Threads in the Sky is a reimagination of visual excellence through music. With only one song out, the concept of the project by Aditya Raghav Soni is immense. It is music that carries volume and dimension, associates itself with meaning wherever it takes you. This is the debut single, Tears of Grey.
Inside the complex layers
1) As a debut, this song delves into several emotional layers. What do you feel the end product of this unique genre is?
I believe that the end product of this unique genre is to not be classified into or labelled as any genre, but just music. I believe we humans tamper with the real essence of a certain thing or event in general by labelling it or believing in preconceived notions before even experiencing it. As a person who listens to all genres, from lo-fi to metal, jazz to hip-hop, edm to pop, I like to explore more.
Thus, I try to incorporate elements from various genres into my music, whatever fits, whatever expresses the underlying idea or soul of the track in the most appropriate way. This song specifically was supposed to be emotional and a bit raw, thus rusty guitars, piano and cello quartet could be seen being used while the energetic essence is carried through the use of screaming vocals, acoustic drums and a powerful bass.
The song being based on the unfathomable destruction and horror that took place during World War 2, the end product to summarise, is a poignant tribute to all those who endured immense suffering, giving voice to the unheard and offering a small yet powerful glimpse into their collective anguish.
Checkout the latest news: Billie Eilish, R.E.M., Kacey Musgraves and Others Sign Petition Against AI for Infringement on Artists’ Rights
The informal process of composition
As I listened to the song, I was glad to get insights about the composition from Threads in the Sky. Opening with a mellow piano entrance. The gilded gates behold a strong visual. The soft strings accompanying a pained, powerful voice is the first human impression on the song. It is an important revelation to feel, especially with the theme wrapped like a cocoon around the song.
2) In Tears of Grey, you approach prog metal with several densities. How did you compose this song?
My songwriting process might sound a bit unconventional, I never set out to “write” songs. They just get written by themselves. I don’t approach songwriting from a song by song process, like I don’t go that okay I want to write a song about this and that so let’s start. One thing you could notice in “Tears Of Grey” is that it doesn’t follow a general structure (sequence of verses, choruses or bridges), but rather unfolds in its own way. It has multiple melodic ideas, with less repetition of any specific one, except the main chorus which is required to create resolution and an essence of a whole rounded journey.
Parts of a prose
I write ideas, these are short musical pieces with a set harmony, melody, rhythm giving it a certain signature feel or “vibe”. As I come across multiple of these ideas over time and keep recording them as voice notes or just store them in my mind, often I am able to find resemblance between some of them and see a possibility of a complete song. That’s when I start forming individual songs, so if you look at it from a step-by-step process the songs just get written by themselves, with me not having much of control over it haha, I let these ideas figure out where they wanna go themselves.
Moving away from technicality
That is also why I try to put less emphasis on individual ideas in one song, rather their motifs or reharmonisations could be heard often across my other songs in an attempt to generate callbacks and yield a way to connect all of my songs, that they are one. Thus it’s parallel songwriting rather than sequential, I’m writing all of it, all at once. For Tears Of Grey, the main chorus is the signature idea of the song which is accompanied by a soulful first verse, a war anthem kinda bridge joined by the energetic metal section in between. Other small intricacies like orchestral pieces, guitar solos, extra melodies also get composed overtime when I see a collection of ideas trying to come together and form a song.
You may also like listening to: Jeff H. Ulrich’s Uplifting Folk Pop Single “Love Might Not Wait” Is the Positive Vibe You Need Today
Choice of tones and rhythms
The harmonies are something else I noted. The darkness and light play a brilliant contrast with the gentle instrumentals serenading the background. For an epic of this scale, there are a lot of layers coming in and dissipating on their own accord. Organic flow can be observed with the stylistic highlights, especially in parts where the drums and distorted guitars enter in full capacity. Threads in the Sky makes a weave of wonder with this song.
3) Working with Keshav from Skyharbor might have been a unique experience. Could you tell us more about this?
I knew that to make this debut as impactful as I can, I needed to work with the best progressive rock mix engineer from India. I knew that my compositions and production are already kind of according to the international modern prog trends, it’s just the sound design and the mix where I needed the professional touch. Keshav is an absolutely insane person to work with. He is very friendly thus talking to him about musical ideas was such a fun and a great learning experience for me, and the mix came out to be insane as was expected.
And of course the fact that he is literally one of the founding members of the entire modern progressive scene, his music with Skyharbour being one of the most influential bands in my journey of listening to music, it was an absolute honour to get to work with someone like him. I am very happy haha!
Nailing the effects down
4) Tell me about the choice of tones for this song. How did you narrow down on the resulting feel and aura we hear in the track?
Almost all the guitar tones heard in this song were set up on archetype plini X. For the bass guitars I used tones from neural DSP’S parallax and darkglass, and any additional ones Keshav might have used too. I am heavily influenced by TesseracT, they are one of the 4 pillars of the sound that Threads In The Sky is bringing. Thus the metallic single coil-ish sound was kind of my aim in terms of how the guitars are supposed to sound. The song is based on World War 2 so wanted some garage rock kind of imperfect dirty guitar sound, to create a vintage essence. The cello quartet was also added keeping the raw husky texture in mind, which turned out beautifully in the mix. All thanks to Keshav!
Gauging the emotions of the core
5) At a little over 7 minutes, this song takes the listener on a floating journey. Was this something you wrote specifically or a jam resulting to something as refreshing as this?
Not really, as I don’t just set out to write songs, this song is an amalgamation of multiple ideas that came from my frequent random improv sessions. I love just playing around on the guitar, trying random stuff and ending up with some great ideas that can possibly end up creating a song. It’s just that, I’ve done a lot of research on World War 2. There was a phase of my life where I watched tons of documentaries and movies on World War 2, because nothing brings me more joy than to empathize with ones who are suffering, to shed tears for them, with them.
I was filled with a lot of despair and anguish from knowing what really unfolded during those times, how much humanity had suffered. Thus it became a part of me, it is what was inside me. And when I keep improvising on the guitar, those feelings come out in the form of melodies because that’s the music that is coming from within me. That is art in its purest form, which is an expression of who the artist really is from the inside.
It is a part of me represented in the form of sound waves, played on a few silly metal strings on a wooden guitar. And I am also, if not instantly, then eventually able to recognise that okay this could be a song based on this or that certain idea. So most of this song wasn’t actually written, it is a collection of ideas born from my random improv sessions.
Threads in the Sky-Future Plans
6) What are your future plans with music? Can we expect more singles in the coming months?
I have a lot of plans, I want to release albums in the near future but to be able to do that to the best of my abilities and exactly like how I imagine it in my mind, I need to build an audience base, build my sound, collect resources and funds so that what I envision could come into existence exactly how I have foreseen. Thus, I’ll be opting for the most efficient way in the modern music industry as a beginner artist, which is to consistently keep releasing singles every 2-3 months. You can expect another single by June, and possibly two more before the year ends.
Though you can see inspirations from places like Steven Wilson’s Blackfield, Opeth and Katatonia in terms of tone, Threads in the Sky is approaching musical history with a vision to the future. The choice of aural spaces gives you an idea of what he is orchestrating, and perhaps you can be seated in the audience. When the music crescendoes, chills will command over your spine. Listen to the song here:
Check out our playlists here!
Check out our YouTube channel for music reviews, playlists, podcasts, and more!
Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
