Skydaddy - A Pictruesque, Precious Poet

Skydaddy - A Pictruesque, Precious Poet

With tremendous style and lyrics that resonate with all, Rachid Fakhre, 50% of Spang Sisters the well-received musical duo, is Skydaddy. It is clear from the material that Fakhre has given us shows beautiful instrumentation and heartfelt but gorgeous vocals. I have been a Sprang Sisters fan for some time so hearing that Rachid was releasing solo music was super exciting news. After a few brief discussions on the internet, I asked Skydaddy all the important questions!

Skydaddy is a fuck-off awesome name, how did you get it?

Thank you! It was originally a name that me and my friend Tony whose a rapper wanted to name our side project. We went to a William Blake exhibition one time and saw all these awesome paintings of stacked dudes in the sky and the name Skydaddy come out. When we never got round to recording anything substantial, I asked if I could use it for my project which was originally some silly electronic songs I recorded in 2020. I made an EP called River Rocket, Blue Dallas which will remain on Bandcamp until my future rep and Island Records tells me to take it off. When I started releasing serious music I couldn’t think of another name so stuck with that.

You’ve been a part of Spang Sisters since 2016, what have you learnt most from all those years of music and do you reckon it has helped you for making solo music?

I learnt an awful lot. When we started Spang Sisters I didn’t really know what I was doing, I just played shitty guitar solos. I didn’t start writing songs until I was around 21. My partner in the project Jules taught me most of what I know on guitar and showed me how to record. It certainly helped learn how to do a solo project because Spang Sisters is, for the most part, a combination of two peoples’ solo compositions.

At what point did you decide that you were going to start making music as Skydaddy?

After a low point in which people had less time for Spang, I started writing my own songs that were in quite a different vein to the stylings of Spang. When a number of reasons meant I had to lead a tour by myself, I got a taste for it and decided to pursue a project that was just my songs.

That Morning, the debut single from Skydaddy, is much more than a ballad as we go through all emotions through 6 minutes, what were you trying to achieve with this track?

I guess I was trying to make something quite fragmented, starting off tense, baroque, tightly arranged and then orgasmically exploding into a classic pop ballad. For many years I was bound by the idea that chord progressions are the leading glory of any given song so I injected all my compositions with superfluous chord extentions and jazzy changes. Now I’d say I’m happier to let the lyrics and melody take the lead and sit on top of tried and true chords. I realised that all the songs I really love (outside of Steely Dan) do exactly that.

At around 4 minutes into the track the instrumental seems to spin out into chaos and eventually fade into just guitar and a vocal echo, why did you decide to put this into the track and does it hold any importance to the narrative of the track?

I think the significance you apply to certain songwriting choices are easier to see in retrospect than at the time. When writing it in I just wanted a shocking way in to the next section that might be fun to play live. Now I see it as a narrative volta - up until this point, the speaker is outlining the events of a tumultuous morning and his feelings towards the person he is speaking to and its all rather messy and self-loathing. That all climaxes into an atonal cacophony of noise that then crumbles and in fades the soft guitar and whale song and ‘epiphany’, so to speak. The lyrics after that deal with what one may see or think about on a ‘bad trip’ but, in a rather way, feeling OK with it.

You’re just returned from a UK headline tour and supporting the fantastic Black Country, New Road. Sum up the experience if you can in a sentence or two.

An honour and a pleasure. I’ve seen them maybe 20 times and each time I’m gobsmacked by their musicianship and their innocent and pure love for one another which just effortlessly oozes from the stage and seems to have an affect on everyone in the crowd. It is a rare and beautiful thing and to be able to experience it 3 nights in a row left me and the band glowing.

BC,NR has risen to be one of the biggest bands in the country, I understand you have been friends with the band for a while but are there nerves supporting the band knowing their size now?

Not really to be honest. I’ve been to enough of their gigs to know that the crowd is meek, wide-eyed and supportive. The band have developed such a cult appeal that their fans are eager, not only to hear their music, but also to see what kind of music they support and like. Not to mention, those big stages have a wonderful way of not really showing the performer how many people are actually in front of you. You kind of forget until the song is over and they start making noise. Being on a small, squashed stage when you can only face ahead and not at one another is much more disconcerting.

I’ve seen heaps of support for your live performances online, does this impact your performance at all?

No way, please email me them.

The Demo of His Masterpiece released for Bandcamp Friday is a lovely 4 minutes and 20 seconds with laid-back instrumentation and gorgeous backup vocals from Francesca Brierley. Are there more songs like this to come and what can we expect from the fully mastered version?

Thank you! I’m not sure really. I do like that version but definitely will go into a studio and try a bigger version with the full arrangement. It will be very similiar only with strings and better drumming perhaps (I played them myself). And definitely a gong hit right at the end. There are definitely more songs like that to come!

The switch of key and tempo half way through the song really caught me off guard but it built on the abstract nature and beauty of the track, how did writing this section specifically come about?

Don’t tell anyone, but it is a pretty shameless rip-off of the second section of Surf’s Up by The Beach Boys. From the moment I heard those chords, I knew I had to have them.

Felicity Latham on the flute, I gather you’re a fan of lots of thick texture in your songs?

Felicity has been with me from the very beginning of even Spang Sisters. We [Spang] were recording our first EP and I had always dreamed of having a flute on one of my songs. I had a silly ode to hummus which was going on the release and put some feelers out for a flautist and what tremendous luck that we found Felicity. But yes, thickness and warmth tend to be my guiding stars.

You published Bathtime Variety Hour: a collection of covers for the women of Afghanistan, an amazing set of artists for an even more amazing cause, how much did making this project mean to you and will we see more like it in the future?

I’ve done a few of those but that one was definitely the most special. I was so flattered and amazed at how many of the artists that I reached out to accepted the task. Katy, May, Bull, John Myrtle and Tyler who did me the supreme honour of covering one of my songs for it. I now perform that song based off Tyler’s reimagining off it (and, whenever I can, with her). And from it blossomed some beautiful friendships such as with Fran (heka) who submitted a gut-wrenching cover of ‘Spiralling’ by Antony and the Johnsons.

It also was released the week that Afghanistan, under Taliban rule, had banned girls from attending school or university. So yes, It wan an emotionally hefty release.

I did another similiar show a couple of months ago but haven’t put it on Bandcamp.

Final question, Skydaddy is stuck on a desert island and is allowed one drink of his choice, what would it be and why?

Black Americano to have with my Coconut Times crossword puzzle.

Stream that Morning here: lnk.to/Skydaddy-ThatMorning

Skydaddy's Bandcamp

https://mrskydaddy.bandcamp.com

Bathtime Sounds March 2023

https://www.mixcloud.com/balamii/bathtime-sounds-march-2023/

Dedicated to Matt Hammers who has given me loads of helpful advice starting up this blog and runs an awesome one of this own, Words on Tape.

https://wordsontape.com/