sound. The post EP songs have grown in substance and technicality. We feel that our first five songs gave us a great launching pad for new material. Honestly, we have not stopped writing since that EP release. When we get together at practice we usually walk away with a new song. It almost feels good to have to say, 'OK, let's put these songs on the shelf for our next CD.'"

With only a handful of live outings to date, Skyfall's performances have yet to find a way into the Knoxville city limits, but with its upcoming Foothills Fall Festival contribution, the band hopes to build a name that will carry the band into Knoxville's larger venues. Meanwhile, the group is happy to play the small-town venues of nearby communities.

"Our first and most important goal is to become a staple in the area," says guitarist Grayson Shockley. "We're just now entering the booking stage, but we've been fortunate enough to be included in the Foothills Fall Festival which will be our first major gig. Covering both Blount and Knox counties is very important to us, and we have a desire to be involved with all the surrounding music scenes. We don't see any disadvantages to being based in Maryville because we keep our ... relationships wide open."

"Being a brand new band, getting into the Knoxville music scene has not been easy for us so far," adds Bailey. "We are less than 6 months old and do not have many gigs on our resume. We are hoping our performance at the Foothills Fall Festival will change that."

Skyfall will perform at Maryville's 10th Annual Foothills Fall Festival Sunday at 1 p.m. The festival, held at the Theatre in the Park, spans the entire weekend with an opening ceremony scheduled for 6:15pm today. Headlining acts include Kansas (tonight), Alan Jackson (Saturday) and Rodney Atkins (Sunday). General admission tickets are already sold out. Remaining tickets are available through Tickets Unlimited. For more on the event visit www.foothillsfallfestival.com.

PEOPLE SAY THEY MONKEY AROUND: The Sufi Monkeys join The Tenderhooks and Richard Lloyd on stage at Barley's Taproom tonight. This show is slated to kick off at 10 pm.

THIS MEANS GWAR: GWAR and Job for a Cowboy open for Lamb of God at the Valarium tonight. The show starts at 7 p.m. and admits all ages. Tickets are $38 in advance or $40 at the door with a $3 surcharge for those under 21.