By KAREN BLISS -- Jam! Music

All was not some kinda wonderful with urban-pop duo Sky.

The Montreal-based act -- which debuted in Canada a year ago with "Piece Of Paradise" on EMI Music Canada and went on to open for Britney Spears, perform at the MuchMusic Video Awards, earn a platinum certification and a U.S. deal with Arista -- have parted ways.

Singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists James (Jay) Renault and Antoine Sicotte, who are nominated at this year's Juno Awards, March 12, are already busy with other projects.

Renault pulled the plug on Sky because, as the quieter, more reluctant rock star of the pair, he simply was not happy or at ease in the public eye.

"For the first time in a long time, I look forward to getting up in the morning," he said in an exclusive interview with JAM! recently from Los Angeles, where he has since relocated.

"I want to be behind the scenes," Renault explains. "I definitely do not want to be in the spotlight. Now I'm really enjoying myself, for the first time in a while. Not that the Sky thing specifically was bad, but that lifestyle, being an artist, being in the spotlight, was just not for me. If it was Sky or any other band, it wouldn't have made a difference. I just couldn't handle it."

Renault is writing for himself and is back with his former manager Jon Leshay (who also handles Mandy Moore). Sicotte is still being guided by Len manager Graeme Lowe.

Sky last performed together on New Year's Eve at The Hockey Hall Of Fame in Toronto. Little did Sicotte know that it would be the group's swan song.

"Jay and Jon gave me a call two or three weeks later," Sicotte recounts, "and Jay said, 'I don't want to continue this. I need to get out.' And, I was like, 'You know, man, if you're not happy, there's really no need to put any kind of pressure on continuing this. I'd rather start new with somebody who really wants to do it and who loves to play live and who loves to perform and who has that same passion that I have.'"

Sicotte found that passion in 24-year-old Anastasia (like the Sky guys, she chooses not to go by her last name). From the same Montreal neighbourhood, he had actually worked with her when she was 14. She was singing with a cover band when he contacted her again following Sky's demise.

"She's got an unbelievable voice now, a mix between Erykah Badu meet Fiona Apple with a little bit of Marianne Faithfull in there," he enthuses.

The project will be entitled Nice. Sicotte has written and produced all the tracks as well as played all the instruments. Anastasia will supply the lyrics.

"It's not as clean, not as polished (as Sky)," he says. "I don't want to do something as polished in the sense of hi-fi sounding. I've been listening to electronica stuff like Air to more British stuff like Travis.

"What I'm trying to do with this project is still keep a little bit of my soul and hip-hop influence in there, but I'm bringing in a lot of acoustic guitar and a lot more real bass. You're going to be hearing some distortion too on this project, but a little more of a British flavour, though.

"I've also been hired by a couple of record labels," he adds. "I'm producing a French artist called Gabrielle on CMC. They've asked me to produce seven songs for her album and write three. Also, I did some stuff for the Econoline Crush record. I don't know if it's going to be on there yet, but we wrote a couple of songs for that and I produced for the demos."

While he's pumped about his projects, Sicotte doesn't try to hide his disappointment at the dissolution of the group he'd worked on with Renault since meeting on orientation day at recording engineering school Musique Technique in 1992. But he, more than anyone, was aware of his writing partner's shy disposition. Even the record company bio of the band points out that Renault is not an ego-driven, outgoing frontman, preferring to stay home and read sci-fi novels.

Sicotte realizes it takes more guts to leave a band in the throes of success rather than jumping off a sinking ship. The label, publisher, management, the fans, and the musicians themselves had invested much time and energy into Sky, and Renault wouldn't have let them down if being a part of the commercial pop machine wasn't eating away at him every day.

The pair had fancied themselves as a pop group with more of an edge lyrically and depth musically, but Sky was naturally lumped in with other boy bands with teen-squeal appeal.

"I've always understood his not being comfortable with that," says Sicotte. "I just think as an adult, you make certain decisions and have to get to the end of it. I believe that everybody has jobs in their lives, and sometimes that's not exactly what they want to do but you sort of have to do it to move to whatever else you want to do.

"I definitely enjoyed the experience. I just found it disappointing that my partner was so miserable about all of that. For me, it made the experience not as enjoyable as I would have liked it to be, in the sense that when you're so close to somebody, and that person is never really enjoying it, obviously it feeds on the other people around that person."

Sicotte also regrets that the band didn't give him more financial stability because opportunities like European tours and more Canadian offers were rejected by Renault, he says.

"Financially, I'm at exactly the same point that I was before I even had (a record deal). It just would have been nice not to live through this situation (break-up) in a panic."

But with that panic came pressure to pull himself together. "I didn't have time to get depressed about the thing and go, 'Oh, no, six years of work down the drain,' because I financially had to get myself back into work or I was going to have to end up going back to work in the clubs, which I didn't want to do."

Sicotte will be attending the Juno Awards. Renault will not be there, he says.

"I'm going there because of the Sky thing," says Sicotte, "but I'm really going there with my new project in mind. That's really what I've been working on for the last little while. I'm excited about that."