May 29, 2012 Category: Punk Rock Bands

This band ,Vanilla Sky, came from Italy and founded in 2002. On November 6^th, 2002, the band’s first album called “Play It for You, Can’t Say It” was released. So far, they have come up with three albums and go on regular tours all throughout Europe. The band consists of Vincenzo Mario Cristi (vocals, guitar), Daniele Brian Autore (vocals, guitar), Antonio Filippelli (bass) and Jacopo Volpe (drums).

In February 2002, the band was created. The band’s line-up met in Rome, Italy with the thought of pursuing a new project which would join past experiences going on a more American punk approach. The group taped a 5-track demo called “Play It If You Can’t Say It” and started performing at live shows. The band’s demo got sold out only in two months taking the interest of the Italy’s punk-rock acts and blossoming independent record label Wynona Records. In 2003, they contracted their very first record agreement with Wynona Records and shortly after that they released their split CD called “.” It was immediately followed by a second split CD called, “The Rest is History.” This record was circulated in the public by an independent label Ambience Records which permitted distribution worldwide.

Vanilla Sky’s Concert Tours

The band took a break from recording their songs so that they can concentrate on performing live in the summer of 2003. After they returned home, they also returned to the studio to work on their first album entitled, “Waiting for something.” Upon the release of Waiting for Something, the group started a tour in Europe. In 2004, the bandstarted touring Europe once again to endorse the album supported by Maxeen. The duration of the promo tour was about sixty days. Not long after, the band was invited by the Ataris as an opening act for their Italian tour. After which, it was followed up by another European tour and the band relished their success with the first album.

The members performed at various air festivals all over Europe from June to September 2004 and they co-headlined with Flogging Molly and Yellow card at the Bologna Independence Day festival. After a month, the group went on another Italian tour for three months. Based on their increasing popularity, the EP “Play It If You Can’t Say It” was re-released by Wynona Records in December 2004 with additional three unreleased singles. The EP was circulated all across Japan and Europe. The band toured in Germany in January 2005, as well as performing live on national TV and their Japan tour was confirmed at the end of the month. The band returned home from touring but soon left the country to headline the 2005 Austrian tour, “Punk is Dead.” Soon afterwards, the group went on another European tour from March to May going through Belgium, Spain and followed by Netherlands and Germany. Furthermore, they went on their very first tour to Great Britain.

Vanilla Sky went through “Changes”

The band’s first full-length CD was finally issued on May 27, 2005 in the United States, through Capitol Records. The band played at different festivals during the summer all across Europe which included the big names in punk-rock music scenes such as The Offspring, The Hives, My Chemical Romance, NOFX and Good Charlotte. After this tour, the group starred in the Offspring’s German tour. Changes had marketed more that twenty-five thousand copies and more than five thousand copies marketed for the EP re-release. Grounded on their mainstream success, the group went to the studio to begin piecing an album together. Meanwhile, Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus and +44 took notice of the band. They were impressed of the band’s new demos and give Vanilla Sly members an interview live on his Web podcast as well as playing the demo single “Nightmare.”

After spending almost a year on pre-production arranging and writing and the unending change of songs, the four began on 2006 recording the album’s final version. As bad luck would have it, the entire album’s recording data were accidentally erased which compelled Vanilla sky to re-record the entire album. The band again performed in the Punk is Dead tour in 2006 and received the opportunity to bank +44 in their shoe in Italy. Vanilla sky’s fifteen-song album, “Changes” comprise of three Italian singles, breaking out from their usual English singing style. The album is a combination of punk rock and power pop. The first and opening track “Break Out” tossed Vanilla Sky into the mainstream with continental market’s increasing interest towards the band. This enabled the Vanilla Sky to endorse their album in the United States plus a Las Vegas, U.S.A. video shoot.

Vanilla Sky launched a video podcast for the first time in Italy, inclusive with video episodes posted twice every month about the quartet’s life, private contents as well as recording sessions. The podcast is otherwise known as Vanilla Sky Television. They’ve been getting many offers from different giant companies in the music scene, ultimately, the band signed to Universal Records. On June 22, 2007, the band’s first major album was released and after a month, the band became a part of one of the biggest Europe rock festival: The Frequency Festival in Salzburg, Austria.

Vanilla Sky and Rihanna’s “Umbrella”

The band did more than just recording towards the end of summer. In their practice quarters, the group began recording Rihanna’s hit song, “Umbrella” in a more punk-rock rendition. They also shot a low-budget video for the track. Their version attained major airplay all across Italy and Europe. On YouTube, the video earned the number one most played stream in Brazil and #64 globally. In addition, MTV Pulse requested for and got even days exclusive for the “Umbrella” video, the single featured on TRL one weal after. After this, the band went back on tour to promote the album worldwide, including an Austrian headline tour. In addition, the popular YouTube drummer Cobus Potgieter played a drum cover for this track as a part of his drum cover sequence.