In all my years of gigging, I don't think I have ever seen the Evelyn in such a state of...slouch. The couches that usually line the walls are placed in the smack-bang middle of the floor, looking more like a rather sizeable lounge room. But, on this strangely quiet- considering the beautiful weather- Thursday night, it gives the Skye Harbour fans a much-needed sit, for when their poor feet can dance no more. Because, dear reader, Skye Harbour will make you do just that.

I first found Skye Harbour in the tangled web of MySpace; their tunes sounded polished, fun, catchy, energetic. Falling instantly and deeply in love with single Further Away, I realised this could be my new band to love. But, if there's one thing I have learned in this business of show, it's to check them out live first, before pledging utter devotion. So, off to the Evelyn we go. With a two-dollar-fifty pot in hand, I sprawled on the couch and waited patiently to be potentially heartbroken.

But the music gods smile on your friend Lisa, as Skye Harbour kicked into Paying Debts, I knew I was right in my assumption that, yes, Skye Harbour could very well be brilliant. Paying Debts is a softie by Skye standards, with a beautiful classical backdrop; this is what those Grey's Anatomy types should be buying instead of blasted Snow Patrol.

One driving factor in attraction to Skye Harbour's tunes is frontman Joshua Hardy's vocal stylings; a part of me hears something of the dulcet tones of Paul Dempsey within Hardy's smooth, affecting tenor. Berlin begins with jolly handclaps and "oh, ha, ha, ha, HEY"s and only continues, freight-train-like, from there, amid a flurry of sharp riffage and dramatic keys.

The boys harmonise well together; vocally and instrumentally. The members of Skye Harbour also don't peacock about; their passion for creation and performance is clear as an unmuddied lake (as an azure sky of deepest summer...) and there is nothing disingenuous about their candour, as I have often seen in my travels.

Playing what felt like a cruelly short set, the band finished with one of my top five tracks of this year- Further Away. The manic keys, kicky snare, that heaving beat at 2:59, Hardy's flying, pitch-divine vocals ("I started to feel that it all amounts, to a random sequence of sounds..."); it just works. The ten or so punters that were bopping and kicking front of stage were presumably thinking the same thing I was; "Fuck, I love this song", as they danced the band off stage, and John Mayer came back on the Evelyn stereo, and I miss Skye Harbour already.

Get your Skye Harbour on at http://www.myspace.com/skyeharbour and download Further Away here.

Skye Harbour have recently prevailed over 700 odd bands to become the MTV Kickstart 2008 winner. Now with $15 000 cash in their back pockets and a leg up from MTVs promotional and label-networking arm, their careers are set to be launched into the stratosphere.

Despite doing little promotion during the voting period, Skye Harbour caught the ears of the judges and the Australian public with stonking tunes and catchy hooks. Explains Frank, "We were beating ourselves up about it because we really didn't put enough effort towards the end of the voting period. I 'spose we didn't really wanna piss anyone off, because we thought it may have had a bit of an adverse effect [if we pushed too hard]. But once the voting period was closed we found out that The Rocketsmiths and others had done heaps and heaps of promotion so we were stressing out."

The Adelaide boys were convinced they'd blown it, so Josh, the lead singer, had the bright idea of calling Virgin Blue Airlines to see if they'd been booked on a flight to Sydney. "We thought we'd find out that way for sure but they wouldn't tell us because we didn't have a reservation number!"

So they were left to find out if they'd won the traditional way (i.e waiting for the announcement). The boys were completely blown away when they found out they were victorious, especially because they didn't know they'd actually been entered until it came time to play the Adelaide finals.

"Josh comes over one day and says, 'oh yeah I just got this call from MTV, and oh by the way I put us in this competition called MTV Kickstart and we've just gotten down to the last five in Adelaide.' And you know, we thought we must be like one of the 5 bands that entered in the competition in Adelaide, turns out there was a few more we didn't know about! (laughs)"

Come time for the national finals, Skye Harbour by their own admission played the "most amazing fucking night out of all time", and their dedication to throw forth everything paid off. Their energetic set and clear talent resulted in the five-some prevailing over talented contenders Polo Club, The Moderns, The Mischief, Rocketsmiths, Emcee Able to take the winner's crown and also some warm accolades from the judges and punters attending the event.

Post-Kickstart, Skye Harbour had been playing in bedrooms and school band rooms around Adelaide for years. "I left Adelaide some time ago to pursue my acting career in Sydney," explains Frank, "then the boys gave me a call after about six months and said we're going to move to Melbourne to make a real go of this band, thing do you want to be involved? And I was like fuck yeah! I'm in."

Even though Skye Harbour are at the beginning of a burgeoning tour, they are already well aware of the challenges in an industry that is currently flooded with indie acts of high calabre. 'It's funny, we pull much better crowds in Adelaide now than when we lived there. It's really great to go back and have that kind of support, because in Melbourne, there's that many bands that it's still extremely hard pull a decent crowd. So we were kind of in limbo, being able to pull crowds back home but still struggling in Melbourne.

One year later, the band released their EP 'Houses' online. As Frank explains, the cash injection from MTV Kickstart will help push the EP and hopefully help their mission to take over stages and airwaves nationally.

"The money will go a long way with promotion which is invaluable, also touring, our EP isn't released in physical form it's only available online as a download so we're really interested in pressing some copies and trying to put it in some shops. The other idea is to have a big Skye Harbour bar which would save costs on touring!"

It seems the challenges that nearly every young band experience when trying to crack the scene will be significantly reduced for Skye Harbour. Looking forward, Skye Harbour already has a clear plan of what the next five years will hold. "In five years, hopefully we're at the ARIAs again! We'd like to have some releases under our belt and looking at taking our music internationally, that's very important to us. Whether it be England, the US, Japan... Japan would be the best! The fans there take crazy to another level."

And who would be the ultimate act to support? "We'd love to support Arcade Fire, that would be awesome. And Muse. Can we support Kings of Leon too? Wicked, that would be great if you could hook that up (laughs)."

With fire in their bellies, fresh sounds and a desire to rip the local and international music scene to shreds, we can be sure to see Skye Harbour as a formidable force on the Australian music scene. And MTV is stoked.

By Penny Newton

Not one for pop rock generally, with the genre tending to be riddled with teen angst, side parts, and liberally applied eye make up, Skye Harbour have cunningly snuck onto my musical radar and may just be my exception to the rule.

Just like Melbourne stole the Grand Prix from Adelaide back in '96, so too has it enticed these four childhood friends seeking bigger and better things.

'Paying Debts' is one of a tidy offering of songs from their debut EP Houses (free to download right here). Lead singer Josh Hardy's thick vocals are tempered with heartrending violins and heavily layered guitars. There's just the right amount of broody with not an ounce of Pete Wentz.

And if you think that's half decent, then multiply it by a million and spy them onstage. If you're in Melbourne you're in luck, just keep your eyes on their myspace and there's sure to be a gig coming up.

www.myspace.com/skyeharbour

KICKSTART FOR SKYE HARBOUR
Young rockers Skye Harbour are a band on the rise. They've just taken out the Adelaide final of MTV's Kickstart competition. But more on that in a minute. Before Hype gets to that, you can download their EP Houses for free off the band's website and Hype can highly recommend it. The band has really honed their brand of keyboard-fronted rock. In exchange for the EP, the only thing the band asks in return is you support them by adding them on Facebook or MySpace. Hype would like to make an addition to that on the band's behalf. Head along to <mtvkickstart.com> and show the boys some love. Because the band took out the Adelaide Kickstart heat they will now battle with the rest of the state finalists in Sydney on Tue Sep 9. Then public vote decides the winner, so get your vote on. So you can get a bit of an insight into the minds of this upcoming band, we put them under the spotlight for some quick questions.

If you had to cover one song in the final, what would the song be? 
S Club 7 - Bring It All Back

If you could pick one artist to be the judge for the Kickstart final who would you want to be playing to?
Rob Thomas

What's the most rock'n'roll moment that you dream of happening to you one day as a band?
Playing in space - Skye Harbour live from the moon.

What's the most rock'n'roll moment you've had as a band so far?
The time we smoked cones with Dizzee Rascal and then Beefy said, "What up?" and Dizzee Rascal said, "Word".

Is there anything you're going to differently for the final? 
We're going to get perms.

What are you going to spend the money on if you win?
New suits. And more perms.

Skye Harbour

Following up in act three is curiously enough a band from Melbourne. Or more accurately a band from Adelaide that moved to Melbourne and are now based back in Adelaide again (since clearly sticking to just the ONE city wasn't enough for them). This would either disqualify them from competing in both the Melbourne AND Adelaide heats of this competition, qualify them for both, or qualify all five of them, their multiple personalities and everyone else present in this room for speedy admittance into the nearest rubber room and a mind full of chemicals. Skye Harbour. To describe them with any degree of precision is rather like attempting to take out a mosquito with a redirected asteroid collision. They're an A-grade hissy fit bordering on ADHD. They're fist mashing piano, cartoon exaggerate guitars, all five of them singing a chorus verging on a nervous breakdown and an overall sound that rather resembles mid 90's Weezer and Ben Folds Five having an asthma attack whilst Panic! At The Disco and Muse beat them to death with Carlos Santana's guitar. It's a strange mix sure, but for the most part it works.

Skye Harbour, attempting to outdo The Touch in everything but the hummingbird BPM rate at which they belt out their tunes, add a drunken arm-in-arm singalong to their performance along with the epilepsy inducing lightshow, frantic handclaps and an-everything-played-at-once-but-the-kitchen-sink of instrumental overloads. There's also this one deranged lunatic in the crowd who keeps shrieking like she's either being murdered, is having the 'best time of her life', or both at the same time. Not to leap to any conclusions here but if ever you wanted a freebie to 'off' anyone in the crowd scott free, right now would be the moment to do it. Awesome!