A POP-ROCK band jets out to the Far East later this year for their first overseas tour.

Altered Sky – featuring Haddington pair Ana Nowosielska and Amy Blair – will depart in September as part of an extensive five-week tour, taking in five different countries.

The band, who are based in Glasgow, are off to the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, Hong Kong, China and Japan.

Ana, the group’s lead singer, was unable to speak to the Courier due to a throat infection but bassist Ross Archibald said that they were all looking forward to the trip.

He said: “It is something we have wanted to do for years and years. Since we started out, we have always been told our music would go down well in Japan and the Philippines. It was really towards the end of last year that that we were thinking and scratching our heads, wondering how we could do it.

“We have toured the UK six, seven, eight times and if we want to go to the Far East, how do we make it happen?

“It was myself and our manager Jay Burnett who sat down and looked for bookers and promoters that would be interested in having us and somehow we managed to put together a tour. It’s very much an exciting time.”

The five-week tour will see the band play a variety of venues, from an open-plan cafe/bar to an open-air festival.

Ross added: “Even from what we have heard about the music scene, it is an entirely different attitude.

“I don’t know if the fans go to more gigs or appreciate it more but it is definitely culturally different. It is going to be quite an exciting prospect.”

Not only will the tour be a change of culture for the band, it will also represent their longest tour.

Previous tours of the UK have lasted just a week but now they are going to be away for five weeks.

Before then, the band have their latest UK tour and will also be playing at a number of East Lothian primary schools next month.

That includes stops in Tranent, Musselburgh, Gullane, Elphinstone, Dirleton and Macmerry.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ross said: “In April, we’ve got eight primary schools in East Lothian, where we play to P6 or P7 and have a chat with them about the music industry.”

The band is made up of Ana – who grew up on Haddington’s Alderston Meadow – and former Knox Academy pupil Amy, of the town’s Long Cram, as well as Ross, Ryan Zdrojewski and Tara Behan.

Ana, who was schooled in Edinburgh, and Amy, both 25 years old, met during a night out at the Mercat Hotel, on Haddington’s High Street.