Ebonivory: Steering Clear Of The Black And White

From deep in one of the most inexplicably rainy corners of Australia, Ballarat’s EBONIVORY have been slaving away and are on the brink of downing their tools to release the first part of their new album, The Long Dream I. Native to a continent that acts as a conveyor belt for ingenious modern prog, they are tackling the current global crisis head on in a hellbent mission to avoid stagnating. Well known for crafting a concoction of alt rock and progressive rock, their sound is more expansive than ever and as far as the quintet is concerned, there is no time like the present.

Guitarist Jake Ewings was quick to confirm how important the release date is for them, telling us that “of course postponing the album was on the cards, simply because you leave no stone unturned, but because this is part one and part two is mostly written and recorded we’d eventually have to sit there and release nothing until everything blows over if we delayed.” He continued to say that in terms of content, “gear reviews and snippets of music might go some way towards appeasing fans through quarantine, but unless you have a single coming out at least every few months and an album at least every couple of years, you’re really stretching it a bit thin and people get tired of it.”

Given that the music industry has been drastically affected right across the globe, this is still a brave decision, one made more difficult by the inability to play live. EBONIVORY have already cancelled an Australian tour for July – one they never even got the chance to announce – as well as a twenty-six date run across the US with progressive metal heavy hitters CALIGULA’S HORSE; a fact that Jake didn’t even attempt to hide his disappointment about. Although far from ideal, it goes without saying that bands can’t take any chances with any future tours, there is just no saying when enough restrictions will be lifted.

Clearly one to look for a silver lining, Jake went on to say, “the one good thing that’s come from quarantine is that we’ve all been writing. The previous twelve months before all of this, our lives were just spent working on the album through the week and then on the weekends we’d be rehearsing, playing shows and recording music videos. There was bugger all time for writing!” Because of this, we may even end up with another EBONIVORY EP in the future if there is enough overspill from these intense writing sessions. “We do like the EP format. It gives a little more freedom. We don’t have to be mindful of writing songs that sound good on radio, and we can play around with more ambience and the weird things we wouldn’t necessarily put into a full album.”

Which brings us back to the new record. Or the first fifty percent of it at least. “The Long Dream was initially going to be one double album,” Jake says. He laughed about being sat listening to the early demos which at the time were around ninety minutes in length. “I struggle to sit through even sixty minutes of music, and for us over an hour just felt really forced, like we were asking too much from the listener. It was almost making it boring, I mean after that long you’re sort of done and ready to do something else!”

Splitting the concept out into two halves also allowed EBONIVORY a little breathing space while writing the second instalment; the first record is almost standalone. As Jake puts it, they “didn’t want to bore people in the second half with the same set of sounds, it really can start to drag once it stops being fresh and exciting. Plus, we plan to do a full live recording of the album as well, and the last thing we want is to have to perform a double, one hundred and twenty minute album. No, that’s never happening. Guitars get heavy after a while!”

This is one point in particular that led Jake to stop and admire other artists out there, in particular some of the bigger bands they have recently toured with who can effortlessly play for a full hour and a half, going hard as if they were still teenagers and then partying and drinking until the early hours. He says, “I’m just like ‘how are you guys doing this?’ I’m like in my mid-twenties, only four beers in and I’m gunna call it because we’ve gotta be up at 6am and start driving across the state. My back hurts and I’m tired. They’re just impervious to it! It must just be one of those things where you build endurance over time and eventually you’re invincible. In our case, Charlie [Powlett, lead vocals] and Dave [Parks, drums] don’t drink at all and Connor [McMillan, bass], Louis [Edwards, guitars] and I only drink on the last night of a run of shows, so ‘tomorrow’ or the day after that we’ll be at home at some point. No way I’m drinking the first night, then I’m just gunna feel like trash and I’ll never quite catch up on the sleep and the hangover will get me!”

For EBONIVORY a lot of The Long Dream is self-referential. Having worked on the album for so long – especially Charlie who Jake refers to as the ‘whizz’ behind it all – it was inevitable that the process would feel like a lengthy journey. In the early days they would play the same venues over and over again; a time which Jake reflected upon with fond memories, but they started to feel a bit defeated by it all. This showed in Charlie‘s mental health, and became a big theme for the project. “When we started the writing process it was quite dark for us, we were in a very hopeless and lost place. Then we started working with Wild Thing management and playing all these fantastic shows with the kind of bands that we listen to every day. Suddenly we’re opening for them and there’s this glimmer of hope that this whole thing might work out! Both musically, and certainly for Charlie that ‘things’ might just work out full stop, in a much broader sense.” He also added laughing that, “as well as this subject matter there’s also some weird sci-fi stuff that Charlie put in there, I don’t know about that. It’s a bit abstract for me!”

There’s such a broad range of influences at work, and Jake talks about not wanting to make a record that’s just flat out heavy but also not wanting to put something out that’s all soft, ethereal and flowery. “It would be disingenuous to what’s inside of us. I think that prog has changed a lot in the last few years into a place where you’re allowed to experiment now. I feel like maybe ten years ago you couldn’t have say a pop punk influence, the community would have rejected it. It’s a good time to be writing in prog because there’s so much more freedom now. I think you’d be silly not to experiment.”

A lesson that Jake himself has learned as time went by. “All through high school I was the kid that was like, ‘if you don’t listen to MEGADETH you suck,’ but as I’ve grown up and matured a little and realised there’s more to life than SLAYER’s Raining Blood, I listen to pop, a fair bit of jazz and way too much drum and bass as well as prog and death metal. There’s so much great music out there, you can’t just pigeon hole yourself and listen to one genre.” As a unit, EBONIVORY employ this philosophy emphatically, with even the band name itself alluding to a juxtaposition of sound. 

As a footnote, Jake was keen to add that, “through this whole COVID-19 thing it’s important to remember that a lot of people in the heavy music community often base their whole social lives around music. We made our friends at gigs, we see our friends at gigs, we go out for a glass of beer or water at gigs – whatever our thing is – and now a lot of us are feeling more isolated than ever. So reach out if you need help, reach out if you have a friend you haven’t seen in a while, let’s take care of each other!”

The Long Dream I is set for release on June 5th via Wild Thing Records.

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