Amidst headline shows, a musical venture abroad and reputable support slots, 2015 saw Ayrshire punk rock band Echo Valley form a concrete foundation for what is set to be a landmark new year. As a project that has seen the band grow both musically and as individuals it’s hardly surprising three years on that they’re playing one of the most prestigious stages in the country, King Tut’s, for the countless time.
Despite a four month halt to proceedings and lack of live shows for which their work behind the scenes is compensating for, this coming of age story is being brought to an end. Resurrecting themselves with a new rejuvenated sound, angst driven voice of suppression to conventional sociological norms and a brand new member, this is Echo Valley 2.0 readily equipped with a EP and a sky’s the limit attitude.
One thing made clear is that they acknowledge the importance of music in the wider sense and what accompanies it, it isn't just a case of playing a show and releasing new material every few months there is a far wider concept that should be taken into account: "With all the people we’ve met, we’ve played with, we’ve supported, aren’t necessarily the same style as us but they have the same mindset." They are there to "build a community." Highlighting the bare truth of an industry determined by record sales and the number of faces seen at gigs it's easy to forget the humanity behind the entire thing.
EV are not a band that see’s holding an opinion as a negative effect: "If saying how we feel puts us back success wise that's due to someone else’s spite, hopefully by saying how we feel we’ll find more like minded people who feel the same way that will support even if they don’t.” Where certain artists ironically have restrictions placed upon them to avoid a difficult subject matter, they allow it to infiltrate the music they make.
Despite a slight hiatus towards the end of last year in which the band took time to create new music they are reassuring in the sense that they won't be gone for much longer: "circumstances change as well: uni, new relationships, friendships, work and that all impacts what we’re doing now. It’s given us a new outlook." Time away held alterations for the band both internally and externally but with the freedom of having no higher authority to cloud their already certain judgement it has allowed them to progress at their own pace in a way that's best for them. "We don’t have management, we don’t have anything we’ve done it ourselves."
They look forward to the plans they have for the future and what they hope to achieve as a collective:
“whether we’re playing to 4 people or 400,000 people as long as we’re enjoying it, our biggest goal is to become self sustaining. We could release our own records, merch, play what we want and have enough of a fan base there that support us and love what we do. We want to do this as a full time thing, so we don’t need to rely on other people. Doing what we want, saying how we feel.”
“whether we’re playing to 4 people or 400,000 people as long as we’re enjoying it, our biggest goal is to become self sustaining. We could release our own records, merch, play what we want and have enough of a fan base there that support us and love what we do. We want to do this as a full time thing, so we don’t need to rely on other people. Doing what we want, saying how we feel.”
The band will host a launch for their new drummer around March which should coincide with a small tour and the release of their single: "You’ll see us everywhere, world domination taking it one step at a time till we’ve eaten every other band. Well, that’s the plan anyway.” An optimistic start to 2016 i'm sure.
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