Annie Eve

When did you first get into making music?

My brother is 7 years older than me, my earliest memories of music are when he started playing guitar. It was very exciting. I roped him into jamming with me and teaching me how to play, and ever since then I’ve been very much focussed on it.

Where there any other early influences that had an impact on you in the same way?

I can’t think of anything else specifically but growing up I always got pissed off - even as a kid in primary school - if I heard a good song because it would be like “damn it, why didn’t I write that song?” Like that’s another one gone. I remember being around 8/10 years old and I just thinking there’s no point in me being a songwriter now because all the good songs have been written.

I suppose it’s kind of like being really happy with a group of friends and deciding you don’t need anymore, but then you meet someone else and you’re like ahh shit man, you’re cool too!

What made you really go for it do you think?

I must have been maybe 14 or 15 when I realised it was what I really wanted. Before that I didn’t really know what was involved in being a musician you know, I only an abstract idea of what that meant in my head. As I got older I started to learn more and more from the world around me, and began to get a bigger picture. As soon as it dawned on my what was actually, in real life involved – the touring, the writing the recording – I was like shit man, that is the only thing I want to do.

The idea in my head and the reality were quite separate of course but the process of creating music was always a really organic thing for me. I never felt any pressure to express myself in a certain way, it was just something I did. I was drawn to it for a certain reason. The process of getting a band together was probably the hardest thing to do. It’s tough to find people who have the same work ethic as you, who really get you and you get them, and you grow with each other and build that mutual respect.

How did you get your band together?

Just as I was finishing university I began to form the concept of what I wanted sound wise. I was watching Thelma and Louise this one time, and the soundtrack to it just struck me. Like the slide guitar mixed with the landscapes is awesome. Then it clicked, I knew a guy called Jack [Pattison] - who was in my class at Goldsmiths - who could play guitar so we jammed with him on slide and me on acoustic and it worked. I met Jess [Sawes-Warren] through an ex and we were really good friends for ages and I knew she played accordion so we all jammed and it worked. Then Oli [Dacombe, on drums] and Will [Hughes, on bass] have only been in the band since March-ish. They’re super cool guys and super cool musicians.

How did the Feversome EP come together?

Well “Feversome”, the song, is my oldest song. I wrote it on piano and recorded as I went. I put it on Soundcloud like 4 years ago and never really intended to do anything with it. It’s always been a special song to me but I don’t really play piano and I don’t really want to be known as someone who does, but while I was on tour with Jack last year we worked in out. It doesn’t really work live though, it’s such a slow and atmospheric song. If every is having a great show and buzzing they don’t want to be brought down that hard you know? It’s really mellow. I called the EP Feversome because it’s a state of mind, it’s not just another word.

“Shuffle” and “Southern” were written in the past two years – they both have stories and were written about a specific time in my life but I prefer others to figure out what they might mean. I’m mostly writing to whatever images are in my head. Sometimes it’s easier than others to decipher what I say but they all come from a personal place because you know, it comes from the subconscious part of my brain so it has to be from my life.

I prefer to have people interpret what my lyrics are about. It’s interesting to read different theories about other bands but it does sort of confuse me as to why people always ask what a song is about. I suppose it’s like a go-to question but yeah, I personally think it’s more interesting if people don’t know. Also I can’t say any better what it’s about than what I’ve already sung you know.

What musicians do you admire? Who did you listen to growing up?

I think probably early on it was very simple folky stuff like Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. Then when I was like 16 I got really into more atmospheric bands like Fleet Foxes and there was a time when MySpace was really big and you could just go from recommended band to recommended band, and I’d go from band page to band page and it was like my awakening! It felt like I hadn’t heard anything before that. It was so of it’s time though but it put me in touch with the world. The closest thing I got to getting out of fucking Barnet was to go across the road to some other small town but this was like a whole other world. I heard Rilo Kiley through MySpace. Bon Iver obviously blew my mind too and more recently Phosphorescent.

Youtube obviously blew my mind too. A lot of the stuff I learnt on guitar was through Youtube: copying and jamming along to things like Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright.” Particularly the picking version of that I remember watching and being like ‘what, just what, how is that possible?’ so I just copied that, I did it until I could do it. The idea was always to mix that kind of atmospheric indecipherable sound with the very folky, very simple, very lyrically inclined sound.

God, I feel so typical! Bob Dylan. Jeff Buckley. They’re amazing - blah blah blah, but they are. They are amazing. They’re known for a reason. They’re figure heads of a generation. They’re staples. You’ve got to listen to them.

So your album Sunday 91 is due out on 11 August [via Mouth To Mouth Records / Sony Red Music Solutions], how would you describe it sonically?

Yep it’s all done, artwork and all. Heavy melancholy. Is melancholia a thing? Heavy melancholia. It’s super melancholy and much heavier than the other stuff. We’re working just towards that sort of blurry sound whilst trying not to lose the story and the lyric/poetry side of it as well - I think that’s really important.

How did it all come together?

Recording was finished in March just before the tour so most of the band are on it except I played the bass parts because Will wasn’t in the band yet. but it took a while to kind of complete it, and I had to get the artwork done. I tend to write the material and then take it to the band because I’ll have an idea of what I want. I respect their opinion a lot of course and at the end of the day it’s their instruments being played so if we’re jamming a new song and they come up with something then awesome but if I have something I want them to play then they’re cool with that too. It’s more a mix of the two of those things. We’re called Annie Eve but there is some collaboration.

Whats the most important thing to you as an artist?

I guess connecting. Going to a gig and there being an atmosphere because of the crowd – whether there is a big crowd or just one person whatever – if you’re having a two way conversation that for me, and touring, are the important things.

Sunday 91 is due out on 11 August via Mouth To Mouth Records / Sony Red Music Solutions.