I recently had the privilege of conducting an interview with Ronnie Bingaman, lead singer of Skyhawk Drive. Skyhawk Drive is an up and coming band from Greencastle, PA, and has released an EP, "Center Stage Shout Out" in 2009. Currently Skyhawk Drive is in the studio at Skies Fall, recording a new album! I'm super stoked for it! It was a great privilege to interview Ronnie, and make sure and check out The Extreme Tour site to see when Skyhawk Drive will visit your area! (I believe they're touring from the middle of June through mid-July on the Extreme Tour.) My questions are in black, and Skyhawk Drive's answers are in red. Enjoy!
Can you please tell us a bit about how Skyhawk Drive was formed and the story behind the band name?
The band was started back in high school for an English project. We had to read a book and then present it in front of the class in a creative way. We made the band, wrote a song about the book, and made a little music video for it. "Skyhawk Drive" came from a street name in a town not to far from ours=)
Your first album, “Center Stage Shout Out” was released in 2009, and “Their Dance, Your Chance” became a hit in Japan, China and the Philippines. What was it like seeing your song doing so well in other countries?
We are all really happy with how "big" its gotten. For us 30 some thousand views on Youtube is big. Haha it might not seem like anything compared to other bigger music videos but to us we were stoked with the response.
“Finest Mistake” is an amazing song with a Pro-Life message. Can you explain what inspired you to write the song?
The song was written about a close friend of the bands. She went through this situation and we saw her go through those hard times. She is now married and is the mother of a beautiful baby girl. It took a lot of faith and and courage to do what she did in that situation and it was really inspiring to us.
Currently you guys are at Skies Fall Studios recording your second album. What can we expect lyrically and musically from this record?
You guys can expect a ton from this new record. It really has shown how we have grown as Christians, people, and musicians. The songs are a little edgier but still keep that pop catchy feel. We grew up and so has our music. We're tired of the super happy pop sound so we've changed it up a bit. The Ep shows off our more "popish" songs out of all our new music. We hope to soon after, record full length with everything we've written in the past few months.
Ben and Nick are really great guys! It was intimidating at first because we're all Skillet fans. We learned how awesome Nick's old band, Acceptance, was after getting into the studio. They are both extremely talented musicians. Working with them has been really incredible for us and I count it as a huge blessing to able to work with such a great team on this!
Who has influenced Skyhawk Drive the most as a band?
We really take so many influences from so many places. Too many to even list. Theres a huge list of bands that influence us, movies even influence us, God and His word, situations influence us, and people and life in general is all an influence.
One time after a show we packed up all our gear and pulled out of the venue and drove about 15 minutes and realized we left our drummer at the venue. All of our phones were either dead or on silent so we didnt get his calls=)
Our keyboardist is actually just now graduating from high school this spring. Because of that we really haven't been able to tour much at all. We pretty much have been limited to weekend shows. Our first official tour will be this summer across the east coast and some in the mid west. The band, thankfully, hasnt taken a big toll on any relationships thus far. If anything its strengthened our walk with Christ. We've definitely had some stressful times that we needed to rely on Gods strength and guidance to get us through it=)
If you could tour anywhere in the world with any band, where and who would it be?
I would love to do a European tour and I really wanna play a Flevo fest in Holland haha. We would love to tour with 30 seconds to mars, Paramore, Relient K, SKillet, or Switchfoot. Any of those bands would be incredible to tour with!
As a band we all like the verse Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." That verse has gotten me personally through battles and hardships. Its engraved on my necklace that I wear all the time so its an easy reminder to all of us that God has everything under control even when we can see it.
A lot of people have come up to us after shows in the past years and told us their stories and how our songs have given them hope and helped them in their time of need. Its the coolest thing ever to hear stories like that because you know God has used you in some way. Its probably the most rewarding part about being in a band.
Now, since Skyhawk Drive is from right here in Pennsylvania, I have to ask….Steelers or Eagles? =P
What or what? Eagles are pretty cool birds. I hope they don't go extinct. Steeling isn't good so I'm not about that. (we're not into sports haha)
Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer these questions. Would you like to share any closing thoughts?
Thanks for asking us these questions=)
AWESOME INTERVIEW!!!!! It was really cool doing he live chat with these guys even though I knew nothing about them and this interview just makes me like them even more! Great job!
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