An Interview With The Progressive Post-Hardcore Band, EIDOLA!

Get to know the progressive post-hardcore band, Eidola, They will be releasing their new album “To Speak, To Listen” via Blue Swan Records on June 2nd! They’ll be supporting the album with a full US tour with Hail The Sun and Capsize this month and through June as well.

Eidola formed in 2011. After a year of touring on their debut self-released album “The Great Glass Elephant” in 2012, the band signed on with Blue Swan Records to release “Degeneraterra” in 2015. With the album receiving acclaim from critics and fans alike, the band embarked on a series of tours with bands like Dance Gavin Dance, CHON, Hail The Sun, and Stolas. Now Eidola is back with their most ambitious and aggressive effort yet, To Speak, To Listen.

You can check out their hard-hitting first single “Amplissimus Machina,” here:

Connect With Eidola Here:

Facebook: www.facebook.com/eidolaUT
Twitter: www.twitter.com/eidola
Instagram: www.instagram.com/eidola

Learn more about Eidola in the following All Access interview:

Thanks for your time! What are some words you would use to describe 2016? What were some of the highlights for the band? What are you all most excited about for 2017? 

Magical. Memorable. Manic. 2016 was a big writing year for us. We toured a lot in late 2015, early 2016 in support of our last release “Degeneraterra”, but the rest of 2016 was spent writing and recording “To Speak, To Listen.”

How did Eidola first form? How did you come up with your band name? What other names were you considering?

Eidola first formed in 2011 after Matt Dommer and I both had our previous projects go on hiatus. Originally we considered dozens of names, but eventually boiled it down to two. We had a song titled “Eidola” and a band name we were kicking around “Jagannatha”. In the end we decided to flip the two since the word Eidola more closely resembled what we were trying to say as an artistic entity.

Next month, you will be releasing your newest album, “To Speak, To Listen” via Blue Swan Records. Can you talk about what it was like putting this collection together? How long did it take you? Did anything surprise you about the whole process?

We will be! We’re all very excited to put it out and get it into peoples ears. This album process was almost completely different from our previous two releases. Both of our first records faced a lot of challenges and road blocks, and it felt like it took forever to get anything moving or finalized. From writing, to recording, to filming, to artwork, merchandising, and packaging virtually everything has been streamlined on the new album. “To Speak, To Listen” was a really collaborative and honest process from start to finish, and everyone on board has worked so hard to ensure its success. That’s what surprised me the most. I’ve always put everything I have into my art and never really expect anyone else to do the same, or anyone to really care about it, but this album was a pleasant surprise on that front.

How do you think the sound of Eidola has changed and grown since your first released album “The Great Glass Elephant” in 2012? What about the sound of your 2015 collection, “Degeneraterra”?

I think it has changed immensely between each release. We’ve always had this mantra in Eidola that if it doesn’t challenge some aspect of your playing then it isn’t worth writing, and I’d like to think we’ve taken that to the next level with each release.

TGGE was our first album and even though a lot of people seem to like it the song writing is a bit all over the place, and we were trying some ideas in fields of music we weren’t all well versed in. So a lot of it was trial and error and experimentation.

With Degeneraterra, our song writing was more refined, the concept was sprawling and cohesive, the lyrical content matured, and our musicianship progressed a lot. We were more conscious of a lot of things we didn’t really have an awareness of before then.

Moving into “To Speak, To Listen” we had handfuls of national tours under our belts with bands way better than us and it really inspired everyone to work harder and push themselves. We continued to refine our song writing and ended up going heavier and far more technical on this album. Everyone really stepped their game up, and I’m really proud of the album we were able to make together.

What was the inspiration for your first single, “Amplissimus Machina”? What exactly does that mean? How do you all go about putting a song together? How does it go from an idea of one of your heads to a full-fledged created song?

Amplissimus Machina roughly translates from Latin as “the largest/greatest/grandest/most masculine machine”. We were discussing the theory of technological singularity that Ray Kurzweil has been re-popularizing over the last decade and it’s implications for mankind. It was interesting to consider both sides of digitized consciousness and try to convey that dialogue in a song with three singers.

As far as the song writing goes, I (Andrew) write all the bare bones of the songs. The initial inspiration comes to me in a variety of different ways, but I usually compose the guitar, vocal melodies, harmonies, lyrics, and a general drum layout for each song before I bring it to the rest of the band. Once they hear it, we pick it apart before Hansen and I finalize the drums and lay down a rough demo. Then the other guys sit down in our home studio and we all collaborate on writing the other parts.

This month and next, you are going on tour with Hail The Sun and Capsize. Where all are you looking forward to playing at? Have you gotten to know these groups yet?

Yeah! We’re super excited for that tour. I’ve been a fan of Capsize for a long time, and we’ve toured with HTS before so I think it’s going to be a riot. Limbs is also an incredibly talented band and I’m excited to get to know them. Some of the shows I’m really looking forward to are Chain Reaction in Anaheim, Webster Hall in New York City, and the show at Cattivo in Pittsburgh since it will be my birthday haha.

When it comes to labels and the way they work for you and your work, I’m curious to know more about your relationship with your label, Blue Swan Records? Why is this the right company for this band right now?

That’s a great question. With the music industry as saturated as it is right now, there seems to be this big perceived dichotomy when it comes to record labels. There are plenty of people still under the mindset that once you sign to a label then that’s it, your job is done. You sign the paper and bam; here’s your two million Spotify plays, your sold out tours, and your big fat paycheck. And while that mentality is incredibly naive, I don’t think it’s any better to go the complete opposite direction and say that labels don’t do shit for bands any more.

That’s just incorrect. I think it’s better to find a smaller label that will give you more creative and financial freedom than to go strictly DIY or immediately take the first big deal you’re offered. Blue Swan has been the perfect fit for us since day one. We knew that when we signed there was still so much work to be done, and Will Swan really helped us understand all of that and consistently helps steer us in the right direction. The label is easy to work with, very dedicated to its roster, and I feel like the team we’ve built is representative of the scene itself. A big, supportive, loving family.

Who are you all listening to these days? What artists have continued to inspire you and your music? Who would you absolutely love to work with in the future? 

I’ve been listening to Snarky Puppy a lot again recently, they’re such an insanely talented band. And Plini. Too sick. But bands like Deftones, Circa Survive, and even Dance Gavin Dance have inspired us to keep making art and touring in this vein of music. We would absolutely love to work with all of those bands I mentioned. I’m sure Dommer would kill to tour with Thrice or Thursday, and for Hansen those bands would probably be Animals As Leaders and BTBAM. I know the Good Tiger and Contortionist guys from touring with DGD, so doing something with those guys in the future would be incredible too.

At the end of the day, what do you hope your fans take away from your music? What do you hope is the message of your songs?

The music that we make is very cathartic and meditative for me, its helped me work through a lot of issues and obstacles in my own life and made me grateful for everything that I’ve been given. If our fans take some semblance of that with them when they listen to Eidola then I think we did this thing right. A sense of hope. A sense of purpose. A sense of narrative and conversation. Progress.

Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers about yourselves and your music?

Just that we’re really excited to release “To Speak, To Listen” on June 2nd! We can’t wait to show it to everyone. Thank you for having us.