Photograph: David Ruston | EAA logo: Malcolm McLean
Everyone An Army are from Scarbrough, but for the time being, they are based in barnsley while members study at UCB. Their music has been compred to the likes of Deftones, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley and Elbow. Their influences are pretty varied and their sound is hard one to pigeon hole- if you’re that way inclined.
Live in Barnsley organiser Dave Pearsal said, ‘I loved watching them at the Polish Club last October. I thought they had a ‘big’ sound that is difficult to create and pull off live. I loved their songs and the enthusiasm they attacked them with.’
I caught up with Martyn (guitar/vocals), Lee (bass) and Iain (drums) to find out what music does influence them and feed into the EAA sound.
LEE JONES (BASS)
“I find most of my influences are from artists that we sound nothing like, but that’s a good thing.
I pretty much grew up on Bowie, Pistols and GN’R. I find sound is generally more important to me than any specific instrument… I don’t really consider myself a bassist, but I probably wouldn’t play bass at all if it weren’t for hearing Duff McKagan or Jah Wobble.
If I were to offer up a list of albums I consider important, it’d be this:
David Bowie – Low
Shoes and Socks Off – Hand-Reared Suburban Piglet
Public Image Ltd – Flowers of Romance
Nils Frahm – 7Fingers
Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile
Radiohead – Kid A
Dntel – Life is Full of Possibilities
MARTYN HUGHES (GUITAR/VOCALS)
Mogwai – Mr. Beast, because nobody can touch them when it comes to soundscaping and dynamics in that field.
Yourcodenameis:milo’s All Roads to Fault mini album because they taught me, at an age where I was getting into the “noisier” side of music that using horrible sounding chord progressions in a certain way can be just as beautiful as anything else.
And finally The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, because it’s absolutely gigantic, in terms of sound, ambition and soul. Brian Wilson is a monument and Don’t Talk, God Only Knows and that’s not me are three of the greatest love songs ever written.
That’s mine.
IAIN HUNTER (DRUMS)
I started listening to blink as a child who influenced me with power and intricacy and got into other kinda of music like muse, deftones and oceansize which taught me about dynamics and time signatures, and from then on it was just about trying to use all these things to try and create my own style if playing that would make people know it was me if they heard me. The albums listed were just my favourites of the artists.
Blink 182 – Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
Muse – Absolution
Grammatics – Grammatics
Oceansize – Frames
Deftones – White Pony
Opeth – Ghost Reveries
Knife Party – Rage Valley
Everyone An Army’s full catalogue is available via their bandcamp page.
They play Live in Barnsley on Saturday 21st June. Keep up to date with future EAA gigs by following facebook.com/everyoneanarmy
Alternative Barnsley 