Phillip Hong
October 17, 2010 |
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PHIL: How is the audience reaction to Evangenitals' eclectic form of music?
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JULI: Part of the meaning behind the name "Evangenitals" has to do with
the embracing of all things between heaven and earth, from the sublime to the
profane, and having mad love for all of it. If you're representing the whole
gamut of human experience in your music, then that music is sure to be pretty
dang eclectic.
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People generally love us. Seriously. LOVE us. Attending an Evangenitals show is
a real journey, and most often we hear folks say that what they got was WAY
more than they had expected/anticipated. We're not tied to any particular genre,
and we take our audiences to some pretty crazy places. People who say they HATE
country music love OUR brand of country music.
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LISA: And we've played for almost every imaginable audience in all kinds
of situations: funerals, weddings, churches, old folks homes, children's parties,
galleries, on top of The 1 Second Film bus all over the country, in the streets
of Edinburgh, at skate parks with punk rock bands and in theaters with
singer/songwriters. We span so many genres and so many modes; we can play just
about anywhere. And everywhere we've ever played, people respond in an immensely
positive way.
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JULI: It's kinda bizarre, statistically speaking. We get a LOT of love.
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PHIL: Reading through your biography, I read that you are quite involved in
theatre. Do experiences on the stage add to the distinct identity of the band?
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JULI: Definitely. My theatrical background as an actor, playwright and
director, mixed with Lisa's background in Opera and Gospel choirs, make for a
seriously dramatic combination. It also means that we're on time for everything,
and still baffled by this rock-n-roll "everything runs late" madness.
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LISA: In the theater and opera, if the show starts at 8, it starts at 8, and the
doors are locked and you can't get in once the show has started. It took us a
while to get used to the musicians schedule. Bookers and venues loved us,
though, because we were always early and willing to help.
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JULI: In many ways, I think we're just scratching the surface of the true
potential for theatricality in this band. There are some amazing collaborations
in the works with theater artists and new compositions for the stage, so I
think that's an aspect of the band that will definitely see growth in the coming
year. When we were at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival we got to hang out with
Cynthia Hopkins and her band Gloria Deluxe who did the Accidental Nostalgia
trilogy of plays, directed by DJ Mendel (who also directed our video for So Sweet).
The work that she does, combining her music and theater work, is very
inspirational for me.
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PHIL: What is the song that you enjoy performing the most?
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JULI: Oh man, there are so many; and we keep making so much new music,
it's crazy. Our sets have now grown to 3+ hours long sometimes, with 99% of it
being original music. We love those sets. It's a real opportunity to truly
commune with an audience.
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My top songs at the moment, though, are:
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"The Hole": which is two versions of the same song back to back. Version 1 is a
totally weird, Tom Waits-meets-Jefferson Airplane odyssey, which transitions to
Version 2: a klezmer-punk, operatic, howling, dance-fest. We call it the "Proud
Mary" was of doing it, since the first way is nice and easy (and weird) and the
second way is nice and rough.
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"The Lee Shore": It's one of our many Moby Dick songs, and it features all of the
musicians and instrumentation so amazingly I fall in love with every single
person in the band all over again every time we play it. And it's EPIC. And it
has three time signatures.
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"Hard Luck": It's just a great, Americana song, with a fun twist, and Lisa's
harmonies on this number are so down home it makes me feel like I'm gonna
explode into light.
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LISA: "The Hole" is definitely really, really fun, and I get to let
loose musically on that one. I always have to make sure I have dinner before
shows or that song can make me feel like I'm going to either rocket into space
or topple over into the audience, I have literally seen stars.
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The new tunes "Don't Wake From Dreaming" and "Never Too Late" have joined the
classic "Quee Queg" as the songs that make me get misty eyed sometimes. I LOVE
them both and they are still maturing. We should be recording them soon.
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The interview continues
here...
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Phillip Hong is a presenter on AMPM, combining some great indie music with
quotes and interviews. |
