Madrid, Spain is not necessarily known as a hotbed for alternative rock groups, but that isn’t stopping a bunch of dreamers from there. Everlyn has painted a huge bull’s-eye on the United States and they are looking to hit that musical target with their debut album A Ticket to the Moon. Although the band has toured in Europe extensively for years, as well as putting out a self-released EP, success in the U.S. has eluded them.
The band consists of lead singer Karol Arribas, Javier Muniz on drums, Tony Seijas on bass and piano, Sergio Serradilla on guitar and synthesizer, and Mario Banos on guitar. I was lucky enough to sit down with Spain’s hottest export to the U.S. and discuss the band’s history and the history that they are about to make in 2013.
Hey guys! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to me today. I know most people probably don’t think or rock or progressive rock bands when they think of Madrid. I know chasing dreams and making them a reality is always a hard thing to do. Has this journey been tougher on you because you may be going against the grain? I am not familiar with the music scene there, so forgive me if I am wrong.
Hi Johnny! Glad to meet you. You’re totally right. Here in Spain, rock and alternative bands don’t fit the profile of mainstream media or distribution. There are a lot of good bands but they almost never (or simply never) find the attention they need to get support for selling cds or touring, because they have to do everything on their own. So, yeah, it’s a little bit tougher to reach the public ear.
How about a little back history on the band and how the five of you came together?
Mario: Karol, Sergio and I started Everlyn after our previous band dissolved 7 years ago. We decided to start fresh and write more rock-like and simple songs. That was the kind of music we had been listening to by that time. Since it was another project and two different members (Tony & Javi) joined the band, the logical thing was giving it a new name too.
The first of two questions that you probably get asked all the time: Who are your musical influences?
(Laughs) True and we always answer the same thing. Although it is a little bit cliché to say this, each member of the band listens to a lot of different kinds of music. There’s one band we all love and I think it’s the one that most influenced us. That would be the awesome guys at Jimmy Eat World.
Second “we always get asked this question”: Is there a story behind the band’s name? Where did that come from?
We were looking for a short and proper name since our previous band’s name was really long and hard to pronounce. That was the only clear thing when we started searching for names. I read “Everly” somewhere I can’t recall and we decided to put an “N” at the end. There are no other profound meanings or stories.
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You’re tackling the crazy music industry scene here in the U.S. with the release of this new album. What are your thoughts on that?
It’s what we’ve always really aimed for. Most of the bands we love are American and that’s where we think our music belongs. Besides, we lived several months in the U.S. and Canada and we loved it. So, can’t wait to tour over there!
This one is for Karol. I absolutely love your voice. I love the power in it and the authenticity to it. What kind of a child were you growing up? Did you always want to be the center of attention? When did you decide you wanted to do this as a career? Who are your favorite singers who helped shape you into the vocalist you are today?
Karol: Thank you so much, that’s really appreciated. My parents are both musicians and they own a recording studio, so I was raised surrounded by music. I remember doing my school homework while The Who or Buddy Holly was sounding all over our house. I used to sing on my family reunions, where I would play parts of songs I wrote when I was a child. The feeling of doing this as a career is nothing I planned on a given day. When Mario and Sergio asked me to sing in their band, I was tremendously happy to share my thrill for music with other people, and since then we’ve been very serious and patient figuring out and building what we want to express through our tunes, knowing our goals but not getting obsessive about them. Some current singers/writers I like are Chris Conley of Saves the Day, Matt MacDonald of The Classic Crime and Michelle Branch.
I notice a lot of artists are using the Pledgemusic campaign. How did you guys decide on that?
We met Julian of Pledgemusic UK through our manager. We sat down to talk to him because, to be honest, we didn’t know Pledgemusic a few months ago. He presented us the project and we liked the method, because it was the straightest way to sell our new record/merchandise on preorder to our fans. There’s no middleman, so we could lower the prices.
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Have you ever played live shows in the U.S.? Other than playing live, what do you look forward to doing if you do come tour the U.S.?
We did play a lot of acoustic shows back when we were living over there, but no electric shows though. We wish we could play as many shows as we can. Touring is what we love the most and we can’t wait to perform in the country of our favorite bands.
What about live shows there? Do you have any good/bad show stories that you would like to share?
Yeah, last year we had some nice live moments. The German tour was quite a tough one, but still an awesome experience since we didn’t have any money and had to live in the van for most of the time. The Spanish tour with Simple Plan was outrageous and really fun and of course, sharing stage and getting along with bands like Simple Plan, Sum41, Blink182, All American Rejects, The Get Up Kids is priceless and we’re pretty grateful for it.
In closing, do you have a message to you fans that you would like to share to end the interview?
Just let them know that we couldn’t appreciate more the support they show us. Our new record “A Ticket to the Moon” came out March 11th and we hope you all love it. Thanks Johnny and to everyone at RockRevolt Magazine as well. We hope to see you all soon!
Connect with Everlyn on the links above or below:
www.facebook.com/Everlynband
