Interview: Under Blackened Skies (Written)

After a decade-long hiatus, metal enthusiasts rejoice as Under Blackened Skies are back! Releasing their highly anticipated brand-new single, Hollow Tyrant, their first in ten years. Perhaps you need to be reintroduced to them though, or maybe you’re wondering what all the fuss is about. This interview should help clear that up, and get you excited for what is coming!

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

Hi!!!! Thanks for having me, my name is Dan Carter, I am the bassist for Under Blackened Skies. I am the newbie to the band. However my history with them goes back over a decade. I was originally the bass player for Midlands Metal band Left For Red, but left them in 2019. I am also the owner of the Artist Development agency DC Sound Attack.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

Under Blackened Skies has the melodic and catchy elements of Metalcore, the intensity of Death Metal, the ambience of Black Metal, the speed of thrash and the groove of Nu Metal. Therefore we will just call it Heavy Metal.

3. What’s currently going on in your camp? New releases? Tours? Etc.

In May we released a re-recording of Under Blackened Skies’ fan favourite song ‘Part Together’, this was recorded at the same time as our brand new single ‘Hollow Tyrant’ which will be released on Thursday 27th June 2024. We will be celebrating the release of these two tracks with our first live appearance in ten years, this will take place at Dead Wax in Digbeth on Saturday 13th July 2024.

4. What has been the most positive experience of making music to date for you?

Under Blackened Skies and I have both previously recorded at Monochrome Productions with Tom Gittins and I feel that this teaches every song writer the important role of a producer as the expectations are always high. However for these two singles, we have had the pleasure of working with Lune from ‘The Sun’s Journey Through The Night’, this has been a much more personal approach and has meant that we have been able to take the time to ensure that we are all happy with our takes.

5. Likewise, what has been some of the more challenging aspects and how have you overcome them?

The most challenging aspect is, keeping up to date with technology. This is a positive and a negative. Chris and Azz are really enjoying home recording and some of their demos sound better than most bands final recordings. However, for me personally it is a completely new way of working. I am used to recording audio messages, taking them to practise and jamming them out but (another challenge) time is against us, with us all having families and full time jobs, it is difficult to find the time to meet, rehearse and spend the time together….for that I do say, thank god for the internet.

6. How do you handle the modern expectations of being in a band? Always online, having to put out content constantly, your success measured in likes and follows?

A lot has changed in the ten years we have been away. It’s much harder to get yourself heard and it’s much more expensive. We have been working hard on content to keep our social media ticking over but there are so many restrictions and it becomes a full time job just to ensure that your content is covered. However we are currently having fun putting everything together and the creativity is flowing.

7. What’s something that really ‘grinds your gears’ about the industry/business these days and what would you propose is done to combat it?

To be honest, it’s the internet and how people act on it. I have always seen it as a professional tool and therefore I will only ever post something that is positive, similar to how I would act in the workplace. On the other hand, the content that gets the most attention is always the negative. People on the internet love to bitch, argue and fall out with each other, this is really irritating as a content creator when you are trying to create music for people to enjoy and listen to and companies like META restrict your viewing, however if I went on social media and started an argument about Lars Ulrich’s snare sound on St Anger….boom I have people’s attention.

8. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support your music?

We have been gone for some time, we have a completely new audience to interact with. To old UBS fans, please start re-listening to the band and sharing our content and help us to get our music back out there. To new listeners, welcome and we hope you enjoy what you hear. We ask our new listeners to interact and let us know your thoughts on the songs and where you would like us to play live.

9. Outside of the music, what do you do to relax?

We all have our different relaxation methods, most the band are gamers and play Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, Resident Evil, Zelda etc. I personally watch a lot of films and TV Series’.

10. Where can people find you?

You can find us on the following social media: Instagram, TikTok and Facebook through https://linktr.ee/UBSmetal. We are also on all streaming platforms and then you can hear ‘Part Together’ here and you can hear ‘Hollow Tyrant’ here.