We Speak Music
Drummer-Turned-Artist Skytinual Returns to Music After Two Decades with New Albums

After a remarkable two-decade hiatus, Dave Bush—formerly known for his drumming prowess—is poised for an exciting comeback under his new artistic moniker, Skytinual. Set to release two albums through Peace Army Music, Skytinual is ready to re-enter the spotlight with his upcoming debut album, Yes Yes Let’s Hope, slated for 2024. The album’s first single, ‘Still Love You (At the End of Time)’, has already begun to generate buzz and anticipation.
Skytinual is the artistic rebirth of Dave Bush, an accomplished drummer and independent artist whose past collaborations include Grammy-winning musicians. After a hiatus of nearly 20 years, he returns with an alt-pop sound that embodies his life experiences and spiritual growth. Skytinual’s music is poised to reconnect with listeners and introduce a new chapter filled with personal insight and creative vision. “In many ways, I’m a much different person now, and wanted a new artistic identity,” Bush states. ‘Skytinual’ marks that reinvention. The sky is both ageless and continually changing. I relate to that seeming paradox, and ‘Skytinual’ embodies that feeling to me.”
Skytinual’s career has been anything but ordinary. He’s performed with notable Grammy-winning artists and even released his own independent project before stepping away from the industry in the early 2000s. Reflecting on his career shift, Skytinual recalls, “When I told Lisa Loeb that I was too busy to join her band even as ‘Stay’ was hitting #1 on the charts, that was the turning point. While crazy in retrospect, I was just getting interested in my music and knew I had to pursue my own path as an artist – wherever it took me.”
This new chapter is marked by Skytinual’s evolution into an alt-pop sound infused with introspective lyrics and a touch of 1980s nostalgia. The name ‘Skytinual’ itself symbolizes this reinvention. “The sky is both ageless and continually changing,” Bush explains. “I relate to that paradox, and ‘Skytinual’ embodies that feeling for me.”
Skytinual’s latest single, ‘Changing Light’, delves into the themes of impermanence and the ever-shifting nature of existence. Inspired by his long-standing zazen meditation practice, the song poses philosophical questions through its verses—“Are we coming, are we going, which is right?”—while the chorus serves as a repetitive mantra: “changing light, changing life.” The song’s creation was influenced by a personal experience; Skytinual wrote the lyrics in just a couple of hours during a 24-hour stay in Charlotte, North Carolina, amid the CrowdStrike outage. “With a dear friend and two family members engaged in major cancer battles, this year has really brought the fragility of life to the forefront. The song isn’t dark; it’s a meditation on change, an embrace of all possible futures,” he shares.
The single features Kevin Scott of Government Mule on bass, while Skytinual performs all other instruments, crafting a unique blend of modern alt-pop and vintage influences. ‘Changing Light’ marks a bold and hopeful new direction for the artist, signaling the arrival of his thoughtful and innovative sound.
Skytinual’s upcoming album, Yes Yes Let’s Hope, and its 2025 follow-up promise to offer fans a profound, reflective, and musically rich experience. The single ‘Changing Light’ is just a taste of the exciting, multi-layered work Skytinual is ready to share with the world.
We Speak Music
Acclaimed US singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd to tour the UK for the first time this summer.
Shortly after releasing her sophomore album in 2007, US-based singer-songwriter Juliet Lloyd walked away from music completely for more than 10 years, feeling burned out and unhappy with her career progression like so many other independent artists. After going through a divorce in 2019 and in the midst of a global pandemic, she found herself pulled back toward the siren call of songwriting and again making the leap to pursue it full time. Her latest album ‘Carnival’, released in 2024, is in many ways the culmination of those decisions, and the reintroduction of an artist who now has the wisdom of experience.
There’s an unmistakable urgency you can feel when a song is written and performed from a place of complete honesty. That feeling permeates ‘Carnival’. “I’ve always been envious of writers who say they write songs because they have to, because they had these things they just had to get out of themselves,” Juliet says. “I had never really felt that way until this album. I’ve become someone who writes because they have to.”
Stylistically, ‘Carnival’ draws on a range of influences from Laurel Canyon-era singer/songwriters, to Lilith Fair rockers, to confessional country/folk balladeers, to indie pop. The central theme of the record and that of its title track is not being too precious about any one experience or decision. Take them for what they are, live in the moment, and move on when they’re done. It acknowledges also that memory can be subjective, and ambiguous—was an experience ultimately a good thing or a bad thing? And whose memory can you rely on to determine the answer to that question?
‘Carnival’ doesn’t just deal with the complexities of ending relationships, it also deals with all the feelings that come with moving on. The album’snine songs feature evocative storytelling that reveals a simple truth: when the carnival inevitably leaves town, you’re left with an empty parking lot. And how you remember, it is a choice. As Juliet sings in the title track, “If only there was a way you could bottle up that feeling / and you’d drink it in / when the days are short and you long.”
Across her 20+ year career, Juliet has been admittedly stylistically non-monogamous. Her first full-length album, ‘All Dressed Up’, was released in 2005 and was heavily jazz-influenced- a label that she rejected at the time. “I am a piano player and a woman, so I was immediately compared to Norah Jones—and I bristled at that,” Juliet says. “Listening back now, I can totally see that it was true, and it of course wasn’t a bad thing.” Her follow-up release ‘Leave the Light On,’ came out two years later and featured a slick piano-pop production that led to five of its songs being placed on reality TV shows on MTV and VH1. Coming back after her 10-year break from writing and recording, Juliet released ‘High Road’, a collection of five Americana/soul-tinged songs produced by Jim Ebert (Meredith Brooks, Shai) that earned her widespread recognition and songwriting awards both in her home region of DC as well as nationally.
Now with her first ever UK tour scheduled for July 2025, Juliet has also dropped a completely brand-new single ‘Wild Again’, which like ‘Carnival’, was written with and produced by Todd Wright (Lucy Woodward, Butch Walker, Toby Lightman). ‘Wild Again’, however, charts yet another new step in Juliet’s journey.
“Carnival’, is full of deeply personal songs that are drawn from my real-life experiences and relationships. Coming out of that album cycle, I was feeling a little exhausted by my own navel-gazing and I was craving inspiration elsewhere. So, a lot of the songs I’m writing now are an evolution of sorts – focused more on external stimuli and finding the personal stories and humanity in that. Wild Again is a perfect example of this,” she explains.
The idea for ‘Wild Again’ was born out of a NY Times podcast Juliet listened to about the real-life efforts to return the whale that played Willy in the iconic movie ‘Free Willy’ back into the wild.
“It’s an insane, heartbreaking story that asks all kinds of thorny questions about human responsibility and humility and what’s the “right” thing to do and is that the same as the “kind” thing to do. There was a line that one of the trainers said in the podcast, explaining that they were trying to “train him to be wild again.” The complete absurdity of that statement hit me in the moment, and I immediately started jotting down lyrical ideas”, Juliet says.
Catch Juliet Lloyd on her UK tour this July:
1st July: The Folklore Rooms / Brighton
2nd July: The Hyde Tavern / Winchester
3rd July: Hen and Chicken / Bristol (CRH Music promotions)
4th July: Artisan Tap Hartshill / Stoke-on-Trent
5th July: Waggon & Horses, Nottingham
6th July: Cafe#9 / Sheffield
7th July: Hyde Park Book Club / Leeds
10th July: FortyFive Vinyl Café / York
11th July: The Muddy Puddle / London
13th July: The Wrotham Arms / Broadstairs

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