Earlier this year, we had a chat with Toby Stewart and Will Gardner of Every Hell about the challenges facing bands nowadays, their musical influences and what the future is looking like for the band.
Hi Every Hell, can you first introduce yourself?
Toby: I’m Toby. I play guitar in Every Hell
W: I’m Will. I sing and play saxophone in Every Hell.
So how are you guys feeling about being a Trees today?
W: Super, Super stoked, really happy seeing so many friends. Get to see Palm Readers last gig and a bit of Empire State Bastard tonight. It’s going to be great.
T: It’s good to be back, it’s kind of like a second home really.
I was going to say like you’ve played here before in other projects and this is gonna be your first time as this project. How has the reaction to Every Hell been for you guys?
W: Yeah good. I’ve been getting really very frustrated with the algorithm because like it’s so different these days to get your music out there and like have people see it so. There’s you know like 25,000 to 30,000 Black Peaks fans out there that would probably be quite interested to know that we exist. But you literally cannot get in touch with them or like you know, so and all the other people. So actually, this is a really good thing to be like here, we’ve got a lovely slot tomorrow. Three-ish and I think people will be stoked with it and really into it. It’s good to actually have a platform to perform in front of some people (laughing)
We’ve spoken about this over the weekend and it’s interesting how even for bigger, established bands if they don’t have a big fanbase they’re struggling with all the new media like TikTok. Get yourself a TikTok, do a dance, there you go.
W: But that’s not music. We’re not a teenager dancing in the bedroom. I’ve got no issue with it, it’s cool man. I saw a really good thing last week from a professional musician being like ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this, but like this is the video of me listing the things that I do as a professional musician to get seen. I’ve been doing it for fifteen years, I’ve got all these recordings and these things’ and then it went viral. And then he did a reply to it being like, ‘yeah, great cool now I’ve gone viral now I’m relevant on TikTok‘. It’s like ARGGGHH!
It’s sad to see how much it’s changed.
W: It’s mad, it’s a totally different world now.
T: It’s not really about the music anymore. It’s about how you play that game.
W: Yeah, you need thousands of pounds to actually get the algorithm to even like let you reach reach your own audience, which is fucking crazy. We could definitely talk about this all day!
On a lighter note, can you sum up your sound in five words? No pressure!
W: Heavy. Proggy.
T: Punk
W: Hooky
T: Nice! Nailed it.
We’ll take it! You’ve released three singles so far, has there been any work behind the scenes on a fuller release?
W: The EP is coming out in about three weeks to a month.
Can you tell us a little more about it, who you’ve been working with or any fun release stories?
T: We went down to Middle Farm Studios in Torquay
W: It’s a bit further North than that in Devon.
T: We worked with Peter Miles down there and did four tracks in live to tape in two days. Then we did a live session which is going to come out at some point.
W: In September.
T: It was wicked, we just had great fun. That place is amazing it’s like an absolute dream. Lots of fun, lots of riffs.
You’ve already mentioned about recording live to tape, we love it as it feels like a live show in your headphones. But what made you decide to do it this way?
W: Well Pete kind of just like said ‘I think you guys should do this’ be playing together in a room, get that energy. I’ve never really done it before. We’ve done demos with him before in the past with other bands and stuff but it’s a really special vibe for sure. You really capture, even though there’s like little mistakes in there it kind of makes part of the sound of it and it’s got so much more energy than multi-tracking everything.
T: The problem with multi-tracking is you kind of get stuck in the loop sometimes and kind of go a bit tone blind. When you don’t really know if it’s good or not anymore. But to tape it’s like you have two chances and if you fuck up, you fuck up that’s it. It’s actually good and those fuck up and mistakes kind of make the songs way more interesting.
W: That’s the character. For me, especially as a singer it was a bit like ‘woah’. The one thing was Pete and Mark our drummer who’s producing it were both like we can just drop in over dubs and snip in bits of the tape, but ideally let’s get the energy of us playing it together in the room. Honestly I only over-dubbed some backing vocals. The rest of it is all the take of us playing together which is really unusual.
That’s really fun and you can definitely hear it in the tracks. So we’re at 2000trees, which bands are you looking forward to seeing?
W: For me it’s Death From Above 1979. I just listened to their new album in the car on the way here. It’s fucking raging, it’s so good. They’re a massive influence on us. Huge thing of like big riffs, big poppy hooks, a bit chaotic and noisy. A bit punky and a bit metally. So for me that’s them and then Palm Reader tonight for their last gig. They’re like some of my best friends in the scene so it’s really sad but they’re all moving on to different projects and stuff.
T: Death From Above definitely, I haven’t seen them in about ten years so it’s going to be a nice trip down memory lane. One of my favourite bands on tomorrow, just after us in The Cave actually called Gouge Away. They’ve been away for ages and they’re back now, so I’m very excited. I saw Better Lovers last night.
W: They were so good. Empire State Bastard as well. Vower were yesterday, shame I missed them.
T: They were brilliant, really really good.
Again on the festival vibe, who would be on your dream line-up which you’ll also be on?
W: Mastodon, Gojira. Probably like Car Bomb. Slayer, old Pantera. Pre-cancelled before we knew anything about anything, like also the mindset of 90s Pantera when it was cool and you didn’t have associations of being racist by liking them as they’re one of the greatest bands ever to exist ever but there’s a lot of controversy around them now. So that would be mine. Probably some other artists like Biffy thrown in there, TOOL, A Perfect Circle and we’d be in the middle of there somewhere.
T: First on, so we can get it out of the way and watch the other bands.
W: Great idea! How about you? Any additions?
T: Sum 41 all day.
W: Wow okay! Controversial, okay I like it. I forgot Dillinger (Escape Plan).
T: Botch
W: I recently discovered KEN Mode.
T: Oh my god, sorry Converge!
W: Yeah Converge and Ken Mode. They’re quite far apart. I think that would be it for now.
That’s a pretty stacked line-up! Last but not least, what is 2024 and beyond going to bring for you? We know we have a fuller release, but what else is on the cards?
W: More touring, we want to write an album I think soon probably. Maybe another EP first, I don’t know. It’s just tough like we were saying at the start, knowing whether as it’s so expensive making an album now. It’s crazy. But we want to do it but it’s whether we feel like we’re ready or it’s the right time. So we’ll see!
Every Hell’s debut EP Vertebrate is set for release on 31st October 2024 and is available to pre-save HERE.
