RavenEye - Music, Why Not!

2017-08-31_0938

MWN: So let’s kick things off with this tour you guys just got done with in the states that started back in July. What is the most memorable moment of the tour?

RavenEye: The last show (Houston) was definitely the most memorable moment for us. I think it was that “we made it feeling”. We went hard as performers for these headline shows, for the support slots we always give it our everything from start to finish. We wanted that same energy through the whole of our own full set and we went hard! Physically it broke us in a way, my back still needs an X-Ray from the looks of things too haha. Our songs are the foundation, the live show is where we bring everything and want to make everyones night unforgettable, us included. As a band we just took things to a whole new level.

MWN: Your last released album Nova is amazing. It is very well crafted from the killer vocals to the arrangement of the instruments. During the recording process did you guys discover anything new about your sound as a band?

RavenEye: We went into the studio with pretty thorough demos of how we wanted the songs to sound, so we were driven to recreate that and surpass it. But the sound and vision was clear from the start of the process, so I think we didn’t discover anything new, just re-enforced the brutality.

MWN: The song that really resonated with me from this album is “Oh My Love.” Is there any songs that resonate with you guys more than others?

RavenEye: Wanna Feel You is one of those songs that go somewhere else in the live show! I love the tight arrangements of “Hate”, “Inside”, but it’s fun when we can go to another level with the freedom of songs like “Oh My Love”, and “Wanna Feel You”, it’s where things take off for us as a band. We always wanted that unpredictable element to our shows, when there’s open sections, we can take it there. Although one that really crushed me when we finally heard it back was “Eternity”, that song came together even better than I imagined and had us all in tears when we finally got through that song.

MWN: Can you guys walk me through your creative process- from the writing process to recording the tracks?

RavenEye: I have a little sound card and record everything straight to Studio One and start creating the biggest sounding demo I can! I program drums into it and yell into my Macs Microphone (I like tracking vocals on it for fun as I feel less inclined to spend ages getting a decent vocal sound and a lot of my lyrics are gyberish to start with… it’s weird but it’s just what works for me). So I’ll put together some kind of arrangement and then we sit together and break the song down, listen to the vibe (and my gyberish) and see where the song is wanting to take us creatively. That’s how the lyrics come together, what are the sounds inspiring inside us. With NOVA we recorded everything separately; we had a massive live room and we wanted EVERY instrument to have full play in it so we could make this huge open sound. It was beyond satisfying having 3 marshall stacks in every corner of the room blasting out the loudest noise.

MWN: How do you guys decided what songs make the album?

RavenEye: It was about the journey of the record for us. We had a lot of songs written that we loved, but we broke it down to “what makes this sound like an album”. I feel like on a lot of current records it sounds like a string of songs, centered around 3 main tracks and it kills the vibe for me. It takes me out of the album and makes me feel the band is making more effort to please everyone with 3 songs and then fill the rest with some similar sounding tunes. “Songs For The Deaf” is exactly what it says, “A Saga”, I love that. You sit in your car, start the record and get lost in it the whole way through, THAT is what we wanted when we made this record. Something that really makes sense when you play it from start to finish.

MWN: So you guys are from Milton Keynes, U.K how is the music scene like there?

RavenEye: There’s a lot of great bands out of Milton Keynes that are slaying it at the moment. A heavy band called Hacktivist are filling rooms all round the UK and they’re MK boys! There’s some great open mic nights where loads of talented individuals are playing too, it’s a pretty great scene to be around. Although we’re not home much at the moment to really enjoy it!

MWN: Are there any bands you guys are currently really into that you can suggest to our readers?

RavenEye: Band of Skulls! They’re an awesome UK trio! The guitarist and bass player (male & female) sing in unison a lot and it creates this insane sound! They toured heavily with the Black Keys all over the world too. There’s a band we’ve toured with in the UK called ‘Reigning Days’ who are solid dudes and have an awesome indy rock sound! It was our first major headline tour and they came out with us and killed it! For the last show they raided our stage with big glitter cannons and wrecked the stage. Not sure how happy the venue was with it, but we loved it.

MWN: Let’s do a couple quick fire round questions. Starting off with a random one. If you guys had to play an instrument in a symphony what instrument would you choose?

RavenEye: The gong! Clearly there is no better job in a symphony orchestra! I want the big hits.

MWN: Do you remember your first recollection of live music?

RavenEye: Yeah, it was a Wheatus concert in my old home town Norwic! Back in the “Teenage Dirtbag” days. I even wore the fisherman hat he had in the video… he didn’t wear it. But it was a good show!

MWN: First record you ever bought?

RavenEye: It was a greatest hits album of Jimi Hendrix and still a record that I listen to now. I heard “All Along The Watchtower” on some Audi advert, became obsessed with it and realized that I wanted to make music for a living if that’s how music can make people feel.

MWN: Favorite love song?

RavenEye: “My Beloved One” by Ben Harper. It’s such a beautiful arrangement and there’s something beautiful about the way he sings it.

MWN: Once again thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. One last thing to wrap things up. Is there anything you guys would like to say to the people who are going to be reading this interview?

RavenEye: Thank you so much! We always say to people to join us on our social media, we run everything ourselves on there and it’s great to keep in touch with everyone! If you look up RavenEye on any of them, we’re there and we’re posting!

****