“That should be our main headline. ‘It’s a great album to compliment Coronavirus’” suggested Jack Gilbert during our short interview. It’s one way to describe Another Sky’s debut album, I Slept On The Floor [ISOTF] but this powerful indie-rock record is a multi-faceted, carefully crafted album — the result of years of graft by the London band. Alongside lead singer and lyricist Catrin Vincent, we explored the making of the record, a potential concept album and their optimism.
ISOTF is equal parts explosive and tender, and through the making of the album, Another Sky were given an opportunity to add structure to the demos and singles they had collected over the past six years. “It’s like a lot of different moments in our lives, musically and lyrically…it is very broad but also focused” The album feels expansive sonically, euphoric yet intense as it touches on rock, indie and even folk at times, with Vincent speaking to how they “prefer to be fluid than tied down”.
From the gentle drifting melodies of ‘Only Rain’ to the ferocity of ‘Brave Face’, Another Sky achieved their goal of creating an album. Gilbert spoke of how they “wanted to make a good album, not just a bunch of singles in a row”, something which, in the age of streaming, is becoming more and more of a rarity. ISOTF is doing what a debut should do; presenting a carefully curated range of tracks that display the band for who they are and the talent they have.
The process behind the album was mostly a conversation-less one and it seems that Gilbert, Vincent, as well as bandmates Naomi Le Dune and Max Doohan, share an almost telepathic connection when creating music: “with all our music, there’s a good understanding between the four of us that we can always immediately work out where each person should be, what they should do without talking about it and ‘Tree’ is a good example of that.” Slowly building tension, ‘Tree’ speaks to Another Sky’s versatility as a group and ultimately to the balance they’ve created in their record.
Vincent’s vocals are front and centre on the album and she acts like a wild child choir boy who’s finally been let loose in the cathedral, an echoing concert of warbling guitar and unrestrained falsetto. As the penman of the album, Vincent would love to explore doing a concept album, especially after trying to figure out the meanings behind the songs of the first: “we sat down after the first album and someone said ‘what are the lyrics about? And I was like ‘oh god, I don’t really know’. From a lyricist’s point of view, a concept album would be easier and I just love that.”
Despite still figuring out the meanings behind the album, it’s clear that hope has slipped in and taken a hold of the record. “I think as a group of people, we’re very optimistic. We always want to make optimistic music . We do see the light at the end of the tunnel musically and Catrin lyrically.” This has made ISOTF even more relevant in the shadow of the Coronavirus. The pandemic has affected how Vincent and Gilbert now view the band’s debut. Originally ‘Let Us Be Broken’ was written in the wake of the Conservatives being re-elected to government “I felt so bleak [and asked myself] ‘is this album that everyone needs right now?’ but there’s a catharsis in music that openly talks about emotions. Some of the lyrics in ‘Let Us Be Broken’ sound like they were written for Coronavirus and everything that’s happened but they absolutely weren’t.”
In ‘The Cracks’, Vincent powerfully sings ‘the cracks let the light in’ with conviction as drums, filtered guitars and warped piano erupt into a crescendo of promise, revealing it as the beating heart of I Slept on the Floor. She also spoke of how “ all of us can feel this sense of impending doom and all of us deal with it differently but I guess with this album, I hope, it gives people courage to face it head on” and ISOTF certainly does that. This powerful debut reaches out a hand to hold onto in the midst of trouble and uncertainty, acting as the light that forces its way through the cracks.