SKYDECK - "COUPON" LP

Dinosaur City Records:

Skydeck is the project of Naarm/Melbourne duo Dominic Kearton and Mitchum Clemens. Taking inspiration from cold, post-punk sounds of the 1980s, the band makes use of FM synthesis and the bright, clean and sometimes artificial sounds it provides, contrasted with distorted guitars and upbeat basslines.

Coupon is the follow-up to Skydeck’s Australian Music Prize-nominated debut Eureka Moment (2019), which saw praise and plays from the likes of VICE, triple j, FBi Radio, Bandcamp, The Music and Savage Thrills, and caught the attention of Spotify’s editorial team, with adds to a string of influential playlists.

While Eureka Moment was pieced together bit by bit, with lyrics applied to old unfinished demos years later – and gestured towards an anticapitalist sentiment, Coupon sees the band writing and recording in unison – this time, less focused on observing society’s issues from afar, rather reflecting on their own involvement within them.

Though writing and recording at the same time, founding members and long-time friends Mitchum Clemens and Dominic Kearton were physically separated throughout the entire process: one in Mexico and the other back home in Australia.

Coupon was as much an artistic endeavour as it was a way to stay connected with each other over long distances, with songs and ideas acting like letters back and forth. Evidence of this can be heard through field recordings and phone memos scattered throughout songs.