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By: Daniela Patrizi
Some time ago we reviewed (review here) All Things Lead To This, the debut album of Everyone Dies In The End, a really interesting outfit from Richmond, Virginia. Through their album, the band demonstrates an acute instrumental sensibility and there’s no doubt that we have to keep an eye on these guys. To get to know them better we interviewed Jeremy and if you are curious to know what’s behind this interesting project, here you can find what we talked about.
(((O))): Hi guys, first of all many thanks for taking time out to speak with us. What have you been up to and where are you spending your summer? Doing anything fun before it’s over?
Jeremy: We’ve been in town all summer, playing little, but writing a lot.
(((O))): How’s life in Richmond?
Jeremy: Very “Richmondy.” It’s a college town really, so it’s really dead in the summer and busy around this time.
(((O))): Let’s start from the beginning. So, first and foremost, who are Everyone Dies In The End and what are your musical backgrounds?
Jeremy: guitar, Keith: bass, Jason: Drums, Luke: Guitar.
(((O))): How long has the band been together and how did you all meet?
Jeremy: The idea of the band started in 2012 when I was discussing with my friend Eric Richter about returning to music and we were throwing around ideas to do an ambient instrumental project. It really came to a head around February of 2013 when a few things happened to me and I had a lot of time to get some musical therapy. I’ve known Jason and Luke (and Keith for that matter) for years. So I pulled Jason and Luke into it and then we added Keith. Jason and I have done some projects in the past that never amounted to anything, he was in My War with Keith and Luke, and Keith and Luke were in Lord By Fire.
(((O))): Did your local scene impact you as a band?
Jeremy: Yes and no. The reason I say this is that we’ve felt that there is a void, not just in Richmond but everywhere, for what we are doing. But being in Richmond we have access to a lot of stuff. Like we share a practice space with Inter Arma so we’re around those guys a bit. Cough practiced next door to us, Bastard Sapling’s a couple of doors down and Windhand practices below us. All of those bands have been doing some really impressive things over the past year, and it would be great if we can have similar success. We’re all friends so there’s a lot of conversing between us all. As you can imagine, the building we practice in gets very loud.
(((O))): How do you describe your music style to your friends and how you think it differs from other band’s sound?
Jeremy: I usually say, “You know every band you like? We’re like that.” But seriously, I think right now, especially with the new stuff, I say we sound a bit like a really dark and heavy Sigur Ros. But in regards to instrumental music, I think we differ by trying to stay true to the ideas of creating atmospheric soundscapes. A lot of bands, and they are great don’t get me wrong, write to the “post-rock” sound, or other bands just write songs and don’t have a vocalist. I think of us as writing pieces.
(((O))): What are some of your musical (and other) influences? What inspires you?
Jeremy: Phillip Glass is huge with me. Steven Price’s score for Gravity has heavily influenced my approach to our new stuff. The National is my favorite band right now. And then of course Neurosis, Slayer, and GY!BE.
((O))): As I wrote in my review of your debut album All Things Lead To This, post rock bands have definitely original band names. Where did you get your name from and what does it mean?
Jeremy: I’m not going to disclose the meaning and where it came from really. I have to keep some secrets. I’ve heard like four different stories about the meaning of the band name and they were all wrong. So I kind of like the misdirection there. I will say this: it is a fact that everyone dies in the end!
((O))): Well…that’s true. I also want to ask you about the title All Things Lead To This. Where did it come from?
Jeremy: We were going over what to call the album and I said “How about this?” and we all kind of felt it worked. I guess in a way you can say that “this” refers to “the end.”
((O))): Is All Things Lead To This a conceptual album? What is its central theme?
Jeremy: Yes and no. I think the theme for my approach is isolation, anxiety, and the depression related to all of that. Things I struggle with constantly.
((O))): Without a doubt, All Things Lead To This is full of feelings. What were the emotions that you experienced when composing such pieces as ‘Stay Alive No Matter What Occurs, I Will Find You’ and how were they related to the ‘human condition’?
Jeremy: Well, I’m a philosopher, so I spend a lot of time with the human condition. I think isolation and anxiety are central to the human creature. Take religion for example, all religions have this sense of separation anxiety at their core. So I think there’s a lot of that in our pieces, at least in what I do and my approach to the music. It’s funny, for a band without lyrics, I feel that these pieces are the most honest depiction of my mental state at the time and more telling than any lyric can ever hope to be, which is scary considering what we’re writing now. All Things is definitely a diary of where we were at that time, and us figuring out what the band is. We really know what the band is now.
(((O))): I like the association between music and images and I love the cover artwork of your new album. I like its dark tones that reflect the dark and gloomy atmospheres that dominate the entire album. Who had that idea?
Jeremy: In regards to the front cover, I was living in Charlottesville at the time, truly one of the most amazing places on earth to live, and in my nightly anxiety-depression induced insomniac walks I was walking in an underground hall in a place I won’t name. I took a photo of the walkway as it looked really eerie at 2 AM, threw a filter on it and sent it to the guys. We all liked it and then went back and Keith took the photo again on a real camera, and Keith’s friend Mel Todas helped with the layout and the design. The back cover/band photo was Luke’s idea and was taken with a pinhole camera by our friend Cary Warren and it’s cool because yeah, we have a pyramid.
((O))): Can you describe the writing and recording process for All Things Lead To This?
Jeremy: We usually write completely organically. A vast majority of what we write is improvised and spontaneous. It’s really cool. The album itself, the tracking was done live in one day, which shocked everyone involved. I think Allen Bergendhal who produced it has a lot to do with it. Not only is he lovely, but he’s a wizard. He’s recorded a lot of Shy, Low’s stuff. They’re another great local post-rock band from here.
((O))): What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
Jeremy: I think the biggest problem we face, and it’s what all bands face, is actually ourselves as individuals. Everyone has their own shit, and sometimes that can spill over and effect how we deal with each other. We’ve known each other for so long, and we are so old now that we tend to get over things rather quickly. For the band itself, I think our biggest challenge has been the fact that we are so different than what’s out there so it’s hard to get to people at times. We aren’t a typical post-rock band. We aren’t a typical post-metal band. So people have conceptions as to what bands in those genres are supposed to be, and we blow that away.
(((O))): What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
Jeremy: Make what you want to make and don’t listen to anyone else’s advice in regards to what you should sound like.
(((O))): Who are your favorite musicians? Would you want to collaborate with any of them in the future?
Jeremy: As I said earlier The National is mine, and yeah, I would love to do something where Matt comes in works with us. I’m sure he’ll see this and jump right on it.
(((O))): What albums and groups are you listening to this year that you consider to be awesome?
Jeremy: For me I’m really digging all of the stuff I’ve heard off the new This Will Destroy You album. I’m really impressed as to what they’ve done over the past six years artistically. They did the self-titled album and that really laid down what their sound was. Then they did Tunnel Blanket, which was a huge shift away from everything they did before. And now this new album is a huge shift from that. To have the artistic balls to just deviate from everything you did before is just amazing
(((O))): Thanks for talking to us . Anything specific that you’re currently working on at the moment and would like to share? Any a message for our readers?
Jeremy: We’re about 85% done writing our second album, which we are really excited about. We’ve played some of the stuff live and the response to it has been fantastic. Hopefully the album will be recorded by the end of this year. It’s really, really dark and eerie, very emotional. I would like to think you and the entire Echoes and Dust family and readers for the support. It means a lot.
