SkyBlew (Mario Farrow) stopped by Live & Local this week, following the release of his new album “Forgotten Memories and Analog Mysteries.”
“It’s an awesome party for dreamers,” SkyBlew says of the album – which he made together with DJ SublimeCloud, one of his frequent collaborators. “Everybody’s invited, no matter your belief system or your background … (and) if you’re looking for the directions, how to get there, this album is the direction.”
Heavily influenced by popular culture – particularly anime, science fiction, and video games, where large-scale world-building is rewarded – nearly all of SkyBlew’s albums build on each other to develop an expansive, intergalactic lore, and “Forgotten Memories” is no exception. The album’s 19 tracks tell a story that starts out small and quickly turns into a world-encompassing struggle – as SkyBlew and SublimeCloud set out to host a party to give people a good time, only to run up against vague and uneasy forces that seem to be conspiring to bring the world down and steal everyone’s dreams, hopes, and joy.
So, 2026, basically.
“It’s our dream too, of course – but more than anything it’s to help people, especially during these crazy times where it’s just a lot of confusion, a lot of hatred, a lot of division,” SkyBlew says. “We just want to give you more love and less war. That’s been the mantra: ‘More Love, Less War.'”
Listen to “Forgotten Memories and Analog Mysteries” and purchase the album on Bandcamp.
And while “Forgotten Memories” connects back to SkyBlew’s previous output, he says it also represents a new direction: a new style he calls Rhythm Escapism, which differs from traditional escapism in part because it’s ultimately meant not to enable you to withdraw from the world, but to reenergize you to help make the world better.
“You build a universe,” he says of that approach. “The music offers something, you (add) the lore, story pieces, (and) videos, all telling a cohesive story that people can just escape into and create their own stories, use their own imagination. So it expands beyond music rhythm…
“It’s something you want people to escape into – not to escape the world, but to escape the problems of the world and just dive into something that’s imaginative and fun and unique and mysterious. But you’re also going to get something from it that’s going to personally affect you.”
SkyBlew stopped by Live & Local this week to discuss “Forgotten Memories and Analog Mysteries” and play three tracks: “Osmosis Psychosis,” “PigeonMan Returns,” and “More Love Less War.” Listen:
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