Skywalker’s immense record Late Eternity has been out (and on repeat over here at Bittersweet Press!) for a month now. Pulling in elements of punk, huge melodies, and generally just being everything that excellent, noisy metalcore should be, Late Eternity is definitely an album that gets better with every listen – and finding out everything that went into it makes it shine even more. We had a chat with vocalist Jay Kucera to find out all about it.

First of all – it must be incredible to see the record be out, especially in such volatile times, but it’s not just buzz that Skywalker are feeling. “Apart from being excited, proud, stoked on the release, it’s a massive burden right off our chests. We spent over 2 years making this album, so you can imagine that as people, we’ve grown a bit in the process. All of that growth, change, progress, good and bad, is in that record, and now it’s out. The reaction has been mind-blowing, and we’re already nearing 1 million plays on Spotify, so that’s reassuring!”

Despite the nightmare of releasing an album in the COVID era, Skywalker have had the chance to try some new things with their writing process: “it was completely different from anything we’d done before. First of all, there was more interaction between us, we demoed on our own time and came with solid, multi-layered ideas to the studio. I did far more writing than ever before, and that’s mainly because in the process, I built my own little interface at home, centring around my Mac, that really upped my creativity – all of these little tweaks gave the writing process a unique flavour it had never had before.”

The writing process might have been a positive, exciting one, but Late Eternity is not for the faint-hearted. “I had this rough idea of what I wanted to write about on this album: alienation.” Jay says of his emotional aims on the record. “I’ve always struggled with this dilemma where I want to be as independent as possible, as true and authentic as I can be, but I often end up feeling alone. I’m not a believer in modern-day, toxic individualism, but I’m also a rather headstrong individual so this quest for self-realisation paired with extreme bouts of loneliness are what I’m looking at. I don’t believe I’m in any way unique at feeling this way, so perhaps this over-arching theme makes the record relatable.”

So, on such a personal record, what’s Jay’s favourite? “I actually really love the softest track on the record: For You // Through You. It may be because I wrote almost no music for it, only gave Tom’s initial idea a different shape and form, and wrote the lyrics. It’s cliche to say it’s very personal, but it is. It’s also one of the few songs which are not about me at all. This strange distance gives me more appreciation for the song. I also love how radically different it is from the rest. To me, it really stands out. However, in general, I make no difference between the heavy & the mellow.”

Jay’s not at all worried about the vulnerability of sharing such poignant writing though – he wasn’t nervous about it at all. “It’s safe to say that at this point, this album is such an important part of my life and of me as a person that I literally don’t care if people like it or not. Of course, that’s not to say and their praise or criticism falls on deaf ears, but this is me. I’m not nervous about people not accepting me for who I am in all honesty.”

It worked out well then – everyone thinks that Late Eternity is bloody fantastic. So what’s next? “Now we wanna take some time to really focus on the fact that the record is out. Enjoy it, savour the moment. But we’re already many songs deep into the next release, and we’re working on something extremely cool related to Late Eternity so there will be more, and very very soon.”

Late Eternity is out now – and Skywalker feature on The Bittersweet Hour’s Metalcore Special, which you can check out here!