by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
They’ve only been performing as JoEveritt for seven months but Leroy Everitt Copeland and Billy Jo have already recorded an album, won a spot at one of the biggest festivals in town and are getting airplay on Planet Radio. At this rate, the dynamic duo will grace the cover of Rolling Stone by summer, win a Grammy next year and be taping their first episode of MTV Cribs soon after. In the meantime, the boys of JoEveritt are working hard to get their name out there and their music heard. EU headed over to Jack Rabbits last Friday to see the band in action. The guys were kind enough to speak with us after their performance.
Billy Jo and Leroy have been friends for over 13 years and have spent much of that time jamming out together. After honing their skills in other bands for a while (most notably Leroy in Julius Airwave, Billy Jo in Dang!), the two finally decided to join forces and start a band together. Right away they ran into trouble finding other musicians who wanted to join them.
“We couldn’t find anyone to play with us at first,” said Billy Jo. “We’re just tired of waiting on everyone else to figure out what they want to do with their lives.”
A two-man band works out fine in the recording studio but it becomes tricky when they actually play live. Luckily we’re living in the age of the iPod and the guys figured out how to use technology to their advantage.
“It was me and [Leroy] kind of working together to figure out how to do it without a full band and I was like, ‘Dude, I could record it and put it on my iPod,’ and he was like, ‘That’s not a bad idea,” Billy Jo explained.
The set up works out pretty well for JoEveritt, though it can be a bit limiting sometimes. “The only thing is we can’t stop in the middle of a song and talk and then come back into it,” said Billy Jo. “We can’t have the dramatic pauses that other bands get.”
“Who needs that crap anyway?” Leroy quipped.
The guys say the band will continue to be a two-piece for the foreseeable future.
“Everything’s a lot easier with two people,” explained Billy Jo.
“The ultimate goal is to be able to someday hire musicians to play those parts for shows,” Leroy added.
The arrangement certainly seems to be working. Last September, just a couple months after they formed, JoEveritt entered Battle for PlanetFest for a chance to play the extremely popular festival and won. Soon after their album Hear What You Want was released and, most recently, the guys were selected as Planet Radio’s Native Noise artist of the week.
After hearing many of JoEveritt’s songs on their MySpace page, its clear the guys have tapped into a winning formula. Their music is catchy and upbeat, a nice blend of radio-friendly rock and punk that most people, both music lovers and casual listeners, will be able to relate to. Unlike a lot of their rock peers, JoEveritt also brings it when performing on stage, not just at the studio. If you like to see a guy shred on his guitar, look no further than Leroy Everitt Copeland. In fact, he was recently given what he considers a very high compliment after one of their shows at Rebar.
“A kid came up to me and goes, ‘You’re crazy, man.” Not “you’re good” but “you’re crazy,” he laughed. “It was awesome.”
Hear many of JoEveritt’s songs at myspace.com/joeveritt, where you can also purchase their CD and see a listing of their upcoming shows. The band will be performing at 9th and Main on February 1st so be sure to check them out then so you can say you knew them before they were on MTV. It won’t be long now.
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