Dividing The Skyline

Seventeen-year-olds Westen Weiss, Nate Blasdell, Brent Martone along with 13-year-old Jake Watson may be the youngest performers at Squirrel Stock this year, but that doesn't mean that they're short on talent.

The band will be singing songs from its first indie-pop album, "Maybe Next Year," which was released in December 2011. Dividing the Skyline will also be singing songs from its newest album, which should be out sometime next year.

"A major influence on all of us is Andrew McMahon from Jack's Mannequin," Blasdell, the band's guitarist, said. "That guy is the bee's knees."

The band is keeping up a busy schedule. After its current tour is over, the band is starting a new one in August that is scheduled to go through Canada. Then they will be headed back to the studio to work on their second album, followed by a tour on the West Coast that is scheduled to start this winter.

This group of young men show that age is just a number when it comes to conquering what they want in life.

"Music has become an outlet for all of us," Blasdell said. "That outlet has become the dream; the dream we are living." - BSU Daily

Brockport Student Government (BSG) announced the Brock the Port and Glowfest concert lineup via its Facebook page Monday, March 19. This year’s ticket boasts a diverse and popular group of artists.
Performing at the Brock the Port concert is Finally Famous rapper Big Sean, currently signed to Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music Label. Sean is best known for the songs “My Last,” “Marvin & Chardonny” and “Dance (A$$).”
Joining the Detroit rapper is indie-rock band Jack's Mannequin, famous for the singles “Bruised,” “The Mixed Tape” and “Dark Blue.” BSG also hopes to sample a third genre for students, with the electro/dance duo The Cataracs, known for “Like A G6” and “Bass Down Low,” and Internet mash-up phenom Kapslap.
The party is all going to get started in Lot V1 at 4 p.m Friday, May 4, after the last class of the 2012 school years lets out. Students who park in Lot V1 are going to be asked to move their cars to accommodate the festival-type atmosphere, which will be handled by parking services before the show.
“The opening act, local rock band Dividing the Skyline will go on at 4:30 if everything works out as we’re planning it,” BSG Programming Chair Nick Morticelli said.
“We plan on having local food vendors like Jimmy Z's and Calzonies, as well as others on hand, [and] rides and games from Midway Productions.”
Last year Midway provided rides like a ferris wheel, hang glider, bounce houses and obstacle courses.
Morticelli said the programming department hopes to follow up on the success of its last concert, Mac Miller and The White Panda back in February. The performers played in Tuttle North on Feb. 18.
“Mac placed second on the [music] survey we put out this year, and Big Sean was number three, so we figured it was only right."
The act that placed first in the survey was hip-hop artist Jason Derulo. He was pursued by BSG until he succumbed to an unfortunate injury, barring him from touring.
Derulo broke his neck in a fall and has not been performing since the injury.
"Jack's Mannequin has been the highest placing non-rap artist for a few years now, so we figured it was our job to give the students who aren't into that type of music what they want,” Morticelli said. “The same thinking goes for the Cataracs and Kapslap. We know students love to rage, and we really wanted to get something that was distinctive and different."
This announcement reflects the months of hard work BSG has and is currently putting into this year's Brock the Port.
“Its been a long year, and students deserve a break from all the stress," Morticelli said. "Brock the Port has always been BSG's chance to cut-loose and have fun, so we really want to facilitate that, but we always encourage students to make smart decisions and celebrate the end of the year in a safe and responsible way.”

Fast Facts
about Brock the Port artists
Jack Mannequin's vocalist, Andrew McMahon, founded the Dear Jack Foundation after his bout with leukemia.
The Cataracs first met while attending Berkeley High School in Berkeley, Calif.
The Cataracs produced and were featured on the Far East Movement's hit "Like A G6."
Big Sean is often heard saying "west side" in his songs; he is referring to the west side of his hometown Detroit, Mich.
Big Sean got his big break when he had a chance audition with Kanye West at a local radio station.
Big Sean's next album Finally Famous (Part 2) is set to be released in the summer. - The Stylus

New York band Dividing The Skyline released their first track off of their upcoming album. “Home Court Advantage” shows off the relatively young band’s maturity. Maybe not vocally, but conceptually and instrumentally, the band rivals more established bands, like Mayday Parade and (the now-defunct) Fallout Boy.

While the song is not free, it’s so worth the 99 cents. - Truth Or Sarah

Everyone thinks that in order to “make it big” somewhere, with the music industry being as big as it is, you have to live in California and have friends in some very high places. Brighton High School’s very own Nate Blasdell, however, is proving that belief to be far from the truth.
A little over a year ago, Blasdell, who has dabbled with music his whole life, started the band Dividing the Skyline alongside his long-time friend Westen Weiss.

Blasdell said that the band came from their friendship, as the two had many interests in common, such as music, that were not shared by their peers at school.

“We just started writing music. We weren’t really sure where it would go at first,” Blasdell admitted.

As time passed, however, the two started to get more serious when they realized that they had real potential in their hands.

Before they knew it, they had recorded their first single, titled “Hold My Breath”, at a studio in Detroit, Michigan.

Once it was released on the Internet, both boys were taken aback by the positive reactions people were having.

“On the day that the song was released I was in Germany and Westen was in California. We hadn’t had time to do any kind of real promotional work, but it absolutely blew up. It was crazy!” said Blasdell, who smiled widely remembering the overwhelming excitement. One of the greatest moments for him, he said, was to get the first emails from people he had never heard of who took the time to contact him to let him know how much they liked the band’s music.

“I couldn’t believe it!” he said. “These people had no idea who we were, but they liked what we had done. They appreciated us for our accomplishments, without letting any of that be colored by what they thought of us individually or what they had heard. It was such a great feeling.”

The song, on the same day that it was released, made it to #1 on the PureVolume boards, which was something that neither Weiss nor Blasdell had anticipated.

Shortly after, they decided that the encouragement they were getting was a clear sign for them to continue their endeavor.

The pair wanted to go about writing an album, but instead of writing it the way that a lot of bands do: to please their fan base, the two decided that they wanted to write lyrics that were “real; lyrics that meant something to us.”

Though not the easier path, Blasdell said that the extra time and effort they put into the album was worth it in the long run and allowed them to produce something that they could be proud of. The writing of the album was finished in June of last year, and, despite the tour offer that they received, Dividing the Skyline opted instead to spend time recording the album. “It was amazing to us that we had come this far in such a short amount of time. When Westen and I started DTS, we based everything we wanted to do on dreams that we never thought would actually come true. It all happened so fast, though, and we managed to achieve our dream goals within months,” said Blasdell.

Over time, the group gained quite a strong Facebook following, which continues to increase all the time. They set a release date for November 1st, but ended up pushing the date back in order to give themselves more time to make the album as best as they could before sending it out to the public.

Just when DTS thought that things couldn’t possibly get any better, a week after their album was released they got a call from Teddy Geiger’s manager, who wanted the band to open for him at his hometown show on January 6th at Water Street Music Hall, which is an astounding accomplishment.

“Getting to open for him [in Rochester] where’s he’s from was absolutely amazing,” said Blasdell, who looked awestruck when he talked about the show.

After that, Dividing the Skyline set up tour dates with the band City Lights, whom they were fans of, as well as Rosedale, the one-man band of Mike Liorti from Toronto, Canada. After the great time they had with these two bands, Blasdell said that DTS hit a crossroads. “We didn’t think it would be possible for us to tour in the winter, since Westen and I are still in high school, but we made it work. We managed to play shows in all different areas of the east coast; New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc. We just got back from all of that a few weeks ago.” The band’s current plan is to settle down for a bit and maybe take this downtime to get a head start on their second album, writing and recording songs.

They have announced one show, scheduled for April 15th at Waterstreet, with Trace Cyrus of Metro Station, along with a few big festivals in the works for May. They hope to tour again this summer with a new album to bring to their fans.Blasdell mentioned the many sacrifices that all members of Dividing the Skyline have made in order to get to where they are now. They have had a few other members besides Blasdell and Westen, who respectively only cover guitar and vocals/guitar, but they have recently come to settle on their drummer, Jake Watson. Their last drummer left because of his commitment to college—and college is a topic Blasdell is frequently asked about.

His response: “[The band] is something that means so much to me; because of it, I have decided to not go directly to college, but rather to continue to play music for now. This is what we love to do, and we can only do it while we’re so young and on the same page. Our parents have been very supportive of us since this whole thing began. We know that people question choosing music over college, but we’re putting it off, not ditching college by any means. I know that eventually a day will come when we’ve had our fun, but for now there’s nothing that says we need to go straight to college right out of high school. The colleges are there, and they’ll be there when I need them down the road.”

This is certainly a big decision for Blasdell in particular, and for the band as a whole, but it is clear that he understands the weight of his choice and has given it a lot of hard thought. Hopefully everything continues to go smoothly for Blasdell and Dividing the Skyline. Who knows, maybe one day this small, relatively unknown band from Rochester, NY will be the band that people are paying hundreds of dollars to see with sold-out shows and fans around the globe. - Trapezoid

“You have to divide the skyline between what’s important to you and what’s not” is a quote from one of the band member’s teachers that influenced the band name, Dividing The Skyline, as well as the influence of moving a ton throughout the band member’s lives. “We had to kind of ‘divide the skylines’ of where we were and where we are,” said Westen, the band’s vocalist/guitarist.

Dividing The Skyline is made up of four members: Westen Weiss (vocals/guitar), Nate Blasdell (guitar/vox), Brent Martone (bass/vox), and Jake Watson (drums). The band was formed around August 2010 by Nate and Westen when they became really close as friends and had “nothing better to do!” They describe their music as “like old school All Time Low meets Mayday Parade meet The Early November.” They fit into a pop rock/pop punk category. “We’ve got a poppier side and a little more of an aggressive side with pretty emotional and honest lyrics overall and catchy choruses that are easy to remember and sing along to,” said Westen on his band’s sound.

The influences for their music comes from everything. Everything they do, listen to, feel, see and experience. And especially not giving up on dreams, regardless of how unfair or tough life gets – which was the focus of their last CD, “Maybe Next Year.” What inspires the band the most is when people have told them that their music means something to them or helped them, as well as when people never give up on what they love or on life in general, no matter what barriers are in their way.

Their debut full length album, “Maybe Next Year” is available on iTunes and Spotify and came out late 2011. This November, the band will be recording the new single off their upcoming EP. Later in the winter, they’ll be returning to record the remaining songs for the EP. They hope to be back on the road next spring/summer, but for now, you can catch them on September 15 in Rochester, NY at The Montage Music Hall. - Amped Up Aperture

MPNnow.com —They’ve had label and management offers, an opening gig for Hawthorne Heights and a new album professionally produced in Detroit, hitting stores and online outlets Dec. 1.

Not bad for a new band of which two-thirds of the members are still in their teens.

The three-piece rock band Dividing the Skyline is comprised of Brighton High School senior Nate Blasdell (guitar and vocals), 17; Pittsford Sutherland student Westen Weiss (vocals and guitar); and 22-year-old Demitrio Albano of Fairport (drums). All with various band experiences behind them, the three of them gelled as a unit earlier this year, finding themselves clicking musically and personally.

They now have an album, “Maybe Next Year,” to be released on iTunes and other select outlets Dec. 1, recorded at Zoinga Studios in Royal Oak, Mich., with producer Mick Maslowski. Blasdell had done some solo work with him in the past, and the band hit him up when they planned their first single in January. Assorted singles from the release are already available online. Meanwhile, the band played its first local show in nearly a year earlier this month, a set at Rochester’s California Brew Haus.

“This band is a lot different than anything I’ve ever done before,” said Blasdell, whose previous bands have included Lights Out Paris, Sing It Loud and Hedley. “It’s honest, and I love the kids I’m around. When I quit my last band, I said I was never going to be in a band again. These kids quickly changed my mind.” - Messenger Post Media