Ears Wide Open: Eva Gardner

Kevin Bronson on December 13th, 2021

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Since 2019, L.A. native Eva Gardner has been stepping out of the shadow of her complementary roles — most recently as the bass player for P!NK — to create some solo music.

Gardner’s second EP, “Darkmatter,” arrives Friday, and like its predecessor, 2019’s “Chasing Ghosts,” it was written and recorded in between her duties as a touring player. She has introduced the new EP with the single “London Nights,” a propulsive, New Wave-influenced rocker inspired by her experiences as the daughter of British musician who often visited her father’s homeland — and her passion for stargazing.

“London is one of my favorite cities because my dad was from there,” Gardner explains. “Although I grew up in L.A., I spent a lot of time in London and felt connected to it as my home away from home. It was exciting to be in the city lights, infatuated with the British boys, running around town. The pub culture is such a specific way of life.”

Gardner, the daughter of bassist Kim Gardner, knows something about pub culture, too. Her parents founded the Cat & Fiddle in 1982. Eva started playing music as a teenager, was an early member of the Mars Volta and went on to back artists such as Moby, Cher and Gwen Stefani.

The EP was made with Josh Berwanger (The Anniversary) and Jarods Evans at Blackwatch Studios in Norman, Okla.

As for the title of the EP, Gardner says, “Before I had dreams of becoming a musician, I wanted to be an astronomer. Staring up into the night sky has always been a source of enchantment and wonder for me. What is really going on in the space between the stars in the sky? In astronomical terms, dark matter is material that cannot be seen directly, but it’s believed to account for the unexplained motions of stars within galaxies — just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Creating music is a deep dive within the dark matter of our own psyches.”

||| Stream: “London Nights”