Earthquake Lights’“Empty Sky” is now #53 on the iTunes rock charts. The band celebrates as long hours of writing and practicing finally bears its fruits. Being a part of the Top 100 is an accomplishment Earthquake Lights will not forget as “Empty Sky” paves the way for an amazing future.
The group remains ecstatic over the success. In an interview, they were absolutely thrilled to see "Empty Sky" charting on iTunes. It’s an honor for them to see “Empty Sky” in the top 100 with some of the truly great rock songs that they all love. Going back to its conception, they say "Empty Sky" originated as part of a small batch of demos intended for their placement with Vulfpeck's "The Joy of Music, The Job of Real Estate."
“We had only a month to create a tune for that record, and this was one of the contenders for placement there. After we finished "Off and Away" for that record, we came back to the other demos and decided this one was worth pursuing as a single ahead of our second full-length record”, says a member of the group.
The song came into form as a clean couple of phrases, inspired by Robert Glasper's "Calls" ft. Jill Scott Heron. Although it initially did not sound anything like its muse, the flow of that fashioned the wording making it what it is now. The band had just finished a record with deliberate, slow tones and decided to experiment with higher tempos for this song.
Lyrics play a major part in a song. For Earthquake Lights, it is usually what they tackle last, and this song was no exception. Steve Helms, the drummer, who leads the process, describes songwriting as “quite painstaking, trying to fit words into melodies and making sense of them”.
“The lyrics were inspired by my ties to the aviation industry. My father is in aviation, so that felt sort of home for me, and our orchestrator Mitch is a pilot as well and has taken me up quite a bit. Also, my great uncle was a POW at Buchenwald after being shot down in Germany during WW2”, says Myles Rodenhouse, a member of the band.
Earthquake Lights is a group of talented individuals. The lead member Myles, began playing piano at about eight years old. He played classical music throughout high school and got into jazz, studying both in college. Steve and he became roommates in college and started recording and demoing tunes. That was really where the band was born. Steve later enlisted Jim Digirolamo and Evan Douaihy, whom he'd played with in jazz combos, and Cam Underhill and he already knew each other from high school.
You can find Earthquake Lights newest single “Empty Sky” on all streaming platforms. You can also keep up with them and future music on their Instagram @earthquakelights.
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