.
.
Welcome to the rock ‘n roll military. You
have just put in almost 10 years of active duty, toured the U.S. and world
relentlessly, voluntarily given up what you’ve known as “normal life” and
in a matter of a few short weeks will release your third album. This, however
isn’t a two, four, or six year enlistment...this is your life.
The
guys in Eve 6 have done, seen and played it all through their tour of duty
in the music world and aren’t even the ripe old age of 25. In most cases,
bands make the conscience effort and blood oath to become a successfully
signed artist. With Eve 6, the decision to become a band in the mid 90s
happened in the midst of casual conversation during high school gym class.
With Max Collins’ writing, Jon Siebels on guitar and Tony Fagenson on drums,
the band brought to the table a pop punk sound which inked them a record
deal with RCA in 1996 at the mere ages of 17. Long before the Simple Plans
and Good Charlottes of today’s musical popularity, Eve 6 introduced an
infectious sound which MTV and radio quickly embraced with such songs as
“Inside Out”, “Promise” and “Here’s To The Night” off their first two albums,
“Eve 6” & “Horrorscope”. By late 2001, the band had been touring nonstop
for about a year and half in support of their second album. Touring and
making music was considered a normal life to the group. Living out your
dreams, ambitions and achieving success all before reaching the legal drinking
age proved to be a bit overwhelming, and the band was in need of a change
and a “new beginning”. That new beginning was the everyday life that the
rest of the world was leading; eating breakfast in your own home, dealing
with personal relationships, and being in the same city not to mention
your own bed day after day. “We were in a whirlwind; we just needed time
to live normal lives—and we didn’t even know what normal was,” as the band
recalls. Jon Siebels elaborates, “I’m glad you brought up the normalcy
question and missing everyday things. I missed being able to blast my car
radio and play my own CDs while driving my own car. Little things like
that you take for granted.”
After gaining some stability and sanity back into their lives, the guys
in Eve 6 started writing and conceptualizing their third release entitled
“It’s All In Your Head” due out July 22nd. The band penned between 15-25
songs as possible tracks for the CD and enlisted the help of producer Gregg
Wattenberg to help create a fresh yet Eve 6 signature sound to the new
release. The band was confident in the choices of tracks, but still needed
the guidance of a good producer to help achieve their final product. The
one major thing that Siebels notes Wattenberg brought to the production
was enthusiasm. “We were working on the tracks for the record for so long,
we needed that spark that Gregg brought to us as a type of validation that
it was going to be a good product in the end. We knew from our first phone
conversation Gregg was the guy, and he spoke our language. We immediately
gelled.”
The first release “Think Twice” has been added to most major playlists
on alternative stations across the United States. However, the album’s
content boasts many catchy pop/punk staples of Eve 6, along with a very
folk sounding track entitled “Hey Montana.” Through everything that the
band has seen and done in the last seven years a few tracks seem to reflect
the sum of the experiences according to Siebels. “’Good Lives’ & ‘At
Least We’re Dreaming’ pretty much tell the story of what the band has gone
through over the years.
They’re Classic Eve 6 songs.” Fagenson
is also quick to add, “I think it’s the struggle that’s inherent in the
music. We know we’re different people now, yet still hold onto the fire,
hope and passion we had when we first started the band. I think that’s
the dichotomy & dilemma on this record.”
Siebels and his bandmates are quite happy with the success of this headlining
tour thus far. Although he said he wasn’t sure if the kids would come out
seeing the record hasn’t been released yet. In the past, being a fan of
touring on the festival circuit Eve 6 is now able to see exactly just how
strong their fan base is with the headlining, club tour. The shows have
either been sell outs or near capacity crowds, drawing in a diverse collection
of fans of all ages. The band has decided to only incorporate 3-4 new songs
off the new album into their nightly set. “Being a fan of music, I like
going out and hearing stuff I know. That’s what we wanted to do with this
tour. We’re still playing our hits off the first two albums, although many
fans have already downloaded the new songs and already know all the words,”
Siebels notes.
Having brought up the downloading of music, I felt that someone who is
in music, who’s age is the primary targeted demographic of the record buying
public could give me his thoughts on the whole debated issue. According
to Siebels, Eve 6 was always a pro Napster band, even being listed on their
site. However he does feel there needs to be a happy medium between complete,
free file sharing and what the labels want by selling records for sometimes
unreasonable amounts of money. “I would much rather have kids listening
and learning our songs. If they have a non-copywritten version of the album,
who cares how they got it because we don’t get paid enough in royalties
anyway. If they’re listening to the songs, enjoying them, coming out to
the shows, buying the T-shirts, that’s where the impact is.” Although the
debate is very strong on both ends, Siebels sees a new fascination with
music in general that the whole file sharing controversy has stirred up
since its inception circa 1999.
He hopes the file sharing situation may force people to care about music
again in terms of quality in the content included on albums in general.
“It’s cut the industry and the artists down to size in many ways. For the
last 15 years artists have been writing one hit song and the remainder
of their album is filler tracks you don’t want to listen to, then charge
you $25. As a music fan and someone who buys records I feel cheated. If
nothing else, I think all this is going to force artists and labels to
make every song on an album a good song, so the people will not have a
problem spending their money on the purchase.”
Eve 6 is quite content on where they
are in their personal and professional lives at present time. The overall
freedom the band now enjoys was hard won, but the trio is grateful for
the experience. “Opportunities are fleeting, your gotta take ‘em when they
come,” Collins believes. “You change, grow, deal with death and money,
but you learn from that and try to keep hold of your innocence at the same
time.”
More
Visit
the official site for more info on the band
Listen
To/Purchase Music From the Eve 6
Photos by Linda Spielman
All Rights Reserved
|