Opal Skies | And then in the darkness there’s a light

Opal Skies were formed in west London in 2019, and consist of singer and bassist Will Sharp, guitarist and band producer Tom Zero, guitarist and keyboardist Oliver Henry and drummer Piers Berryman.

Despite only being together for a relatively short time, and with all the restrictions faced as a result of the pandemic, they have already managed to garner a reputation that continues to grow and grow, thanks to energetic live shows and punk induced singles fused with a catchy pop vibe; easily accessible rocking tunes with highly personal lyrics that offer solace and comfort in a world suddenly turned on its confused head, that has already seen the young band placed highly on Spotify’s editorial playlists and gain a momentum that is surely now to take them on a journey far outside the nation’s capital.

            The foursome have over half a dozen single releases already planned for the next couple of months, starting with the wonderfully subliminal Take My Hand and continuing with the immensely catchy, if not terrifyingly bleak, Parasite, and with a tour to follow that will see them venture out across the U.K.

            A year’s enforced hiatus saw the band renew their pent-up creativity together, enabling them to sharpen and musically highlight a vision of the world that they occupied, a vision that started back in 2020 with their debut single, How I Wish, now – after all that they have experienced and all that we have witnessed – seemingly a lifetime ago.

“I wrote the lyrics for Take My Hand in a dimly lit room,” Will Sharp says, “and really looking inwardly at my own anxiety around global warming. I started to have images and visions in my mind,” the lead singer continued, “and I felt as though I was in a kind of mediative state, just watching this scene unfold.”

            Guitarist Tom Zero admits that, “Take My Hand is like a child to the band. We all spent so long on this song, crafting it to be the perfect prog rock anthem, something that could open or close a live set,” obviously with the upcoming tour in mind. “I think this song is more than a song for us, it’s like an amalgamation of so many emotions we’ve all felt since we first found out about the climate crisis. It’s really close to all of our hearts.”

            Take My Hand is a foot tapping anthem that, despite its subject matter, will leave you humming for ages afterwards. It faces head-on that feeling of being relieved of the mental health problems that are caused by the anxiety surrounding global warming and the growing fears over climate change, “a relatable theme for many in our current climate,” the band insist.

“That we might not have that much longer to fix what we’ve done,” Will sings sharply in warning through a never-ending fear, “I’m scared”. But who will care? “Parasite is a song close to our hearts,” Will revealed to Our Sound Music Ltd. “We’ve all gone through times in our lives where we had spiralling negative thoughts and it feels like a parasite in our minds.”

            According to Tom Zero, the song went through a myriad of wildly differing stages, and a lot of demos, with all the band having a strong input, each adding their own individual creative vision, before the final version finally arrived, or appeared, slightly heavier perhaps than Take My Hand, and led by the hypnotic beat of Piers Berryman’s unforgiving drums and a thrashing rhythm from heavy guitars; stark yet not overpowering, only interrupted by a voice leaden with warning before crying out for help.

“It was easy to hide/At the forefront of your mind/Where you least expect me to be…
You thought you’d be happier than you are/But you don’t know why you’re not”.

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Find Take My Hand on our NEW ROCK 2022 playlist, as well as New Indie Music.