There must be something in the soil because for three talented young things to come from the same family is most unusual. Normally it’s only one child that truly shines and the rest are left skulking in the shadows.
Not so in the Hume tribe. Jon, Peter and Danny-boy (aged 20, 18 and 16 respectively) have all proven the ‘shining child syndrome’ wrong and brought together their individual talents to form a band of brothers. Literally.
Since the ages of 13 (give or take the age difference), they have been jamming together, entering the Rockquest in 1998 and being placed in the ‘Original sound or something like that’ category then winning the entire competition the next year. For the next couple of years it was all on and they attracted a lot of music industry attention and finally went to record an album last year in Fielding.
And the story behind the recording of this album (although they are sooo over telling it) goes like this:
Jon: We just got back from touring and got home and just started writing new songs and we nearly ditched our whole live set and just started working on the songs that were new. And it just slowly grew from that. We spent like 6 months on it so it’s something we’re pretty happy with.
Right in the middle of it we got those massive floods coming down. Fielding got the big floods. And we’d just got this producer coming over from the US to come and stay at our house and record the album. It was like the power was out, the bridge out of Fielding was totally washed away.
Peter: A house down the road had actually lifted up and literally just washed away. And this was in the middle of us recording an album and it was pretty full on.
Dann: Was it actually Summer?
Jon: No it was late Summer
Dann: It was supposed to be Spring
Jon: Anyway – we ended up going to Seattle, it wasn’t really working in Fielding so we just took everything we were doing over to Seattle and finished it over there.
Dann: Which was quite exciting. Good excuse to get out of the country.
Jon: It was good supposedly one of the most miserable and rainy places in the US but compared to what Fielding was like at the time….
Dann: It was like…..Miami! Nah, it wasn’t quite Miami but it was cool. He had a studio near his house
Jon: He gave us studio time for free because he wanted to go home. Barrett Jones (worked with Nirvana, Foo Fighters) – recorded it. John Alagia – mixed it,
nzgirl: Did you feel under any pressure or expectation to perform?
Jon: I think it’s good to have some pressure and some expectations; it probably challenges us to do better. Um like, we’re insanely busy at the moment. We’ve been playing like five shows a week and just working really hard
Dann: Sometimes twice a day
Jon: But we’ve played quite a few days of two shows.
Dann: We played three shows in one day actually. The day of our album launch in Australia was an instore, play at a radio station, album launch and we were like completely gone….
nzgirl: Dreamlike states…..
Jon: But it’s good it’s like, our album is just coming out so you wanna be busy.
Jon: Everyone who was working on the record like Barrett Jones and John Alagia, we didn’t really pay them enough and I think they knew it, but I think they just liked the demos and they just liked what we were doing, which is cool….they were doing it for the love of music.
Dann: Barrett isn’t a millionaire…but Jon Alagia is a millionaire he’s got this thing on his wall that is the original signed gold record of the Beatles Sergeant Peppers Lonely Heart Clubs Band like signed by all the members of the Beatles and I said “Wow, how much is that?” and he goes – “Too much”
nzgirl: How did you get in cahoots with these guys (the producers etc.)?
Dann: We met Barrett when we were on tour with a band called Brad, the Stone Gossards band…its Pearl Jam without the ‘quay’ (the weird back of the throat sound that Eddie Vedder makes – similar to the weird vocal stylings of Creed). And Jon Alagia saw us at the SXSW Festival (2003) and I think we just kept in touch and sent them out the demos of stuff we were doing.
Jon: It is actually that easy… if you actually just make a CD and send it to someone. People are like ‘in the music industry they never listen to demos or anything’. Honestly if you’re a good band and you make a CD and you send it out to a bunch of people you’ll get a response I’m sure. That’s what we did.
Dann: You’ve just got to send them a CD and then ring them up in a week later and go – ‘Hey, have you listened to it?’ And then you ring them up again, and again and again and then they might. Persistence pays off.
nzgirl: What do you think makes a good band?
Jon: I think an original sound, when there’s good songs, but as far as playing and singing you improve over time but you’ve gotta have good songs.
nzgirl: And what makes a good song?
Jon: There’s a bit of a mystery to it which is I think is part of the attraction like, you don’t quite know…
Dann: I think everyone knows when they hear a good song…”Take my Breath Away” No one can deny that is a good song….A good melody, good lyrics….
Jon: Something that makes you feel something. Something that gets an emotional response.
Dann: “Ain’t no one like me…..”
Peter: What’s your emotional response to that Dann?
Dann: This guy’s one cool cat…
Evermore are kicking the Aussie’s arses. Putting it in a more ladylike way, they have a huge following across the ditch, having supported acts like Snow Patrol and Keane. And with the release of their new album Dreams they are destined to attract a lot more devoted fans.
Speaking of fans, what about groupies? Surely for a young band this must be one of the best things for the boys.
But they seem to shy away from commenting too much, until of course I pull more details out of them. Already they have experienced some far-out groupie moments – with Jon having to fend off a girl who showed her undies with Evermore emblazoned on them in embroidery. And then Peter offers how he spoke to a girl for a while, who then began telling him explicit details about his life – and he had only been talking to her for about five minutes.
Evermore’s sound has a Muse-esque quality, with soaring vocals stretching over plains of sound. Dreams, the title of their new album aptly describes the tone of the tracks, as each has a distinctly mesmerising quality.
So if you want to feel the music, get it now.
B*
Last updated: 29/04/2008
nzgirl archive:
Tourist Interview We interview kiwi band Tourist, whose new album ha...
Fielding obviously breeds fairly strong stock. 
sound or something like that’ category then winning the entire competition the next year. For the next couple of years it was all on and they attracted a lot of music industry attention and finally went to record an album last year in Fielding. 
Peter: A house down the road had actually lifted up and literally just washed away. And this was in the middle of us recording an album and it was pretty full on. 
Jon: He gave us studio time for free because he wanted to go home. Barrett Jones (worked with Nirvana, Foo Fighters) – recorded it. John Alagia – mixed it, 
Jon: Everyone who was working on the record like Barrett Jones and John Alagia, we didn’t really pay them enough and I think they knew it, but I think they just liked the demos and they just liked what we were doing, which is cool….they were doing it for the love of music.
anything’. Honestly if you’re a good band and you make a CD and you send it out to a bunch of people you’ll get a response I’m sure. That’s what we did.
Dann: I think everyone knows when they hear a good song…”Take my Breath Away” No one can deny that is a good song….A good melody, good lyrics….
moments – with Jon having to fend off a girl who showed her undies with Evermore emblazoned on them in embroidery. And then Peter offers how he spoke to a girl for a while, who then began telling him explicit details about his life – and he had only been talking to her for about five minutes.