Here’s something of an unexpected treat in the form of a cover of Nick Cave’s ‘Push The Sky Away‘ by Americana UK favourite VanWyck. It was recorded live, originally, for a music channel but as Christine Oele explains it was so good that it needed a proper version as well: “I’ve never recorded a cover before, but when asked by The Influences to record a cover video I immediately knew I would chose this song. It’s always been an important song to me. In a way it’s a kind of personal anthem. ‘Just keep on pushing the sky away.’ That’s what I tell myself when things get difficult or when I don’t know where to go next. In that sense it has also been important to me in creating my last album The Epic Tale of the Stranded Man which also felt like a big leap into the unknown.
But that’s where things get exiting, both in life and in art, if you reach for that which is just out of your reach, that which is just beyond your control. For me, that’s the electric spark I feel when I write a new song, or when I’m on stage and completely absorbed in the moment, in a communal sphere together with the audience. After filming the video with Reyer Zwart on guitar we decided we had to record it together in the studio as well so we could add some layers to it. So that is what we did. We pushed the sky away.“
Sure, I could climb high in a tree, or go to Skye on my holiday. I could be happy. All I really want is the excitement of first hearing The Byrds, the amazement of decades of Dylan's music, or the thrill of seeing a band like The Long Ryders live. That's not much to ask, is it?
