Eyes On The Skyline – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews
Eyes On The Skyline – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews
Eyes On The Skyline – The Highwire Daze Legacy InterviewsOriginally Posted: 12/12/12
Eyes On The Skyline was an amazing metalcore/screamo band from the Los Angeles area who Self-Released two EP’s – which are available for download on their Bandcamp page. The band pic in the interview was taken by Talia Farber and live pix by Editor Ken at the legendary Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park.
Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Eyes On The Skyline, and how long the band has been together.
Doug Dunlap (Vocals), Duncan Murray (Vocals/Bass), Sean Powell (Guitar), Jonny Roa (Guitar), Justin Lannes (Drums).
What are your impressions of the local LA/SFV music scene, and how does Eyes On The Skyline fit into the scheme of things?
We feel like the local music scene is dying. We don’t like to be negative, but because of social networking like Facebook many people assume that bands like us can just get a following overnight. Although social network helps and is a key element in the arsenal of an emerging band, it isn’t a one-way ticket to fame. There are those who gauge a band’s potential based on their Facebook likes instead of the amount of effort they put in to their music or their abilities. Eyes on the Skyline fits into the scene because we haven’t fallen victim to the plight that many other local bands have. We’ve seen our draw fluctuate from 300 people to only 20 of our closest friends, yet what sets us apart from less successful unsigned bands is we didn’t let smaller shows affect our drive to continue making music and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
How would you describe your music to an elderly relative not familiar with the “hip” trends of today?
We don’t think that any elderly people would really listen to our style of music, but if they did and they didn’t understand it we would just say we are a really angry Frank Sinatra.
What made you decide to just give away your current EP, entitled The Freebie EP?
We wanted to give back to our fans that supported us by purchasing our first Self-Titled EP. We all know how bad the economy is right now and everyone loves free stuff so we figured why not. We did however make it so they can donate any amount that they like to help us fund the recording of our Full Length album and our next tour.
How close are you to recording a full-length effort?
We are currently in the process of writing our full length. We plan to have it recorded by Fall 2013, but if you want to hear some of the songs that will be on our upcoming album you can hear a couple live at one of our shows.
Has there been any label interest and how difficult has it been to release everything on your own so far?
We’ve been contacted by a few labels that were interested in us, but as of right now we don’t have anything set in stone. Releasing music on our own isn’t actually all that hard, the hardest part is marketing to get good numbers on release day.
Select any two Eyes On The Skyline songs and what inspired the lyrical content.
The lyrics in “Dan’s Song” were inspired by the death of a friend of Duncan’s, Dan Behar. The song was written in his memory. We found it fitting to be our only song with mostly clean vocals as opposed to mostly screams because of the meaning packed behind them. Our lyrics in “Buy The Ticket, Take The Ride” are all about reaching for the stars and chasing your dreams, we wrote it based on our own decisions to be in this band. We wanted this song to be something that would help people through tough times and help guide the direction of their life.
Who are some of the bigger bands you have opened for in the past and is there any particular show that really stands out?
We’ve had the chance to open for some pretty well-known bands, but unfortunately those bands dropped from the show and we still ended up playing. You could say we don’t have the best luck with touring bands.
What kind of touring have you done so far and do you have any strange or scary stories from the road you could share?
We have had some crazy times on the road to out of town shows. This one time we were driving back from a show in Anaheim at 3am, as we were getting closer to home on the 101 freeway this Coyote came out of nowhere and ran in front of us. We missed him by about an inch or two, but unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky as the small economy car that was a few feet behind in the next lane over from us plowed into him. I don’t want to describe all the gory details, but it was pretty bad. In short, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything explode like that before. Because we were the only other people on the road at that time of night, we pulled over to make sure the people in the car were ok. There was a lot of damage to the front of the car, but everyone in the car was fine. We hung around for a minute just in case they needed something and then headed out on our way. I swear Coyotes have death wishes.
If your music was a donut, what kind would it be and why?
It would be a bear claw because metal. \m/
What do you think makes Eyes On The Skyline stand out from the many other bands in the Los Angeles/SFV area?
We prefer sitting… But seriously what makes us stand out from other bands in the area is the fact that everything we write comes from our hearts and we don’t stick to one type of song structure. We have a specific genre that we keep to, but we like to change it up every once in a while, and give everyone an unexpected surprise.
What’s up next in the New Year for Eyes On The Skyline?
We plan on touring, recording our full length and who knows possibly a label. We are just playing a lot of things by ear at the moment. We want to see if 2013 is actually happening before we set anything in stone. (Just kidding!).
Any final words of wisdom?
Always follow your dreams because this life is too short to let someone else dictate what you do. If you don’t have a specific dream to follow don’t worry too much about it because things seem to fall into place when you least expect it and the outcome could be better than you ever imagined. Patience and hard work pays off.
(Interview and Photos by Ken Morton)
Eyes On The Skyline on Bandcamp
