by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
What: Helios Eye
When: October 28th
Where: Yesterdays
Looking for new sound in the Jacksonville scene? Then take a listen to Helios Eye. With their near-acoustic psychedelic sound and ironic but upbeat harmonies, they caught my attention when I trolled their MySpace page (myspace.com/eyehelios).
These guys are very DIY (Do-It-Yourself), but it’s more from necessity than anything else. Still, their unique press kit, which includes hand-drawn graphics and strange objects (mine had a small doll with a black spot on its nose) has garnered attention, gaining them a listen when they would otherwise fade into a sea of all those CDs that land on an album reviewer’s desk. They don’t like to be put in a category of music, but when pressed they answered with “psychedelic-folk-punk-pop.”
The band includes Kevin Newberry (vocals, guitar) Ryan Ferrall (guitar, vocals, producer) Zach Elliott (guitars, vocals, keyboards) Jeffery Elliott (percussion, vocals).
EU: I must ask you about your legendary press kit. How did you come up with that idea?
Kevin: Just out of necessity, you know, money. We did what we could do with the materials that we could come up with. So half of our stuff is stolen from lawyer’s offices…Actually when we sent it we weren’t even trying to send out a press kit. We were just trying to send out our music to be heard.
EU: People think of you as an acoustic band. What do you guys say to that?
Zack: You can’t blame them, because we were an acoustic band ‘cause we didn’t have any equipment. So we would just show up in place with our guitars and…play. We didn’t used to use mics or anything; we just played. I’m sure that’s the way most people have seen us. Recently we got more gear and stuff.
Kevin: It started off with three guitars, a banjo and we had a mandolin…for a long time we still were doing acoustic guitars but we wanted to grow as far as our sound.
Jeff: We had a lot of fans who were just interested in us, probably because we were an acoustic based band and…
Ryan: We yelled a lot.
Kevin: And the antics.
Jeff: There were a lot of drunken antics.
Kevin: There used to be shenanigans.
Zack: We would usually be screaming little more.
Jeff: It’s not about that...
Zack: I mean, we didn’t have microphones.
Jeff: We have pretty voices and we like people to hear our pretty voices.
EU: All of you guys sing, right?
Jeff: We’ve…been referred to by other people as almost like a dirty version of the Beach Boys…We may not have spectacular voices but when they blend together it’s like this…Crosby Stills Nash & Young kind of vibe. Love and togetherness…
Kevin: It’s actually a crucial part of our sound that everybody sings…It’s weird for me if I’m singing and they aren’t there.
EU: So, you recorded everything for your album in a kitchen?
Ryan: No.
EU: Some in the bathroom?
Jeff: In a shed.
Kevin: Hallways.
Jeff: Houses in suburbia.
Zack: We’ve never been in an actual studio.
EU: If you did a studio production of an album, do you think it would ruin what’s so special about your sound?
Jeff: If we were dealing with it, we’d be fine.
Kevin: As long as we’re in control, no studio could screw it up, change what we are…It’ll be nice to put out a record where someone else is paying for it, but until then, I can’t see wasting a thousand dollars…all of our friends, between everyone we know, have all of the equipment we need to do it, cheap and good.
Zack: We can do it as many times as we want. In a studio we’d have to pay for the time.
Kevin: No pressure, you know.
Jeff: It’s kind of a communal thing in a way, which is good.
Zack: But no, I don’t think it would ruin our sound at all, it would probably make it more interesting.
Kevin: Except for the fact that it would cost way more money. And when you’re in a studio, that’s what you’re thinking of: ‘I’m paying twenty-five dollars an hour’ instead of focusing on what you’re creating.
EU: So how would you guys define yourselves?
Kevin: We’re not an acoustic band and we’re not an electric band. We’re just a band…
Jeff: Don’t stick us in a category.
Kevin: There’s no category you can stick us in. We love everybody.
Jeff: It’s all about love. You’ve gotta have love.
EU: The Beatles said something like that, at some point.
Kevin: (laughs) Something like that.
Jeff: We’re just trying to bring back 1967.
EU: That exact year?
Jeff: It’s the era of psychedelic music. There was less bullsh*t, like greediness and avarice.
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