The New Eves have created a folklore all their own, instilled with the unpredictable wildness of their live shows and the intense camaraderie existing between Violet Farrer (guitar, violin, vocals), Nina Winder-Lind (cello, guitar, vocals), Kate Mager (bass, vocals), and Ella Oona Russell (drums, flute, vocals). The Brighton-based foursome inhabits a world of rock and roll primitivism and magical freak-folk experimentalism – their cross-genre collusions have allowed them to find new avenues of creative conspiracy via a collective pooled tenacity. They’re actively seeking a revolution and have found it in the visceral contours of their newly released debut album The New Eve is Rising.
But they’ve also found a community, inspiring one another to reach further into the recesses of their inspirations, finding purpose in the effort to understand the history of the sounds ricocheting around in their own heads. “This project has been [about] us redefining ourselves, and we hope anyone who’s listening can be inspired by that,” says Winder-Lind. Russell adds: “We’re seeing how far we can go as four people by creating our own mythology.”
Digging down into their communal strengths and vulnerabilities, the band has conjured scenes of radical feminine ideology, atmospheric manifestations of self-made myths, and channeled them all through the rebellious rhythmic eruptions of Patti Smith. The New Eve is Rising finds them discovering connections between themselves and the past, between different personal geographies, and between various philosophies that have fueled their desire to understand their place in a world which cares little for progress and less still for equity. But within these twisting melodies and archaic incantations, they’re able to find a temporary solace, a calm place where the bitterness of the world can be held at bay for a time.
They’ve often described their music as “Hagstone Rock”, and with its connection to the raw elements of its surroundings as witnessed through tales of old-world superstitions and historical references, the moniker feels apt. “There’s a lot of mythology around a hagstone, and it’s different in different places, but generally if you look through the hole of hagstone you can see the truth,” says Russell. “We see ourselves as a rock band, but there’s a lot of depth in there and putting hagstone in front of it felt better — it also has the word ‘hag’ in it, which we really identify with…”
Recently, Russell took some time to guide us through the rampant wilderness of The New Eve is Rising, offering insight into its history and the ways in which it speaks in the voices of each member of the band. Memories and experiences are laid bare, colloquial truths and personal convictions are explored, and Russell provides a startling illumination which further unravels the band’s countless emotional entanglements.
- “The New Eve”
This track serves as our manifesto.The poem was written by Nina while she was staying at her family home in Sweden. It reflects our shared experiences, but also speaks to something broader, something universal. It is a message to our younger selves, and to anyone who might find strength or solace in it. This song was created after several years of performing together, at a time when we understood who we were as a band and what our name The New Eve represented to us.
- “Highway Man”
This track began as a jam, we were playing around this driving rhythm. I said that it felt like the song was “riding riding riding” like the Alfred Noyes poem most British kids had to study at school. Nina didn’t know the poem, went home and read it with fresh eyes. She returned with lyrics retelling the story from the woman’s perspective. Everyone got really excited and Violet did a crazy guitar solo. That’s basically what happened.
- “Cow Song”
“Cow Song” also started as a jam. We all had the same vision for it straight away. It was a song about simply walking off. We all agreed that it felt like a herding song, like walking with cows and that’s when we started exploring Kulning (cow calling). Though we don’t actually do kulning in cow song, we just yelp like lunatics. We nearly always play this song towards the beginning of our set, just to let the room know what they are in for. It helps.
- “Mid Air Glass”
“Mid Air Glass” is a song that I wrote after we were all joking about only being able to write 7 minute long epics. So I thought about it and this little song came out. It’s actually quite an important little song in some ways. A couple of our songs, “Mary” and “The New Eve” explore christian archetypes, but “Mid Air Glass” is about a different kind of God. No one’s really noticed that yet.
- “Astrolabe”
Violet wrote “Astrolabe” on a toy accordion during our residency in Cornwall a couple of years ago. It’s kind of an ode to fated lovers Heloise and Abelard. And Bonnie and Clyde. And wagons in the sky. Turned into a real banger, we say it’s our trip hop song. It’s also meant that we have been touring with a broken toy accordion ever since. It gets it’s own mic.
- “Circles”
So we were jamming, again. We kind of locked in and went into this trance, we were playing for ages, we couldn’t stop. I still think that the first time we ever played the ‘trance’ section in “Circles” was the best we ever played it. After that we all went home and started writing, and each of us came back with work that slotted together one by one in this perfect way. It’s basically the beginning and the end of the universe. It’s also one of the few songs with an overdub that’s not a part of the live shows. Props to whoever works out what it is.
- “Mary”
Violet wrote the lyrics for “Mary” after witnessing Holy week in Madrid, specifically after seeing the madonnas that are carried through the streets. When she brought the song in, fate would have it that me and Nina had harmonicas in our bags, much to Violet’s dismay. And then Kate got real excited and bought a bass harmonica and the harmonica orchestra was born. We added lots of secret whispers to this song during the recording process, through a bat detector.
- “Rivers Run Red”
This song was so weird. It’s been through so many different incarnations. At first it was just something for Violet to dance to, but it’s kept growing like a frankenstein and now it has a poem in it that I wrote when I was a teenager, matchboxes and piano. It still confuses me how it happened but somehow I am reciting this really old thing all the time now, and Nina is playing the disco cello and Violet is hitting a camping cup as percussion. I wrote an alternative poem to try and replace my teenager one, which the others didn’t go for but Kate was inspired and responded by writing all the lyrics at the end of the song. Now we love playing it.
- “Volcano”
This was one of the first songs we ever wrote. Somehow it was just me and Nina at rehearsal, it might have even been before Kate joined, I’m not sure. I remember we were both excited at the time by the footage from a volcanic eruption that was happening in Iceland. I had just started playing the drums and was trying to play like a volcano whilst Nina played guitar. Then we went home and wrote lyrics that worked together really well. That’s how it began but once everyone else was onboard the song literally erupted out of us. It’s a special song for me because I feel like I found my rhythm and learnt how to drum within this song. We knew early on that it would be the grande finale for the album.
The New Eve is Rising is out today on Transgressive. You can order the album here. Follow the band on Facebook and Instagram.
