A Wednesday is not the ideal time of the week for late-night activities with your friends, especially when you all have full-time jobs and children, yet you make the time anyway. That is how Buffalo punk-trio Skyway navigates their day-to-day lives while savoring the last bit of the music scene they love so much.

However, a weeknight is not something the group – consisting of guitarist John Mikulski, bassist Andrew Burgess and drummer Brandon Kapral – is opposed to. Anything for their music.

Although we could not meet in person, the trio’s warmth and excitement still captivated me over what became an hour and a half Google Meet. I started with the easy question: how did you guys meet? Right off the bat, I knew I was in for it when Kapral and Burgress cracked smiles.

“Do you want the joke answer or the real answer?”

“How about both?”

For the real answer, Mikulski, the group’s claimed “fearless leader” explained that just over two years ago, he made a post on a Buffalo Facebook page looking for fellow musicians to jam with. In a few weeks, Brandon Kapral replied and the two began to meet up as a way to keep their musical momentum going. However, it was not long until friend of a friend Andrew Burgess joined and got the band rolling.

Kapral grinned when I asked for the joke answer again. “Our story is that we are identical triplets who were forced to play in a family band.”

“Oh, so like The Partridge Family?”

The trio laughed at my response, surprised I could even make that reference. “Yeah, you could say that.”

I stifled a giggle at the thought of the three men in front of me wearing matching red vests and pants and white dagger-collared shirts singing “I Think I Love You.” They definitely were not the type to do that, prancing around the stage singing about joy and sunshine. Nope, not even close. In all honesty, they did not look the type to be in a punk band, either. When I think of a pop-punk group, I think of eyeliner, black leather jackets and really tight skinny jeans, not regular everyday T-shirts. The expectation threw me off but instantly made me curious. How on earth did these regular, chill guys get into punk rock?

For John, he had initially picked up the guitar at the age of 14 and went from there, exploring bands like Green Day. Andrew was about the same age when he was taught guitar by his piano teacher’s son, then saved up all summer to buy a 1998 Gibson Les Paul. Brandon, on the other hand, began with a Walmart drum set for toddlers. This eventually morphed into music lessons in the fourth grade and eventually a spot in Mansfield University’s drumline. As adolescents, all three played in various bands with friends, searching for opportunities to play around every corner.

“It was a magical time for music,” Burgess said of the late 1990s and early 2000s. “You’d go to a record store and just wander around until you saw an album or a CD that looks cool. That’s how I got into bands like The Ramones, The Clash and Hotwire.”

That messy, raw authentic sound of those bands and others inspired by the movement in the late ‘70s was something that stuck with the trio and is something Kapral, who has a background in mixing and producing music, looks for.

“We’re not trying to be perfect,” he said. “In our work, there is always a little layer of messiness.”

In the current music industry, we are pummeled with perfect-sounding gods and goddesses who record or perform to the highest level of perfection. A polished artist is something everybody loves to see, but it creates a level of distance between the performer and their audience. Ordinary people look up to them and are unable to find a flaw or anything that removes them from the pedestals we put them on. Imperfection and semi-messy recordings bring the artist down to a human level. They are not as smooth as the marbled images we obsess over. It shows honesty that is typically hidden away from prying eyes and allows audiences to connect not only over the imperfections but with the lyrics. With less focus on cleanliness, a new layer of prominence is handed to the lyrics that defy the sound of the guitars, bass and drums. You have the opportunity to feel the emotion and power of the music right alongside the artist singing it. This is what Skyway is striving for.

It was evident by the first listen I gave the band’s new single, “Last of a Dying Scene.” Although stereotypical of the pop-punk genre, the single stood out to me with upbeat backing to angsty lyrics. Like I said in my review, I was transported back to the 2010s. Everything from the vocals to the musical breakdown captured a time in music I remember thinking was the epitome of cool. It painted such a clear picture of what early adulthood was supposed to look like– late nights on the fly with your friends in weird bars and basements, singing your heart out like nothing else mattered except that very moment. You would be clinging to your early 20s forever, never having to grow up. As a connoisseur of humdrum, what has been my adult life so far has not looked even close to this, not that I mind. However, I still found myself able to connect with the lyrics, longing for a scene I was never a part of and the band never left.

I was drawn to the rawness of it, yet there was something so persistently polished about the song that I had to mention the ‘a’ word – Auto-Tune.

“There’s pretty much no record made now without the use of autotune,” Kapral said when I asked about the band’s feelings on it. “There is a good balance between what is real and what is autotuned. It isn’t going to help you if you are a bad singer.”

He went on to explain how autotune is not what they fall back onto. The band’s priority is to preserve the emotion of their music in every take.

The emotion in question?

Angst.

Always angst.

All of those angsty teen and young adult anthems still resonate with Skyway, even though they are in their 40s, have families and full-time jobs.

“Our interests aren’t the same as they once were. We have to find a balance within our lives and our interests reflect that,” said Mikulski.

The band’s music and image demonstrate their search for those days of adolescence as their peers grow up and move on. They too have grown up, but have been unwilling to leave the optimism and support of the punk-pop community. To them, it has always been a place to find their footing. For decades, there has been a blooming hard rock scene in Buffalo that has ridden the rollercoaster of time and has now embraced Skyway with open arms. Although they are now older than their peers, the band is making a path for themselves among the high school and college students who dominate the scene.

“There’s a really cool underground scene,” Mikulski said. “We’ve played in basements that have 200 kids crammed together in a mosh pit behind the Spaghetti House. The scene is really special; it reemerges 20 years later and speaks to the Buffalo culture. We may be old guys, but our music sounds the same.”

They may fit in, but Skyway still stands out. Currently, the Buffalo scene is what Burgess described as “hardcore.” Although it is not their scene, the band still has a kinship and respect with other groups, like Autoignition. They are not here to compete. They are here to enjoy themselves and share their music with others looking for the same thing they are– a place to belong, where they can be seen and heard no matter what walk of life they are in.

“We want to make an impact on the scene. We want to make sure it is vibrant and that it remains a place of acceptance and expression,” said Burgess.

“And if we aren’t the best band, then we’ve got to at least be the funniest,” Kapral added with a laugh.

In my interactions with the band, they have proven themselves talented and funny, quick to make a smart quip or a joke. The laughter felt endless. The trio’s chemistry was obvious from the way they complimented each other and were quick to tease. Not many bands get together with the same luck as Skyway. Born from a Facebook post and coincidence, their connection is clear.

When it comes to songwriting, all three have an equal role and are eager to share their work with the group. Pieces rapidly evolve and are completed in rapid succession. In our conversation, Mikulski teased at least six new songs, not including a Christmas song set to release in early December.

“I write a song knowing full well that it is going to be completely different by the time I bring it to the group,” Mikulski said on the band’s creative process.

With several songs loaded in the chamber, the question is not a matter of keeping the music fresh and different, but a matter of popularity. There have been bands to come out of the Buffalo music scene and make it big like Goo Goo Dolls and Green Jelly, but all as shiny 20-somethings, not as family-oriented 40-year-olds with fully developed frontal lobes. Their only choice is to steer the path they have dreamed of chartering for years, keeping with optimism and good faith as they work their way through life.

Image by Skyway