Evolution Emerging is this Friday and it once again promises to be a fantastic day of live music, showcasing the very best in emerging north east talent. This year’s event will see 25 bands/solo artists play across the Ouseburn’s best drinking holes including The Cluny, The Cumberland Arms, The Tyne, The Star & Shadow and The Tanners. I recently caught up with Eeves (who will play The Cluny) to talk about out how the band are preparing for the big day, their thoughts on Amazing Radio’s recent problems and also their plans for an E.P. release.
Eeves hail from Teeside and consist of Pete McDonald (Vocals & Guitars) and the three Masterman brothers – Andrew (Guitar), Stephen (Bass) and Thomas (Drums). They formed in mid 2010 and have quickly gained a reputation in the region for their distinctly post-punk offering, which has been likened to a host of great bands including Interpol, Bloc Party and Weezer. Their track ‘So Long Hurricane’ was selected as record of the week by Amazing Radio back in February and the band has also since had airplay on Tom Robinson’s BBC 6 Music show.
In March it was announced that they would play The Cluny as part of the Evolution Emerging Festival – the ultimate showcase for new bands in the North East. According to singer Pete “We’re really excited to be a part of the growing Northeast scene. It’s going pretty strong right now and there are some great bands around. Being considered to be part of that is massively gratifying for us and something we pride ourselves being involved with.”
Pete is the only non brother in the band but explained that they’re all very much equals who despite the familial ties “rarely disagree or argue” and work well as a unit.” A great insight into the band’s very polished and tight live abilities can be seen online at their Amazing Radio session, recorded earlier this year. Playing the track Silhouette the four-piece look very comfortable in front of the cameras. This is clearly a lot of hard work paid off and the band intend to continue in the same vain that has got them this far by “gigging extensively, writing, recording, playing and promoting Eeves as much as we can over the next 12 months.” 
“One of the most important things you can do as an artist is to have faith in what you’re doing but more importantly enjoy it”. This attitude can get you so far but, as Pete explained, organisations like Amazing Radio have helped unsigned bands like themselves to “cut out the middle man” and propel them to a high profile level that perhaps wasn’t so easily achievable in the past. “We’re sincerely grateful for the help we’ve had and continue to get from them.” Speaking about the recent decision to pull Amazing Radio from DAB, Peter went on to say:
“I was shocked to hear the news…it’s a first class station and an asset to the Northeast. I’m sure Amazing would continue to fill the same role if it was to remain solely online, but DAB is something which is probably going to be more accessible during the day for a lot of people. I myself used to be tuned in most of the day, so I do hope Amazing makes its way back onto DAB.”
Post Evolution Emerging Eeves will continue to write and record their E.P. which they are hoping to release at some point over the summer. The Band is also heading down to London to play at Club Killingmoon and is in the process of trying to book more shows in the capital during the same week: “We’ve never been that far a-field before so it’s a good chance to play, take in the sights, see and meet some new faces and promote Eeves and our music.”
In the very immediate future though, all thoughts are turned towards Friday’s show at The Cluny. The band will take to the stage at 8:15pm and admitted that they simply can’t wait, not only their performance, but the day itself. “The majority of bands that are playing we haven’t had chance to catch live before, so there’s a handful that I definitely don’t want to miss, namely Fantasy Rainbow, Acrobatic Society, Fathoms and a good handful more! Having them all in one place is a good opportunity to soak it up.”
I would certainly recommend you fit Eeves into your Evo schedule as I would suspect hearing the tracks Silhouette and So Long Hurricane, live in a packed Cluny, will be one of the festival’s highlights.
Dream gig?
I think we’d be thrilled to be playing one of the better known venues/stages alongside a tour band, something like The Sage or Carling Academy 1 would be great. Also, I think a nice festival stage, on the right evening, with the right crowd could be a pretty special moment. We’ll see what the future brings for that one!
Currently listening to?
We listen to quite a diverse range of music. We’re all digging Ben Howard’s stuff at the minute. The ‘CD in my player’ at the moment is the Miles Davis album ‘Bitches Brew’. We’ve got appreciation for the new Maccabees album and glad to see how well it’s going for Alt-J too. We played with them quite a long time ago now. We’d recently formed and they were going by the name ‘Films’, I remember we all really enjoyed their music that night and it’s great to hear them now on things like Radio 1.
Favourite North East venue?
Probably either the Sage or the Cluny.
Favourite North East bands?
There are a good number of bands we haven’t had the chance to check out on a local level yet, but we’re out all night for Evolution Emerging, so we’ll be squeezing as many in as possible on Friday. Other than that, we’re always keen to see our friends ‘Weird Shapes’ doing well, they’re definitely one to watch.
Images:
http://laissezfaireclub.com/2012/04/introducing-eeves/
