Everest are from California and are currently based in LA, but their hearts are fixated with the timelessness of Americana and folk music. Their spectacular performance at the Fillmore Saturday night was sandwiched between two acts (Nathan Moore and the Mother Hips) that had me shrugging my shoulders with indifference; I left midway through the later set. They drew heavily from their recent sophomore album, On Approach. The set, which was characterized by the band's unshakable control over the holistic sound of the varied guitar tones and a subtle mastery of keyboards, culminated with a rollicking cover of Neil Young’s classic “Revolution Blues” which had the audience begging for more.
I had the chance to ask their lead singer (Russell Pollard) and their bass player (Elijah Thomson) some questions. I was thrilled to discover something about the identity of the latter, read on below to find out what it isStylistically speaking, who are your biggest influences?
Russ: Dylan, Tom Petty, Neil Young, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Pretty Things-they recorded around the same time as The Beatles…they had a number one record in ’70…then they disappeared. Bands like that. Good songs, good singers
Eli: I know everyone says this but I think we enjoy a wide variety. There is no stylistic genre we try to fit into
On Approach is your second album. How did writing it differ from your debut?
Russ: The songs were written in a different chunk of time…we were on the road when some of the songs were written. But we had more time writing it, about two years. We had more experience playing together and more time in the studio figuring things out and had more of an idea of defining our sound together than we did on the first record. That one was more about enjoying playing together and making stuff up.
Eli: the first one was more of a project based thing, we had more of a vested interest in the second one. All the lessons that are learned touring and testing yourselves in different situations and what effect that has on your creativity. What impact you want to have musically. In subtle ways, not something you think about consciously but, you know, thinking to yourself, “ok, I have to up the ante now”
Where did you come up with the band name?
Russ: Jay and I-our guitar player- liked the name Everest, and we have a little studio by that name. A little recording space called Everest Recorders. Before the band started, we were just messing around in there, figuring out how to capture our ideas, rather than having to go to somebody else’s space. It was just the name that fit.
What has been the best touring experience the band has had?
Russ: It’s hard to choose one, we’ve been really lucky. We started touring with My Morning Jacket and we went to Europe with those guys, we had fun, cause we’ve been friends for a while. I’ve known Jim James since high school, I’ve seen him in different bands and we’ve played together in bands in our early twenties. I’ve seen his trajectory into MMJ and I talked to him about it and he took us out on the road.
You guys remind me of two other bands from Southern California who do their own thing without much regard for what is trendy in indie music-Cold War Kids and Delta Spirit. Any thoughts on either band?
Russ: Eli knows DS pretty well
You’re not Eli Thomson are you? The guy who co-produced History From Below?!
Eli: That’s me.
Holy…wow. Thank you. Wow. I am honoured. Oh! Right, cause the record was also produced by a guy from MMJ…
Eli: yeah, Bo. He was playing with us, with Everest on a tour with Neil Young. MMJ took a year off and he was just trying to do some new things, some interesting things. He came out on the bus one day saying that he had just heard this record [Ode to Sunshine-DS’s self released debut]…that was when they were still a club band, and the early creativity is captured in a different way. When we started working with DS, they had made a conscious decision not to recreate that record. You have to respect a band that doesn’t want to do the same thing again. I’ve known those guys since they were teenagers.
The thing that I like about our circle of friends is there isn’t any kind of competition, other than friendly competition, you know. We all try to build each other up.
What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?
Eli: I dunno what to say without sounding self aggrandizing. People have made comments that my bass playing was…I think unique was my favourite term. I don’t think of certain musicians as necessarily better than others, every individual has their individual expression, they’re collecting a lifetime of influences and honing them into some new form that is different than from what everyone else has because they didn’t experience life in the same way. When anyone recognizes something I do as unique, I consider that the highest form of compliment.
Russ: When we finished On Approach, Neil Young listened to the record and he told me that one of the songs was a classic
Which one was it?
“Unfortunate Sea”. So that’s as good as it gets for someone who is writing songs to hear something like that from someone they look up to…it’s huge
Describe your music with one word.
Russ: True
Eli: Multifarious
“Let Go” has a gripping shock factor. It made me want to hear more, immediately. Do you prefer writing that kind of song or do you prefer slower ones like “Unfortunate Sea”?
Russ: I enjoy both. I think they go hand in hand, they help each other out. They’re both necessary. You can’t have every song sound like “Let Go”, it would get boring, especially in the live setting
Does either feel more forced to write or do they both come naturally?
Probably a song like “Let Go” felt a little more forced. For us, it was a different direction than what we were used to doing. We were unsure of it at first but at the same time it never felt “forced”…we never felt like we needed to write a certain kind of song so that people would say this about it. We questioned it because we didn’t know it was in our wheelhouse. And it ended up that it was.
Which instruments make you uneasy?
Russ: Saxophone in rock music makes me a little uncomfortable
Eli: I would agree with that. Not in jazz, or in a section, that’s fine. In the middle of a rock n roll song, it can’t be great
Can you tell me what inspired “House of 9's”?
A riff inspired it…this dirge riff that our guitar player Joel wrote while we were out on the road. I was feeling nostalgic. It was the fall, and I always feel nostalgic during the fall. That’s sort of what it’s about in a vague way. There are a lot of characters on our record that aren’t real. You know when you have recurring dreams and you feel that the person in the dream is you, but it’s not really? It’s like pieces of your subconscious that you don’t need anymore fleeing…your brain erasing things you don’t need
That’s how your songwriting goes?
Russ: sort of. Just trying to remember things that you might not reveal themselves to you again and trying to make sense of it somehow
How do you feel about music or the industry today?
Russ: to be positive, something good to dwell on is that I’ve felt a lot of camaraderie amongst different bands as things have changed and maybe become more difficult for bands to figure out ways to sell records. There’s this spirit and energy that was kind of missing for awhile of Bands being supporters of one another. Taking them out on tour and giving them a shot; or, if they’re on the same level, giving them a shout out and bringing them to the attention of their fans. We’ve been really fortunate to have some great touring experiences with some really great bands. You have to be really proactive and work really hard but the fruits of your labour are just that much sweeter because it’s not easy. Just surviving.
Eli: and that’s just surviving. The question is, how do you maintain that? You have to be weary of inner band politics and strife. There’s more stories of people that lose it than ones who maintain it.
If you could live out the experiences of any band, past or present, which would you choose?
Russ: Led Zeppelin. For me, they were my first favourite band. They were young and they did whatever they wanted and it just happened to be, like, the hugest thing ever. Those guys were just awesome. And they became humongous and they wrote these great records that people still put on and it’s your favourite. And you don’t even realize it until you go back to it. Why wouldn’t you want to live that?
Eli: Russ’s answer was great. I have to think of something different. I think the band I would most likely wish I was in is the Ravi Shankar Orchestra. I think that is probably the most amazing shit I have heard in my life. The beginning of the concert for George…is just…one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. If I could be anything in that band, I might have to leave Everest
Russ: I’d join you. Totally.
Everest on MYSPACE
Everest - House of 9's [mp3]
1 comment:
I'll have to check these guys out. Thanks for bringing so much new music to my attention!
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