Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Answering The Call With JOSHUA WADE From SIENNA SKIES
Transcript
- 0:10Platinum sales away. Hello and thanks for listening to Heavy. This interview has
- 0:25proudly brought to you thanks to Road. You're leading a Strain based audio technology
- 0:30company. Today we have the pleasure of speaking with Yeah, my name is
- 0:33Joshua Wade. I play bass in Sydney based band Sienna Skys. We are
- 0:40going out on tour with of Mice and Men in a couple of weeks and
- 0:44we're really really excited to be a part of it, in the opportunity and
- 0:48can't wait to get back out there on the road. Out for Joshua,
- 0:51Thanks for joining us today, Runner no Aris, thanks very much for having
- 0:54me pleasure. So as you say, mate, yeah, you're right far
- 0:58off from heading out for a run the show supporting of Mice and Men,
- 1:00starting an Adelaide on February the twenty third and then hitting Sydney and Melbourne and
- 1:04finishing in Brisoner on February of twenty seven. So twenty a few weeks off
- 1:08made how all the nerves? Yeah, the nerves are catching up with us
- 1:14at the moment because it's been so long since we've played live before due to
- 1:19COVI and everything. We had an extra long break over COVID writing material and
- 1:26stuff like that. So yeah, to actually be to actually be coming back
- 1:30and playing shows in some big rooms with some friends and stuff like that.
- 1:34Yeah, it is starting to catch up on this a little bit. We're
- 1:36looking forward, but we are looking forward to it. It's been a long
- 1:38time. We can't wait to do what we do. I bet now she's
- 1:42not a massive run of shows in terms of the number of shows, mate,
- 1:45but it's still a massive achievement being chosen for the tour. So how
- 1:49do you prepare yourselves mentally for something like that, Like do you sort of
- 1:52plan it out or do you just turn up and see what happens. Every
- 1:57show is different, every market's different, every time tour is different. We
- 2:04have known dream On Dreamer for ever since they've started being a band and we
- 2:08were bands coming up together in the same scene. When it comes to Mice
- 2:13and Men, we've both known of Mice and Men in passing before, never
- 2:17really played with them before, but seeing them at other shows and festivals abroad
- 2:23and stuff like that. So vibe wise, I'm sure it's just going to
- 2:28be stella. Everyone's going to be stoked. I'm gonna have a great time.
- 2:31Everyone like online looks like they're super keen for the shows, so that
- 2:38helps with the nerves. No one is going to be a super comfortable environment.
- 2:43But yeah, to answer your question, there's not really much else to
- 2:49do, Like, let's just get up there and do it. We've always
- 2:51done, you know. It's just it's like I said just before, it's
- 2:54been a while, so we're just super excited and just can't wait to get
- 2:59our hands on our instrument in front of people and just do it, do
- 3:00it, do it again. H And I understand yourselves and dream On Dreamer
- 3:06are actually selected by the band themselves made, which makes it even more special.
- 3:09Favor you know, we we hurt, we hurt that. So yeah,
- 3:16you know, to have such a massive band in the medal core community,
- 3:21you know, reach out and say they want you, and as well
- 3:24as the boys from dream On Dreamer, I'm sure it's it's very very flattering
- 3:30and very much appreciated to see that. You know, both of our bands
- 3:32have been around for quite some time and have always worked extremely hard, so
- 3:38it's really cool to have a band of their you know, their cachet to
- 3:42reach out and say we want you. It's it is actually it's really nice
- 3:46and we we've we truly appreciate it. And I suppose the best thing about
- 3:50this mate is there's two Australian bands spelling the two supporting slots. But how
- 3:55good is that for Australian music, you know? I think I think it's
- 4:00really good for Australian music. You know, Normally a band of this caliber
- 4:05generally have the option to just bring some friends over with them and and just
- 4:14like you bring more overseas bands and just get one local. So I think
- 4:16it's pretty cool that they've actually reached out to some bands like us and Dreamer
- 4:21and you know, and just giving us the opportunity to go out on the
- 4:27road and play some big metal core shows. It's it's it's really cool,
- 4:30Like we can't we couldn't be any more stoked, honestly, and it's it
- 4:33is really good. And I think the more tours that come to Australia with
- 4:38big artists in different respected genres, I think it'd be an awesome thing to
- 4:42actually have more Australian supports on the shows going forward. I can just be
- 4:46great to prop everyone up. Yeah, there is just so many bands now
- 4:49in Australia there's just so many bands up and coming, and I think,
- 4:54you know, opportunities a few and far between for a lot of people.
- 4:58Because it's just so many bands and every band can play every show, we'll
- 5:01get every opportunity. So I think the more Australian bands on packages with big
- 5:05internationals would be would be really nice to see moving forward. That's definitely bro
- 5:11Now, you mentioned that it's been a while since you've done it by this
- 5:15race, So what's going to be different with your live set this time to
- 5:17what people might have seen last time? All on this tour, we currently
- 5:23have four new singles out and an EP coming out of March eighth, so
- 5:28we're going to be playing a bunch of the new songs that we've never actually
- 5:31played live before, as well as a lot of I guess more singly songs
- 5:39you know from the past few releases. So in saying what to expect live
- 5:45from us, expect a real high energy set full of everyone's favorites as well
- 5:49as all the new songs that seem that have been getting a great response as
- 5:54of late. How you get out to be careful? Our answer this mate,
- 5:58because I didn't realize its sire now that it's pretty much reloaded question and
- 6:00it could get you in the ship from something like this way, like do
- 6:04you go out there with a view to upstaging the headliners in a sense or
- 6:08are you're more just trying to warm up the crowd for them coming over?
- 6:12No, not at all. We we know we're playing one of three,
- 6:15so we know our job is to get out there, warm the room,
- 6:20get the place set up for dream and Dreamer, who will then get the
- 6:24play set up for of mice and men. Obviously with the mice selecting us,
- 6:28we're all in this together and it's it's going to be a great night.
- 6:32Our job is to open the show and bring as much energy as we
- 6:35can, make sure everyone has a smile on their face through the night moving
- 6:40forward, and just just keep on rock. And there is always you know,
- 6:45and that you want to play well and you want to deliver the best
- 6:47show possible, which will always reflect on you know, how people will view
- 6:53your band as an individual, as our band. You know, the better
- 6:57we perform, the more people will think set was cool. Or if they
- 7:01never heard of us before, that's a good band. Or if they have
- 7:03sort of haven't heard from us in many years, they' to be like,
- 7:06oh, yes, you know, they're doing what they've always done. That
- 7:10that's cool, you know what I mean. So there's no real like I'm
- 7:14here to take over situation. It's it's definitely. I think it's a it's
- 7:18a collective group of us, Dream and Dream of mice and men delivering the
- 7:21show for everyone who's paid their hard earned money to come to a show.
- 7:27In this current environment with all the tour traffic and everything that's going on for
- 7:30them, for people to come spend the night with our three bands, we're
- 7:35all in it together to put on a great show. And how about when
- 7:41it comes to choosing a set list, mate, do you do you try
- 7:43and choose the set list that you think might appeal to fans of the headline
- 7:46and band or do you still choose the best one for you? Cour Set
- 7:51lists of the hardest things, especially for a band like us, because we've
- 7:55been around, Us and Dream, we've both been around for so long,
- 7:58and we both have quite ah, I wouldn't say large catalogs of music,
- 8:03but we've you know, we've definitely released multiple albums. So picking a set
- 8:09like this, you want to you do want to pick songs that match the
- 8:15demographic of the show. But you also don't want to let down the people
- 8:20that want that are coming to the show to see you, know, your
- 8:24band and specific songs that they might want to hear. It's a really tough
- 8:26one, especially when you're limited for time like we. It's more those things
- 8:33are a lot more easy to control on a headlining set. But the presence
- 8:37of your question, do we cater to genre of headliner? Not so much.
- 8:43It's more about the intensity. It's it's it's more about whereabouts on the
- 8:46bill. I think you are like being an opening one of three on this
- 8:52package. We feel our like I said, our job is to come out
- 8:54there and set the tone for the rest of the evening, so we want
- 8:56to put on quite an aggressive set, so that would probably cancel out a
- 9:01few of our ballads and stuff like that. So definitely, definitely are hope,
- 9:07definitely aiming to like y Come Come with a thunder straight out of the
- 9:11gates. Ye. Now, you mentioned your new EP before that comes out
- 9:15on March of the eighth, so tell us a bit more about that.
- 9:20Yeah, we have a new EP called Only Changes Permanent coming out on March
- 9:24eighth. It's a collection of songs that we wrote all throughout the whole entire
- 9:30COVID period and recorded and got mixed many different music videos and songs on Spotify
- 9:39and Apple Music and everything all going on right now releasing music. It's it's
- 9:45a good It was a really tough one to write for us because we'd sit
- 9:50having so much time to write. It was just so weird yet so comfortable
- 9:58for us, like it was but insane. It was an absolute bloody nightmare
- 10:03because we wrote it throughout COVID and you couldn't even be in the same room
- 10:05as your band, and we're doing it on Zoom where we're using all these
- 10:09different programs where our drummer, Damon can go. We can all see each
- 10:13other on the screen, but Damon, our drummer, can control the drum
- 10:16session. Inside. This is the meeting, other people are tracking guitars and
- 10:20it was just all this stuff that was just way over my head and I
- 10:26hate technology. Nick Nicholas, our guitarist, is an IT guy and he's
- 10:31all over the top of that type of stuff. So Yeah, EP comes
- 10:35out March eighth. Album launch tour over April, late April and early May,
- 10:43all major cities across Australia, bringing out our friends No Home from Seattle,
- 10:48Washington, as well as taking up and coming Sydney medical band Haraway out
- 10:52with us. We're really excited for that run as well. It's been a
- 10:58long time since we've released music, so we were really excited to actually get
- 11:03a product out and get back on the road. It's been a long time
- 11:07overdue. But yeah, COVID really really, you know, put a thorn
- 11:13in our side in how things were going to progress, and it kind of
- 11:18sucked. I know it sucked for everyone, but it just really for us
- 11:22as well because we were coming off such good momentum. You know, we've
- 11:28been touring Europe, the US, Japan, even Australia, and then we
- 11:33planned to have time off in January to write and that's when COVID hit.
- 11:37So that planned a write dragged out for a super long time. And not
- 11:45only that, during the whole process of the last few years, you know,
- 11:50some of us have bought houses, gotten married, started families as well,
- 11:54so there was other things we had going on that was making it hard
- 12:01for us to invest the time that the record writing process needed. So it
- 12:07just delayed us a little bit more. But now we're back, things are
- 12:11moving forward. Of mice and men to it like can't Wait EP coming out,
- 12:16can't Wait, headlining to it, I can't wait again. It's just
- 12:18it feels, it really does feel good to be back. I know I'm
- 12:22rambling a little bit here, but it's just honestly, we have a lot
- 12:24going on ever since we relaunched Active out of COVID, and we're really excited
- 12:28for it. That's good to hear, good to hear. Just finish off
- 12:31finding a little bit more about the EP, like musically, is it what
- 12:35people would expect from Center Skuys or writing it in under those conditions in that
- 12:41environment? Did it? Did it effect the outcome of it? Uh?
- 12:46Generally speaking, it is it is up. Every song on the EP is
- 12:52different, every single one is different. We have a ballad, we have
- 12:54a pop punk song, we have metal core songs. You know, we
- 12:58have just good It's just it's genre wise. It's not really we didn't put
- 13:07any limits to ourselves or you know, it has to be all heavy,
- 13:09it has to be in a you know, certain genre. It's it's all
- 13:18basically, we chose the best songs that we wrote. We didn't care about
- 13:22genre. We just wanted to be the best collection of songs that we've come
- 13:26up with over this time to release to everybody. And that's that's pretty much
- 13:31it. But we do when it comes to the ballad, the soft Song,
- 13:35I can go into detail about that. How throughout COVID, you know
- 13:37we lost you know, many people. It wasn't even COVID related, you
- 13:43know, we've lost throughout the last few years in the writing process. We
- 13:46lost multiple friends to cancer other terminal illnesses, another one to systic fibrosis.
- 13:54Our friend Brendan lived last almost decade of his life with another person's lungs in
- 13:58him because he suffered from cystic fibrosis and then after many years of having them
- 14:03in him, his body rejected them and it was He was one of our
- 14:07good friends, one of our biggest fans. He's actually from Ipswich up in
- 14:13Queensland, so he'd always come to our Brisbane shows and his family's all super
- 14:16supportive of us. And you know, we're all through COVID when we're allowed
- 14:22to be have multiple people in a room together, we're lucky enough to all
- 14:26be able to be at my house and watch the streaming funeral service of his
- 14:31funeral service in Queensland because we all couldn't cross the border, so we actually
- 14:37so we have songs about the subject matters of like our friends passings, including
- 14:43his like he's obviously a part of that as well, but that's just one
- 14:46story of going off that song. And yeah, just others, just a
- 14:52lot of some songs about self doubt. You know, it's been a long
- 14:56time since releasing music. Can we still do this at a high level?
- 15:01These songs good enough? Am I happy with them? It's sorry? Are
- 15:07we happy with them? It's just yeah, there's a lot a lot goes.
- 15:11A lot goes has gone into the ep al right restaurant role. Thanks
- 15:16very much for your time today. Brain. There are run of shows with
- 15:18Advice and Men kicks off in Adelaide on February twenty third, and you've got
- 15:20your own shows after that, so like coming after you, guys, man,
- 15:24I should probably see you at the Brisbane show. Yeah it be sweet?
- 15:26Did ye come? Come? Hang up? Come say hi. I'm
- 15:28generally floating around like a chicken with my head cut off at every show,
- 15:31so I'm normal. I'll be the indie or yang on the chicken