INTERVIEW: Everything Everything

I was lucky enough to talk to Mike, the drummer from Everything Everything yesterday about the absolutely brilliant year they have had, the album, it’s release and strong popularity as well as a the band’s plans for the future.

Hello Mike, so you guys have had a pretty big year, the Big Top at Bestival for example, was absolutely packed when you played there, how have the last few months been?
Hello, yeah, Bestival was brilliant and playing Reading and Leeds too have been real big highlights, we get to play to loads of people, who don’t necessarily know us and having the album out, knowing people come to see us at the fesitvals knowing the words and giving us a great reception there has been fun. We got to play Jools Holland the other night which was also a great highlight.

Is it true that artists sign a no Jools clause? So that he isn’t allowed to play with you?
The no Jools clause? (laughs) Well, if there was one we would have signed it, I don’t think his piano really fits in with the band. He does seem like a really nice guy though and quite funny, they seem to pick the acts that make sense.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uWi1vnzac]

You released your debut album on Geffen at the end of August, quite a big leap from the indie labels like Young & Lost Club that you have released material on before, how did you feel about signing to a Major label?
Obviously about this there were lots of questions with us and our managers, like was it the right thing for us as a group? In the end it came down to two majors and an indie, but we tended to look at the individuals and Geffen is less of a major in the stereotypical sense. We like the individuals involved and got this impression that they were enthusiastic. Out of the three they seemed the best and we wanted to do this thing with them, there have been no regrets. Lots of people look at majors in a negative light, but there isn’t that much difference between them and the indies anymore, they all seem to be changing with the times.

The album itself charted at 17, rising to number 9 on the itunes chart recently, which is a great achievement, especially for a debut, have you been pleased with how the release has panned out?
Yeah, we’ve been really please, these days the charts are weird thing, but nonetheless we are happy to be there, it’s been useful and just hope that people go on to know of and like what we do. There are so many ads these days and you seem to have to shout about your thing to get it noticed. But it’s hard to get that in the marketing without shoving it down peoples’ throats. The label have been great though and very happy to push the promotion.

It’s a brilliantly eclectic album, songs like “Leave the Engine Room” and “Two for Nero” really set themselves apart from the last two singles, was it important for you to differentiate and have a varied collection of songs or was it a more spontaneous writing process?
It literally just came together the way it came out. Jon, the singer and songwriter tends to just do something, leave it, try something else and this way we tend to surprise people. We wanted it to be different and ambitious and we certainly felt that we were when it came together, presented as these 12 songs. It’s also about the gigs, getting the set together and making sure they flow, we’re happy though how it’s come together.

A stand out feature of the songs, is of course, the incredibly fast, Twista-style, almost indecipherable singing and those lovely harmonies, has the band always utilized such vocal techniques or was it something you adopted along the way?
Over the last three years we’ve been a band we have definitely changed and developed, we’ve always had backing vocals though, because we love The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Jon’s singing has developed over that time though and you can probably tell he likes to fit a lot of words in. But as the lyrics are out there, you can’t assume and the intentionthe is for the listener to be intrigued and become interested in the music, they’re very personal for Jon, as well as fueling his desire to set a challenge to the listener.

And how do you now imagine going forward from it, can fans expect more of the same or do you think you would want to push the band into different musical directions?
We could go in different ways, we’re in a period now where we are starting to write new stuff, but of course we’re not sure, as of yet. We don’t want to be pigeon-holed, effectively and it’s been a happy process going through reviews, the reviewers all seem to notice different influences, but things like that only build up a sense that we want to improve our songwriting.

On myspace you cite Destiny’s Child amongst your influences, and I think there a probably lot more varied and wonderful artists amongst the band’s inspirations, is there any notable ones you would like to mention?
Oh definitely Destiny’s Child, in fact most American R’n'B, well it’s more about the rhythm that’s come from that in our music, we love The Beatles and Radiohead too, which are much more obvious influences, with both of those we also aspire to their ambition, the kind of bands that develop and change all the time, hopefully our 2nd album will be even more like us, though obviously we don’t want to alienate anyone.

You’re about to embark on a big UK tour and you’ve even sold out the London Scala, will the next year be filled with more touring or are you planning to take a break?
Well next year we’ve got a few different things, more tours, probably bigger, because it’s nice to see audiences and the people enjoy our music. When you release an album and see all the numbers and chart positions and whatever, it’s nice to actually see the people who’ve heard it, enjoy it and have actually bothered to come out to a gig to see us. We’re very appreciative of that. And as good as festivals are, our own tours are much more our own thing to showcase ourselves.

I saw two dates in New York coming up, but Is there a larger transatlantic invasion in the works?
(Laughs) Well, hopefully more, there’s no deal at the moment to go out there, America is very interesting, it’ll be nice to just go there and play to different people, we’re all really looking forward to playing in New York, but no, there’s no more shows planned, we’ll just take it one step at a time.

BONUS MP3
If you haven’t heard “Man Alive” yet, listen to the Glitch Mob’s Mashup which cherry picks parts of the songs for you to hear. It’s a nice little intro to the band.