6 Sense

01/16/2001 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dave DiMartino

The members of Eve 6 were in high school when they first got together, and they were still in their teens when their self-titled debut album was released. All that youthful exuberance must have played a part in shaping the band's energetic and catchy sound: part '70s rock, part '90s pop.

Max Collins and Jon Siebels of Eve 6 met in the ninth grade--in P.E. class, of all places--and out of sheer boredom (and, presumably, instead of playing volleyball), they'd sit around fantasizing about being in a band. That dream came true surprisingly quickly, when Collins took up bass, Siebels strapped on a guitar, and the pair added Tony Fagenson on drums.

Armed with an impressive catalog of hooky rock-pop songs, the trio won a record contract and recorded its debut a mere year after high school graduation. No shabby dream come true, this one--the record went platinum, and the boys are now on their second hit release, Horrorscope. Max, Jon, and Tony recently talked to LAUNCH Executive Editor Dave DiMartino about what else they've got up their sleeve. Video excerpts of their conversation can be viewed in Issue 44 of LAUNCH CD-ROM. The same disc also includes an exclusive live performance of "Promise."

LAUNCH:
What is the difference between this record and your last record?

MAX:
The new record's better. I think we improved as players in such a huge way from touring. And I've matured as a writer. And I think the 14 months that we spent on the road, having to play every night, definitely made the recording process easier. For me, the vocals were just an easier task. It was more of a dilemma on the last record; this time it came across real easy.

TONY:
To me, I think one of our strengths is that we didn't try to make it too different. We didn't try to reinvent the wheel with this record. I just think we took the good elements of the last record--strong lyrics, good grooves, and good pop melodies--and just made them better. We just learned so much from being on the road for two years, and with two years of growing up, we didn't really try to go in any one particular direction. We just took what we know and did it a lot better. So that's what I would say was the difference.

JON:
I'd say the new record is definitely a lot thicker. We kind of experimented with padding and layering it with different things--keyboards here and there, probably more guitar parts. So I think that's the biggest difference. It's still sort of our basic songs, but we kind of made it a little bigger and more lush-sounding.

LAUNCH Did you have any expectations when you went back into the studio a second time?

MAX:
We definitely felt the pressure. The second-record jinx is such a prevalent thing. But I think we countered that with the desire to do the best we could. Obviously we were going to try the best we could, but we really focused. The pressure was there, but I think it became an incentive, and made us do the best possible work.

TONY:
I think at first, after coming off the road and gathering our wits about us, we did feel pressure to have a record that does something. We need to give them something or we're not going to have a career. After being on the road for two years, we were going through transitional periods in our lives, so we were kind of freaked out. But after the first couple of weeks of just writing, hanging out, and rehearsing, all those fears sort of went away. We were like, "You know what, we're going to make the best record that we can make, whether it's our 10th or our first. It doesn't matter." So that kind of lead us through, and we started not to think about it, and focused on the music, and at the end of the day we were like, "OK, we did it, we're happy with this." So, the pressure started melting away when we started having fun with it and creating music, 'cause that's what we like to do.

JON:
We got back in the studio really quick after we got off the road. So, when we first started out, we weren't getting the pressures from the label or management. Well, I don't want to say [we were] ahead of schedule, but we weren't lagging, so they weren't putting the pressure on us. We definitely put it on ourselves, but in a good way. We never have felt like it wasn't going to work or it wasn't going to happen for us.

LAUNCH:
Are you satisfied with the way the picture has been painted of the band?

MAX:
I don't think that people have gotten us yet. I think the best way to understand our band and what we're about is to see us live. You can't get a sense of something through marketing and what's written about a band in a record review. But I think this record is going to establish our identity more. I think we were kind of portrayed as an angst-y...you know, the whole "teen" thing was kind of pushed on the last record, and we're not that, we're just a fun rock band. We're more lighthearted than that.

TONY:
Well, not really with the first album, 'cause we didn't really know what we were, or what we wanted, and how we wanted to be perceived. It was such a new thing to us that we were just going with the ride. Now that we've learned, we've taken more control, and we're showing people the real us now, even more so now. I think that we're a band with punk-rock roots, and we want that to come across more. It might not have come across in the first record, and we're just being a lot more natural about things. We're not being as precious about things. I guess experience has taught us about these things. So, we're not as closed-minded, we're more open-minded and happier now.

JON:
I think the perception of us on the first record was good. I think most people were like, "Oh, that would be so cool if they were in high school." But we did get the guys that thought we were the Silverchair "kid" band--which we weren't. Our peers, the other bands we were playing with, were two or three years older than us. So in our minds, it really wasn't that big of a deal. And for the most part, I think it was just people thinking that it would be awesome to be in high school and have a record deal, but we did get the "young band" thing, which we're really hoping to step away from on this record.

LAUNCH:
Tell me about your Internet fanbase.

TONY:
Yeah, it's awesome, and we've had a pretty good Internet presence since the beginning. And that is a really cool thing, 'cause we're into that and savvy with that sort of thing. To know that our fans are active enough to create them--I mean, some of these sites are awesome. We're actually using one of the guys to run our fan site, 'cause it's so extensive and wonderful. It's like, if people are putting so much time into us, then maybe that means that we're saying something to them, and that just drives us even further.

JON:
It's really cool. There's all of these message boards where you can post different notes about the band, or if you've gone to a concert, or if someone else hears something about the band, they can put it up there. And beyond that, we have all these kids that put up their own sites, and they all know each other, if not in person, at least over the Internet. So, there is a whole big community. And we're hoping to really tap into that on this record, because more of the Internet is taking over. In fact, the webmaster for our official site is actually a fan whose site we really like, and it outweighed any other site that we ever had, so he's going to be our webmaster.

MAX:
I'm so bad when it comes to the Internet and technology in general. I don't know how to turn a computer on--my girlfriend's all about it. I don't know, but I think it's awesome. It's trippy to see fans that have made their own sites, and I love it. It reminds you sometimes that you have people out there that appreciate you.

LAUNCH:
I understand the band has participated in the creation of video games. What is your involvement in that?

MAX:
We've been video game junkies since we've been home. When you're not touring and you're not doing a record, you're not doing much, and so we got into the new Sega Dreamcast--big time. So, we thought it would be cool if we brought that kind of animation to the cover art and the packaging. We got this elaborate scene depicted, where we are superheroes or alter-egos, pillaging. It's pretty cool. I forgot the guy's name...I think he did Tomb Raider and some pretty big games.

TONY:
Well, the degree of participation on video games is very deep. We addicts, it's something we can't escape. And it was something we didn't show enough of on the first record--the fact that we're fun, that we're not super-serious guys, that all of our videos are about getting rained on. We're not like that. We have our good days and our bad days, just like everybody else. So this was just our way of showing a lighter side to us. And we love comic book art. So we really wanted the record to have that whole vibe to it.

LAUNCH:
Talk to me about the lyrics on the album. Did you deliberately use the F-word a lot?

MAX:
I actually wrote all of the lyrics to "Promise," with the exception of the chorus, before the first record ever came out. So that was an old idea. And the chorus was just repeating, "Promise not to try, promise not to let you down." Listening to that in the studio, it was great, you know--punch, punch, punch--but the chorus is kind of lacking. It needed something else. And so, that's where the "f--k" came in. I think it says it like it is, the best way possible. And radio seems to be embracing it. We've got a cool little edit that we do. We knew it was going to be the first single. Like I said, it was an older song, we had been playing it live for a while on the road, and we had known that even before we went in to do the record that was going to be the first single.

TONY:
Actually, the lyrics didn't have "f--k" in it before, we actually added that in, although not consciously. Max was writing, writing, writing, and that just said it better than any other word could. And the last thing we would think about is whether or not we should take this cuss word out 'cause we're worried that radio is not going to play it. I mean, we want to say what we want to say, radio or not. If we're being honest, that will see us through. So it wasn't really a concern. I mean, we got pressure from the label, but we didn't even concern ourselves with it.

JON:
Seeing that I don't write the lyrics, I don't have any input on that. It's just more my opinion on how it's going to do commercially. And it's a really hard thing when Max comes up with that perfect line, 'cause he'll sit there and agonize over a line, and when he comes up with a line and it works, there's really nothing we can do about it. And besides, in this day and age, it's really not such a big deal anymore. I think it's going to just go by, and no one's really going to pay much attention to it. They haven't so far, so...

LAUNCH:
How come you decided to use the same producer the second time around?

TONY:
Well, first and foremost, Don Gilmore knows how to keep morale up. He's funny as hell, and he keeps us together. He keeps the arguments from getting too far out of whack. And he just knows how to trim the fat. And a lot of our songs were longer, and he knows how to cut that out and get right to the meat of it. He just helps us create good pop songs, basically. And you know, we thought he did a wonderful job on the first record. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. So we just used him again. And we know how we felt doing the first one, so we wanted to have that feeling back with the second one.

MAX:
I think the main factor was that we were just comfortable with him. We had been through the process with him before. He respects what we are. And also he knows how to shave the fatty parts off the songs and give us an objective point of view that we couldn't get on our own. I feel really comfortable with him.

JON:
Don is the most awesome producer. We went out on the road for 14 months, became a better band, and he was producing records nonstop. Since he produced our first record and he really grew along with us, it was a perfect match for the studio. We get along with him so well and he's the perfect mediator in the studio. We really respect him, he really respects us, and it's an awesome working environment, because everyone's happy, 'cause we all know our place, and it works out really well.

LAUNCH:
Do you remember the moment when you first realized, "Wow, this is starting to happen"?

MAX:
Probably seeing the video on MTV while I was sitting in the hotel room, or wherever I was, and thinking, "Oh my God, this is not supposed to happen." That is probably when it hit me, that this was big: "Millions of people are seeing me and hearing this song!"

TONY:
It's hard when you're on the road, 'cause you're in the whirlwind of it all, and you can't really gauge how important things really are. Everything has a certain amount of the same importance. Whether we have a flat tire on the van or our single just jumped to number one, it's all worries. But after you've reflected on it a bit, you're kind of like, "Wow, we're sort of in the business now, and we're doing what we want to do." And that's why we worked so hard with Horroscope, because we want to sustain that and we want it to grow.

JON:
When we first started touring for the first record, we were in the van and we really had nothing to do except obsess over how the band was doing, right? So we would look at the trade magazines, and we would know about chart positions, and once we started to really chart and we could see our record on Billboard, that we started to go up, that's when it really became real, 'cause we spent so much time watching bands, that we perceived as big, fill in these charts. It kind of sounds sort of like a goofy thing, but when you're out there, and you're obsessing, you have to find some outlet. We would sit there and study chart numbers.

LAUNCH:
There's probably a good side and a bad side to being signed so young--what's your take on that?

MAX:
The good part was that we didn't have to tour the country for years in a van. We are lucky. The bad part is that we probably got judged more for that, and people had preconceived notions that we were kind of this young prefab deal. That we're not, and we're going to prove that we're not with this record when we do it again. So yeah, I think those are the pros and cons of getting lucky.

TONY:
We definitely got our share of criticism--we're too young, we don't know anything...like what we're saying can't be honest or something because we haven't been able to focus it enough, or something like that. As Max always says, you become aware and start to have real emotions when you become about 11 or 12, and you start formulating them into ideas. So if you can express it at that age and people are getting it, well then, sorry to all you critics, but f--k off. That's what we do. It was a good thing, because it gave people a press angle, but we're over that, because we're getting up to the age that most bands are, and we still do what we do. Some people think that it's good, some people think it's bad, so it probably evens out.

JON:
I think that it's only good. We had been playing as a band for three years at that point. Granted, we were in high school, so we didn't do much touring, but we were playing around town. In our minds, we had been putting in our dues. We had been doing the work. And when we did get signed, it may have been a little easier because we didn't have to work the crappy jobs to survive. And besides that, the label just left us alone for two years. We were signed to the label for three years before we even put the record out. And even then, we had to prove it to them. They didn't give us very much money on the first record. We took what we had and impressed them, and ever since then, they've been very supportive.

LAUNCH:
I understand Tony's dad [producer Don Was] and stepmom are really involved with the band. Do they give you a lot of advice?

TONY:
That's basically it--advice. From the day I joined the band, like four years ago, we wanted to do it on our own. I didn't want my dad making phone calls for us. And that's never happened. Maybe a couple of times we went to him when we had tough decisions to make, maybe about hiring and firing somebody, and he's great with advice. 'Cause he's been through every pitfall, he knows how to sidestep it, and that's nice, and that's as far as it goes. 'Cause I want to learn this for myself, and learn it the hard way, as we all basically do.

MAX:
Don tends to kind of separate himself. He'll come to see a show and give pointers and stuff like that, but that's the extent of his advice. When it comes to that, and when it comes to business and how to deal with certain things, he's been a big help. Same with [Tony's stepmother] Gemma.

JON:
The band had been together before Tony joined, so once Tony joined, we never thought that Don was trying to ever push his feelings on us. And a couple times we have gone to him with business-related questions, like, "We don't know what to do, what's your advice?" But beyond that, he's just been a good fan--both of them have been just good fans--so it's cool.

LAUNCH:
When you're at home, what do you listen to?

TONY:
Right now, I'm listening to Eminem. That's my favorite record in like, the last two years. It's just so honest and forthright. There's a real heart and soul that I don't hear in a lot of music that I listen to. I love the Police, and I've taken a lot of drumming tips from Stuart Copeland. I love the new Oasis record. Anyway, I'm always on the look out for new stuff.

JON:
I've always been a big fan of pop/punk bands, and pop bands like the Pixies, and things like that. And more recently, I've grown to dislike the rock music scene. I've been listening to Eminem, listening to Dr. Dre. I mean. I figured I should start listening to guys who can do it well, so...that's where I'm at musically.

MAX:
Right now, I'm listening to the new Oasis record and ZZ Top's greatest hits, which I can't help but love. And the new Elliott Smith. I think that's what's in my CD player right now: ZZ Top, Elliott Smith, and Oasis.

LAUNCH:
Where do you see growth for the band?

MAX:
"On The Roof Again" was kind of a new thing for me, because I was telling sort of a hypothetical story about someone else that I know. And I think it was the first time that I had not written about myself and some experience or situation. And that was really cool and fun for me. It opened a lot of doors; it gives you a lot of options. Musically, that song, too, shows growth. It's got a really rhythmic flow to the lyric and it's really rhythmic in general--it's got some loops under it and stuff like that. I can see us doing that in the future.

TONY:
I don't know, you can't predict growth. Right now, I'm still right smack in the middle of this phase of our career. I'm not trying to think too much about the next phase, because if we can in the next couple of months secure things, then we'll be in for--or at least I think in for--the long ride. So, I'm focusing mostly on that right now. But it can go anywhere--that's the best thing about being in a band. And being in a band with three strong, stubborn individuals that all respect each other leaves great opportunity for growth. We're excited to see where it will go.

JON:
I think that our basis will always be songwriting. And no matter what we're listening to and whatever time period might be happening, it's still going to be about the basic song--if you can sit down and play it on an acoustic guitar and it's a good song. And that's sort of been our theory. But as far as growth, I think that we will try different instrumentation, but we still will be all about writing pop songs. I don't think that we're going to get too crazy with nine-minute super-power ballads, but other than that, I think definitely more instrumentation. We're real into the sound and the way the record sounds and making it unique. That's how we would grow.