Growing up in Los Angeles, Colin Bickley started as a competitive classical pianist. After graduating from SMU in Texas with a double degree in existential philosophy and eastern mysticism, he moved back to California - this time Venice. Along with poet Cystreet, Bickley helmed the avant-garde juke band Big Thaw. It was through this experimental window, alongside a horn section and cell phone, that Colin amped-up his journey into machines: sampling, looping, digitally twisting, and endlessly layering sound live on stage. From bars to art galleries to the legendary show at the Menil Collection modern art museum in Houston (with special guest Will Sexton), one concept was constant: witnessing the creative act is always more compelling than watching an artist play the past. Big Thaw eventually culminated into The Colin Bickley Band: an improvisation-based group with Andy quot;Reverend Bonesquot; Fuller on trombone, Ben Nurick on saxophone, Dr. Courtney Jones on trumpet, and Marty Taylor on drums. The Colin Bickley Band played regularly in LA, oftentimes with the Nicole Berger dance troupe. At the end of 2011, Colin moved to Ellicott City, a town just west of Baltimore, where he formed Colamiles. After many years of playing in collaborative soundscapes, Colamiles was the arena for Colin to express a more unified, personal, and intimate voice. On the first album, 'Airplane Songs,' Colin played all the instruments, and he wrote and produced all the songs (except for 'Rain Soaked Sunset' - which was co-written with Texas-based musician Gary Boren - and quot;Two More Sunsetsquot; - which uses lyrics from long-time artistic comrade Cystreet). quot;Airplane Songsquot; delves into the flooded space between dream and awake - that spot where you're just as lucid of subconscious archetypes as you are of the tray-table in front of you. Certain songs are made for certain places. And these are built for that twilight when you're nice and hypnotized, anticipating new places, seat reclined, soul blazed open, surrendered faith-first in a metal machine howling 30,000 feet above earth - groundless.
