Nachdem in der vergangenen Woche bereits Drummer Anup Sastry bei SKYHARBOR ausgestiegen ist, gibt es bei den indischen Djentern nun auch einen Wechsel am Mikrophon: Wie der bisherige Fronter Daniel Tompkins heute auf seiner Website bekannt gab, wirft auch er das Handtuch. Der Brite führt an, dass er sich aus familiären Gründen ausschließlich auf seine zweite Band TESSERACT konzentrieren wolle. Zudem habe Tompkins das Gefühl gehabt, der Entwicklung SKYHARBORs mit seinen begrenzten Zeitressourcen im Weg zu stehen.

In einem weiteren Statement teilten SKYHARBOR ihrerseits mit, das Eric Emery von den US-amerikanischen Alternative-Metallern CONCORDIA den vakanten Posten am Mikrophon übernehmen wird. Im Folgenden findet Ihr das Vorstellungsvideo Emerys sowie die Statements von Tompkins und SKYHARBOR im Originalwortlaut.

Daniel Tompkins:

„Dear Friends,

Today Skyharbor made the announcement that we have amicably parted ways…This may come as a surprise to most but as you can imagine, stepping down as the band’s singer and frontman was a difficult decision to make and a complicated affair. I’m sure this will raise many questions and cause disappointment for the many fans that have shown steadfast support since ‘Blinding White Noise’

My circumstances have changed dramatically over the past few years and the need to prioritise my time has become ever increasingly obvious. I felt that for a number of reasons that I was holding Skyharbor back from developing into a fully fledged international touring band and after a long time discussing this through we concluded that this was the best for the band. We all remain absolutely the best of friends and plans are already in motion for the future!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank every one of my supporters for your continued love and encouragement as I continue my career with TesseracT and the projects I’m a part of, including ‘White Moth Black Butterfly’ of which Keshav continues to be a part of. We have a strong friendship and a working relationship that will undoubtedly endure.

I wish the band every success and having heard new material I can safely say that my replacement has already taken Skyharbor to a new level.„

SKYHARBOR:

„Hello everyone,

Please take a few minutes out of your day to read this post.

After months of deliberation, Dan has decided to step down as our frontman and singer. This has been the hardest decision we have ever had to make in our history as a group, and it comes after months of discussion about the future of Skyharbor. We owe you an explanation, and we hope this following makes it clear as to why we reached this decision.

In a nutshell, things have developed with this group far quicker than any of us expected, and we have been getting some amazing opportunities to take our music around the world. We have been lucky enough to be able to play sporadically in India, Europe and the UK, but we have always wanted to take our music further afield to territories such as North America and Australia, and for longer periods than Dan could commit to. As many of you will know, Dan is a husband and a father, and touring for long periods of time with little financial security made it very difficult for the band to be active, and Dan felt strongly that he was holding us back from good opportunities.

Keeping this in mind and the fact that Dan rejoined TesseracT last year, we realised we had to make a choice – we could continue with Dan but as a studio project only, or we could move forward with a dedicated and focused lineup to help Skyharbor grow freely and achieve what we all hope to achieve with it. All 5 of us have collectively and amicably decided that the latter option was the best for the band.

We love Dan as a brother, and are incredibly proud of the two albums we’ve created with him and the times we have shared on the road. Words cannot describe how grateful we are for all he’s done for this band, and the passion and dedication he put into each show. He will be sorely missed, but will always remain close to us.

Here is what Dan himself has to say:

‚I’m incredibly sad to be parting ways with my amazing friends Keshav, Devesh, Krishna and Aditya. We have collectively come to the decision that it is in the best interest of the group that I step down as the frontman of Skyharbor. From the very start I have put my heart and soul into the project but circumstances have made it clear that I am holding the band back from opportunities too good to miss. We all agree this is the best thing for everyone. We will always be close friends and I wish them only the best for the future.‘

Which brings us to the good news: We are very happy to welcome Eric Emery to Skyharbor as our new full time singer. Eric is a fantastic talent and we are all very excited to write and play music with him. When we reached out to Eric in the hopes of finding someone to fill Dan’s shoes, we were all delighted by the quality of his audition and his enthusiasm to fill the spot. As a Grammy nominated engineer, Eric brings to the band not just his voice but his music production experience and knowledge, and we look forward to performing live with him, starting with our first US and Canada tour later this year, details of which we will announce shortly.

As tricky as the last few months have been, we truly believe that everything has worked out for the best. We couldn’t be more confident in our new lineup and our future.

We’d like to thank you all for the constant messages of support and requests to see us perform all over the world. You inspire us to continue taking this band forward. We hope for your continued support and understanding through this transitional period and hope that you enjoy the exciting new phase of music that we will be sharing with you very soon. See you on the road!

Love,

Keshav, Devesh, Krishna, Aditya and Eric„