Australian Musician has keenly followed the career of Rohan Stevenson aka I Built The Sky ever since his first live performance at the Melbourne Guitar Show in 2015, where he played to backing tracks. Since then Ro has gone on to deliver 3 full albums and has toured internationally to critical acclaim. His Youtube channel boasts almost 54,000 followers and is heading towards 7 million views. Similarly, his Facebook page holds 62k followers and his Insta carries 36.4k followers, impressive numbers for any artist globally.
Today another I Built The Sky album is released. Titled ‘The Quiet Place Away’ the album is entirely acoustic, but is far from a stripped back release that likely comes to mind when hearing the words ‘acoustic album’. The album is a thoroughly progressive 10 track body of work that explores a wide range of soundscapes sure to transport any avid progressive music fan through a unique journey unlike any other.
Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips caught up with Ro Stevenson via zoom to chat about the creation of the new acoustic-based album ‘The Quiet Place Away’.
Since going full time with ‘I Built The Sky’ in 2019, Stevenson has already garnered an impressive list of achievements, with his last release ‘Coalesce EP’ in collaboration with Jake Howsam Lowe (Plini, The Helix Nebula) charting at #1 over 4 categories on Bandcamp including ‘Guitar’ and ‘Progressive metal’, charting at #3 on the AIR charts and a spot in the top 40 on iTunes. Stevenson also scraped in among the last tours before covid with band Monuments in Europe/Uk in 2020, released the single ‘The Fire Inside’ with guest vocalist, Monuments own Andy Cizek and guitarist Olly Steele, and pioneered a new sound in writing one of his best pieces of work for ‘The Quiet Place Away’ across 2020-2021. It’s clear that treading water is not something Stevenson believes in.
2022 will see ‘I Built The Sky’ release the fully-fledged 10 track album ‘The Quiet Place Away’, but not one to rest on his laurels, Stevenson has also produced a documentary of the recording process, directed 4 videoclips (including immersive artwork from acclaimed artist Pat Fox), and after dominating three shows across Australia’s ‘UNCAGED’ Festival nationally, has just announced a home town Melbourne headline album launch featuring two full sets, one from the new release featuring guest musicians on strings, piano and percussion as well as a complete metal set with all the riffy, shreddy goodness fans already know and love. Tickets are on sale now