Alternative Rockers Skyfactor to Perform New Material in Pleasantville This Weekend
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
By Jordan Goodman
If you’re familiar with the northern Westchester music scene, it’s no secret that Skyfactor has been one of the more popular bands in the area over the past two decades.
Throughout their career, this four-member group has made splashes throughout the Hudson Valley and New York State with its unique blend of singer-songwriter material with an evolving sound exploring territories of post-grunge, slow balladry and indie folk.
This Saturday, Nov. 23, the band will be performing at the Garage at Lucy’s Lounge in Pleasantville, followed by a performance at New York City’s Bitter End in early December.
They have also announced that their newest album is in the works and expected to have an official digital release next May or June.
The upcoming performances will include numerous hits from their three-album catalog with the addition of a few songs from their upcoming album. (The album title and cover are expected to be released early in 2025.)
Skyfactor’s story starts on a rooftop in the East Village, where brothers Jon and Cliff Rubin, lead guitarist and bassist, respectively, share their passion for loud alternative rock with an aggressive edge. The two were inspired by the likes of Aerosmith, KISS and Led Zepplin to form their group, Sky Blues.
At one of their gigs, the two were re-introduced to singer Bob Ziegler and drummer Jason Taylor, formerly of the band Brother Rabbit out of Ann Arbor, Mich. The four of them melded their respective sounds, taking the edginess of the instrumentals and putting them against some sentimental, heartfelt songwriting. In other words, they started as a supergroup without knowing they were a supergroup.
It just so happens that their sounds meshed seamlessly, and their run of notoriety would expand throughout the next two decades. But at this stage in their career, Skyfactor is trying to do something different with their sound while still attempting to sound uniquely themselves.
According to Jon Rubin, this next album promises to be their most electric-sounding project yet.
“I’m an electric guitar play, but acoustics were out of necessity, it suited Bob’s voice because his influences are more different than mine, and the acoustic guitar was the perfect way to begin to write songs on,” he said. “But what I thought was if we could do a blend of both acoustic and electric, we’d have a few songs that are mostly acoustic and a few that are full-on electric rockers. It opens up the sound palette so much more.”
With this new batch of material, some of which they’ve been sitting on for more than five years, Skyfactor dives head-first into the electric soundscape and excavates its niche, forming something more mellow on the ears but lyrically familiar to the rest of their music.
For Ziegler, the front man, Skyfactor’s music is a reflection of what’s going on in the band members’ lives. The past album reflected a tough time for Ziegler, and lyrically focused on what was going on in his life. But now that he’s in a happier place, he and the others have had an easier time making sense of the world around them.
“There’s some big themes on this album, we’re all older now, we have kids that are in college, and we’re looking at those questions like ‘Why are our parents passing?’ Or looking at love, relationships, togetherness, and I think our album reflects that growth,” Ziegler said. “I think overall it’s a happier album.”
“I’ve known Bob for 30 or so years and it’s nice relistening to these songs and thinking ‘I’m very happy for him,’” Taylor said. “We’ve added more keyboards and piano to the album and that’s reflected in the way you write. How we’re gonna pull that off live is a different story.”
The band has taken a sonic evolution at every turn in their career, but this project seems to be their most evolved yet. Detouring around areas of singer-songwriter music, slow blues and balladry, the newest album includes a more varied instrumental palette.
“No matter what style we’re doing, at least to me, it still feels like us because even as musicians if we’re doing something different, it’s still characterized as us,” explained Cliff Rubin.
Thanks to the direction and the diversity of sound the band tools around with, each member no longer has to worry if their new material sounds like Skyfactor. Jon Rubin said that there were some change-ups for the new album that stylistically they might not have tried five years ago. He recalls hearing a piano demo from Taylor that sounded nice but didn’t fit the band’s criteria.
However, after the pandemic and recording constraints, the band had a unique opportunity to experiment outside their usual wheelhouse, resulting in their newest album. If any one of them has an idea, it’s at least considered by the other members.
“We’re all writing and it’s changing our sound for the better, it makes us more mature,” Jon Rubin noted.
When it came time to figure out how to play the new material live, the set-up became a bigger feat to pull off. But as Taylor adds, “It’s just an exciting feeling to perform again. We played an old song together that we hadn’t played in years, I was on the drums thinking ‘Could I even play this again?’ and I somehow couldn’t mess up for the life of me. It’s muscle memory.”
For the band, the challenges of performing the new material and sound opens up more possibilities for what they could accomplish within the live setting, and seeing the feedback from their success makes the task all the more thrilling.
Their performance at Lucy’s will include two hours of Skyfactor material, with the addition of seven or eight songs from the new album. Opening for the band at 8 p.m. is Paul Beladino, with Skyfactor following at 9 p.m.
The Garage at Lucy’s Lounge is located at 446 Bedford Rd. in Pleasantville. Patrons must be 21 and up to gain admittance. There is a $15 cover charge.
More information about the show can be found at https://www.lucyspleasantvilleny.com.
Examiner Media – Keeping you informed with professionally-reported local news, features, and sports coverage.
