Gazing into Crystal Skies

Gazing into Crystal Skies: Louisiana electronic music duo Crystal Skies, composed of Britian Holcomb and Aaron Dawson, started producing music about a decade ago.

“At the beginning we both had our own projects that were mostly just for fun,” Dawson says. “We made a lot of different styles, from progressive house and electro house to melodic dubstep. Back then I don’t think either of us intended to turn it into a career, it was mostly a hobby at that point. One day Britian just reached out to me in a SoundCloud message asking if I wanted to collab on a track and I said sure, why not? We ended up making Paradise Lost, which got way more traction than we expected it to, and from that point we just decided to continue the project. It turned out that we shared a lot of interests in music and worked well together so we just kept doing it until it evolved into where we are today.”

They describe their sound as melodic dubstep, “with influences from lots of other genres like rock, folk, trance, jazz, and many more.”

“Basically just trying to make music that we would want to listen to,” they say. “We have a wide range of interests so sometimes we’re inspired to make uplifting, anthemic melodic dubstep, sometimes we’re working on a folk-inspired tune, sometimes it’s drum and bass, sometimes it’s a pop punk inspired song. We’re always looking to take current sounds and try new things with them, but both of us grew up on melodic dubstep from the OGs of the genre (Seven Lions, Au5, Mitis, Adventure Club, etc) and that kind of sound will probably always be a major influence for us.”

As with everyone else, the pandemic and lockdown presented career challenges.

“The most difficult part of the pandemic, from a music perspective, was maintaining motivation to continue to make music even though we didn’t have much opportunity to play live shows,” they say. “I think a lot of artists shared this feeling, as shows are often a big motivating factor to continue to put out new music. That said, working on our album helped give us a target to aim at, and helped propel us through a difficult time. Without the same level of traveling, we did have more time to work on music in general, and so there were probably some benefits to it as well. Overall it’s not a time I would really want to repeat, but I would like to think we made the most of what we had.”

The new release is the Not Since When album.

“The main concept was to take a look back at the feelings, emotions, and memories from a time when we were younger, still finding our way in the world,” they say. “The sound of the album itself was heavily inspired by the music we both listened to during that time of our lives, lots of pop punk, alt rock, and folk music. There’s something about that sound that’s a bit more raw than the polished sound of electronic music and I think it captures the raw emotions that we have growing up, both in the triumphs and the challenges along the way. We had a great time making the album and we’re both really happy with how it came out. It feels nice to do something unique and different, and although the change of pace might not be for everyone I think a lot of people resonate with the message we’re sending. In the end I think the music of the album is genuine and true to us, and that’s what’s most important.”

Looking ahead, they’re expecting 2022 to be their biggest year yet.

“We’re planning to follow up the release of Not Since When with a tour in the late spring/early summer… really excited to get back on the road and share all this music we’ve worked so hard on with everyone in person again,” they say. “We’re also really stoked to be on some festival lineups as well this year, starting with Beyond Wonderland on March 25th. We’ve also started working on a lot of new music, so we’re not slowing down just because the album is out now. Can’t give too much away yet but we’re working on some big collabs and some new music that you’re not going to want to miss. Stay tuned for more details as the year unfolds, this is just the beginning of what we have planned going forward!”

Gazing into Crystal Skies: The Not Since When album is out now.