SKYHARBOR vocalist Daniel Tompkins recently checked in with the following update:

"I recently made a close up, live performance of 'Maeva' from our Skyharbor record Blinding White Noise, which was released in April 2012 on Basick Records. As well as being a lot of fun to do, I personally feel that this is a good example of being able to vocally execute a song that I consider (for me) to be quite difficult to perform and stay in pitch. It isn’t the greatest example by any stretch but I thought it would at least be good for my students to watch as they know I’m always banging on about staying relaxed!"

"Unbeknown to the majority this is probably one of the hardest songs to sing that I’ve ever written and it takes a great deal of effort and concentration to nail! So this will hopefully explain why I’ve changed the execution from the album version to cater for a live performance. It’s a fairly diverse song with the need for a lot of control in many areas."

The band recently issued an update on the progress of their next album:

As you probably know, we're currently in the thick of writing our second record, which is starting to inch closer towards completion. It's shaping up quite beautifully and as we keep working on it, new and fascinating ideas keep coming up, making this record a really ambitious and challenging undertaking! Each song tells a story that ties into the overall concept and theme of the album, and each of these stories will be illustrated, each a part of the big picture. We have honestly surprised ourselves with some of this material, and we're starting to try and put it all together now.

Now with a project as ambitious as this, comes the challenge of representing it in the most honest and pure possible way, sonically and visually. We want to make a beautiful illustration book to accompany the album, make a beautiful music video - not your generic band-in-a-warehouse music video but an actual video telling a story - and most importantly, we want to have this music captured and produced in the best possible way, especially the drums and vocals! We all have our own recording rigs at home, and we could certainly 'get the job done' by doing it all in-house, but that wouldn't quite capture the magic - you'd see the arms and legs, but not the lifeblood flowing within them

So to cut to the chase, there's a hefty investment involved in putting this second record and package together, and we need your help to be able to fund the conception of this animal. We exist as a band across three continents despite the logistical impossibilities and are making this record thanks to your support and encouragement - and we want to make this special for you. We have zero outside funding and we DON'T want to do the Kickstarter thing, because we don't want handouts - but one way you could definitely help us heaps is by picking up some merch from our new webstore. Every penny and cent of profit made will go straight into funding the album and touring in support of it, and we can assure you, you won't be disappointed.

Love and respect to all of you, and hope you're all enjoying your holidays!"

More on Skyharbor at this location.