INTERVIEW: King Blue's Skye on latest single 'Breathless': "It’s a shift into the direction that we are wanting to go into."
Interview: Jett Tattersall
Perth based five piece band King Blue launched their music career last year with their debut single ‘Games’. Fronted by Skye Sam, the band create indie music that expertly flirts with multiple genres while remaining beholden to none. It is guitar rock married with pure pop sensibilities, with hints of surfpop and a bit of 1970s glam and funk. It is all held hostage by Sam’s voice, which glides over the beats - warm, emotive and utterly beguiling.
Last month they released their fourth single ‘Breathless’. Opening with a squealing electric guitar, it moves into a smooth indie pop track with delicious melodies, gorgeous backing vocals and infectious hooks as Sam sings of being swept away in the first days of a new relationship. It’s a song you will instantly fall in love with.
King Blue have steadily been building a fan base over the past year and after performing with the likes of San Cisco, Death By Denim, The Rions & Caravana Sun they are quickly becoming a band to closely watch on the Australian music scene. We recently caught up with Sam to find out more about the band and the creation of ‘Breathless’.
Hi Skye, thank you for joining me today to chat about all things King Blue. How is everything going with you?
It's good! We have a few gigs coming up. It's kind of nice because we got to have a little break after our single launch, we let everything settle for a second before we go back to gigging again.
Your single launch was one hell of a show. Can you tell me about that?
I can speak for all of us when I say that it was quite literally our favourite show that we've done. It was just amazing. We were not expecting that many people to actually be there, and because it's quite an intimate space that we played in, it really did fill out you could just hear everyone singing every single word of every song, it was really special.
You have such a huge fan base for a relatively new band on the circuit. What do you think it is about your sound that really gets people out of their houses, out of their seats and onto the dance floor?
I like to think that we’re entertaining to watch. There's some bands that have incredible music, but sometimes their stage presence or the crowd interaction isn't quite there. One of the first feedback we got was that we really needed to up our stage presence, as a new band starting out you're gonna be nervous. So we were like, ‘You know what? Yeah, we'll do that!’ Now we play for fun and for each other and we just enjoy what we're doing on stage. And that shows, and I've noticed that if you're making eye contact with people, and you're dancing at them, they'll dance back, you know?
This is an absolute lesson in psychology! ‘Breathless’ is this divine ear worm, a summer drive song and each component effortlessly complement each other, you can really hear each other in the group. Can you talk to me about your approach to this track, particularly as it's a bit of a shift in sound for you as well.
Yeah, it’s a shift into the direction that we are wanting to go into. For the first three singles of ours, our goal was just to get songs out, we wanted people to hear our music, but we didn’t settle on an actual sound. We're finally thinking about that now when we're writing and recording songs and, and ‘Breathless’ is definitely one of songs where we are like ‘this is definitely the direction we want to go in’. For me in particular, it's the backing vocals and the harmonies that I like a lot, [they’re] my favourite thing in the whole world. So for this one, and our next single, those are quite prevalent in the songs so that's definitely going to be a part of that sound that we're reaching for.
I love that. Can you talk to you a little bit about how you came together as a group and how we're hearing you now?
We all went to high school together and four of us were in same music class. Daniel was the year below us, but we had heard him play and we were like, ‘this guy is incredible’. Our music teacher told us that our assignment for the year was to write a song and then record it. She put us in a band and the bassist Toby and had like a little chat, like ‘we wish we could start a band outside of school and these would be the people we want in the band, because they're all really good’. Eventually we got the courage to go up to them and actually ask, because we really didn't think that they would say yes. But they said yes, and then we started playing at Dan's house in his little music room but as soon as we wanted to start gigging we all had to go into lockdown, so that kind of sucked. But here we are!
That's a gorgeous story! You're wonderful lyricist and performer, has music always been a thing view for you, with regards to creating it?
Absolutely. I have a photo of when I was three or four and I'm like, eating a microphone, and I'm playing one of those toy guitars. I look back at that and I'm like, ‘girl, if only she knew!’ It’s all I've wanted to do since I was really young. In year three or four we had a little talent show in class and I sang, my friends were my little backup dancers, and then at high school I would like sing at all the assemblies. I always liked music class, it was never not an option. If I didn't do it, I don't know what I'd be doing.
Who were those pop stars you were listening to growing up?
When I was quite younger, I had two obsessions - Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. Now that I'm older, I listen to a lot more [artists] but I was very, very obsessed with those two. I still like Ari, she's a queen, I don't really listen to Taylor anymore but she's sick. They're very powerful woman, they are good at what they do obviously otherwise they wouldn't be where they are right now. My obsession right now is the band Alvvays and The Marías. They are also female led bands and they are just incredible. They are more of that indie sound, soI've definitely shifted music tastes, but it's still in in the same ballpark.
How have you found navigating that world of indie pop/rock? It is predominantly still a very blokey scene in Australia. How have you found it, particularly as you're the sole female of the group?
It's definitely male dominated, but what what I really like is that there are a few venues who when you try and book a gig, they like to make sure that the lineup is diverse, and it's not just a male led lineup. That makes me so happy because that's really important to see. There aren't as many women doing it, and it’s cool to have venues actually be like, ‘no, your lineup isn't diverse enough, you need to have more women on the lineup.’ I'm really excited for our next single launch because we've planned an all female led lineup and I'm so excited for it because it's very powerful to see that.
Absolutely. If people aren't seeing it, people aren't going to try and do it for themselves.
Exactly!
Obviously ‘Breathless’ is out and it's just beautiful. You’ve got new singles happening. What else is coming up for you?
We're going into the studio to record a whole new EP and I'm so excited because like I said before, we're finally reaching that sound that we're looking for and these songs definitely pay tribute to that. And then we're going to try at the end of the year to organise a little tour around the Perth area, and then a little bit up north and then down south. Hopefully by next year, we'll maybe have enough money, enough songs to go over east. It's a lot to think about and a lot to organise, but that's the hope. Our fingers are crossed!
‘Breathless’ is out now. You can stream here.
To keep up with all things King Blue you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook.
King Blue are supporting The Grogans at The Aardvark, Fremantle on July 8. Tickets on sale here.
