Gig Review - Everyday Apathy

GIG REVIEW:

EVERYDAY APATHY

Words and photos by Jenny Jung @ENIGMA BAR

When I met up with Everyday Apathy (EA) at their first headlining gig as a local band at Enigma Bar, there wasn’t a hint of nervousness in their expressions. Rather, they were as I had always known them – laid-back, warm, and a hell of a crowd to hang out with. They’d been moshing, they said as we headed downstairs for some air, that’s why they were so sweaty.

Everyday Apathy is a 5-piece indie band from right here in quaint little Adelaide, but their stage presence and energy does not give that away.

Fronted by Julian Renner on vocals, EA consists of two guitarists – Max Docherty-Kenny and Jeremy Wojak – a bassist, Rafael Aquino, and drummer Jay Helbers. They all went to the same high school, all with an affinity to playing music and a love for the indie rock scene. Perhaps it is this closeness and long history that allows them to play all together with great chemistry. You can tell that they’ve become more acquainted with playing gigs — this is their third one, with some more locked down — and their ability to engage an audience and get them jumping around is impressive. I think that part of what generates this level of excitement in the audience (apart from the fact that the bar is 10 feet away from the stage) is the sincerity and intensity with which they play.

They start off their set with their first and newest single, Heavens Gate, a title which apparently takes inspiration from the infamous cult of the same name. The riff is punchy and coy, reminiscent of the Strokes’ earlier tracks, namely Trying your Luck and its moody minor melody. But it’s not completely derivative either, and their contemporary indie pop influence is also noticeable alongside this obvious homage to the Strokes, particularly in the structure of the song. For a debut single of a local band with no industry connection or recording expertise, Heavens Gate is truly an impressive effort - and I think this is the perfect time to say that EA is one of those bands that are better live, which in fairness owes to the limited resources for recording and mixing their very first track. Despite this newness, you can tell that they’re seasoned players of their respective instruments. Heavens Gate lacks the messy self-indulgence that is characteristic of any artist’s first public release. Instead, the arrangement feels sleek and intentional; packed with riffs, exciting

The rest of the set is mostly originals, sprinkled with the occasional cover. If you’re not an indie scene veteran and only recognized I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor out of the 3 covers they did (guilty as charged), you would have believed it if you were told they were all EA original songs – that is, their originals were of comparable quality to the songs of the seasoned indie masters. Everyone left sweaty, exclaiming how amazing the gig was, and disappointed when the set ended. Everyday Apathy is a truly promising indie outfit that I would be proud to have hailed from the same small, ‘nothing-going-on’ town as, and that is saying a lot. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

INTERVIEW WITH EVERYDAY APATHY

I know you guys all went to the same school, but what brought you all together to start Everyday Apathy?

JULIAN: The band was originally called Blimp On The Floor when we started the band in year 12. It started when Jay and Jeremy wanted to perform at Infinite Echo which is like a school concert sort of thing, which we were involved in because we did music. Max was too but he was in a different friendship group at the time and in a different band with the current singer from Overdue Fiction.

JEREMY: Julian offered to take singing lessons in order to front the band and then we set about finding a bass player. Raf knew how to sort of play guitar which is basically the same thing as bass so he joined. Max joined later after we played a few small gigs at school and at my house and once Julian gave up on trying to play both guitar and sing he could just focus on one.

Everyday Apathy – who came up with that name? Did it take a lot of convincing to get everyone on board?

JULIAN: Finding a name is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced as a band I would say, as we didn’t like our original name. So we just ended up sticking with a name that someone suggested that no one said no to, one that we were all sorta apathetic to. But we had a lot of alternate suggestions spanning years, some that I prefer but others don’t and that’s fine, it’s a democracy whatever I’m not hurt.

What inspired you to write Heavens Gate?

MAX: I came up with the riff and progression a few months ago, but it took a while until Julian and I put it together with a chorus we were happy with. We spent a long time trying to get this circle of fifths thing to work for the chorus but it sounded way too corny so we ended up changing it to the one we have now.

JULIAN: Inspiration is a weird thing, I’d say most of our songs just come from the desire to write songs, we’re always coming up with riffs and chord progressions that we can later use in songs which is sorta what happened with this one. It went through a few iterations like we had the verse

done and we were super happy with it, well at least I was, and then we left it for a while, came back to it to try a chorus, didn’t like it and then ended up settling on this one months later. The lyrics always come from different places, I’d say with this one it was latching onto that first verse and trying to pull a story out of that. A sort of feeling like you’ve done a hard day’s work which ended up turning into a revenge story weirdly enough. I’d say there are lots of different interpretations I think, because I never really write about just one thing. Is it weird that I’m reading my own lyrics right now and I have no idea what on earth I was on about?

As a small band just starting out, what were some of the biggest challenges you faced in getting yourself out there?

RAFAEL: Finding the impetus to reach out to all the small venues in Adelaide and organise gigs. Also staying consistent with our output on social media to make sure people still remember we exist.

JEREMY: Trying to consistently practise and improve amid all the covid restrictions was a real challenge. Since we are all students and have jobs, finding a regular time we’re all free to practice has been difficult. The restrictions also prevented us from throwing more gigs and sharing the music we’ve been working on.

Who is the biggest influence on your band’s sound and songwriting?

MAX: The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys are our biggest influences, but we also love post-punk bands like Joy Division and The Cure, and Japanese rock like No Buses. We’re essentially creating Post-dance-punk-indie-alternative-revival rock or whatever will get us the most adjectives.

JULIAN: I’d say what we are really trying to write is our own style of indie rock danceable music, the sorta stuff I know I grew up listening to like The Wombats, Vampire Weekend as well as the ones Max said but like drawing inspiration from so many places from rap to rock to dance as well as that fast paced post punk sorta stuff. A lot of it comes from whatever we’re listening to at the time and in the end I think we’re still finding our sound even if we’ve hit a place where I’m pretty solidly happy with the songs we’re writing right now. I’d say the only thing we try to hold ourselves to right now is grounding ourselves in guitar based music, writing for the band so we don’t have to pay for a keyboardist. Maybe in the future or if someone wants to play keyboard for free.

A song recommendation from each of you for our readers?

MAX: Secrecy Is Incredibly Important to the Both of Them - Yves Tumor JULIEN: Number Four or Five - No Buses JEREMY: Bougainvillea - Sly Withers RAF: Tricks - Stella Donnelly JAY: Tidal Wave - Tom Misch, Yussef Dayes