 |
SKYDIVER
BIO
I was driving South on Interstate 5 around
3:30am one Sunday night, about to enter the void of nothingness
between the San Onofrie power plant, and Oceanside, about
sixty miles from San Diego. My band was returning from doing
some promotional work, and after hitting the bars earlier
in the evening, we still had the grueling drive from LA to
SD to look forward to. Since I was driving, it was the duty
of my fellow passengers to keep me awake the rest of the trip
home. And to change CDs. Not that it required much of them.
We’d listened to it three times on the way up there.
Now we were on our second time listing to it on the way back
down.
“Put
on Skydiver.”
It
was almost automatic. It was on everyone’s minds anyway.
We had downloaded the rough mixes of their “Origami”
album from their website, and practically knew all the songs
by heart already, even though the CD wasn’t finished
at the time. After five years since their last release,
the band had wanted to put out something, even if it still
hadn’t been mixed yet. The amazing part to us, listening
to it again and again on this grueling drive, was that it
hadn’t even been mixed yet. It sounded phenomenal.
“Silence.
Picture perfect silence. Let’s not resort to violence…”
We
all whispered along with it, stuck on a few words we couldn’t
make out, and screamed along with the chorus when it came
ripping out of the car’s speakers. As the song ended
and “The Balance” began, the same thought crept
into all of our heads.
Goddamn.
I wish I wrote that song.
The
song began in San Diego in 1996, when bassist/vocalist Robb
Harvey and guitarist Randy Benitez decided to put a band
together. After a false start playing a few shows with another
drummer, they came across Lance LaFave through mutual friends,
and the core of what is now Skydiver was formed. After playing
a handful of shows at a three piece, guitarist Dave Talbott
was added on to the lineup that is still together today.
Skydiver
released the “Just Another Machine”
E.P. in 1998. Recorded mostly at Studio West in Rancho Bernardo
with some overdubs done in their home studio, the album
was recorded by Robb’s uncle Darrell Harvey, a professional
recording engineer. The album cover for “Machine”
said it all, featuring four bowing kamikaze pilots before
a background of airplane schematics, the inside cover folding
out to reveal a World War II era picture of multiple bombs
that were bigger than most trucks, ready to be loaded onto
an aircraft and dropped on whoever got in their way. The
Skydiver’s music and stage presence sounded the same
way.
Without
any label interest, the band financed the record themselves,
mostly by earning money from playing gigs to pay for each
time they had to go into the studio. Any doubts they may
have had regarding the album were quickly put to rest, though.
The band sold out The Casbah, their favorite venue in San
Diego for their CD release party. With radio airplay on
local stations such as 91X and ROCK 105.3, the band has
since sold out of all the original 1,000 copies it had duplicated.
Skydiver became a much lauded member of the local San Diego
music scene, and has retained a dedicated following, even
through extended breaks and member side projects. Since
the release of “Just Another Machine”, the band
has been writing and recording and playing all along the
way, and have now released their first full length L.P.,
“Origami”.
Once again, The Casbah was sold out and the release party
was a success. What’s next?
Tim
Mallot, Musician
Contact: Lance LaFave, 4171 Chippewa Ct. San Diego, CA 92117
email: lancelafave@hotmail.com
|
