Chasing the Sky

Lanthorn Columnist Kevin VanAntwerpen discusses the ups and downs of playing in a moderately successful indie band, Chasing the Sky.

Who needs an audience, anyway?
No comments | March 21

The past week was a bizarre one for Chasing the Sky. At its dawn, we played a show at The Intersection in Grand Rapids. The place was packed wall-to-wall. The crowd was singing along with quite possibly our most popular song, “Satellites.” One of my best friends, who rarely compliments anything I do, was moved to tears by our new track “Devil Dressed in White.” We spent the rest of the night sharing drinks back at my place, running on a complete high from the energy of the show.

The power of words
No comments | February 29

We want our music to be fun. But we also want our words to matter. If they can, in some way, impact someone’s life – even just one person – every sleepless night, every cup of coffee, every argument, every hour of practice, every blistered finger, every dollar spent on new equipment and recording would be worth it. And if it never matters to anyone – well hey, at least we tried.

Religion in Chasing the Sky
No comments | February 22

So if you’ve heard either of our new singles (“Stories” and “Devil Dressed in White”), you may have caught the subtle religious themes in the subtext of the lyrics. Religion is an interesting thing with Chasing the Sky, and it actually plays a huge role in the overall theme of our upcoming album.

Burnt and purged away
No comments | January 19

Chasing the Sky is around two weeks from releasing the (yet untitled) second track from our first full-length album. I’m more excited about this song than any other in the history of this band for a few reasons. First, musically it’s the most complex we’ve ever written — it introduces a lot of the technical talent we gained by adding Trevor Atkinson on lead guitar (he’s a blues/jazz guitarist by nature, but man can this kid kick out some great rock parts) and Cassidy Warner on keyboard (especially in this song, you’ll be impressed by her Muse-esque classically styled piano solo).

Internet piracy from the eyes of a musician
No comments | December 1

I’m sure by now you’ve heard of SOPA and PIPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act) – two bills currently in the works, which would allow the U.S. government to censor the Internet and hold websites accountable for the way their users interact. In short, this is a broad-stroke act to eliminate copyright infringement.

Chemistry
No comments | November 16

You would think it’s really, really simple for a group of musicians to get together and say, “Let’s start a band that sounds like a mixture of X and Y.” But the longer Chasing the Sky exists, the more I realize that we have absolutely no control over the way we sound.

Autumn Goes Acoustic
No comments | November 9

October 1st, 2010, Chasing the Sky released it’s first ever album. 500 people were in attendance at the show. I’ve seen bands with a 10 year fanbase draw smaller numbers for a CD release show. So it goes without saying that as a band, Chasing the Sky is incredibly thankful for the warmth that Grand Rapids has shown us over the past year.

Colorblind (Falling in Love With Ghosts)
No comments | October 23

Chasing the Sky is smack-dab in the middle of writing the brand new album (working title: “In Search Of…”). Most of the music is already written, which means a lot hinges on writing the lyrics for all 10 to 12 tracks.