Interview with Jack Wright the drummer from Watford based alt-rock trio Sinka. We talk about their new EP "Take Me To The Skies" which is set for release on the 16th of April 2021.
I wanna start by asking how did you all meet to become Sinka?
Shaun (guitar and vocals) and I knew each other from secondary school, and we met Matt (bass) when we went to college to study music, but I'm actually the latest addition to the band. Sinka existed before me but apparently it wasn't quite working out, so Shaun hit me up and I had to learn to play the drums. This is probably a question you get a lot but the band name is pretty unique. Where did it come from?
We always let Shaun take this one as he came up with it, it's a bit of a weird one. From what I understand , Sinka was originally an acoustic duo called Sin Kaprice, whos name came about from him attempting to say Capri-Sun after a few beers. When that ended, that name was halved and is what it is now.
How would you describe Sinka's sound to someone that has never heard you?
Maybe quite unpredictable? If you listen to our songs you'll notice lots of them are quite different from one another because we never have a set formula that we start from, it's usually a single idea from whichever instrument or lyric, which we'll adapt into a full song.
Who are the musical influences for your new EP or just the band in general?
There's something in there for fans of Biffy Clyro, maybe a bit of Enter Shikari in smaller ways. We were going for a more refined rock sound. But it's difficult to say; while there is a significant crossover in our music tastes, we also individually like a lot of bands that the others have never even heard of, so there's inspiration being drawn from all kinds of places.
Would you say this new EP "Take Me To The Skies" is different to music you have released before? If so what makes it different?
Our first EP, FWYK was more gritty and really had the self-produced vibe, whereas Take Me To The Skies has more of a professional feel and I hope that becomes a pattern for future releases. In terms of songwriting, it's a more mature collection of songs both lyrically and musically. It still has the energy we achieved on FWYK but with a much more neat and tidy finish.
Was this EP recorded during lockdown? What was the recording process like?
The title track, Skies, was recorded before everything kicked off and we were really happy with how it came out and wanted to make it a full EP. We managed to get the rest of the songs done in the gap between Lockdown 1&2 at the producers home studio. We had a ton of demo's that we went through to pick 4 supporting tracks that we thought would fit nicely into the context of the EP. The recording process actually didn't take very long at all, mainly because we already knew how we wanted everything to sound so we already had a plan of action.
How did the idea for the space theme come about?
I'd say that, beyond the EP's title being quite literal in that sense, the sound of Skies invokes this kind of hopeful feeling. It feels big and full of ambition and that fits nicely with rocketing off into space.
How are you finding not being able to play live shows? I imagine it must be annoying not being able to get out and play the new songs.
Yeah, don't get me started. We had a lot of fun gigs lined up last year that of course had to be cancelled/postponed, but things are looking more promising with us being able to start scheduling shows again!
Do you have any hobbies outside of music that have been keeping you entertained during this hard time?
Nothing permanent really, I guess a constant hobby has always been video games. I tend to be ok not being too busy so being idle wasn't the biggest shock to the system. I did try to use the time to exercise more and eat better but I wouldn't call them hobbies seeing as I haven't stuck to them well.
If you could've written any song in the world, what song do you wish you could've written?
There are a lot of bands I look up to who have written songs that are incredible, but I feel if it were written by me it would be too different and would be a different song. If I'm not being pedantic and I just answer the question I'd probably say something like Schism by Tool. I like to think that if I was emotionally mature enough to convert my feelings into meaningful lyrics then it would sound similar to that.
Do you have a favourite track off of "Take Me To The Skies"?
Skies is a very strong track and I would say it's my favourite of the bunch, but following that we agreed that Messiah, our latest release, was another contender.
Lastly, do you have anything you would like to add?
I would just like to say that people listening to our music means the world to us, and we're buzzing for the release of this EP! Hope you enjoy and thanks for taking the time to talk to me.
Thank you for your time!
Interview by Kayleigh McKenzie
You can check out Sinka's latest single Messiah and the rest of their music here
You can find Sinka on social media at the following links:
