MZ: Efcharisto!

For all the people out there not knowing about us, I will give you a short history of EverEve:

My name is MZ and I am the singer of the band. I also play the piano and synthesizer. The other members are .havoc (guitar), OQ (bass) and Martin C. (drums & percussion). SK (guitar) unfortunately is no longer part of the band as he has tons of other activities and work to do, but of course we are still friends.

There are some more people taking part in the E-team too, supporting us and our vision. For example Synthesizer-Guru Joerg Huettner, who in the meantime also established himself in the film-industry by working on major motion picture soundtracks (eg. Catwoman, The Ring 2, Batman begins...).

There have been some major changes in the lineup since we started becoming a real band in 1996. We started with the intention of making dark, emotional and intense music and signed our first record contract in 1996 with Nuclear Blast Records. We've been touring Europe several times, also the U.S., played more than 500 single shows and festivals around the globe, released a home video, numerous sampler contributions and made our first appearances on national TV with the release of .enetics.

And now we are back with the new album, Tried & Failed...

Actually it is our sixth album. Before, there have been: Seasons (1997, Nuclear Blast Records), Stormbirds (1998, Nuclear Blast Records), Regret (1999, Nuclear Blast Records), E-Mania (2001, Massacre Records), .enetics (2003, Massacre Records)... and now Tried & Failed (2005, Massacre Records).

After the release of .enetics we had some nice festivals (e.g. Mera Luna, Wave Gothik Meeting, Stonerock, Sundown, etc) and single headliner shows all over Europe. We also had some really cool support shows where we played together with some of my favorite bands like Type O Negative or Placebo which was really nice. We also had our first trip to Russia where we had some sold-out headliner shows... Really cool experience too... Now we want to visit your wonderful country as well as we have not been there before. But unfortunately there have not been any serious offers from Greek promoters so far. But we will wait. One day...

You have chosen a quite pessimistic title for the new album. Why is that? Do you think it represents the music of the album?

MZ: Every time we write new songs, we try to capture our latent-melancholic, to the core cynical and sarcastic, awareness of life and pack it into some hard, intense music. Life has many colours and though being rather dark-grayish and focusing on the shady side of the sunny side, most of the time EverEve is not depressive. We try to catch the images of life and create a musical vision.

Tried & Failed is another part of this vision. The title might sound pessimistic or depressive but in fact it is not. The words of the songs deal with the bittersweet aftertaste of failure. Human beings are always driven by an also unfulfilled urge for sexual, emotional and spiritual comfort, contentment and domination. Although often resulting from failing the scheme of life is new strength. Self-pity turns into comforting woefulness... and ultimately into defiant energy. So once again... clouds turn to sun... but we wanted to catch the moment right before this transformation... as the way you feel being torn between despair and new hope is one of the most intense emotional states of a human being... so Tried & Failed is an expression for an emotional state... but we could have titled the album Try & Fail & Rise again as well. Every downfall is a new beginning. This is a fact that is deeply connected with EverEve and our way of thinking...

MZ: The songwriting took us very long this time, about 9 months. Afterwards there were another few months for the pre-production. And we had some break as we took part in a cool The Cure Tribute Album (Our Voices) which took us some weeks for writing and recording a special Eve-version of Cold. Cool stuff... check it out!

We worked very hard for Tried & Failed, and especially all the orchestral arrangements took a lot of time and work. The real recording and production of the album took us another 3 months. So altogether the process took us over one year of constant working, arranging, re-arranging, etc. Once again we worked together with our usual producer Gerhard Magin (Theatre Of Tragedy, Crematory, Totenmond, etc) at his new studio in Southern Germany. Gerhard also produced our last three albums so we knew each other quite well. Working with him has been cool as always because he is a real EverEve-fan and he has a strong relationship with EverEve and our music. Actually EverEve is a band who consists of 4 producers (ourselves...) so the influence of a producer is not that big compared to other bands. But Gerhard's ideas and suggestions concerning the arrangements etc. have been really helpful. So, we have been well prepared before entering the studio but Gerhard added some cool creative input too, which helped making the songs even stronger...

MZ: We never cared about a safe release. Developing ourselves, our music and our vision has always been the main point in EverEve's history. And this is something which is not always easy for the listeners, the fans and journalists.

Every new album is like a journey. You pack your stuff (i.e. the new musical ideas) and then you start walking... so every EverEve album is some kind of natural development as we do not make any plans or strategies how an album should sound. Of course you are influenced by the experiences you have gained during former journeys but the most interesting and exciting trips are those taking you to new shores... and with Tried & Failed this has been the case too. It turned out to be an epic, orchestral album, musically and emotionally influenced by impressions gathered on our first concert journey to Russia in the spring of 2004 I mentioned above. This has been a very intense experience so it gave us a lot, speaking about mentality, emotion and contact with other cultures and people. As we went to Russia we did not have the slightest idea what it will be like, how popular we are etc... and it has been overwhelming, sold out concerts and passionate reactions. And the basic way of life in Russia is closely connected with EverEve. It is a feeling of melancholy but not depression, so we felt like coming home!

And we are sure that Tried & Failed has become a very intense album too. An album that takes a lot of emotional and mental energy and time for the listeners. But if you take part in the journey and open your heart to the songs, you will be rewarded by deep emotions.

I think the new album is less aggressive than .enetics but it has become a really intense and emotional album. Its basic feeling is deep, desperate sometimes, suffering yet at the same time smooth, warm and infatuated. It is like a soundtrack made for full moon nights.

MZ: Actually we got the chance to produce our first official and professional video clip for this album which will be finished within the next two weeks and served to all TV stations across Europe. So, we had to think about singles and we decided to do a video clip for You're mine. We are looking forward to the final video clip and to the reactions. We work together with a small but cool German company who also worked together with acts like Destruction or Rage. The director, Marco Schirmer, is very cool and the recording of the video has been real fun. Now we cannot wait for the final result.

The music scene sucks. Especially the music video scene that features more or less only the plastic music, easy-listening shit and all the stuff like that makes it difficult for real bands to do a video. But we also gained the experience that there are some countries where video clips from hard and dark bands are promoted by smaller TV stations or even by national broadcasting stations. In some countries EverEve is quite popular (especially in Eastern and Southern Europe) – and in some of these countries there is the possibility for us to be featured in some TV underground shows...

MZ: As I told you above, when we start writing new songs we do not have any strict plans or concepts – we just focus on the heart of EverEve, this means our basic feeling and attitude within the band. Then we just start making melodies, looking for some ideas, thinking about arrangements etc. Usually one member of the band prepares one special theme or idea and then we all work together on that idea. Sometimes one member even creates a basic concept for one song before meeting with the others (actually this is my favourite way of working, I prefer composing a whole song by myself) but there is always ALL the Eves taking part in creating the final arrangement and all the details for the songs. Afterwards the members of the E-team (especially Joerg) add their creative input to our basic tracks.

For EverEve it is extremely important to be open minded without any stylistic or conceptual boundaries. This might be the reason why every album is more or less different from the other ones.

Everything you see or hear influences you but I would not say that there is one main influence for EverEve, referring to one special band or artist. A new album is always a reflection of the moment. Four different people with four different personalities and musical visions work together...

Concerning the lyrics, there is less teamwork. It is me writing all the lyrics and once again I tried to create images that represent some psycho and emotional states that are related to the album's concept. An inspiration for Tried & Failed have been the poems of 18th Century poet Emily Dickinson... but also some everyday experiences and some input I got from motion pictures as well. The world is full of inspiration if you open your ears, eyes and heart...

MZ: The girl's name is Lisa Mosinski and she is a cool girl and a long-term member of the E-team. She also did some tracks for Regret and E-Mania. You will recognize her while listening to these albums. She is a professional singer but we really like her speaking voice too. So we decided to ask her to take part once again and so she did it. On some albums we also used samples taken out of movies but this time we took Lisa as a natural speaker. She recited 4 poems by the English writer Emily Dickinson. I discovered these poems by coincidence and liked them a lot. They fit perfectly with the lyrics so we included them into some songs...

The conceptual artwork is quite... tantalizing. Who's responsible for it?

Martin C.: Photo artists Markus Richter and Cane Hoyer have been fans of EverEve for a while and we've been fans of their work as well. We all had work to do in the same city in Germany last year and met up at a night club one evening. While hanging out together, talking ideas for a possible collaboration, we just stared the flow. We always had in mind to exclusively use just photographs for the album artwork instead of graphic art design. In order to do so we needed the right people to work with though. Looking at Markus' impressive background and our way of expressing our vision, we knew we were onto something really promising. How it turned out in the end was the result of this joint venture and everybody is very excited and happy about it. Last but not least, the models contributed their part very enthusiastically as well and absolutely turned all the hard work into a real pleasure!

Martin C.: Wish I could already inform you about some tour dates in Greece, but at this point it is still too early for any confirmed dates. We are looking to expand with a tour this time around more throughout Europe. In the recent past we mostly focused on playing Germany and some selected countries but we are badly itching to cover more international ground in the future! Plus we practiced more than once at our local Greek restaurant how Ouzo-proof we are(Laughs)! Some crazy Greek EverEve fans work there and believe me, they make sure to never let us leave the place sober! (Laughs)

Martin C.: Nope, not at all! We just strongly focused on the songs you hear on the album, although a lot of stuff we sorted out could be enough to make new songs out of. Overall we just put a lot of work into each song of Tried & Failed and rather used our time for that instead of having too many songs.

Martin C.: In general it is more work, but as far as communication and exposure for the band goes it has more advantages than disadvantages, no doubt! In the forum of our website we have more and more people joining the E-community. These people are very sincere amongst each other, participate on pretty interesting subjects and even got the E-street team under way. It is also a chance for consumers to make their own picture of EverEve without any so-called expert opinions out there and directly communicate with the band. Sometimes it really makes me wonder what kind of an opinion people have about us and where some things come from. In an one on one conversation with the band's members a lot of people are surprised to find out how important it is to see for yourself what all the talk is about. So for any information about EverEve whether it be touring, news or personal questions don't hesitate to pay us a visit at www.evereve.net.

Martin C.: Well, it's really not easy since it is a huge business and so many non musicians are a part of it. For a musician it's almost senseless to argue with people who don't have anything to do with the art itself. Things are somewhat fucked up just because of that. Business people like that don't give a shit about sincerely working with artists and putting in a lot of effort in order to develop them. Why spend all that money on some teenies turning into one hit wonders (if at all)? It simply must be more lucrative to finance dumbass pop star TV shows where the audience/CD consumers get to know and sympathize with the candidates. This guarantees already a certain potential in sales of all kinds and only that is what it's all about!! Sure profit has always been an issue as long as there has been music for sale in the industry. But there is profit and then there is profit. There is the real life and then there is the stock market which is as far away from reality as you can imagine. Nevertheless are our lives dictated by it.

I believe there is a point where capitalism becomes very unhealthy and human beings just cannot handle it. Everywhere you can see greed and common sense collide. I mean how much common sense do you see in how we keep on destroying the environment consciously for decades and decades although we've known for the longest time that if we keep it up it will kill us?! Ok, I admit that's a pretty dramatic comparison but looking at all these strong companies in the music industry merge into a few most powerful co-operations directing the market and setting the standards of what people are listening to, runs in the same line of that kind of dictatorship. I'd like to let people in charge know that staying competitive doesn't necessarily mean you have to sacrifice the essence of what made you successful in the first place.

Martin C.: Rather erect than react I guess! (Laughs) We definitely would have to be co-directing or do the auditioning part first ourselves, just make sure it will turn out to be a really good movie as well of course, you know?! Although I never pictured anything like that I'm sure it would be very interesting. If someone just used it like that, it would really depend on how it was used etc. and if they didn't get a permit to use our music then I'd definitely have insist on some kind of reimbursement like... hmm let's see...I think we could arrange something! (Laughs)

Martin C.: First I wanna thank everyone in Greece who ever supported and still supports EverEve!! Get yourself a copy of our new album Tried & Failed and experience for yourself what you've only heard others talk about so far. We wish you a great time with it and invite you to join the E-community online! Talk to you soon and see you on tour!! Cheers and thank you!

MZ: Same goes from me...