Kevin Bronson on September 18th, 2009

0

In two short years, Everest has gone from nice-local-guys-making-warm-and-fuzzy-Americana to full-fledged touring rockers, who, through their affiliation with Neil Young’s Vapor Records, gained slots opening for the likes of Young, Wilco and My Morning Jacket and played festivals such as Bonnaroo and Bumbershoot. It’s been a period of revelation and growth for frontman Russell Pollard and bandmates Jason Soda, Joel Graves, Elijah Thomson and Davey Latter. With touring slowing down and side projects winding up (Pollard and Soda were working on a new Watson Twins album, Thomson doing production work on new Delta Spirit music), Everest is in the early stages of work on a follow-up to its 2008 debut, “Ghost Notes.” But first: a hometown headlining gig tonight at the Troubadour. I caught up with Pollard earlier this week:

You’ve been out so much, everybody must ask about your wildest tour story …

That would have to be Bonnaroo. The flight to the festival was the most horrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. We were flying right into an electrical storm – there was some turbulence, but then about 30 minutes out of Nashville it was like a million-pound gorilla had grabbed the plane and was throwing it around. It was a movie moment; everybody thought we were going to die.

We were in a holding pattern, then the pilot said the plane was out of fuel and we were re-routed to Alabama. We landed, but they wouldn’t let us off the plane. We finally get back in the air and to Nashville … and by the time we got off the plane we felt so relieved. That flight affected the show, all right – in such a good way. We were on fire. We felt so alive. We played like kids.

So how has being road warriors affected Everest’s evolution?

Seeing Wilco, and seeing Neil play night after night, with his ferocity, has really opened our eyes. We’re trying to step away from the mellow alternative acoustic Americana – not that there’s anything wrong with that. We feel like “Ghost Notes” was a good start for a first record, but …

Now you have to make a sophomore album, which is often no piece of cake …

It’s going well. We’re kinda taking a different approach – we have a different team with Davey back in the band and with Eli joining. We wrote a lot of songs on the road with Neil, and we’d take them out and play them. Because when you’re playing arenas, when you’re playing to 5, 10, 15 or 20 thousand people, you really have to project yourself a little bit more. We think we’ve finally found it. There’s a really good maturity with these guys, because we trust each other and work well as a team.

You’re “woodshedding” then?

Yes, there’s some shedding, some shredding, some slicing and some dicing. … We probably have six or seven new songs, but they already feel old to us. There’s no guarantee [they will make the next album]. If we end up with 15 or 16 new songs and those are subpar, we won’t go with them.

Everest, arena rockers. Still trying to get my mind around that. Which member in Everest is the most likely arena rock star?

I’d have to props to Davey. He’s an interesting, provocative drummer, and he drives the whole boat. If he’s feeling it, I’m feeling it …

I’ve gotten better at my stage presence, but I don’t know that I’ve mastered it. But one of the biggest things I got out of touring with Neil is not giving a f*** about anything but the music. Being present. Being there.

One more random question – what have you been listening to recently?

Let’s see, there’s Kurt Vile, a really interesting songwriter and guitarist who writes great lyrics … Magnolia Electric Co., they’re the real deal. … Mount Eerie … Wooden Shjips … And I’ve been diving into Wayne Shorter a lot recently.” 

||| Download: “Black Covers (Live)”

Photo by Zoran Orlic