Alpine Skies Unveil Third Single ‘Blockks’, Closing Out Breakthrough Year
Following extensive praise for hypnotic debut “By Your Side” and soaring successor “Walls”, Dublin alternative-rock duo Alpine Skies return with third original single “Blockks” on November 14th, closing out a momentous first year.
A band born through serendipity and sustained by sound, Alpine Skies (Kevin Homan and Darren Farrell), discovered an instant creative chemistry that would soon unfold into what will be their debut album, which will arrive early next year - an evocative, layered collection of songs shaped by wide skies, still landscapes, and inner journeys.
Earning praise from Hot Press, Pure M Zine, The Beat, Red FM, Dublin City FM, Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon on Whooosh! (Sirius XM), and more, Alpine Skies’ sound is rooted in melody and emotion, their music fuses cinematic textures with raw lyricism, weaving stories of distance, reconnection, memory, and rebirth. Each song is a window into a world both personal and expansive- music for those moments when time feels suspended.
Self-produced and recorded with the expertise and knowledge of Sean Hurley in Little Bear Studios, Dublin, new single “Blockks”, released November 14th, was mastered by the talented Gabe Wolf in his home studio in LA. As with the band's previous releases, "By Your Side" and "Walls", the song once again features Gavin Fox (Turn/Idlewild) and Paul 'Binzer' Brennan (The Frames/The Waterboys/Bellx1) on bass and drum recording duties. The collective then huddled round the microphone, with the help of Sean Hurley and Sheena Stynes, to record layer upon layer of ambient, breathy vocals for the songs outro chorus refrain. A collective awakening, to solidify the song's overall theme.
"Blockks" was a song that came together from the band's early writing sessions: “While working on another track the song's main guitar hook just presented itself, with those infectious, lingering notes evoking growth and progress through each phrasing. Simply put, it is a reflection of life, both musically and lyrically, for the band”
They continue, “The song grows with that life from the outset. The constant piano note as the heartbeat of the song. The delicate guitar line-both alluring and threatening in its approach. These elements reflect the trepidation of life, and lead us to a bubbling, unsettling, sub-bass line that underpins the song, and reflects adversity and that feeling of being at odds with the modern world. The increasing intensity of the drumming, and the lyrical angst with this modern world, reflect on overcoming adversity and challenges in life. That development of your inner voice-providing a backbone, and enabling one to find clarity and purpose-the drenching of guitars are that purpose realised”
With the song’s final lyric reflecting on the twisted humor within life, the pursuit of awareness is clear: “Even though clarity and purpose provide an enlightenment in life, societal structures that govern will always serve to hinder from complete utopia; ‘and you’ll be denied’. The song's main theme centres on that feeling of being at odds with the modern world, while seeking to find justice, clarity and purpose. Abandoning any hyper-consumerism nature of the world, for a more valuable people and relationships focused happiness”.
Alpine Skies is less a project and more a horizon. Something always moving forward, quietly powerful, and always just out of reach, building in silence, through “inspired conflicts” - their forthcoming album’s title.
In Dublin’s buzzing alternative scene, Alpine Skies emerge as a beacon of something deeper, exploring the profound, the mundane, the tangible and the ineffable - finding connection, strength and meaning across all.
