Perfect Blue Sky is the collaboration between Swedish

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

guitarist Pontus "PNA" Andersson (

Netherbird Netherbird is a Swedish metal band from Stockholm. Their signature sound is heavily influenced by the early 1990s Scandinavian black and death metal, as well as elements of doom, gothic and heavy metal present. History Early years, 2004–2009 ...

) and Australian

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

vocalist Jane Kitto. Combining their influences as songwriters, their sound is a hybrid between the 1970s psychedelic classic rock and 1990s

grunge Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is an alternative rock genre and subculture that emerged during the in the American Pacific Northwest state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. Grunge fuses elements of p ...

eras.

History (2014–present)

Andersson and Kitto formed Perfect Blue Sky in 2014 with a premier performance at Finland's Puistoblues festival and a live performance on

Radio Rock Radio Rock is a Finnish rock music radio station owned by Nelonen Media, a part of the media group Sanoma. Radio Rock's broadcasting began on 1 January 2007, at 0.00, with the official spoken programs beginning on 15 January 2007. The first s ...

, as well as other shows in Sweden. They featured well known US musicians Dave Getz (drums) and Peter Albin (bass) of

Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some in ...

and Danny Oakhill (keyboards) from Australia to launch the band on both their live shows and the studio recordings. In April 2015, they went on a second tour in the outback of Australia's

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

with Oakhill and newcomer Allen Murphy ( Yothu Yindi, Village People) on drums, and performed at the Nightcliff Sea Breeze Festival and the Humpty Doo Hotel, as well as made a live appearance on Darwin's ABC radio. They have since performed in alternative line-ups throughout Scandinavia, France and the UK together with French drummer Frank Bessard, US drummer Bil Bryant (

Machine Gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

), Swedish bassist Weine Johansson, French

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Stephane Bébert and drummer Frank Bessard as well as a duo. Their first single "Give You My Love" was released on 12 May 2017 by UK label Right Recordings/Nova Universal. The single is taken from the album ''The Eye of Tilos'', released on 19 May 2017. The album features Jerry Donahue (guitarist for

Fotheringay Fotheringay was a short-lived British folk rock group, formed in 1970 by singer-songwriter and musician Sandy Denny on her departure from Fairport Convention. The band drew its name from her 1968 composition " Fotheringay" about Fotheringhay ...

and

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

) and drummer

Dave Getz Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some in ...

(

). Also in the line-up is Frenchman Frank Bessard (Mr. lab!, Joe Satriani, Stanley Clarke) on drums, Australian keyboardist Danny Oakhill, and British viola player Lewis Parsons. Perfect Blue Sky completed their first UK live radio tour including

BBC Essex BBC Essex is the BBC's local radio station serving the county of Essex. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios on New London Road in Chelmsford. According to RAJAR, the station has a weekly audience of 160,000 ...

, BBC Oxford, BBC Lancashire, Metro Radio, Total Rock Radio and

Phoenix FM Phoenix FM is a community radio station serving the areas of Brentwood and Billericay, England on 98.0FM and online, covering an area of over 140,000 people. History The station was formed in 1996 and has been broadcasting full-time on FM since ...

in May 2017. ''Astronaut'', the band's follow-up single for 2017, was released on 20 October and well-received onto various UK radio playlists, and supported by acoustic duo's mini-tour in November. Perfect Blue Sky appeared once again live on various radio programmes;

BBC Bristol The BBC campus, Broadcasting House Bristol, is located on Whiteladies Road, Bristol. The first building to be occupied was 21/23 Whiteladies Road, which was built in 1852 and is a Grade II listed building, with four radio studios. It was formal ...

, BBC Cumbria, BBC Merseyside,

BBC Humberside BBC Radio Humberside is the BBC's local radio station serving East Yorkshire and North & North East Lincolnshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios at Queen's Gardens in Hull. According to RAJAR, the s ...

and BBC Lancashire, and made an interview and performance for the Children in Need 2017 campaign with BBC Lancashire presenter John Gillmore. Perfect Blue Sky also made live appearances with

Alan Robson Alan Robson (born 1 October 1955) is an English radio presenter, and host of the North East radio talk show, ''Alan Robson's Night Owls''. Radio Robson started his career with Metro Radio in Gateshead, presenting his first show on 12 Novembe ...

on his 'NightOwls' programme at Metro Radio in Newcastle as well as 103 The Eye and Phoenix FM. Whilst on tour, they supported John O'Leary (

Savoy Brown Savoy Brown (originally Savoy Brown Blues Band) were an English blues rock band formed in Battersea, south west London, in 1965. Part of the late 1960s blues rock movement, Savoy Brown primarily achieved success in the United States, where they ...

) and SugarKane, among others. Whilst on tour in November 2017, Andersson and Kitto also joined alongside UK representative Darren Weale of Pro Music Agency and consequently moved their base to the UK. Perfect Blue Sky photo by Magnus Wegler

In December 2017, Perfect Blue Sky supported Swedish rock band Sator at Söder Teatern in Stockholm, and in March 2018, they toured throughout Finland with yet another constellation of the band's line-up; this time with Marko Ahonen on drums and Salomon Kosunen on keyboards via Finnish booking agency Gogo Rodeo. In May, Perfect Blue Sky performed with the band's main drummer Frank Bessard at the Mailaul Festival Tartu, Estonia. During the festival they also hosted a series of workshops at

Heino Eller Tartu Music College The Heino Eller Tartu Music College is a music school in Tartu, Estonia, founded in 1919. It got its current name in 1971, after the Estonian composer and music teacher Heino Eller, who taught in the school from 1920 until 1940. Tartu School ...

. Perfect Blue Sky released three singles consecutively 2018, "Fiction Man", "Wasteland" and "Winds Ransom", from their album ''The Eye of Tilos''. Andersson and Kitto relocated to the south west of England in

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

during 2019 after having felt inspired by the Atlantic coast and its vibrant music culture. Perfect Blue Sky's first British line-up featured James Frost on drums and bassist Jon Middleton. However, during early 2020 with the onset of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, most of the band's performances had been cancelled until 2021. In the meantime, the duo have kept up their music presence making occasional on-line acoustic appearances, song projects, recording, and creating music videos in the staircase of their apartment block. As a result, Perfect Blue Sky's first single/video "Oh Pretty One" and " The Silver Ark" were released in June, 2020 and distributed to

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

and

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

via Record Union based in Sweden. A subsequent series of singles and videos followed on throughout the year including "Plush" "One Starry Night" "Stymie" "Honest Man". Their most recent single releases in 2021 are "Howl to the moon" (12 March) and Double A sides "Beat of That Drum" "Apple Gaze" (12 February), mastered by British record producer and sound engineer John Cornfield

Muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

. During 2021 Perfect Blue Sky made several appearances in their home county of Cornwall including The Acorn Theatre Penzance, The Great Estate Festival

Scorrier House Scorrier House, located near the village of Scorrier, Cornwall, England, UK, is a country house and the seat of the Williams family of Caerhays and Burncoose, Williams family. Scorrier House is also home to an important Cornish garden, Scorrier Ho ...

, Newquay Beer Festival and Whiskers in Newquay.

Band members

* Jane Kitto – guitar, vocals (2014–present) * Pontus "PNA" Andersson – guitar, vocals, bass (2014–present) * Frank Bessard – drums (2016–present) * Danny Oakhill – keyboards (2014–present) File:Mailaul-6288 Pna Andersson of Perfect Blue Sky Mailaul May 2018 Photo by Oliver Kuusk Permission granted and copyright free to use 01.jpg, "PNA" Andersson File:Mailaul-6279.jpg, Jane Kitto File:Mailaul-6164.jpg, Frank Bessard

Past and session members

* Lewis Parsons – violin (2016–present) * Salomon Kosunen – keyboards (2018–present) *

– drums (2014–present) * Allen Murphy – drums (2015–present) * Marko Ahonen – drums (2018–present) * Bil Bryant – drums (2015–present) * Weine Johansson – bass (2015–present) * Stephane Bébert – percussion (2016–present) * Jerry Donahue – guitar (2015-2017) * Peter Albin – bass (2014-2015) * James Frost – drums (2020) * Jon Middleton – bass (2020)

Discography

* 2015 – ''Emerald'' (CD/LP) * 2017 – ''Give You My Love'' (digital single) * 2017 – ''The Eye of Tilos'' (CD/LP) * 2017 – ''Astronaut'' (digital single) * 2018 – ''Fiction Man'' (digital single) * 2018 – ''Wasteland'' (digital single) * 2018 – ''Winds Ransom'' (digital single) * 2020 – ''Silver Ark'' (digital single) * 2020 – ''Oh Pretty One'' (digital single) * 2020 - ''Know my enemy well'' (digital single) * 2020 - ''Mevis and the raven'' (digital single) * 2020 - ''Plush'' (digital single) * 2020 - ''One Starry Night'' (digital single) * 2020 - ''Stymie'' (digital single) * 2020 - ''Honest Man'' (digital single) * 2021 - ''Beat of That Drum'' (digital single) * 2021 - ''Apple Gaze'' (digital single) * 2021 - ''Howl to the moon'' (digital single)

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Musical groups from Stockholm Musical groups established in 2014 Swedish psychedelic rock music groups 2014 establishments in Sweden