The best part about Lollapalooza is not seeing some headlining act that you probably couldn’t afford during a regular tour, or hanging out next to Lake Michigan, or the excuse to start drinking at 11 a.m. No, the best part is the discovery. Perhaps you heard a band name in passing, you got tired and just plopped down in front of a random stage, or (as was my case) you had a friend just rave about an act you just have to watch: at a big music festival, you’re bound to discover some sort of new band that you’ll keep listening to long after they’ve torn down the stages from Grant Park.
This year, my big discovery band was Skybox. My friend had just met the lead singer at her job in Kansas City, so I was surprised and excited to learn that a Lolla band had a connection to my hometown. Live, they were one of my favorite acts at the festival, delivering a high energy and very catchy pop rock set.
I caught up with the lead singer, Tim Ellis, to talk about how the band divides its time between Chicago and KC, their music, Lollapalooza and more. The full interview is below their video for “In a Dream.” They’re touring this fall and for my fellow Kansas Citians, they’ll be at the Riot Room on September 14. Be sure to check them out.
Bethany, PopWreckoning: How does the split KC/Chicago-base thing work with like practicing and writing?
Tim Ellis, Skybox: Well, I’m actually out here a lot. I’ll come out here like a week before we play to get really rehearsed. Like I’ve been out here [before Lollapalooza] since Tuesday. We rehearsed, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and play today [Saturday]. Before tour, I’ll come out at about the same time, a week or so before, then we’ll tour. After the tour, if we’re writing, I’ll come out here for writing purposes.
PW: Are you from Kansas City originally then?
TE: Yeah.
PW: So that’s why you decided to live there and the rest of the band stayed in Chicago.
TE: Yeah. And we [my wife and I] just moved to KC recently, so we’re getting back to the city recently. We just moved downtown in February.
PW: It’s a good city. A little more affordable than Chicago.
TE: Definitely.
PW: So how did you guys form Skybox?
TE: We released our first record in ’06. That’s usually when I tell people that Skybox was officially Skybox was that first record in ’06. However, we did form about a year before that just writing, figuring out members and the whole dynamics of how it was going to work. It was primarily, well, I was in a folk kind of project before Skybox, me and a good friend of mine from Kansas City, we were just playing folk music. We moved to Arizona during the whole folk thing. After about a year, we just started getting some good press and started getting some people kind of helping us out and putting us on the road and stuff like that. Doing some folk stuff on the road we realized, we’re just so young and we really want to be in a rock band again. We missed it. We had done that our whole lives in high school. So we went ahead and did some home recordings and throwing around ideas. Once we had some solid foundation, that’s when I called Christian [Fields], which is our piano player/guitar/vocals. He had played drums with me most of our lives. He actually was born with me. His mom and my mom were best friends before we were born. So we were born around the same time and were both playing together since we were real young. So I gave him a call to see if he could move to Phoenix and play lead guitar for the band, ironically, coming from playing drums. But we really needed a lead guitarist and keyboard player. So he decided to do it. After a lot of convincing, he finally moved out. From there, we added a few more members and started recording our first record, Arco Iris?, and released it in ’06. Then moved to Chicago.
PW: If a person hasn’t seen or heard your band before, how would you describe your sound?
TE: When people ask me, I usually say just weird pop music.
PW: How would you describe your live show to them?
TE: It’s different. It’s a lot of fun, a lot of energy and just a really fun, strange show.
PW: How do you come up with the costumes and outfits and the occasional theatrics?
TE: We definitely like to mix it up at all our shows. We hope that if somebody comes to see us they’ll like it and the next time they come it will be a little bit different for them. We’re all ADD in the sense that it’s a little hard to stick with one thing or one sound and we hope that we can give something fresh back to the audience if they have the same schizophrenic feelings. 
PW: Who would you cite as some of your influences, whether for show fashion or musical sound?
TE: The whole fashion thing is kind of glam, I guess like Iggy Pop and all that kind of stuff. We also like really big sound. Like ELO was a huge influence for us. There are a lot of great modern bands that we’re listening to a lot like Dirty Projectors. We got to go backstage with those guys the other day, so that was cool. I’ve been listening to a lot of Genesis lately, getting into that again.
PW: With Lollapalooza being as big as it is, what have you learned from the festival and making the most of the three days?
TE: This is my first time here, so I’m learning the ropes myself. The golf carts have been great to get around, but I don’t think everyone has access to the golf carts. There are so many good bands playing here that you can really go anywhere and it is going to really inspire you and motivate you to be artistic.
PW: What are some of your favorite bands at this year’s Lolla?
TE: Devo. We got to see them. Dirty Projectors was good. We even saw the Strokes, which was awesome. We’ve been looking forward to Yeasayer and Grizzly Bear. Empire of the Sun, I’ll go see. X Japan. There are others.
PW: With your Chicago ties, what is a must do for anyone coming here for a show?
TE: There are a lot of great venues. There’s Lincoln Hall, which is a cool place to adventure to and they’re always having great bands. Burlington is a cool bar. Wicker Park, in general, Uptown area, Logan Square, that’s where we used to live. Lots of good places to go and good food. The Bead is a great restaurant.
PW: So what are your Fall plans for Skybox?
TE: We’re touring in September, the West Coast, with a band called What Laura Says. They’re really great. So we’ll be starting Midwest and going out West, which will be awesome because we haven’t been out to Phoenix, our former hometown, in about year. So that will be a homecoming of sorts for us, so we’re pretty excited.
PW: Finally, anything else that you want to get out there or something that I didn’t cover that you think people should know about your band?
TE: Well, one thing that has been really, really huge for us is giving away free music and we do that at our website, Skyboxmusic.com. It’s just a huge thing for us to go to a city that we’ve never been to and have people singing our songs and being familiar to our music. It’s a testament to the artist’s freedom, giving free music away.
PW: Sounds great.
