the never never

I wish I could have gotten this up a little sooner to tell you about the Viper Room show they just had last night. They were amazing. But I did get a chance to pester them with my emails to find more about this 6 piece band.

THG: When did The Never Never form?
The NeverNever: The never never started forming back in January of 2009 with RC Krueger and I (seth eubanks)…after a couple of months of practicing together. RC and I started looking for some more members to join us. we then added Angel “the noise” Cruz on guitar and Dilean Jimenez vocals and later after a few live shows Dilean became our official drummer as well, followed by Cassandra Eubanks (seth’s niece) on guitar…and in November 2010 Lolly Burrows joined us as another vocalist.

THG: What genre of music do you consider your work to be?
The NeverNever: We are an alternative rock band from Los Angeles, CA

THG: who are your major influences?
The NeverNever: My biggest influences are a lot of great bands from the 90's – sonic youth, smashing pumpkins, foo fighters, radiohead. But as a band we have a wide range of influences such as cursive, yo la tengo, the dead weather, gemma hayes, modest mouse, bright eyes. All of which were bands that we grew up with and listened to in high school and the years in which we were finding ourselves.

THG: Who writes the Lyrcs?
The NeverNever: When it comes to lyrics, so far I have done most of the writing, but as we grow together as a band, with Lolly and Dilean and their many many talents… they have been showing great interest in being apart of that process, and will soon be putting together songs – lyric wise – that have been written by them.

THG: Who Writes the Music?
The NeverNever: When the band was first put together, it had been a dream of mine to start my own band. So I had a collection of songs that I had written, that I wanted to play. but to my absolute joy, as each member joined the band and started getting the feel of the music, each one of them had something special to bring to each song, their own style, suggestions, and tone. Which not only changed the songs but, completely enhanced the songs and made them sound even better than I could have imagined!

Our best example of that is a song called THE KIDS AREN’T KIDS…when I first brought that song to the band it was called SO SCARED and when we started to work on it. Dilean came up with a completely different drum beat for the song…which totally changed the tone of the music…and actually changed the song completely, to where I had to sit down and write new melodies and lyrics. thus turning it into THE KIDS AREN’T KIDS. I don’t even know how the original song went now!

THG: How often do you guys work on making new music?
The NeverNever: we are constantly pushing ourselves as a band for new songs.

I personally work on new songs and music every week. right now I have a collection of about 30 or 40 completely new finished songs that I have written. Most of which will never see the light of day. Just because when I write, I like to let the song turn itself into what it is, instead of trying to write something that “fits” the band. So sometimes I’ll get a song done and by the end of it, I just dont like it anymore, or its just an “ok” sounding song.

For me I really enjoy the process of writing, but something that I have learned, is that, not every song you write is “the greatest song in the world”. but just as a painter keeps painting and a writer keeps writing. the more you practice and put together complete ideas, then maybe, just maybe out of a collection of things you’ve done there just might be gem sitting in the middle of it! And when something does come around that is special, you have the skills and the practice to put it together!

THG: What’s your ultimate direction for your band?
The NeverNever: Obviously, to get signed by a major label and make music! But for me I really just enjoy playing. Its always been what I love about music. Getting that opportunity to play somewhere, big or small. So my ultimate goal is to do that. If I could be on tour 365 days a year, I would be the happiest person in the world. its also why as a band we play so much, we generally have about 2 to 3 shows a month. and are always looking for more!

THG: What has been your biggest challenge as a band?

The NeverNever: Our biggest challenge, since we are a 6 member band, has been getting everyone’s schedules to work together…it gets pretty crazy sometimes. with everyone on different work schedules, school, life. Its something we struggle with all the time. but somehow we make it through.

Example, this month on June 23rd we have a show up in San Francisco at the red devil lounge. We will be driving up on the 23rd to play around 9pm and literally after we get done playing and talking with new bands/people. we have to drive back to LA that night. because 2 of us in the band have to be at work on Friday by 12 and 2pm…so it gets pretty crazy!

THG: Off your new EP what is your favorite song to perform?

The NeverNever: Our favorite song for sure is RE:RE: HEY. mainly because it was the first song that we wrote together as a band. It wasn’t something that I had written and brought to the band. it came from a jam that we would play at the beginning of our shows, so we could hear the balance of guitars and kind of do our own on stage sound check.

One day at practice as we were just jamming on that jam, we noticed it started having a form to it, so i literally just started reciting (singing) an email I got from girl! that said “your to nice” “your to quiet” “I’m just not ready for anything now” and it formed into RE:RE: HEY which is simply what the subject line said in the email…RE:RE:HEY

THG: I have one of the homemade cd jackets for the Evacuation Plan EP, I thinks it going to be a collectable one day, who is the crafty person that made them.
The NeverNever: Well with the release of our first “studio” EP we wanted to make something special for the people who came to our EP release show. So dilean had the idea of doing a special band made version of the album for everyone. So she put everything together and made them herself.

Her doing that is definitely an example of how this band works. each one of us brings our own special point of view and talents to the band.
We got RC (bass) with his label “villians” who does all the graphic design and printing of our shirts, posters, stickers, CD’s…
Dilean (vocal/drums) who brings the “dynamic” and the professionalism to the band. with her always pushing us to making things and us, look better and sound better.
Angel “the noise” cruz (guitar) who brings the youth (just go for it!!) and “the noise” to all the music. which always takes the music to another level.
Cassandra (guitar) – who brings the music theory to what we are doing. she breaks down the songs for us musically, with what notes can be played or even sung (harmonies) for that particular chord structure. she tells me what I’m actually playing (chords) when I write a song. Did I mention that she has a masters in classical guitar!
Lolly (vocal) – does most of the talking for us when we play live and takes on the role of being our voice. she knows everything, you need to know!
and me (seth – guitar/vocal) im more of a manager than anything else. I take care of putting together shows, emailing people, getting us from point A to point B and sometimes to point B1/2…

THG: Seth your too modest, you rock man.

but its all of us together that make this band work! we rely on each other greatly! we are like a little family! with its ups and downs, its great moments, its “oh man” moments! we’ve learned to let things go, to push each other, to just simply play music together! So ya, its all of us together that make us THE NEVER NEVER

THG: Thanks for the chat guys!

Catch them June 23rd at Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco.
July 22nd and 23rd at Astoria Bar in Eugene, Oregon
July 24th at the Ash Street Saloon in Portland Oregon
July 26th at the New Frontier Bar in Tacoma, Washington
July 28th at the Skylark Cafe in Seattle, Washington
July 30th at the Abbey in Santa Cruz, ca

Check out their website: theneverneverworld.com to download their latest EP EVACUATION PLAN, and newly remastered EVERY STORY HAS A THIEF for FREE! - THE HANGOUT GROUP