INTERVIEW: Chris Bevan Lee – The Ever Living
We’re living in age of renaissance for the UK rock scene right now. With bands pushing their soundscapes to its very limits, we’re living in a brave new world for heavy music. THE EVER LIVING are one such band who are pushing on the boundaries of the genre. Their upcoming debut album Herephemine is an elaborate and expansive affair, one which ebbs and flows and maintains an absolutely intense wall of sound. It’s a relentless, visceral and yet, a beautiful experience. We caught up with keyboardist and vocalist Chris Bevan Lee to give us the lowdown on their expansive debut record, it’s sound, themes and concepts, alongside discussing the inspiration behind the record and how THE EVER LIVING translate this massive sound to the live environment.
So your debut record, Herephemine, is due out in May. What can people expect from this upcoming release?
Chris: I think they can expect something a lot bigger than the EP and also smaller I guess. Bands usually say “it’s heavier but more melodic” but I would say it is as heavy, maybe a little bit heavier but really what we’re trying to do is make big songs bigger and try to bring in more ambience I suppose. Elements that were apparent on some of the tracks, like keyboard sections, we’re bringing those out into their own, giving them their own space to develop. Hopefully it shows more diversity and range, branching out a bit, and doing our own versions of different genres within alternative music.
It’s quite a long album, clocking in at 66 minutes, does having it that long allow all these musical elements to thrive?
Chris: Absolutely and doing an album was really important for us this time. I think we were reluctant to do an EP first time round but it was pretty much the first songs we had wrote together. The first four songs came out in a certain way and the fifth one was really a way of pulling those four together to say this is our sound which is the opener. We always seem like an album band, we want to take out time and we don’t want to rush but also we don’t want too much fat on anything. Hopefully with the next single we’re putting out, I think it’s about eight minutes long, and when I certainly listen to it I don’t think that it’s too long and there’s certainly nothing I would cut out of it. I think with the nature and the speed that we’re playing at, it makes it longer!
Herephemine arrives two years after THE EVER LIVING’s debut EP, how has the band progressed in that time in terms of sound and as musicians?
Chris: Well that’s an interesting question as we finished the record last September. We recorded it in June and we started writing it immediately after the EP went out. The song we’re putting out next, New Mutiny, is the first song we wrote for the album just before the EP came out, so I think we were just continuing on from where we left off really. I think it is the production where it has really improved, in that the EP was the first time we went into a studio as us five guys and not really hearing the results until we came out, and then going “okay what can we do differently next time?” We took a different approach this time whereby we were doing a lot more tests at the beginning because we use a lot of keyboards, they make up our bass and warmth. Our bass isn’t really providing much bass, it’s providing clang or a certain tone, so that has to be kept in mind when you are recording. It’s difficult to go in with guitar tones and just expect to put keyboards in later on because it always comes out differently. So that was a learning experience. In terms of writing, we’re not really listening to different types of music, I’m experimenting a bit more and I think the stuff I’m writing now for whatever comes next is changing already. I think it is going down a more cinematic route. I think we like the idea of traditional song-structures in some tracks but I can see us going down the path of being a metal soundtracks.
For this record, you worked with Jonny Renshaw of DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL. What did he bring to the creative process?
Chris: Jonny is a really good guitarist and he’s done the last couple of DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL records. We were a little bit worried going with him because we didn’t want to be thrown in with that melodic hardcore sound, some people have compared us to DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL and I don’t think we sound like them at all really. I think there are some elements there but we knew he could mix the guitarwork with the keyboards because he has done it himself. But, just because he is a very good guitarist he just pushes Andy really. Andy recorded both the guitars, leads and rhythm, so it was quite a lot of work for him as each track probably has about four different guitar tracks, a lot of stuff going on! So, he was really pushing Andy to perform better but also he is just a very good all-rounder. He records, he mixes, he masters and he doesn’t get bored doing multiple takes. He doesn’t drink which helps as he is a hard worker so he doesn’t come in with a hangover! A very good set of ears and he loves what he does which is always a help. I don’t usually like working with people from other bands because they always have their own agendas, you always want to work with someone who just loves music and he has that rare gift of loving music even though he’s in a band.
You travelled to Georgia for inspiration for this record. Can you elaborate on that experience and how it shaped Herephemine?
Chris: Yeah so it was kind of like how companies go on team-building retreats. We had started writing and I usually stop listening to music when I’m writing, at least listening to metal music, as I don’t want to end up in that world. We’re both into architecture and design and we were looking to that rather than music to inspire us. We’re both into Soviet architecture and we wanted to get away for a bit, it wasn’t the whole band it was just myself and Andy. We have a friend who is from Tbilisi so we went out there for a week. We travelled around, went out to the wine regions, but also stayed in the city. We took our guitar and laptop and we’d sit around with great views and just talk about ideas. I was working on keyboard sounds and just letting the outside world influence me rather than sitting in my room at home, you can’t see anything out of my window, looking at my bookshelf and not feeling inspired.
It’s a very interesting part of THE EVER LIVING’s story. Going out there and looking at that architecture to be inspired, it almost makes the music feel more organic…
Chris: Yes! With that, the keyboard aspect to the album is all pre-programmed by myself, so you go in the studio and it’s not me hitting the keys. They have had all the velocities programmed and it’s all been done on a laptop so you need something more organic to come through there. It’s why we’re not using drum programs, we program the drums to the demos then re-record it, Andy is not using fancy rigs, he’s using real heads and amps. It’s kind of like NINE INCH NAILS really, you have so much electronics going on you need some dirt to come from somewhere that isn’t artificial. You need something that’s going to cut through.
The lyrical themes and concept to Herephemine is all based around the excess of technology. In today’s world where it is so embedded in our lives, was this something you always wanted to address with THE EVER LIVING?
Chris: I think so. It was very easy to focus on the depressing aspects of political issues and how we are all feeling at the moment, it’s a pretty depressing time at the moment. Actually, if a lot of that stuff wasn’t going on then people would probably be worrying more about technology. The next video we’re putting out is going to give away a lot of stuff as did you hear about us getting stuck in Georgia on the shoot?
Yes!
Chris: Yeah, so that didn’t happen, that was basically, not a publicity stunt, but it essentially us bringing to life the music video we’re about to put out, bringing that into our PR campaign. It brings the story to life, it’s an interesting way of doing PR I think. Basically it was a way for me to deal with my depression in real life and put it through technology. The idea that people making music videos and making them for no money, everyone is a struggling artist and a lot of people sat around watching this content seem to be well-off in their houses with big TVs. They are watching them struggle essentially. I think it’s easier to put that into technological terms rather than political terms because there is no agenda behind it. Going down the route of technology is my way of distancing myself from emotions I guess, blaming technology rather than people.
Yeah, like you said there’s no agenda behind it so the messages on this record are relatable for everyone…
Chris: I think so. If I was going down the political route, people would go “oh he’s left, he’s right”, I think everyone is slightly concerned about where technology is going like VR for example, which is what the next video deals with. This whole thing for me comes from starting the band and wanting to make stuff rather than consume stuff, wanting to be on the stage rather than be in the audience, wanting to make a film rather than watch it. I think that is what the next video and lyrics tackle and that is where I feel in my life. People keep asking me who influences me and actually, I wasn’t influenced to start a band, I’m doing it because I felt like I had to. I’d rather make music than listen to it.
The sound of THE EVER LIVING. Cinematic metal is a perfect way to describe it because there is so much going on! In an age where people are so easy to throw genre-tags on everything, do you feel that your music transcends that?
Chris: I hope so! Unfortunately I don’t think that’s the case because every time you put a track out or send out a press release, I keep realising how niche we actually are! I’d like to think that we have a bit of a crossover appeal and even a commercial appeal. When we played Hammerfest last year someone said to me that we sounded like BRING ME THE HORIZON. Now, it’s easy to laugh at that or be annoyed in some cases, but actually, what we’re doing compared to what they were doing on something like Sempiternal isn’t a million miles away. Although when we put stuff out it seems like it is because it is a certain speed or maybe because there is no singing. So we feel very niche and we certainly feel that a lot of post rock people and post metal people are into us. I don’t feel like we are a post metal band, a lot of people said we were when we started, I don’t think we are and I don’t even feel that we are a metal band! I was thinking about this today, I feel that we are just a heavy intense band. I mean, if you take out the guitars and some of our tracks don’t have heavy guitars on, and I still feel there’s an intensity there. There’s an electronic track on the album which I think is a heavy DEPECHE MODE track, there’s a heaviness there. So, even saying metal feels weird even though that is our crowd. I’d rather not get bogged down in it but cinematic metal, if that sets us apart in a way that doesn’t lump us in with a thing, that’s good!
THE EVER LIVING have arrived at a time where the UK rock and metal scene is enjoying quite the creative renaissance. There are a lot of bands pushing the genre to new and exciting places. So what do you hope to achieve with Herephemine? Do you hope it announces THE EVER LIVING to the scene and people will take notice?
Chris: I think so yeah, that’s ultimately what we want and we want to be able to do things that we want to do if that makes sense. We would love to play some festivals next year, we’ve done one already, but we’d love to do a lot more, we’re open to invitations! We’d love to cross over a bit more, I think that’s one of those things you’d like to do. A lot of bands like to stay underground but I actually feel there’s definitely a lot of people out there who will get something out of our music. I’d like for instance offer up the album without the vocals on it, like TESSERACT have done before, as I know there’s a lot of people who don’t like screaming or might not like my style of screaming on the record. I know a lot of people who are into post rock will be into it if it’s heavy without the screaming and we’re going to try and release the electronic track as a single as well and try and push that into different markets. I think it’s about opening it up rather than staying closed, I think that is the best way of moving THE EVER LIVING forward.
Following the album’s release at the start of May, THE EVER LIVING have a album launch show coming up in London. What can people expect from this show and do you find any challenges bringing THE EVER LIVING’s sound to a live environment?
Chris: So, if they’ve seen THE EVER LIVING before they can expect something a little bit different in that when we were playing the EP we were playing 30 minute sets. We play to a backing track because that’s just what makes sense as there are so many keyboard parts! I wouldn’t be able to play ten keyboard parts at once, I don’t even think Rick Wakeman can! We would play to one backing track but it was one full backing track so there was no break inbetween songs, each song would merge into the other. I think now, we’re going to be playing for about an hour for the show, and we’re going to change the set up slightly. We might keep things more flexible because if anything happens to that backing track after the second song you’re going to be screwed! We have to think of a different way, we may have to play songs individually and have some gaps and I worry that you are going to lose the intensity there. We’re still working on that, we’re practising and putting together a set that best showcases the album. We’re trying to avoid playing EP songs but we’re still arguing amongst ourselves about that, but yeah, I think people can expect a really intense show. It always seems to be very intense, whether we’re playing to five people or 2000.
To answer your second question, no it’s not difficult at all! The keyboards are all on the backing track but I try to play parts as much as I can when I’m not screaming, there’s nothing cool about seeing a guy on the keyboards screaming at the same time, so try to keep the two separate. And obviously there’s no point hiring a live keyboard player because then none of us will be able to eat. So yeah, it’s fairly straightforward and I think for our setup, we could book somewhere slightly smaller, but it’s our album release show! We’re London based, we have a lot of friends and family coming down, so we need the space. Because it is a one off we thought we’d go somewhere bigger than maybe something we should be playing at this point in our career but we need the sound system and we need the space to make do with all our gear really. We can’t really fit in a pub and the speakers can’t handle it, we’re not one of those kind of bands so it’s going to be tough. I don’t think we’re going to be a touring band, I think we just need to hit places efficiently and do things when they are right and hopefully people will follow us.
And I guess by having it like that, it makes the live experience more special?
Chris: I think so, I don’t want to be one of those bands who are on every festival and are popping up everywhere. I definitely go and see bands when they do that, I’d love to get to the point where you can announce a short notice gig in a small venue and occasionally play a big show somewhere!
Well thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us Chris, we wish you the very best of luck with the record’s release.
Chris: Cool, thank you!
Herephemine is set for release on May 4th via Chromism Records. THE EVER LIVING are featured in this month’s issue of Distorted Sound. Purchase a copy here.
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