Chicago, IL (March 1, 2011) — SKYSAW, featuring acclaimed drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, DC-based singer Mike Reina and guitarist Anthony Pirog, has announced the forthcoming release of their debut album, Great Civilizations, in May 2011 on Dangerbird Records. The Los Angeles-based indie label most recently released new records from Fitz and the Tantrums, The Dears, Silversun Pickups and Maritime, among others.
SKYSAW formed in 2009 under the recommendation of mutual friends, and the group members have since been writing and recording songs through a cross-country collaboration. Reina and Pirog were writing cohorts in the much-loved Fairfax, VA-based group, The Jackfields, whose Pink Floyd-meets-Beach Boys psychedelia was widely lauded. Jimmy Chamberlin is known to music fans around the world as the virtuoso behind the drum kit with such venerated acts as Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan and The Jimmy Chamberlin Complex. These three musicians of SKYSAW have now created brilliant, tuneful and whip-smart pop music that can loosely be described with words like “progressive” and “symphonic,” while at the same time deserving their own category.
Chamberlin said, “My thoughts on SKYSAW after we first started writing were that this is something very special. Having worked in many varied situations, I can honestly say that SKYSAW is much different from anything I have experienced in the past. The icing on the cake is to be partnered up with Dangerbird-certainly some of the brightest minds in the new music business paradigm. We look forward to moving into the future with them!”
Pirog states, “We’ve never had a conversation about what kind of band we should be, or what kind of music we should write. SKYSAW is just what the three of us do collectively-the sum of three very distinct musical personalities who share a common goal of creating great music.”
Reina concludes, “If I had to put it down to one sentence, I’d say SKYSAW is here because there are things in life that move us and just can’t be put into words, so we make songs using everything we love and hate about the world, and everything we wish we could change about ourselves and each other.”
SKYSAW will soon announce dates for a spring tour, during which the band will be bolstered with touring members Paul Wood and Boris Skalsky of notable NYC indie rock group, Dead Heart Bloom.
Co-founded by CEO Jeff Castelaz and Chief Creative Officer Peter Walker in 2004, Dangerbird’s business consists of six divisions – record label, management, music publishing, merchandising, licensing and recording studio -and is now home to more than 30 bands and producers. Key Dangerbird Records artists include Beady Eye, Silversun Pickups, Fitz and the Tantrums and The Limousines. Dangerbird Licensing operates as a stand-alone agency, pitching Dangerbird’s artists as well as providing representation of Jack Johnson and the Brushfire Records roster; The Temper Trap; Kele Okereke (of Bloc Party); The Vaccines; and more. Dangerbird Management represents Eagles of Death Metal, Jon Fratelli of The Fratellis, and Tony Hoffer.