Article by Marzia Picciano | Live photos by Gisela Jane (courtesy of)
Behind every self-respecting band, there is a fundamental element: chemistry. Without this ingredient great things are rarely done, but above all no progress is made; maybe we pretend for a while, but as in couples, in the end we look at each other and either change team, or game plan or nada.
Now, I couldn't say whether chemistry must be desperately sought like the final piece of a puzzle to be completed, or it simply “happens”: what I know is that the second case is the basis of many fortuitous encounters, and this is how the The New Eves in Brighton, that is Violet Farrer (guitar and violin), Nina Winder-Lind (guitar and viola), Kate Mager (Bass), Ella Oona Russell (drums and flute). Nina says it speaking shortly before their live on stage Port of Primavera Sound (the day of the perfect storm): it was practically “a kind of accident”.
I don't know what I thought well of the band before meeting them and hearing them live.
I found myself in front of yet another female composition by talented English musicians with a high idea of music, so much so that they coined a name for it to describe their genre, hagstone rock – a direct reference to “hagstones” (naturally perforated stones) which, in British mythology and folklore, are said to allow those who look through them to see the truth and protect themselves from evil spirits – and give rise to a series of considerations of esteem from critics and fans about their live performances, real rituals on which lyrics are channeled which are real poems, not simple songs.
The New Eve Is Risingtheir first album, is a Spoon River-style handbook of visions of a present that needs to go back a little to find its essential naturalness. The four do it in a very simple way: playing together in their own element (or rather, instrument) and building stories around it.
Many find references to Lankumothers to one Patti Smith particularly folk. In short, it is a way of interpreting and making rock that has deep Anglo-Saxon roots and an obsessive and distorted song setting: Rivers Run Red And Highway Man there are clear examples of this, but also a piece like Mother it seems to hark back to a hemisphere lost between dreaminess and cellos grated, I mean, grated almost to the bone.
The truth is that Brighton is first and foremost “home” to a very rich alternative music scene in Great Britain (come on Porridge Radioto the DITZto the British Sea Power And Royal Bloodso to speak), therefore that the level playing field is high is not a mere possibility but a well-set parameter; the second point is that of girl bandif we can say so, with capacity and richness of musical imagination there are droves of them and thank God they are becoming more and more normality than exception (so we save ourselves the rhetoric of the case).
What I hadn't considered, however, is that the exceptional nature of successful chemistry between the members of an artistic project often has nothing to do with a planned action plan.
This is how it went for The New Eves, and this is what they put on the table with brutal calm.
To the reconstructions of their friendship and the start of a successful artistic partnership they respond very clearly: don't believe what is said about the artists. But learn to discover and appreciate them. In fact, it is worth seeing them again soon in Italy, since they will be on the stage ofYpsygrock Of Castelbuono (PA) next August 9th.
First, there was no plan. “We had known each other for a whileor'” they say “but we weren't close friends, apart from a few of us. It took some time. We needed to make music and we ended up in a room together“When you start to see them it's full of Covid.”With the pandemic we found ourselves together. We were playing in various bands and wanted to do stuff, so we eventually found each other and started playing together, and things got crazy then, oh yeah.” says Ella.
Why wasn't there a plan?
“There wasn't an idea or anything like that. It was kind of an accident, nothing we did was really planned. But it worked.”
How chemistry works. “I think we played together so much that we finally felt comfortable. It was us, in full honesty. When you're around people you feel comfortable with, that's how it is. You start to feel vulnerable and that's where very good things can happen.” But above all it was very natural.
The genesis of the CD should be read in this way. hagstone rockI wonder. In reality yes, but not because there was a collective search. “It's just the sound we make when we're together, each of us with our own style. The sound comes out of the four of us, you know, it's like a mixture of our energies.” they say. “It's not that we really think about what we want to play or how we want to play, we don't make a decision. We then write the songs together, they come out of our fit together. Each of us brings our own instrument, and in fact we have very different musical references.”
It must be said that in terms of references the girls have made themselves noticed by Kim Gordon who wanted them on his European tour as supporting band. An experience that led them to tour a lot and attempt their first live shows outside. Also because among the first test matches (2021), the first single (Original Yesn, 2023) and the first album (2025) ours took all the time necessary to mature.
“All our songs were born together, like in jam sessions” they explain. “No one makes decisions first”.
The lyrics of The New Eves are born individually.
Mother it was born much, much earlier than the band itself, explains Ella, and among other things, although the words and music are particularly evocative, they have nothing to do with ideas of femininity or femininity.
In their writing they touch on themes and considerations that obviously have a basis linked to feminism, but there is absolutely no predetermination to carry out a political act ab initio.
“We all write a lot. And what we write reflects a lot of what we feel and experience when we do it” explains Violet. “We process our experiences, and put them into words. It's a very free process. We don't sit around a table and decide what to talk about.”
We need to stop asking ourselves whether or not this is the key to good chemistry, or rather: we need to ask ourselves whether chemistry, thex factor in a band or artist is obvious and destined to emerge, or does it really require constant research. Or, more simply, of free and naturally harmonious communication.
For the advent of the new Eve, perhaps this is the truly achievable objective: freeing ourselves from the need for superstructures to create something unique or even just valid. And give those who seek solutions in music an opportunity for discovery. Maybe, only then, we will go back to enjoying music and we will be reborn a little, better.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
