Alternative rock band Skyfactor’s new album is Master Plan, now streaming on the likes of Spotify, Tidal, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and YouTube. Ten years ago as your boxcar popular music consumer, I wouldn’t have thought much of that. After all, establishment record companies dominated the charts, flooded the musical development pipelines, and advertised to the point of nausea on every major billboard, commercial conduit, internet ad space imaginable. But thanks to the current advancements evident in every decade, the widespread rejection of the status quo across the arts, politics, and culture at large proved me wrong.
URL: https://www.skyfactormusic.com/
Adding to the mix with respect to the arts is the rise of music artists paving their own way courtesy of mass followings garnered through self-representation. As such, my interest in the band by virtue of their independence was already piqued. The destination my interest lead to did not disappoint, in fact it far exceeded what I had in mind. Skyfactor has every strength an ideal, self-sustaining musical act should have in droves. Wit, personality, a cutting-edge sound juxtaposed with raw and deliberately imperfect musical composition, and strong, evocative vocals. In some ways, listening to their new record Master Plan felt simultaneously fresh and yet a step back in time.
Back to the noughties when I was a kid, surviving teen angst on a healthy diet of Third Eye Blind, Green Day, and Duncan Sheik. The modernity factor comes in because of the band being unapologetically free. You can feel it in the design of each and every track, particular shoutouts to Help You Believe, Set Out North, and Under the Stars. Those in particular form a welcome relief after a gruesome nine to five.
In an era where constrained lyrics, digitally manipulated vocals, electronic beats dominate the former prestige of Top 40 hits, Skyfactor comes across as refreshingly earnest. A group of musicians genuinely talented enough to avoid the autotune, crafting songs with actual lyrics, complete with beginnings, middles, and ends. The self-styled biography on Skyfactor’s site confirms it all: “Formed on a rooftop in NYC’s East Village twenty short years ago, the band was first born when the musical paths of longtime friends Bob Ziegler (vocals) and Jon Rubin (guitar) crossed, and instantly the songs started flowing. It wasn’t long before they recruited Jon’s brother Cliff to join them on bass, and a few years later, enlisted Bob’s former bandmate Jason Taylor to step in behind the drum kit.”
https://open.spotify.com/track/4IRgihvypj5TQBIoHsrn8F
They add, “…SKYFACTOR’s brand new album MASTER PLAN, available through Deko Entertainment/Warner Media Group, is the next step in their sonic evolution, as they stretch their sound even further thanks to a more ambitious level of songwriting and production. Whether it’s the opening intensity of ‘Help You Believe’ or the Americana twang of ‘Something Good,’ fans and critics alike have already embraced these compelling and at times highly personal songs, enhanced by special guest performers including keyboardist David Cook (Taylor Swift, Benson Boone), and even a string section for one of the album’s more introspective songs, ‘Streets of New York.’”
Gwen Waggoner