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A Skylit Drive

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Californian post-hardcore mainstays of the late-2000s scene, built on Michael Jagmin's high clean vocals cutting against screams and keyboard flourishes.

A Skylit Drive came together in 2005 when its members met at Lodi High School in Lodi, California, and became a fixture of the late-2000s post-hardcore scene. Original vocalist Jordan Blake fronted the band through its debut EP, She Watched the Sky, released on Tragic Hero Records in January 2007, before leaving the following November because of health issues that made touring impossible.

After brief stints from Jonny Craig and Craig Mabbitt, Michael Jagmin took over on vocals. The band's identity rests largely on the contrast between his very high, clean tenor and the screamed vocals and breakdowns underneath it, with keyboard and synth lines layered over fast, technical guitar work.

They built an audience through constant touring and a run of albums beginning with Wires...and the Concept of Breathing, released in May 2008, which reached number 171 on the Billboard 200. A live DVD, Let Go of the Wires, followed that December, and the band signed to Fearless Records in 2009, the year they played the Warped Tour.

Their second album, Adelphia, released in June 2009 and described by Jagmin as their most experimental, peaked at number 64 on the Billboard 200 and was followed by extensive touring across the US and Europe. The band are often cited alongside other Californian bands of that period as a defining example of the style.

A Skylit Drive broke up in 2017 following a dispute between guitarist Nick Miller and Jagmin, closing out a run of five studio albums and one EP. Jordan Blake, the band's original vocalist, died in April 2023.

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