Pollstar Band Of the Week Interview
Southern California-based Eve 6 could fall into this category. The band's encounter with the David Letterman show almost foreshadows such a fate. Guitarist Jon Siebels explained to POLLSTAR, "Tonight on the show, they're going to do this little thing where David's like, 'Tomorrow night, Eve 6. Who's that? I've never heard of them before.' And then a curtain is going to come up and we're going to play like five seconds of the song." Then the curtain falls. That short time is just a small taste of the limelight most pop bands experience, but never endure; a few moments in the public eye then, like a magic trick without the cloud of smoke, they're gone.
However, on the upside for Eve 6, the five second performance was a teaser to promote the next night's episode. The band returned to the stage and claimed the spotlight, performing its hit single "Inside Out"-- in its entirety. The groups "late show" experience exemplifies what's happening with Eve 6: the snowball effect is gaining momentum for the band of recent high school graduates and their self-titled debut album on RCA. Even early in the group's still-young career, Eve 6 was creating its tight punk, pop-rock sounds around L.A. before garnering attention from the right music industry people.
The band, taking its name from an episode of the popular sci-fi show "The X-Files" formed during the summer before Siebels' sophomore year in high school in La Crescenta, Calif. "At that point we weren't really touring, " Siebels said. "We were just playing around our town a lot, the L.A. area and Hollywood, out to Orange County." As somewhat of a surprising move, Eve 6 chose to stay away from the area's popular club scene. However, the choice reflects the young musicians' mature sense of business.
"We kind of stayed away from doing the clubs a whole lot because a lot of the Hollywood clubs have the whole selling-tickets-to-play-thing... That's just like the worst, to feel like you're handing over money to play somewhere, " Siebels said.
"We'd much rather just pack out a coffeehouse and have a great time than to have the high stress of selling tickets." So the occasional weekend party or coffee shop gig became the setting for Eve 6 to develop its sound. Then band moved a step foward in it's career after a performance on "Radio Asylum" a college radio show. The programs host, Jennifer Harold, "totally fell in love the band and started managing. Harold had been working with than-RCA act One Thousand Mona Lisas and knew label A&R man Brian Malouf. SHe sent a live tape of Eve 6 to Malouf, who liked what he heard.
"we did a showcase for him [in L.A.] and he came back to N.Y. called us up and said the one band that he couldn't stop thinking about was us," Siebels said. "So, at that time, he signed us more for what he saw us developing into, not becuase he wanted us to put out a record and tour right away." Besides, the band hadn't even entered its senior year of high school. "[Malouf] basically signed usand left yus alone for two years to keep doing what we were doing, just playing"
Siebels said. "That was one of our best moves we've made because from there, they hooked us up with CAA-- an amazing booking agency."
With diplomas in hand and the release of their major-label debut this past spring, guitarist Siebels, bassist/vocalist Max Collins and drummer Tony Fagenson hit the road on a two-month-long club tour around the contry. "We were headlining most of them and if we were lucky we would get 30 people." The band was able to play to some larger crowds, such as atlanta's midtown music festival.
However, with the growing support of radio, the three piece was added to the Third Eye Blind/Our Lady Peace tour. "When we started the 3EB tour, it was like 'This is our 3rd month straight of touring' And OLP went 'OH yeah, we've been touring 22 months straight,'" Siebels said. "So that was a little humbling." Eve 6 is on tour with 3EB for another two months, with MTV sponsoring the second leg of the tour. But the band is readying itself for the future. "[We want to] just tour to get a huge fanbase to the point where, wheter radio is embracing us our not at that particular moment, we're always going to have a fanbase and be able to tour and sell records of of that."
Guitar World Interview With Jon
by J.D. Considine
There's nothing fancy about Eve 6, the L.A.-based trio responsible for the puncy, tuneful single, "Inside Out." Eve 6 started out as a punk band when guitarist Jon Siebels, bassist Max Collins and drummer Tony Fagenson were still in junior high (Siebels is 18 now and the other two are 19), and the group's musical vocabulary hasn't changed much since then, "Now that it's gone more pop, our sound still has that classic punk energy, you know?" he says. "Even though its really not punk rock, per se." Part of the difference is Fagenson, whose deftly swinging hi-hat suggests a style based more on Police drummer Stewart Copeland than on punk skin-pounders like Marky Ramone. "Tony is definitely more influenced by Eighties pop drummers," says Siebels. The most striking thing about "Inside Out" is the cleverness of its arrangement. For instance, the shift from the into's gently strummed chords to the punchy powerchords of the first verse really pulls the listener into the song. "We knew the effect we wanted," says Siebels. "We wanted it to kind of go up another level, so it was just a matter of getting the right sound." One of the song's smartest and subtlest effects is the tremolo guitar part Siebels slipped into the chorus. "It's one of those things where it's almost more of an ambient effect, " says Siebels, who used a Demeter tremulator to get the guitar chords to shimmer in time with the drums. "It's just a rhythm part," he says. "It's not one of those things that your average music fan is going to notice. But if it weren't on the record, the song would be completely different-sounding." Still, for some listeners, the most jarring thing about the song is the oddly literary quality of the lyrics. After all, how many modern rock singers boast lines like "But the lack thereof would leave me empty inside"? Aked where that came from, bassist/singer Max Collins-the mand responsible for the song's lyrics-shrugs. "There's a lack of 'lack thereof's out there," he says.
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