Mick White (White Skies) Interview

Interview by Woody

White Skies are a brand new traditional AOR band with a quintessential British sound and their impressive debut album ‘Black Tide’ should create some waves amongst the genre’s fanbase. We caught up with lead Vocalist Mick White to discuss this new band full of experienced hands.

Can you tell us how White Skies was born? everyone in the band is an experienced musician and most names will be well known to readers of this magazine so how did you all come together?

Ray and I have been friends since the late eighties when he was in Ya Ya and I was in Samson/First Strike and we reconnected about seven years ago after quite some time. I’ve always wanted to write an AOR album and I’ve always wanted to work with Ray as he’s the best guitarist and writer in that genre I have ever known so we talked about doing something for a while. Just before covid we decided to stop talking about it and actually do something, then the lockdown happened and we suddenly had the time to really go for it. The songs came really fast especially after Pete came on board and we really gelled together as a songwriting team. Once the album was done and we signed very quickly to Pride and Joy we knew we needed a great rhythm section, I’d worked with Daz Lamberton on the video for my second solo single Sometime Superman and we got on like a house on fire so he was the first drummer I thought of for White Skies. Rob Naylor was a friend of James Heron who does all our videos and after meeting him I thought he would be great for the band too. Rob and Daz are old friends as well who live close to each other so the situation couldn’t have been more perfect.

I’m a huge fan of Keyboardist Pete Lakin, he’s a great technical performer who has a great ear for Melodic Rock and he’s outstanding throughout the White Skies album. He’s also an amazing songwriter which may sometimes slip under the casual fans radar. So how did he become a member of White Skies? Also did he contribute to the song writing or were the songs already ready for him to add his performance to?

Pete is an incredibly gifted keyboard player and is a huge part of the White Skies sound. Very early on in the writing process Ray and I knew that we would need to bring in a talented keyboard player if we were to achieve the classic AOR sound we were looking for. Ray had been working with Pete for about ten years so he suggested bringing him in and really that was when the nucleus of the band was formed.

Ray and I contributed most of the writing on the songs with the exception of Midnight Rendezvous and Kiss Me (As I Say Goodbye) where the music was Pete’s. We would then leave the songs with Pete to arrange and put his magic into them and once he was happy with the sound, we would fine tune between the three of us. When we had finished the writing process Pete then spent a long time mixing the album so his contribution was enormous

What is the song writing process like for White Skies? Do you write all the lyrics and Ray Callcut all the instrumentation for example, how does the average White Skies song come into being?

Yeah, generally Ray will send me some music over in a verse, bridge, chorus, middle eight kinda format and I’ll work on the vocal melodies and lyrics. Once I’ve recorded a guide vocal it then goes over to Pete who arranges the song and it’s then re-recorded properly with the full White Skies sound. All the separate parts were recorded at our individual studios and then sent back to Pete for mixing. It’s actually a very slick songwriting process with a lot on input from all three of us.

Can you tell us about a few of the songs on the album? Are there any you’re particularly proud of or have meanings / stories behind them you’d like to share?

I’m incredibly proud of this album and as a huge fan of the AOR/Melodic rock genre I think it has a number of songs that stand up very well alongside some of the best. The opening track and debut single What Do You Know About Love? is the perfect first song not only for the album but for the live set too. It was written quite late in the process as we thought the album needed a couple more rockers so we added that and Sleeping In The Fire to the final track listing. Lyrically I’ve tried to stay true to the themes that I grew up listening to back in the early eighties so there are obviously songs about love, heartbreak and fast cars but all of them are coming from a real place and the life experience I now have. The title track Black Tide is one of the darkest and most political things I have ever written and Ray’s riff compliments that perfectly. It came from a time in the pandemic when the whole situation was becoming very hard to deal with mentally, not only that but watching all the turmoil in the world with corrupt politicians and climate change I just put it all down and shouted at the world. On the flip side my favourite song on the album Leave A Light On is for my wife and it’s a very personal love letter to her which I hope is uplifting and leaves the listener in a good place.

Did you have inspirations or initial game plans behind the sound and style of this band? And did the album turn out as you hoped and originally envisioned or did it become something else along the way?

I think the main remit was to try to write an album that was inspired by the classic AOR bands of the early eighties rather than the more modern Scandinavian sound which I think we have achieved. Ray has such a distinctive guitar tone and plays in a style that not many other guitarists do these days and my voice has a little more gravel than say Steve Perry so we’ve tried to play to our strengths and produce a sound that hopefully sets us apart from most of the other melodic rock bands around at the moment. I think the album has exceeded all our expectations and has turned out to be at the very top of what we thought we could do. One thing that we definitely think is that it has a very British AOR sound which wasn’t ever really talked about in the writing process and we’re very pleased and proud of that.

I’ve seen the three music videos you have done so far, my favourite video probably been for Emily. Do you enjoy making these videos are do you see them as a necessary evil for promotion of your songs?

We have a fantastic dude called James Heron who makes our videos and to be honest it’s impossible not to have a great time when you’re working with him. He brings an incredible amount of energy to the shoot and brings the best out of everyone. The first two videos for What Do You Know About Love? and One Step Forward were done using green screen so they were shot in two different locations with different band members present. Emily was the first time the five of us had been together in the same room so it was a special vibe that really comes across and plus we were in a fantastic location too.

Do you have any plans to take these songs on the road? Have you got any Live dates booked or Festivals you can tell us about or even cryptical hint at for us?

We are one hundred percent taking White Skies out on the road and everyone is committed to that. Rehearsals are underway and we will be looking to do some low-key dates early in 2023 and then hit the road and play as much as we can throughout the year.

Is performing live important to the band?

Most definitely and I also think these songs will go to another level in front of a live audience. Collectively the five members of the band have played on stages and arenas with the likes of Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Styx, Uriah Heep and Chicken Foot as well as headline shows with all our various previous bands so it’s an incredibly experienced line up that is very comfortable in the live arena. Add to that we all get on so well and we can’t wait to tour together.

Is There anything else you would like to say or add that fans may like to know about White Skies?

Just really to reiterate that we are so excited about the Black Tide album and can’t wait to play these songs for you. We genuinely hope that you love the album as much as we did write and recording it and if you’ve bought the CD, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.