Combining elements of Post Punk, ailment Hardcore and Shoegaze, sovaldi sale Leeds based band Eagulls are part of a wave of new bands that embody a raw, direct and fiercely individual spirit. Their self-titled debut was released last February to widespread critical praise, and they recently wrapped up a UK tour supporting Indie giants Franz Ferdinand. We recently spoke with lead singer George Mitchell.
Eagulls have a reputation for being very direct and to the point, what’s your take on that?
Well, I suppose it’s because we came out of the indie scene that I thought was very dry. You know it seemed like there was a disconnect between the audience and the band, and I didn’t like that. It felt like bands were taking on too much of an American influence. It felt like bands that had something to say or something that you could relate to where disappearing, it felt like there was no British aesthetic in our local music scene anymore. We wanted to be relatable.
Due to both your attitude and your sound, Eagulls are in some ways seen as giving everybody else a bit of a wake up call. Is there any truth in this?
Yeah, I think so. I mean like I said, from where we came from there was a lot of bands that were just very pretentious. There were also a lot of bands that just seemed like posers, and we wanted to do something different to that. I mean bands that are like that, there isn’t really any value to them. There just wasting everybody’s time, they don’t know themselves what they’re doing. We wanted to be as different to that as we possibly could.
What are the main influences that you have?
I guess my main influence would be an ongoing life, you know the things that I see every day. I try and write about things that impact me because they’re probably things that have an impact on other people, you know what I mean? I want people to be able to relate to what they here. I try not to use my imagination too much and instead try and write about things that I know and that I’ve experienced, because those are the things that I understand the best.
Your music videos have drawn quite a bit of attention, in particular, the video for “Nerve Endings”. Was it your intention to be shocking?
Well, you know there is a thought process to the videos, you know like we do try and give some meaning to the madness, we do try and have some method behind what we do. The intention isn’t just to shock people; it’s not like we tried to make some splatter film where the only goal was to try and scare people. It’s just a reflection of the music really. We have quite a visceral sound, and we wanted the music video to be a reflection of that.
What do you hope to achieve in the future?
Well, I guess with record sales plummeting as they are, our biggest hope right now is to be able to make a decent living from music. To do that, I think we’re going to have to try and expand ourselves a bit more. Being on a major record label doesn’t have the same weight that I did a few years ago. Breaking into new markets and touring as much as we can is the big goal now. We want to break into the States and Europe at the moment. The overall goal though is just being able to have the freedom to create new music.
