Sky high

The guys behind Oklahoma City post-hardcore outfit Our Sky Is Falling bring more to shows than instruments and amps.

They also bring Band-Aids. “We are huge fans of visual bands who go onstage and destroy everything,” vocalist Matt Magill said. “We throw guitars, hang from the ceiling, run out into the crowd and just freak people out. Our motto is, if we’re not bleeding by the end of the show, then you haven’t really seen Our Sky Is Falling.”

The group formed in 2009 as a collaboration between guitarist Ashton Prescott and drummer Micah Patrick, with guitarist Andrew Janousek, bassist Will Parks, keyboardist Jordan Meers and Magill added subsequently.

After recently gaining traction opening for hardcore favorites Senses Fail and Parkway Drive, the six-piece will put an exclamation point on an already stellar year on Saturday at The Conservatory, celebrating the release of Tales from Distant Shores.

“There will be musical chaos, trumpets, banjos and tons of guest musicians. We want it to be a mixture of fun and madness,” Magill said. “We’re not trying to recreate the [hard core]
genre. We are just trying to write the music we’ve always wanted to
hear. We hope our album will be an inspiration for musicians to break
the mold and try something new and exciting.”

If we’re not bleeding by the end, you haven’t really seen us.

—Matt Magill

The
disc is the direct result of modeling the band after not only hardcore
influences, but also alternative acts like The Pixies and seemingly
diametrically opposed musicians like Bon Iver.

“The
more we’ve progressed, the more we have pulled from different genres,”
Magill said. “We want to write metal music with an indie feel.”

To do just that, Our Sky enlisted a roster of guest musicians to add string and horn flourishes to the metallic base.

“We
were able to throw out crazy ideas for a song and then say, ‘What’s
holding us back from doing this? Let’s do it.’” Magill said.

It’s a polarizing take on hardcore, but that lets Magill and company know they are doing something right.

“From
what I gathered, people love us or hate us. There is no in-between,” he
said. “We’re all about acting crazy onstage because it is fun, and we
love entertaining people, and that has made us memorable in good ways
and in bad. Well, bad to some people.”

This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 3, 2012.