“Expect Herculean things from Everest in 2008” – LAist
These guys have spent time in bands such as Sebadoh, the Folk Implosion,
Earlimart, Mike Stinson, Slydell, John Vanderslice, and the Watson Twins.
Everest was formed by Russell Pollard (vocals, guitar, drums), J. Soda
(guitar, keyboards, vocals), Rob Douglas (bass, vocals), and Joel Graves
(guitar, keyboards, vocals) and Derek Brown (drums).
The result is the epic Ghost Notes out on Vapor Records this spring
Listen to “Rebels In the Roses” from Ghost Notes
Upcoming Tour Dates:
5.6- Amoeba Records- album release performance- Los Angeles, CA
5.8- Pink Elephant- San Diego, CA
5.9- McCabes Guitar Shop- Special Acoustic Show- West Los Angeles
5.12- Check 1-2 Night at the Viper Room, Los Angeles
5.16- Late Night With Conan, NYC
More Press Love:
“#1 band to look out for in 2008” – You Set The Scene
“Newcomers/frickin’ all-stars” – Rock Insider
“More heart than the Tin Man could’ve hoped to obtain and enormous talent,
to boot” – LA2DAY
“Everest? Hellfire.” – Radio Free Silverlake
A short few Chapters on Everest:
Chapter 1: Everest? You are a band.
When discussing the formation of the band with the members, one word seems
to come up time and time again  natural. They may have already been
friends, but it took future Ghost Notes producer Mike Terry to be the
catalyst. As Graves explains, “We had a long conversation and he said, ‘You
guys need to stop all these different projects and support each other.’ It
took an outside person to tell us the obvious.”
Chapter 2: Play shows for yourself, not for the crowd.
Shortly after the band began playing live in 2007, local press in Los
Angeles began to pick up a vibration from the stage uncommon in the scene.
The band’s collective touring experience, chemistry, and unabashed passion
for playing was infectious. For the crowd, each show is also it’s own
“unique snowflake”, as bassist Rob Douglas points out, “We
always try to play a different show each time, by changing songs,
arrangements, and order.” Guitarist J. Soda adds, “There’s a certain amount
of trust that’s happening on stage that makes the shows really fun.”
Chapter 3: It¹s time to make a record, and make it fast.
In August 2007, the band entered Elliott Smith’s former room, New Monkey
Studio, to document the music. Ghost Notes was made on classic vintage
equipment with producer/engineer Mike Terry recording and mixing the entire
album to analog tape. You may be asking yourself, “What, no computers?”
Nope. The album was recorded in two weeks, mixed in one week in November,
and mastered one afternoon a few days later. Phew. It all happened pretty
fast. Most of the songs were tracked with the entire band playing live
together.
Chapter 4: Welcome Home, Everest – Now, hit the road!
When the band signed with Vapor Records, the label presented them with a
cake that said “Welcome Home Everest.” To Pollard, it was another step down
a road he’d always hoped to be on. “I¹d wanted to be on Vapor before I knew
they might be interested. It’s Neil Young’s label, so obviously it was
somewhere I wanted to be.”
This May, the band will get the chance to pile into a van and do what they
do best: play their music live and continue writing songs together. Douglas
points out, “We have a definite pedigree in terms of things we’ve done in
the past, but we’re lucky that we’re all coming into our own now in this
band. It feels like we found each other at the right time.” Good timing is
just another natural part of it. Pollard sums it up well when he says, “I
feel very free about it, watching it go in whatever direction it wants to.”