Timeout with Skye Galaxy

Yes yes, I know. If you’ve met me in world and asked me a thing about live performers in Second Life, you already know what I think of Skye Galaxy. He is the best live performer I have come across in this place. I am pretty finicky, and I’ll be honest. Most live shows, I’ll listen for a song or two but then I’d rather go back to my Lolly Jane Blue or my Bon Iver. I have to listen to music that moves me or I can’t listen to it. That’s just how I am. Skye is like that. I listen to him and I get to relax for the hour I get to go visit. It’s a great break from the stuff I do during the day, when I get to catch him during a show. I enjoy how he banters with the audience and his fan base is well… pretty affectionate. This is a guy who can have a sim full before he sings a note with only a notice in his group that reads “???”. I’ve seen it. I know you can only get so many people in a sim but I mean, it’s full in about three minutes after the notice goes out. I think that at least shows that people are willing to drop whatever they are doing to hear him right away. I can’t always, but when I can, I like to.

If you’ve never seen Skye perform live… I’ll share with you a video of a live performance he did at Burbon Island in Champs De Mars singing a cover of Gotye – “Heart’s a Mess”

I had the chance to sit down with Skye and bug him for a few minutes, and he was nice enough to share some of his feelings and thoughts on music, fun, second life, and his goals. Not only is he a talented guy, but a really nice kid as well. He works pretty hard at what he does. I hope to hear sometime soon: “Hey Cole! The album is finished” *coughs*hint*coughs*

I asked Skye where some of his personal favorite places to sing in SL were and he said to me:

“You know, I could sit down and list off a lot of venues that I enjoy performing at, but as much as that enjoyment reaches my favorite places to play are those that I have spontaneous abducted throughout my time spent on Second Life. A few of my friends would let me steal their land for a night, and I would invite everyone in the early stages of the group out for the simple ability of sharing a night of musical ambience with a piano, myself, and a fire crackling gently in the background. No tips, no advertisements, no pay, simply music. It was an amazing feeling to be able to perform and have people that simply wanted to listen without any time of pressure or gimmick, and I feel those moments will continue to top all the others for a very long time.”

Skye’s love for just singing and expressing himself honestly sets him apart from a lot of the more financially driven performers I have run across. It really puts him on a more personal level with his audience, I think. So I asked him what is it about performing that he loves so much and how does that feeling differ with his online performances? He replied:

“I love the interaction with people. My dream, ever since I was little, was to look out into the crowd one day to see the entire crowd singing my song, right along with me. As much as I love Second Life, I feel the physical presence of a show offline will always reign supreme. The aura is soul-piercing. Offline I always get to explore playing primarily original material, something I miss doing more of on SL. Playing as many covers as I do, though, there has been so much learned about the music I love and listen to every day. What better way to discover a piece of music than playing, singing, and feeling every note?”

I totally agree As you are able to hear in an amazing rendition Skye did of Bjork’s Joga which I was lucky enough to film and you can catch here:

Anyhow… so then I got to wondering about what Skye hoped to achieve this year as far as his music was concerned. So I asked him.

“Getting signed. Mark my words, it /will/ happen, or at least I hope with all of my heart. My mother and I were driving home a few weeks ago and I turned to her in the car and said, “this year is my year.”I have far too much of a need to make this hope become reality to let the year pass without something happening, and dream about it too often.”

Big dreams and plans and goals. I hope he does really well. His music is amazing. Before I let him get back to running around I just felt like picking at him a bit more and asked about what he enjoyed to do in Second Life outside of his musical pursuits and he told me:

“Usually, my friends and I are causing trouble amidst the grid, and on occasion I visit clubs and like to DJ on the side, from time to time. You would be surprised at whom actually plays and takes part in Second Life. There are so many back-stories to people here, and I love hearing all about when, where, how and why they signed up, and continue signing in. This is very much a virtual ecosystem of endless personalities and types of people, and I don’t think I would have met so many offline, where my shyness usually takes over much of what I say and do. I am still a kid, okay maybe twenty is pushing it, but I am just a normal guy trying to ease the dull moments of Suburbia here in Dallas. So far it is paying off.”

Seems like he’s got his head screwed on just tight enough to know what he wants and up in the air enough to keep dreaming dream about it. Good luck Skye <– will be stalking…

I mean listening? <.< (Thanks Skye)

I will leave you with my personal favorite original song from him which I used in a video that you can watch here:

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