Formed in 2013, The Vaulted Skies is a UK-based four-piece band, performing and recording original music written by James AJ Scott (who performs vocals and guitar in the group).

In this interview spotlight, I chat with James about the band’s latest music, adapting during lock down, and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?

James Scott, Guitar & Vocals: We’re based in Hertfordshire, just North of London in the UK. Or music is a fusion of post-punk, new wave, goth, grunge, indie and dance, amongst other things. So we end up just saying ‘Alternative’ most of the time. 

How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?

JS: I always preferred writing and telling stories as opposed to reading them, and as I got older I wrote a lot of prose and poetry to try and process my teenage angst, as many people do! I’d always been attracted to guitar as well, but had never really stuck with it for long. The major turning point that drove me to bring words and music together and become a songwriter, came when I saw ‘The Crow’ at the cinema. The song ‘Burn’ by The Cure grabbed my attention so completely that I started collecting their back catalogue the very next day, and I found in songs like ‘Lullaby’ a relationship between the words and the music that was deeper and more sophisticated than anything else I’d experienced to that point. That cleverness and effectiveness in stirring certain feelings so acutely was what inspired me to try and do the same. Meanwhile, I’d been more active in film and theatre, as a writer, producer, director and actor… but the process of expressing myself through that medium was so slow, and so dependent on so many external factors, that once I’d discovered a way to make music, I couldn’t resist shifting across to it as my primary medium.  

How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?

JS: This latest project consists of five songs. Three of them (‘Hollowhead’, ‘Breadcrumbs’ and ‘This Crime’) showcase a heavier sound than the material we’ve released previously. While The Cure will always be a big influence, these tracks are more likely to bring to mind bands like A Perfect Circle, Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters, Led Zep, Muse and Rage Against The Machine. 

Then ‘Almost Happy’ almost goes the other way. Usually, I just develop whatever comes out of my subconscious, but with ‘Almost Happy’ I was consciously trying to write a happy song. And I failed! But stylistically it stands apart a little from everything else we’ve officially put out; I think the main inspiration was Elliott Smith, and there’s a hint of REM in there maybe. The spikier dynamic part is perhaps reminiscent of Pixies. 

And then there’s ‘What If I Were The Boy?’, which is the first one we’re releasing (on 5th November), which is probably the closest to the sound we’re known for: flangey guitars and wailing vocals. At the same time, it does offer a bit of a bridge across to the heavier stuff; David’s drums are fierce – lots of double kick and intricate fills that push it into a sort of Savages territory.

Thematically, I think what joins these 5 songs together is a different perspective on the past… Resilience, acceptance, acknowledging one’s darker side – what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. To that end, it’s actually the most uplifting stuff I’ve written, despite the overall much heavier style of the delivery. 

Another thing that separates this series of releases from what’s gone before is how it was approached from a production perspective. Although some of the conditions of the environment on the day mean that we have done some overdubbing since, this is the first time that the core of each song was recorded with us all playing live in a room together. And the reason for that decision was mainly because this line-up performs so well together, and we wanted to capture that; and this line-up had not recorded together at all before. Andy (bass) joined in the summer of 2019 and we had some great shows that year, and the plan was to record together in the Spring of 2020… And we all know what happened next that meant it took another 19 months before that was viable. 

Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented times? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?

JS: We tried doing the whole online rehearsal thing, but that didn’t come together technically – just a massive waste of time trying to deal with all the latency and compatibility issues. Instead, I just used the time to write new material and record demos. ‘Almost Happy’ was written in July of 2020 after I lost my main source of income, and was partially inspired by the situation. 

I think the way I sing probably changed a bit too… Where I live I don’t have a soundproof space at the moment, so I found myself singing more quietly in a lower register when I was making demos, and whereas at first I was like “this is rubbish, it’s got no energy to it”, I realised that it actually brought out some more nuances in the delivery of the words, because I was forced to find other ways to convey things than the shouty sledgehammer method I’d usually default to for a bit of drama.

It was frustrating though… We’d come out of a lockdown, spend a while dusting off the cobwebs, then by the time we were anywhere near up to scratch we’d get locked down again.

What was the last song you listened to?

JS: Well, I’ve been making a video for ‘What If I Were The Boy?’ (combining live footage with the promo imagery from the demo version), so that’s the only thing I’ve listened to for a few days straight, about a billion times in a row now. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Mark Saunders remixes, because he’s going to be doing a remix of ‘Hollowhead’ for us next year! But the last song I actively listened to purely for the sake of listening to it for pleasure was ‘Into Dust’ by Mazzy Star. I only became aware of them a year or two ago when our guitarist, Ben, shared a YouTube video of a festival performance of ‘Fade Into You’, and I now count ‘So Tonight That I Might See’ as one of my favourite albums. I can’t believe I missed them in the 90s! But I guess I only really had eyes for The Cure back then!!

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?

I miss cassettes and CDs. Cassettes were such an integral part of growing up, especially making mixtapes for people. CDs were really exciting though… I got my first CD player right around the time I had that Cure-inspired epiphany. I have been collecting a bit of vinyl again over the past few years, and you do hear things on that format that you don’t hear on others.I love putting vinyl on when we have people over. Streaming is of course very convenient, for checking out new stuff, for making playlists and for us to try and reach as wide an audience as possible with or own material. So my cop out answer is, different platforms for different situations!

Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?

Come and see us play live!! But whether you can do that or not, I guess we’re most active on Facebook and hope to be doing more on YouTube. We’d really love you to follow us on Spotify. And you can access all of our social media from our official website – www.TheVaultedSkies.com – and from there you can also join our email list for early access to stuff. 

I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off? 

We appreciate you asking us these questions! Come and see us live if you can!