Conducted on Wednesday December 9th 2009
http://www.myspace.com/evolovetheband

by Alex Young
Photos courtesy of

ALEX: What was the initial spark of inspiration that motivated the band to change from Waiting 4 Wyatt to Evolove?

LUCY: Well, we have all been together about three, three and a half years. When we started out we were an ultra poppy band, over the years our tastes varied. So we started going towards more of a rock edge and by the end of a few years we no longer sounded like we started out as. So we just kind of felt that when people were thinking of our old band. That’s what came into their head and we just wanted to completely change their perception of who we were because we felt we have changed so much. So we just started secretly looking for a new name and once we came up with it we made the change.

ALEX: How has the band’s sound shifted since you became Evolove? Was the transformation more of you guys tapping into a new set of influences? Or was it more just like peeling of f certain layers of your musical identity to cut to the core of who you guys really were as musicians and as song writers?

LUCY: Well I think all of us really like rock music and obviously we enjoy pop as well, it’s fun. Maybe as our song-writing kind of matured we wanted to go more towards our mature taste we have. Alternative rock is something all of us actually agree on, our tastes range from ultra pop to metal so somewhere in the middle is rock. It just seemed to inspire us as we started writing songs in a new vein; we were “wow”, really loving it. People were responding very well to it so we kept going with it. It wasn’t that we were consciously, “Today we are a pop band and tomorrow we a rock band”. It just kind of naturally evolved that way because when we started the band it was myself, Billy, who is the bass player and my sister, who was in the band Waiting 4 Wyatt. She left to do her thing and we had the other two guys that came into the band and the four of us just kind of grew together and it just kind of happened. It just kind of happened naturally and it made sense to change the name.

ALEX: It’s got to be a lot more fun for you guys as a live experience. I’m sure as fun as pop music is, being in a rock band with a much more condensed sound and more energy in the song-writing, that’s got to transfer differently in a live atmosphere for what you guys do.

LUCY: Yeah, definitely. What I personally like about it is I think there is a lot of pop out there that have female singers and very few rock bands. I thought it was kind of cool to represent that aspect of female front-people in rock and roll, cause who is there right now?

ALEX: Not too many.

LUCY: Exactly, there’s Paramore & Silees and a bunch of coming uppers.

ALEX: The only real examples that come to mind leans more toward heavy metal and no so much rock and roll. There is the band Evanescence but they have not put out an album in a little while. Stuff I think of is like Arch Enemy and Night Wish, stuff like that, it’s more like heavy metal.

LUCY: The sheer numbers are just so low.

ALEX: It’s a real easy way to separate yourselves from the pack and make it a more distinct and recognizable sound. Instead of having to compete with all the Christina Aguilera’s of the world.

LUCY: I definitely wouldn’t want to compete with her she is an amazing singer.

ALEX: Is there a concept behind 2012: Countdown to the End or did you think it was a cool title?

LUCY: The song came first among everything else. The song “2012”, it all centered around that. That came out of a conversation that the band had with a friend of ours at the studio and before I had this conversation with him I had no clue about 2012. I had no clue about the conspiracy behind it and the conversation I had with him. I just found he was so into it and it just really intrigued me; so I then went home and started googling it and I just thought it was so interesting that there was this whole culture going on that I had no clue about. At that moment we just happen to be writing a song that was just dark and heavy, and all of a sudden I was, “You know what, this song is about 2012”. The song doesn’t sound like its tongue and cheek, but it is a little bit because it’s not really not my belief, it’s just kind of like I’m picking up on that movement. There is a huge group of people who really, really believe that something intensely, who knows what is going to happen in 2012.

ALEX: Yeah for sure.

LUCY: So it started off with 2012 and then the rest of the EP was coming together. Then it was time to come up with a title so we went with 2012 because right now it’s very topical. We thought if there was ever a time to come out with something about 2012, this was the moment.

ALEX: Just to keep part and parcel with the spirit of the times. Like you said it’s not so much a mission statement of the end of the world and it’s more just like capturing the vibe of the whole counter culture that is speculating about this supposedly monumental event in the history of the world. There are some bands who come up with these really epic titles and you think it’s like this huge concept album and they are like, “No we just thought it sounded really cool”. Like Slayer and stuff like that.

LUCY: (Laughs)

ALEX: After appearing on the soundtrack for shows like The Hills, Parental Control and Made, would you ever consider writing music specifically for a sound track or for a film rather than just letting them sample songs that you already recorded?

LUCY: Oh definitely. That’s a goal of ours; we’ve had the opportunity to talk to a few people about doing that. It’s a big goal for 2010 to actually try to do some sound track work like that, and it’s also the only way you can ever win a Grammy you know?

ALEX: Oh that’s true.

LUCY: (Laughs)…That’s another goal. You have to write a song specifically for the film in order to be eligible for that.

ALEX: Oh Yeah to win an Oscar for sure. That ties into where I was going to go next. With the video for “Toyshop Girl”, it had that very cinematic quality to where it wasn’t so much like, “Oh hey, this is just some band playing in a club or whatever”. It actually had a progressive story line to it, it actually moved from scene to scene rather than, “Here comes the chorus”, and all that kind of stuff. Some bands just rely on that cliché of, “Oh yes this is us playing at some venue”, or whatever. I was wondering to move towards the lyrical content. Did you base “Toyshop Girl” on someone you knew? Or from personal experience and then kind of transcribed that story within that song into that cinematic experience?

LUCY: Well, you watched the video correct?

ALEX: Yes.

LUCY: Obviously. Well the toy shop in which it was filmed I worked there for a short time and “Toyshop Girl “ is based off of someone I worked with and obviously I took some literary…

ALEX: Pro’s?

LUCY: Yeah, I took a few things from it; it’s based on a true story. It’s just something I observed while I was working; sometimes you’re just inspired by something or someone and out of all my songs, that one is very story-telling. That’s not always my style but that one happened to come out very much like a story. When we met up with the producer of the music video he basically took the song, listened to it and he asked me for the lyrics. He sat there & studied the lyrics and he came to us with his idea of the music video. I said I already have a location that my boss agreed to let me use the toy shop. Neither one of us, myself or the “toy shop girl”, works there anymore. I was like “Hey this place inspired the song can we please use it”? And he was really, really, really cool about letting us use it on the off days.

ALEX: That’s awesome.

LUCY: I think I have to give it up for our video producer; his name is Michael Snow, because he really created what you are feeling. That was completely him. He really, really did a good job.

ALEX: You are just trying to give him credit for bringing that cinematic quality within a song to an actual silver screen per say.

LUCY: Yeah to bring it to the visual eye, I’m glad the song came out with what you say is cinematic. I’m glad it came across that way and it obviously gave him that vibe too cause that story nine he came up with. The girl that was in that music video, we ended up having all those tattoos applied to her that day

ALEX: Oh, really?

LUCY: Yeah we had a team of artists that came in to help us apply many, many a tattoos.

ALEX: Cause they look really realistic. I was just going to say that I noticed the lyrics are very observant and it’s not so much about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes but more like…

LUCY: Observation?

ALEX: Watching someone else’s life as they live it.

LUCY: It’s a story of….You know a lot of people have their own problems and who are internally distressed and it seemed to me to be a really strange dichotomy, to have such a sad type of person working in a toy shop. You know what I’m saying? You have two extremes right there.



ALEX: Yeah, absolutely. As far as Evolove live experience goes, what are some aspects of the record you hope to bring to life or give the fans when they come to check you out as a live experience that they necessarily just can’t get by just listening to the CD or watching a music video?

LUCY: Well, obviously live energy is very different; you can only get so much off of watching something on a flat screen or listening. We put a lot of ourselves into our performance and hopefully people are getting us. We are giving our all and giving our energy and really trying to express our music and feel the feelings. Music is a very emotional experience for a lot of people so we just try to be right there with them and I try to “break the wall”, whatever that means. Some bands, you see them play and they are very much far away from you, they are very in their moment and it’s about their experience on that stage and not so much the audience. I personally as a front-person try to have a lot of connections; I look at my audience and try to make sure we are all there together.

ALEX: Absolutely. I notice some bands too they almost use the stage like a pedestal for themselves and it’s almost like an ego boost. Where it’s like to isolate the band rather then put everyone on the same page.

LUCY: We try not to do that. (Laughs)

ALEX: Yeah thank you for taking some time to chill out because I know your very busy being on tour and stuff. Have a good one, I’ll talk to you later.

LUCY: Bye.