Black Skies search for drummer
Bryan Reed · 26 Sep 2009, 3:51 PM · Comment
(photo by Karli Stephenson & Mark Reidy)
Chapel Hill doom trio
Black Skies had to cancel a recent show in Athens, Ga. The band had never before canceled a confirmed date, a trait in which frontman Kevin Clark had always taken pride. “I’m super-bummed that we had to bail out on that show,” he says.
But it would be hard for Black Skies to pull off a set without its drummer, right?
Cameron Weeks, who, until recently, was splitting his time behind the kit between Black Skies and the decidedly different-sounding Aminal, left the band in what both parties deem a mutually beneficial, if not altogether amicable, split.
“It’s like breaking up with a girlfriend,” says Weeks. “Everyone’s a little pissed, but whatever.”
Clark adds, “It’s strange because Cam and I have known each other since we started playing music when we were kids, when he was 12 and I was 14. It’s a little awkward and a little weird, but honestly, I feel a lot of release with this because it’s obvious to me that this wasn’t working.”
So Black Skies embarks on a quest to find the right drummer—its fifth. Clark says they’re trying to stay open to new ideas and to look beyond their immediate circle of acquaintances to find the right person. “We don’t want to be Spinal Tap,” he says. “We don’t want to be looking for drummers forever.”
For Black Skies, the slowdown comes in the midst of some momentum built by the vinyl re-release of their Hexagons EP by I’m Better Than Everyone Records and the band’s inclusion on the forthcoming Southern metal documentary, Slow Southern Steel.
“I have some probably way different views than a lot of the people on that, but we’re still really happy to be a part of it,” says Clark of the DVD. “I think they did a good job of showing a lot of these bands other than Mastodon and Kylesa that are doing equally great things.”
For Weeks, the split from Black Skies opens his calendar to focus on Aminal, who are still supporting their dual EP releases, A Will To Fight and A Face To Fight (streaming in full here). He says that band has already begun work on its next release, to be recorded at Landslide Studio in Asheville, and is planning a December tour.
“I’d much rather be playing pop music,” Weeks says. “That’s what I like. All these metal shows I was like, ‘This is fun because I’m out of town, but it’d be much more fun if I was with my other band.’”
Black Skies plays tonight at Local 506 with The Curtains of Night and Make at Local 506. The 10 p.m. show costs $6. They will have a drummer.