When hearing music, one often only hears the lyrics and notes, and then there are those that I consider the lucky ones that not only hear the lyrics and notes, but experience colours, visuals, and sometimes taste or smells. A person who has synaesthesia may have their mind paint colours as they experience music or see visual patterns within the notes and writer producer, Sky Ainsbury, artistically know as Sky_A is sharing his own experience with synaesthesia in his latest single, “Walker”.
From his yet to be titled and forthcoming debut album, “Walker” is Sky_A’s outlet on how he experiences music through shapes, colours, and textures.
On the impact of his perception on his work, Sky explains:
“This is world-building for me. There is a big story to be told. Each track is a scene, and as far as possible I have instruments representing characters. It’s my “Swan Lake”. I’ll shut my eyes and see these elements like a rolling landscape – sometimes it’s serene and beautific, and sometimes it’s like barbed wire and collapsed concrete buildings. That’s what I want a listener to see when they hear this.”
Like his single, “Spider Silk”, “Walker” is produced and self-performed by Sky_A with Adam Betts on drums and additional production and mixing by Aneek Thapar.
On the song, he says,
“It’s an angry piece of music. Like, anti-imperial levels of anger. It’s about having been lied to, having participated in awful things on a huge scale, and becoming aware, resolving to undo the damage that has been done. It’s a bit like a war march, sonically. Built around the sound of my thumb on an unearthed guitar lead – a sound most musicians will recognise, barely musical – it has this feeling for me of molten rock, this tectonic movement, as this person is accepting their pain as a gift, of purposeful anger. I like it being called Walker, I hear the rhythm as a kind of limping gait, wounded but resolute. There’s a lot more to it than that – every song on the album is a scene, and the sounds are characters – which won’t make much sense out of context, but it comes at a decisive point, it’s the squaring up to the challenge ahead, it’s about seeing the horror and brutality in the world and not looking away.”
There’s a delicate yet strong nature with Sky_A’s music. While “Spider Silk” showed an intricate and delicate side, “Walker” shows a direct, strong, and uncomplicated side. The beat of “Walker” from the thump on the guitar to the drums feel like heartbeats, but the best part of the song is the howling electric guitar work. It’s here within the strings of the guitar I hear the anger Sky_A spoke on. There’s a gut punch intensity that is not only lovely to hear but to feel in one’s soul.
In “Walker”, Sky_A proves that anger doesn’t always destroy, but that it can create intense and beautiful music that allows one to explore the dark corners of their heart and soul.
Listen to A CONVERSATION WITH…Sky_A
