Parallax Skies discuss themselves, the North East music scene and their future plans in this interview with us. Read all about it below.

What have been your highlights as a band? What positive experiences are most memorable?
One of the highlights for us collectively always seems to be the recording process. We’ve been in the studio on three separate occasions, and have recorded 9 tracks now, and it’s interesting every time, to see how things change between rehearsing and playing songs live to laying down the individual tracks of a song and hearing it all come together. You notice new parts and pieces of music that you never realised were there before! In terms of live shows, our most memorable and favourite gigs have been supporting Space at The Riverside, and our slot at Hit The North festival; they were both in front of big, good crowds and we had a lot of fun. Our last show at The Globe was also a good one, although it feels like a distant memory now!

In terms of the North East scene (Tyneside & Teesside), how many opportunities are there for artists like yourself? How healthy is the scene – both live & in terms of studio opportunities/access?
We’ve been in and around the North East music scene for over 20 years in different guises, and honestly think its at its strongest now. It’s diverse; there are plenty of venues to play (in usual circumstances!), and new artists cropping up all of the time, with opportunities to push on and play bigger shows to bigger audiences out there. The barrier to entry for bands and artists both in terms of rehearsing and recording is much lower these days; with the quality of the DIY stuff improving all the time, and access to really good studios and engineers on our door step. Maybe the missing piece of the puzzle is the sweet spot in terms of venue capacity between somewhere like Riverside and The Academy, and then The Academy and the Arena. I think it means we miss out on some touring bands that would afford the region’s bands some great support slots to wider audiences.

As a band, what would your aims for 2021 be? If it was safe to do so, would you want to put together a tour and play other cities? If so, what three cities would you like to play most?
We’re looking forward to playing shows again, whenever that might be. We have two support slots to rearrange and would like to get back in the studio again. It would be good to add some more local festivals to our calendar too; playing Corbridge or Lindisfarne festivals are on the hit-list! In terms of a UK tour we’ve always fancied playing the likes of the Roundhouse in Camden, The Leadmill in Sheffield, Barrowlands or King Tuts in Glasgow, and maybe somewhere like The Deaf Institute in Manchester. If we were heading overseas, we’d have to take in Berlin, Barcelona, Portland and New York.

Funds generated from streams/sales/downloads of your latest single “Judith” are being donated to Newcastle West End Foodbank. What made you want to do this? Is there more the industry could be doing to help charities?
Most of us grew up in the west end of Newcastle, and come from working class families, so we know all to well how close to the breadline many people in the north east are, and so we just wanted to do our bit to try to make a small difference, particularly during these crazy and tough times. It’s all relative too, £5 to the band pays for a half hour practice, but a £5 donation to the foodbank can feed a family for a week. I think everyone who’s in a position to do so could do a little bit more in terms of either charity or supporting local, independent businesses, and maybe these last few months have shown that the will is there underneath the surface; we just sometimes need a catalyst or a cause to focus on. (Bandcamp link here).

If you could have front row tickets to see any band living or dead, who would you each see and why? And, if you could support any living artist as Parallax Skies, who would that be for?
I think we’d have to cheat and hope that it was an all-dayer, with a cracking line-up of Joy Division, Talking Heads, The White Stripes, XTC and The Cure. All great bands, unique sounds, great musicians, and an influence on us. In terms of the ultimate support slot, it would have to be Pulp.