E.V.I.L.N.I.N.E
Brighton residents E.V.I.L.N.I.N.E have been smashing the breaks scene as producers/DJs for a while but with the release of their second album last year they took a step into the live arena. After a storming show last year at Digital the lads return as part of The Great Escape festival, Chris Leggett caught up with one half of the Evils, Pat Pardy to talk producing, gigs and zombies.
I hear your next release is going to be new material, how has your style evolved since They Live! came out?
You hear right my friend, we have a new EP on the way called ‘The Power’. Our style has gone in a more dancefloor and electronic direction than the album which was pretty sample and song based. We were locked away for so long writing a ‘serious’ second album that I think we forgot about making people dance, we’re really enjoying writing dancefloor killers at the moment.
Is producing different when you’re just releasing singles compared to when you’re preparing an album?
I think when you’re writing singles you’re less precious about the music, or at least we were anyway. There’s a lot more to take into account when you’re writing 13 tracks or whatever that need to work with each other, although things have changed considerably recently. People rarely listen to a whole album and if they do it won’t be in the correct order and they will be listening to mp3’s on an iPod, laptop or shitty computer speakers. We’re not so bothered about writing albums at the moment, we just wanna write music and get it out there, we’ll worry about albums later.
How’s life as a live act, have people been receptive?
It’s been a lot of fun for sure, it’s a lot more work but there’s some great camaraderie involved and we love the buzz of playing as a band. People have been mostly loving it although you get the odd gig where people just stare at you and wonder what the fuck is going on. You get used to rocking it as DJs but you’ve really gotta put the work in as a band.
Has developing into a live act affected the way you produce your tunes in the first place?
I can’t say it has really, we’ve always had the live element to our music I suppose. We ended up tailoring the live show to the album rather than the other way round, it sounds like it’s the wrong order to do it in but it worked for us.
Do you enjoy one type of gig over the other?
Personally I prefer the gigs with the band, Tom’s the more DJ orientated half of the duo and I’m all about playing live and writing and producing music. I spend a lot of time in the studio so it’s a great way for me to get out into the real world and rock it.
You’ve been going for a while, has the rise in success felt like a steady progression or did things feel like they really exploded at one point?
I think the biggest boost was around the release of our first album. We had be been bubbling away for about 5 years before that, being slack and releasing the odd single. We were so happy when we finally realized we had ‘made it’ and didn’t have to work in shitty jobs anymore, when we started out all we wanted to do was release a single so making a career from music was and is a dream come true.
From your artwork its obvious you are zombie fans, which movies have the best?
George A. Romero ones or Japanese ones. It’s all about the jumping ‘close encounters of the spooky kind’ Japanese zombies.
And finally, what are the 9 evils?
They were the children born of an incestral relationship between two members of the Bhutanese royal family many years ago. It is believed that nothing good will come of anything done on the day of there birth so they have a public holiday where people do nothing but hang out with friends and family and eat.
E.V.I.L.N.I.N.E play The Great Escape festival. Saturday 16th May at Concorde2
