December 5, 2025 • 36 mins
Her name is Amanda Lyberg and she's got things to say. Amanda is the lead singer of Eva Under Fire and while you might be thinking "wait, isn't her name Eva Marie?" well, it was. Or, at least that's what they wanted you to believe. Who's they? Lets answer that question and more on this week's episode of Cutter's Rockcast.
New Eva Under Fire song "Awakening" is out now.
New Eva Under Fire song "Awakening" is out now.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Attention please and no it Cutters rock Cast. I know
four hundred and thirty seven episodes in I'm gonna finally
give you an intro. First of all, thank you for
hitting play on this podcast. I truly appreciate it. Like subscribe, share,
do all the things. There is a video version of
these as well on my YouTube channel. This is Cutter Media.
But this is the og, this is what we've been doing,
(00:21):
this is how it started. Cutters Rock Cast turned into
the radio show Cutting Edge Countdown that you can hear
on a dozen different radio stations across the country throughout
the weekend. The conversations you get on Cutters rod Cast
are those, except they're uncut, they're unedited, there's no script,
there's no holds barred, and this week on Cutter's rod
Cast is a great example of that. The band is
Eva under Fire. The lead singer's name is not even Marie.
(00:44):
Although that may be of what you heard a couple
of years ago when they officially hit mainstream radio in
the mainstream music world, that is not the case. Her
name is Amanda Leibrook. They started out as a garage
rock and roll band, just like any other rock and
roll band. Did, just like I did, just like maybe
you did, like so many other people did. It's not
a record contract. The record label goes, hey, try this,
(01:04):
and now they're going no, we're gonna do our way.
Those are the kind of stories we love in the
music industry. EVA under Fire joining me this week on
Cutter's road cast.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Hey, how are you.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm okay, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Good? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Thank you for being here. I'm just I'm messing around
with the audio drivers right now.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Sure, no problem. Technical difficulty is actually our specialty.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, I gotta you know. This is really stupid store.
I got this eat a new audio driver, and I
thought it would work, and I have it hooked up
through an analog system. That's fine, that's just speakers. But
I can't get the audio from the computer to record
back into audition with Adobe, which is what I use.
(02:00):
It's a set of pro tools, so like I can't.
I'm like, this is whatever.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It won't do the loop thing.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
It won't do the loop thing, won't do the thing,
and it's really pissing me off. But that's our I
also can't get it to pick up the other channel
because I was trying to do guitar in vocals the
other day and that didn't work either. But whatever, you know,
this is not supposed to turn into a bitch session,
so I apologize.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh I think it was going to do that anyway,
because I have a lot of things to tell you.
I started this morning riproaring at like ten am, like
screw this. Everybody's doing this stupid thing and it's not
what I want. Yeah, so I I totally I feel that.
And also technology issues are the bane of my existence.
(02:46):
So I hear that.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
When did you guys start recording? Like what point you're what?
Like what what year?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Recording professionally or just like screwing around.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
We all just screw around these days, let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
But yeah, yes, screwing around like out twenty fourteen in
this project, twenty sixteen in this project.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So Eva Underfire started messing around with stuff about ten
years ago. Yep, okay, So were we already at the
kind of weird digital age where everything's supposed to sort
of map together but it doesn't actually do that. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, Because when we first started screwing around all of
our complications, when it was supposed to sink and it
wouldn't sank and we couldn't figure out the thing. We
would just stick our phone in the cushion of the
couch and that would like compress it enough that at
least jamming in a room was like you could hear
the parts audibly. That was it. That was the closest
(03:42):
that you could get. That was our demo couch recordings.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Also, no, that's way better. That's way better than the
stuff I pulled off when out because when I started,
it was probably like ninety six, like I was, you know,
young teenager, and it was the task AM four track,
and then that I thought was the coolest thing ever.
I'm like, oh my god, I just put like a
set tape in and I can hit record and I
can record like vocals and guitar at the same time,
(04:11):
and that the same thing I mean you're doing. You're
doing all kinds of weird tricks in different places to
try to get sounds that make sense, and it's ends
up being and you finish and you're like, oh my god,
we recorded a song. This is amazing. I'm gonna get this.
Oh yeah, I played on the radio. You know, I
don't know. It's like so dumb. You know that when
you look back at it, but at the time anyway,
and here we are all these years later, and it's
(04:31):
the same issues, just with different technology.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I'm telling you. I tell people this all the time.
Nothing is new under the time, you guys, what are
we really freaking out about? Nothing is new under the time.
This is that a set of problems has existed like
this in various shapes and sizes across time.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Sure, for as long as there's been time. Yeah, there
have been these issues. Yeah right, yeah, Eva under Fire
is the band this week? What you guys been like?
It's you know, a couple of years ago when we
got to meet, I learned all about you and learned
all about the band, and it's such an interesting premise
(05:12):
and and and everything, and the music obviously was on fire.
And then it's kind of felt like you disappeared for
a moment.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah yeah, not electively. Not electively. That's that's the I'm
going to tell you about the suits. Okay, great. You
know I we have a love hate relationship, and I
think most artists who have a team would say that
that's true, right, they have a love hate relationship for
all of the messy things that we've been through on
(05:42):
this label and with management and with booking. Right, if
I knew all of that, I would still sign the
same the same contract today.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I would.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
We would just never have gotten the opportunities that we've
gotten to this point. I mean, we've we've played in Europe,
We've done all the right. We had a song at
radio which is, like you said, the dream when you
start as a kid with Couchkuchen Recordings, right, like right,
I've done the things right, but it gets very complicated
in the industry and the business right the very So
(06:18):
we have plans to release a second album. The second
album is done, turned in, I have a name, I
have a concept. It's going to be the most rawest,
realist stuff that you've ever heard from us. Because we're
mad at this point that it's taken. It feels like
a million years, right, because we're it's we started writing
(06:42):
these songs January of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, I mean that's a year ago and half almost two. Yeah,
it's November now, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Okay, I don't know why it takes this long. I
don't know why it makes it. It drives me nuts
because we were in La for ten days we wrote
like no, no, no. We were in La for like
fourteen days. We wrote like ten songs, and then we
came back and we were like cool, almost done right, and.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
They were like, let's go Yeah, sounds simple.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Oh you would think, And then there was a million
different things that came up because once you start working
with other people, then you also work with other people's schedules.
And so the person that we recorded with went on tour,
didn't have half his rig, couldn't get us the thing
until I don't know a while later, and then when
(07:41):
we got it, it wasn't what we were anticipating. So
then we have to go back do the thing again.
Take all the fancy pants things off, get back down
to Hey, we recorded this with guitars? Why does it
sound like? Basically like an EDM album?
Speaker 1 (07:58):
We were like too much electronic all the production.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Where did the guitar go? We played guitars on the song.
Where did the guitar go? What? No? So then it
was that for two years, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Two years.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, But then because we would get it done and
then all of a sudden we wanted to go back
and then you know, the suits as they were were like, hey,
we don't have a song like this. Can we do
a song like this? We have turned in twenty one songs.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
The Search for the Guitar, even under Fire Part two.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And listen now. I love what we came up with
in that same studio with that particular person. I'll just
say it. We recorded with John London, and I love
John so much, but he's a creative and he is
like the Beasny is when it comes to like hearing
my vocal and then like figuring out where that's supposed
(08:52):
to go in the song. I wrote the song. It's
called tell Me I'm Beautiful, and I had the verse
was what he heard as the hook, and I was
like really. He was like, yeah, dude, that's the hook
for sure. He was like watch this, and so he
takes it and he spat it up a little bit
and I could I could hear it, and I was like, oh,
that's sweet, and he was like, we don't want to
(09:13):
do He was like, you know, we want bouncy riffs
and things like that. Right, My guys were talking about
we want bouncy rifts like corn right. But he was like, well,
why are you playing it with that guitar, then you
need you need a baritone guitar. Drop drop that.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Drop that shit, you know, drop it down, you know,
and we were like okay, and sure enough it was like,
oh that feels great, you know. So like he was really,
really what you want in a producer is to take
all of the artists things that they're handing you and
make it make sense, right, don't change it and make
it something completely different and like tell a new story
(09:49):
or like force it to be in a lane that
it's not meant to go in. He was like, I mean,
but he's also an artist, right, he sings for Point
North so they went on tour. I was like, he's
like the greatest blend of like producer slash artist and
like can really get in the in the weeds with you,
and I love that about him.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
He was one of my favorite guests I've had on
the show in the last couple of years, only because
as a I mean, as you can tell, right, I'm
also a little bit of a musician, although a bad one.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Noah, you can't be.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
You got an orange amplifier, but the Marshall's stack with
a Marshall stack to go with it.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, because that's what was on sale Guitar Center at
that time. That I needed any speaker cabinet anyway, and
I didn't want the Giant one. I just wanted the
two twelve anyway because I'm tired of carrying that shit around.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, sounds like pretty broke musician stuff to me.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Bro exactly exactly so anyway, but I got to nerd
out with him like he it was so fun to
just like, oh wait, he started talking about sounds and
different stuff and I'm like, see this this is And
I don't know that anybody cared or listen to that conversation.
Probably not, but they should because it's it's so cool
and I love because I've had other producers onto and
(11:03):
it's I love doing that. Matt Good was just here,
you know, a few weeks ago, and obviously from the
first Last is back at it, but he's such a
great producer as well. You know, I love talking to
those guys or girls because there's just something you really learn,
something I feel like, So, yeah, John's one of the
smartest guys of that I mean, just really really great dude.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He's so good.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But how do you screw up your album?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, it wasn't screwed up. It was just delayed because
he went on tour, Like screw him for going on tour,
and like you know with that success. Yeah but right, yeah,
so sorry, he's also in a successful project that freakin' rocks,
right yeah, But but it was his creative vision was
really the impetus for like all of album too, Like
the sonically album two was because we met with John
(11:46):
first and we did songs that we loved immediately, and
we called A and R and we were like, we
got to do the album.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
With this guy.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah right, So and then we wrote with a couple
of other people too on the project. We wrote with
our hometown boys in Michigan that did the first album
with us. We wrote with Grant and Carson Uh in Pennsylvania.
They did wonderful work with us. We did a couple
songs with Eric Ronn that was super fun. So like
there was a lot of you know, there's a lot
(12:13):
of heavy muscle on this album that like we were
we got in there with the you know, some some
really great people that Stevens was in there, uh and
it did a song with me just directly and I
love that, Like Scott contacted the label and was like,
I we wrote with him on album one and it
was mostly just a demo thing because of COVID weirdness
(12:35):
and schedules and blah blah blah. So we didn't actually
get anything to come across the finish line with Scott,
but the fact that he wanted me back was so wonderful.
So I felt really honored to do that with him,
because he's written with some big names as well. So
on all that to say, you know, we kept tap
dancing around, Oh, we didn't get this, and we didn't
get that, we didn't get that, and this is the
(12:58):
stuff that we kept hearing from the label, was like
we want more, we want more, we want more, And
I'm like, how much more do we really want When
it's going to be like a twelve song album, it's
going to be like a third I managed to strong
earn them into thirteen songs by the way the album,
But it's just like that process took so long, and
(13:19):
it was mostly just because we had all of these
wonderful minds in the room together, but all of those
minds have schedules and you know what I mean, So
it was just it really felt so frustrating eventually, because
we were like, we've given what we feel like we
need on this album. And so eventually what I started
doing was like, I'll go right with whoever we want
(13:41):
to write with. I'll go do the thing that the
suits would have me do. But it was all going
to serve the same principles and the same concept. So
now I've built in my brain this whole like concept album.
The album is called Villainous. Every single theme is a
different song on all of these twenty one whatever it becomes,
(14:03):
twenty one songs. Across these twenty one songs, every single
song has a purpose within the Villainous world. Each of
those songs is going to get their own like artwork piece,
and that is going to be a different location at
which something has happened within this Villainous world. So I
(14:23):
basically I've built my own I've built my own Gotham,
and I'm really excited for people to hear. Awakening is
not only the first song that you've heard from us,
but it's the first song that goes on the album,
and then the album ends with a song called a
Violent End, and it's just everything that I thought my
(14:45):
dream was. I had to go through so much shit
to get here, and I needed people to understand that, Like,
I have so many more feelings about that. There's things
I've been through my personal life. There's things I've been
through my professional life. There's like my band it's that
are good. Just guys that I literally grew up with
playing in the same garage with all feel this too,
(15:06):
and so some of these songs are their version of
the story. Also, they this journey is of self discovery,
and I really think it's it's definitely I mean, I
know a lot of people say this, but it certainly
work that we are most proud of.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, so when I'm gonna fill in the blank forming here,
you said you had like twelve or thirteen songs done,
but now there's twenty one songs.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I have twenty one songs turned in. Only twelve or
thirteen of them get to go on the second album.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Oh right, I got you so, but there are twenty one. Okay,
so thirteen songs get to go on the album, which
is half basically of what you've written. Right, So then,
how do you have the vision? I don't want to
say this, how do you have sort of the vision
flow the way you wanted to flow the story flow
that we wanted to flow with sort of missing pieces.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So I think that the way that we do the
storytelling is less important to me as far as the
order of the concept. The concept itself and that it
exists is what is most important to me. Each one
of those pieces will have its moment, but I don't
know at what order, and I guess that's less important
to me, right, in the same way I'm I guess
(16:23):
certain movies that you experience, right, some of them have
a really linear storytelling fashion. Other things they go back
and they're like twelve years ago, right, So it can
jump all over the place. And so I didn't want
to be beholden too like the way that we tell
the story. Just that the story exists and that all
the pieces exist is what I was focused on.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Okay, Okay, So but you could in essence then have
So you have the first Eva Underfire record from a
couple of years ago. It's a good piece of music.
Enjoy it, love it, crank it up, blow still a
great song. You have now Wakening, which is the first
track from a new Eva Underfire album that's forthcoming. But
then you could you have part two already done. So
(17:09):
you know, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Villainous means you're just never going to get rid of
me now because because they one son is a villain,
the villain and uh and and what's that?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Because now you're the villain. You can do you want?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, we do what we want. I can tell the
story whatever we would want. We could say, I can
give you the ending and the first or the beginning first,
or and then I'll skip to the skip to the
middle after that, you know whatever.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Uh, Tarantino, hold on right, It's that's that's the thing
is like.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I also think that it was important for me on
this body of work to not shy away from my
personal experience. A lot of what John London was great
at was taking songs ideas that I had brought and
giving that space to turn into something amazing. Taking these demos,
(18:06):
taking these ideas, these lyrics that I had. There's another
song called Hello Hollow that I wrote when my dad died.
I mean that was years ago, right, My dad passed
away in twenty eighteen, and I just I never had
I never had the right people hearing me, hearing the
pain in that voice. And now it's become one of
(18:27):
our in ours like Biggest, that's like a high point
for them. They're like I love that song, you know,
And I was like, this is so cool because that
one's like a page out of my diary, like from
years ago, and I just never you know, all that
The first album was wonderful. Love, Drugs and Misery was
a great jump point, but it felt too clean and
(18:51):
it felt too you know, watered down, and I think
those things were were still you know, fun, like Unstoppable
is fun, Blow is fun. Unstoppable as my parents love story,
you know, but it really didn't get to the gritty part.
It really didn't get to be angry or mean or contemplate,
(19:16):
you know, this darker side of self that comes with
age and maturity and experience. I have that.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I'm glad you said the darker side of self because
when listening to that album, there are it's it's musically
even it's a riff rock record. I mean, it's just right.
There's some great guitar riffs, some good work, there's some
good music, there's melodies, all of that, but it is
sort of like I'm not going to say it's lack
substance because I don't think it lacks substance, but it's
(19:45):
it is. It doesn't get you down into it. When
listening to Awakening, it's a fun listen, you know what
I mean. When listening to this song Awakening, as I
did again to try to dissect it a little bit
more before we chatted, it has that gothier darker and
you said gotham. I thought that's a great that's a
(20:06):
great example because it has that sort of grittiness to
it that I don't know. Your voice kind of fits that,
and there's something you can tell, there's something there.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's more desperate this time. I felt like when we
say we want to be more real or more authentic,
I think that the thing that I'm hoping that we'll
translate is that there is a lot that we have
been through that is. It's not clean. It's it's really
tough stuff. It's really gritty, it's really nasty. This business
(20:38):
is a nasty energy is. There's so much about it
that is it feels glitzy and glamorous at first, you know,
and then all of a sudden you're in it for
a minute and you kind of you see a different
side of people, and you see a different side of
the industry of places, you know, like nobody wants to
(21:02):
book you and you haven't released music in a few years,
you know, all of a sudden, people that you thought were,
you know, cheering you on, and maybe they were at
one point, right, but now it's like we've been way
too long and we know that, and we we had
been pushing to not do that for years. We've been
we've been begging booking, like, let's do headline stuff. Let's
(21:23):
do headline stuff. Let's go back to the markets that
we had so much fun and we wanted. We want to,
we want to, we wanna. It wasn't a big enough
was it.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's interesting to me because in order to get every
musician knows right, in order to get your feet underneath you, you
have to go play. You have to go play live.
You have to play on a stage, even if it's
in front of five people, you have to play on
a stage.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yes, we're a garage band.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Still, Like, it's not for lack of you need more
of that for us, right, Like we just need the
team to listen.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Like and that was just the part that was just
blowing my mind, was so frustrating. What do you mean
it's about how it looks. No, it's not. None of
this is about how it looks. Rock music is about
feel because if they don't feel it, they don't want it. It
doesn't resonate, and that's where it stops. So I was like,
this is this hold like clean energy, this like raw
(22:22):
raw type of energy, this whole like you know, I
guess basically last time, you know, we joke in the
band like we released an arena rock album, then nobody
knew who we were, you know, So like I we
finally said, no, no, we're not listening anymore to what
you want us to be. We're not listening anymore to
how you're gonna direct us on how this is supposed
(22:45):
to go. Right, No, put me back in the bars.
People feel it when we're in the bars, but put
us back in the globs. You know. We just went
out with on a run with Buck Cherry. It was awesome,
small rooms, four hundred cap let's go like, that's what
I need and if they want and that serves, that's
(23:05):
that's what I'm talking about. When we say villainous like
we don't want all the glods and things anymore, that's fake.
That's fake. That's not real that doesn't breed any real
energy or legacy or allow you to like and I
love the big stages that we've been on. Blessed, we
are truly blessed to have been able to experience those things.
(23:26):
But it is not sustainable riding other people's coattails. We're
we're not. And because of that, we did some rearranging
within our team because they weren't listening.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Sometimes it's got to be that way.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
It's got to be that way. It's got to be
because it's not sustainable to just not go back and
do the thing where you're in there with people and
in there with listeners and in there with other rockers
that just love you know. And I recently went to
a show with the Shelter and I hadn't been down
there in a while. And you know, when I was
(24:01):
sixteen years old, they used to throw a bunch of locals,
like fifteen of us on one bill and call it
like a local showcase. Oh yeah, like friends and come
up and blah blah.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
We did that in the Midwest too, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
My very first show ever was Saint Andrew's Hall upstairs,
big room, like crazy. But I went down to the shelter,
and I was like, this is where people want to
be at. It's so small and intimate and that allows
people to really like be up close and personal with
the music that they love so much. And I feel like,
(24:37):
in trying to chase the stream, maybe some somewhere along
the line, we had forgotten that it feels really good
to get back to those shows.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, I don't know, there's something about it, right, Like
I was joking around, I've started playing cover bands because
I'm a radio DJ. I do a morning radio show.
Is this syndicated radio show? Like I'm married now, Like
I just whatever, make a little extra money and still
be able to play a guitar and play some riffs. Right.
So a friend of mine, we're just jamming. We started
this during COVID. It was an acoustic thing and then it
turned into electric thing where we literally just here's the
(25:08):
basics of a song. We just go play that and
which is jamm it. Sometimes that song lasts ten minutes,
sometimes it lasts two minutes. We stopped doing that recently
because of his a life change in his So I
started talking to some guys. I'm like, this is what
I want, man, I just want to I want to
like three piece band, or you look at the guys
or girls in that band and you know what they
sound like. Yeah, you know, you know, like I ride
(25:31):
a motorcycle, I have a beard, like I have tattoos.
Like somebody looks at me. It's like, I'm not playing
cure songs, you know what I mean. I love the cure,
but that's probably not where you're get to get And
you go into those into those places with those kinds
of people and you do the things and the funnest
excuse my language, fucking things, you know what I mean
(25:52):
that you can do. Do you know a Raven Milwaukee? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, we love that place.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So I played there like twenty some years ago. I
played my first gig there and and I'm in a
band at the time. It was called LD fifty and
ended up being a little short lived. But we played
in the bar there and it was like ten people.
And you know, we played in the bar there, and
there was another another band playing in the rave itself.
It's one of those nights where like all three rooms
(26:19):
had bands in it, and like we were the in
between basically in the bar, and but we got to
go sign the pool and you know what I mean.
And to me, although nobody was there to see it,
it's one of the coolest moments in my life. You know,
I'll never forget it because I grew up going to
that place.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, so it's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
That's the cool real thing about rock and roll that
you're talking about. Get in those rooms and just do
those things with the like minded people.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yes, yeah, and that's why I mean, we did what
we did on this album. We we and that's why
we want to go back and play, you know, smaller clubs,
and you know, because we also started hearing about you know,
some of that. It's very it's very cool that you
(27:04):
bring up like the visual because I had colored hair
and crazy wild color makeup and like we'd get out
there with our like glitter guitars and like play some
cool rock music. Some of it was really meaningful, yeah,
but some of it was also just take your brain
out and have fun. So like we started getting some feedback,
like nobody knows what to do with us, Nobody knows
(27:27):
what to what to make that. I was like, all right, boys,
time to take a mask off them. Nobody knows how
to just take their brain out and have fun and
let it be a thing. That's fine, because we really
haven't been having a lot of fun out here anyway.
It's been problem after problem and constant battle and struggle
and all of these things just to portray an image
online like oh, we're having so much fun and we're
(27:48):
doing all these things, and we're while we were doing them,
it was fun. But as soon as like we hit
like a screeching halt, we were like, what the fuck happened?
You know what I mean? Like so so now all
of a sudden, it's like, oh, people, this is some
of the things that we heard, like from I guess
the suits right. Our contemporaries didn't know what to do
(28:12):
with us because you know, of the look right, or
of the look didn't match the sound, or like people
thought that the band was hired because they would just
see my face online. I was like, no, they just
hate being in front of a camera and pretending, so
we're just not. I'm the one singing songs in my
(28:33):
bedroom with my microphone and putting it on TikTok, right,
Like this is they don't know. Nobody knows. Nobody knows
that I've been singing since I could talk, and my father,
who bought me my first microphone, died of a heroin overdose.
Nobody knows that, Like, while I wrote the song Heroin
(28:59):
I was, I was actually just Niagara Falls in the
studio that day, and that was like never supposed to
be a single because it wasn't written to be a hook.
Nobody knows that we're still a band of friends who
have literally known each other for twenty years that still
play in my garage and we're the only pro band
(29:19):
that I know that pulls up in a twelve passenger
van and loads their own shit, Like nobody knows. How
do we get them to know? Like, well, first you
got to take all the you know, people are like, oh,
you've got your natural hair. I'm like, yeah, that's all
you'll see from me from now on. And my name's
not Eva either, my name is Amanda. So we're gonna
we're just gonna set the record straight. So like all
(29:41):
of that went into Villainous and Gotham, and you know,
because people say they don't know what to do with me,
you don't know who I am?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Well, yeah, no, wonder why right if you don't know?
Speaker 2 (29:52):
You know what I mean? Like, what do you mean?
I people don't know that by day I'm a therapist.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I didn't actually ask you about that because I'm wondering
how much of this do you take your sort of
day job, right, your sort of Bruce Wayne part of
your persona, and use that as the Batman part of
your persona, especially being a therapist and understanding how words
and themes and theories and all that work within the psyche.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I provide therapy to other people in my day today,
and I because I'm very invested. I love humans. I
love people for all the problems that we have. Connections,
interpersonal relationships is so important to me because we're all
on the same rock and existence is a real hard thing, right,
(30:45):
So I wanted to have meaningful conversations with others about
how they could live their best life, and I got
to do that. But therapy is my version of writing music.
Writing lyrics is my version of therapy, right. That's how
I process my stuff. That's my journaling, right, And I
just so happened to be able to sing, so I
(31:08):
have quite a range to be able to get that
to be you know, other people so that they can
hear that. So then my journaling gets to be you know,
auditory in the sense of writing music. And so that's
I guess that's how it is for me. My day job,
(31:28):
I give that to others and by night I process
that through my music.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, and music helps all of that and having that
outlet obviously of art, whether it whatever it may be
in our case music.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
And that's why the second album was so important to me,
because I felt like the water down first album, you know,
I mean, like you said, it's a fun listen, but
it just doesn't get below the surface a lot, right,
Like there's moments comatos Heroin, Right, there's moments, but like
I wanted to tell them to be like, we have
to shatter that surface. We have to go deep. This
(32:06):
is this is self discovery. This is I wrote a
song called Dark Soul about, you know, I became a
different person losing a parent and having to you know,
kind of go through that process with my my you know,
my father had passed from a drug over dose, my
mother was getting clean, my brother was caught in the mix.
(32:27):
There was so much about that, like I had to
become a different person. Usually I'm like rainbows and butterflies
are great, right, that required a different energy. People don't
see that side of me. They don't know that side
of me. I didn't know that was in there until
I had to use it. And so when I wrote
the song Dark Soul, it's me looking myself in the mirror,
going are you here to stay? Are you? Am I
(32:49):
supposed to be this? Now? Is this just not? I'm
never going to be able to get that innocence back? Right?
So where do you go when the light to go out? Right? Like?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Those?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Are you know? Some of these lyrics? It's like I've
been sitting on this stuff for like two years, and
I'm so ready for people to hear it because I
want I want to be understood. But part of it's
like I had to write all this out so I
could figure it out myself.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, Amanda, the first time we talked, because I knew
your name was Amanda, and I'm like, okay, what we're
calling her? Eva? It was a little confusing, So you're
not wrong, and like I get why there might have
been some people were like, what do we do? Don't understand?
And I'm glad you took it upon yourselves and just
did what it is you want to do, because I
(33:35):
think that's important as an artist.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, it is, and it's stepping into our own in
that way. And I do think it's becoming an artist,
you know, less of the Dog and Pony Show. And
I love that there was space for that, right, Like
on the first album, we didn't know what we wanted,
and I think that's a lot of artists. They don't
know what to do or what to want, or what
to say or how to say it. And you know,
people were coming up to me at the shows and
they were asking, are you Eva right? Because the name
(33:58):
is Evander Fire. It just assumed right, or like Eva
Eva right. So like at first it felt like a
crown that listeners gave me, and I wanted to honor that.
It was also a way for me to separate because
Amanda is a psychotherapist and if Eva Underfire has Eva
fans that want to be clients, I can't ethically do that, right,
(34:19):
So I tried to keep the two identities clean. But
it's so funny that you say the Bruce Wayne thing,
because now that I'm talking about it out loud, of
like Jesus, this is my experience. This is like what
I this is, this is what I anyway, But yeah,
so I had to figure that out. And you know,
nobody calls me Eva in my real life. But it
(34:40):
started as a song reference and then it just felt
like a really strong you know, woman fronted band deserves
a really strong woman fronted name. And that was it.
That was all that it was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
And hey, look this way, with a new version of
songs and sounds, not only can you with buck Cherry,
but you can also play with Ice tink Kills. So
you know it just it were say that just because
Spencer was on a song, of course, But anyway, listen,
before our time runs out, I want to make sure
this information gets out. Evander Fire new song is called Awakening,
(35:15):
that is available now. It's the start of a whole
story process. Yes, the new album is once again called
I Don't want to screw it up villainous, villainous? Okay,
uh villainous? Do we know when that will be out?
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Are you willing to say I'm going to manifest this
and say spring twenty twenty six. I love it good
looks because I'm done waiting. I'm gonna wrangle the troops
and say so.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
It still seems like a long wait, but then I
remember we're in winter. Now winter is here. It has come.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
We won't allow me to do things over Thanksgiving because
everybody's too busy eating turkey.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
So yeah, well thanks for right. So I actually still
thanks for still doing something with me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
No, I love this, Thank you for this outlet. Like
I said, sorry to turn this into it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Oh, you're fine playing session. You're fine because I'm like,
I'm like, you know, before we talked, I'm like, okay,
well it's been a while, so we got to find
out which she's been up to you with the band's
been up to you. There's got to be new music. Obviously,
there's this new song Awakening. I don't know where to
go from there. So you turn it into a whole thing.
So I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much. Also, if
people will see us on the road and want to
come hang out, we are also playing some stuff that's
unreleased just because we feel like it. The one song
is called My Own Name, and it's about shedding that
whole evonderfire persona or.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Love that when you guys go out on the road.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So we have something that we haven't released information yet,
but look for us in February. Lots of dates coming
in February.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Thank you a Manda so much. Good to see you,
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Good to see your friend. Calls rock Cast.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Don't forget to tune in exactly
Attention please and no it Cutters rock Cast. I know
four hundred and thirty seven episodes in I'm gonna finally
give you an intro. First of all, thank you for
hitting play on this podcast. I truly appreciate it. Like subscribe, share,
do all the things. There is a video version of
these as well on my YouTube channel. This is Cutter Media.
But this is the og, this is what we've been doing,
(00:21):
this is how it started. Cutters Rock Cast turned into
the radio show Cutting Edge Countdown that you can hear
on a dozen different radio stations across the country throughout
the weekend. The conversations you get on Cutters rod Cast
are those, except they're uncut, they're unedited, there's no script,
there's no holds barred, and this week on Cutter's rod
Cast is a great example of that. The band is
Eva under Fire. The lead singer's name is not even Marie.
(00:44):
Although that may be of what you heard a couple
of years ago when they officially hit mainstream radio in
the mainstream music world, that is not the case. Her
name is Amanda Leibrook. They started out as a garage
rock and roll band, just like any other rock and
roll band. Did, just like I did, just like maybe
you did, like so many other people did. It's not
a record contract. The record label goes, hey, try this,
(01:04):
and now they're going no, we're gonna do our way.
Those are the kind of stories we love in the
music industry. EVA under Fire joining me this week on
Cutter's road cast.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Hey, how are you.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm okay, how are you good?
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Good? Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Thank you for being here. I'm just I'm messing around
with the audio drivers right now.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Sure, no problem. Technical difficulty is actually our specialty.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Yeah, I gotta you know. This is really stupid store.
I got this eat a new audio driver, and I
thought it would work, and I have it hooked up
through an analog system. That's fine, that's just speakers. But
I can't get the audio from the computer to record
back into audition with Adobe, which is what I use.
(02:00):
It's a set of pro tools, so like I can't.
I'm like, this is whatever.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
It won't do the loop thing.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
It won't do the loop thing, won't do the thing,
and it's really pissing me off. But that's our I
also can't get it to pick up the other channel
because I was trying to do guitar in vocals the
other day and that didn't work either. But whatever, you know,
this is not supposed to turn into a bitch session,
so I apologize.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Oh I think it was going to do that anyway,
because I have a lot of things to tell you.
I started this morning riproaring at like ten am, like
screw this. Everybody's doing this stupid thing and it's not
what I want. Yeah, so I I totally I feel that.
And also technology issues are the bane of my existence.
(02:46):
So I hear that.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
When did you guys start recording? Like what point you're what?
Like what what year?
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Recording professionally or just like screwing around.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
We all just screw around these days, let's be honest.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
But yeah, yes, screwing around like out twenty fourteen in
this project, twenty sixteen in this project.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
So Eva Underfire started messing around with stuff about ten
years ago. Yep, okay, So were we already at the
kind of weird digital age where everything's supposed to sort
of map together but it doesn't actually do that. Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, Because when we first started screwing around all of
our complications, when it was supposed to sink and it
wouldn't sank and we couldn't figure out the thing. We
would just stick our phone in the cushion of the
couch and that would like compress it enough that at
least jamming in a room was like you could hear
the parts audibly. That was it. That was the closest
(03:42):
that you could get. That was our demo couch recordings.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Also, no, that's way better. That's way better than the
stuff I pulled off when out because when I started,
it was probably like ninety six, like I was, you know,
young teenager, and it was the task AM four track,
and then that I thought was the coolest thing ever.
I'm like, oh my god, I just put like a
set tape in and I can hit record and I
can record like vocals and guitar at the same time,
(04:11):
and that the same thing I mean you're doing. You're
doing all kinds of weird tricks in different places to
try to get sounds that make sense, and it's ends
up being and you finish and you're like, oh my god,
we recorded a song. This is amazing. I'm gonna get this.
Oh yeah, I played on the radio. You know, I
don't know. It's like so dumb. You know that when
you look back at it, but at the time anyway,
and here we are all these years later, and it's
(04:31):
the same issues, just with different technology.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
I'm telling you. I tell people this all the time.
Nothing is new under the time, you guys, what are
we really freaking out about? Nothing is new under the time.
This is that a set of problems has existed like
this in various shapes and sizes across time.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Sure, for as long as there's been time. Yeah, there
have been these issues. Yeah right, yeah, Eva under Fire
is the band this week? What you guys been like?
It's you know, a couple of years ago when we
got to meet, I learned all about you and learned
all about the band, and it's such an interesting premise
(05:12):
and and and everything, and the music obviously was on fire.
And then it's kind of felt like you disappeared for
a moment.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Yeah yeah, not electively. Not electively. That's that's the I'm
going to tell you about the suits. Okay, great. You
know I we have a love hate relationship, and I
think most artists who have a team would say that
that's true, right, they have a love hate relationship for
all of the messy things that we've been through on
(05:42):
this label and with management and with booking. Right, if
I knew all of that, I would still sign the
same the same contract today.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
I would.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
We would just never have gotten the opportunities that we've
gotten to this point. I mean, we've we've played in Europe,
We've done all the right. We had a song at
radio which is, like you said, the dream when you
start as a kid with Couchkuchen Recordings, right, like right,
I've done the things right, but it gets very complicated
in the industry and the business right the very So
(06:18):
we have plans to release a second album. The second
album is done, turned in, I have a name, I
have a concept. It's going to be the most rawest,
realist stuff that you've ever heard from us. Because we're
mad at this point that it's taken. It feels like
a million years, right, because we're it's we started writing
(06:42):
these songs January of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, I mean that's a year ago and half almost two. Yeah,
it's November now, isn't it. Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Okay, I don't know why it takes this long. I
don't know why it makes it. It drives me nuts
because we were in La for ten days we wrote
like no, no, no. We were in La for like
fourteen days. We wrote like ten songs, and then we
came back and we were like cool, almost done right, and.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
They were like, let's go Yeah, sounds simple.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Oh you would think, And then there was a million
different things that came up because once you start working
with other people, then you also work with other people's schedules.
And so the person that we recorded with went on tour,
didn't have half his rig, couldn't get us the thing
until I don't know a while later, and then when
(07:41):
we got it, it wasn't what we were anticipating. So
then we have to go back do the thing again.
Take all the fancy pants things off, get back down
to Hey, we recorded this with guitars? Why does it
sound like? Basically like an EDM album?
Speaker 1 (07:58):
We were like too much electronic all the production.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Where did the guitar go? We played guitars on the song.
Where did the guitar go? What? No? So then it
was that for two years, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Two years.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, But then because we would get it done and
then all of a sudden we wanted to go back
and then you know, the suits as they were were like, hey,
we don't have a song like this. Can we do
a song like this? We have turned in twenty one songs.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
The Search for the Guitar, even under Fire Part two.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And listen now. I love what we came up with
in that same studio with that particular person. I'll just
say it. We recorded with John London, and I love
John so much, but he's a creative and he is
like the Beasny is when it comes to like hearing
my vocal and then like figuring out where that's supposed
(08:52):
to go in the song. I wrote the song. It's
called tell Me I'm Beautiful, and I had the verse
was what he heard as the hook, and I was
like really. He was like, yeah, dude, that's the hook
for sure. He was like watch this, and so he
takes it and he spat it up a little bit
and I could I could hear it, and I was like, oh,
that's sweet, and he was like, we don't want to
(09:13):
do He was like, you know, we want bouncy riffs
and things like that. Right, My guys were talking about
we want bouncy rifts like corn right. But he was like, well,
why are you playing it with that guitar, then you
need you need a baritone guitar. Drop drop that.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Drop that shit, you know, drop it down, you know,
and we were like okay, and sure enough it was like,
oh that feels great, you know. So like he was really,
really what you want in a producer is to take
all of the artists things that they're handing you and
make it make sense, right, don't change it and make
it something completely different and like tell a new story
(09:49):
or like force it to be in a lane that
it's not meant to go in. He was like, I mean,
but he's also an artist, right, he sings for Point
North so they went on tour. I was like, he's
like the greatest blend of like producer slash artist and
like can really get in the in the weeds with you,
and I love that about him.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
He was one of my favorite guests I've had on
the show in the last couple of years, only because
as a I mean, as you can tell, right, I'm
also a little bit of a musician, although a bad one.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Noah, you can't be.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
You got an orange amplifier, but the Marshall's stack with
a Marshall stack to go with it.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yeah, because that's what was on sale Guitar Center at
that time. That I needed any speaker cabinet anyway, and
I didn't want the Giant one. I just wanted the
two twelve anyway because I'm tired of carrying that shit around.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, sounds like pretty broke musician stuff to me.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Bro exactly exactly so anyway, but I got to nerd
out with him like he it was so fun to
just like, oh wait, he started talking about sounds and
different stuff and I'm like, see this this is And
I don't know that anybody cared or listen to that conversation.
Probably not, but they should because it's it's so cool
and I love because I've had other producers onto and
(11:03):
it's I love doing that. Matt Good was just here,
you know, a few weeks ago, and obviously from the
first Last is back at it, but he's such a
great producer as well. You know, I love talking to
those guys or girls because there's just something you really learn,
something I feel like, So, yeah, John's one of the
smartest guys of that I mean, just really really great dude.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
He's so good.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
But how do you screw up your album?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, it wasn't screwed up. It was just delayed because
he went on tour, Like screw him for going on tour,
and like you know with that success. Yeah but right, yeah,
so sorry, he's also in a successful project that freakin' rocks,
right yeah, But but it was his creative vision was
really the impetus for like all of album too, Like
the sonically album two was because we met with John
(11:46):
first and we did songs that we loved immediately, and
we called A and R and we were like, we
got to do the album.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
With this guy.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah right, So and then we wrote with a couple
of other people too on the project. We wrote with
our hometown boys in Michigan that did the first album
with us. We wrote with Grant and Carson Uh in Pennsylvania.
They did wonderful work with us. We did a couple
songs with Eric Ronn that was super fun. So like
there was a lot of you know, there's a lot
(12:13):
of heavy muscle on this album that like we were
we got in there with the you know, some some
really great people that Stevens was in there, uh and
it did a song with me just directly and I
love that, Like Scott contacted the label and was like,
I we wrote with him on album one and it
was mostly just a demo thing because of COVID weirdness
(12:35):
and schedules and blah blah blah. So we didn't actually
get anything to come across the finish line with Scott,
but the fact that he wanted me back was so wonderful.
So I felt really honored to do that with him,
because he's written with some big names as well. So
on all that to say, you know, we kept tap
dancing around, Oh, we didn't get this, and we didn't
get that, we didn't get that, and this is the
(12:58):
stuff that we kept hearing from the label, was like
we want more, we want more, we want more, And
I'm like, how much more do we really want When
it's going to be like a twelve song album, it's
going to be like a third I managed to strong
earn them into thirteen songs by the way the album,
But it's just like that process took so long, and
(13:19):
it was mostly just because we had all of these
wonderful minds in the room together, but all of those
minds have schedules and you know what I mean, So
it was just it really felt so frustrating eventually, because
we were like, we've given what we feel like we
need on this album. And so eventually what I started
doing was like, I'll go right with whoever we want
(13:41):
to write with. I'll go do the thing that the
suits would have me do. But it was all going
to serve the same principles and the same concept. So
now I've built in my brain this whole like concept album.
The album is called Villainous. Every single theme is a
different song on all of these twenty one whatever it becomes,
(14:03):
twenty one songs. Across these twenty one songs, every single
song has a purpose within the Villainous world. Each of
those songs is going to get their own like artwork piece,
and that is going to be a different location at
which something has happened within this Villainous world. So I
(14:23):
basically I've built my own I've built my own Gotham,
and I'm really excited for people to hear. Awakening is
not only the first song that you've heard from us,
but it's the first song that goes on the album,
and then the album ends with a song called a
Violent End, and it's just everything that I thought my
(14:45):
dream was. I had to go through so much shit
to get here, and I needed people to understand that, Like,
I have so many more feelings about that. There's things
I've been through my personal life. There's things I've been
through my professional life. There's like my band it's that
are good. Just guys that I literally grew up with
playing in the same garage with all feel this too,
(15:06):
and so some of these songs are their version of
the story. Also, they this journey is of self discovery,
and I really think it's it's definitely I mean, I
know a lot of people say this, but it certainly
work that we are most proud of.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Okay, so when I'm gonna fill in the blank forming here,
you said you had like twelve or thirteen songs done,
but now there's twenty one songs.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I have twenty one songs turned in. Only twelve or
thirteen of them get to go on the second album.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Oh right, I got you so, but there are twenty one. Okay,
so thirteen songs get to go on the album, which
is half basically of what you've written. Right, So then,
how do you have the vision? I don't want to
say this, how do you have sort of the vision
flow the way you wanted to flow the story flow
that we wanted to flow with sort of missing pieces.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
So I think that the way that we do the
storytelling is less important to me as far as the
order of the concept. The concept itself and that it
exists is what is most important to me. Each one
of those pieces will have its moment, but I don't
know at what order, and I guess that's less important
to me, right, in the same way I'm I guess
(16:23):
certain movies that you experience, right, some of them have
a really linear storytelling fashion. Other things they go back
and they're like twelve years ago, right, So it can
jump all over the place. And so I didn't want
to be beholden too like the way that we tell
the story. Just that the story exists and that all
the pieces exist is what I was focused on.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Okay, Okay, So but you could in essence then have
So you have the first Eva Underfire record from a
couple of years ago. It's a good piece of music.
Enjoy it, love it, crank it up, blow still a
great song. You have now Wakening, which is the first
track from a new Eva Underfire album that's forthcoming. But
then you could you have part two already done. So
(17:09):
you know, yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
Villainous means you're just never going to get rid of
me now because because they one son is a villain,
the villain and uh and and what's that?
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Because now you're the villain. You can do you want?
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, we do what we want. I can tell the
story whatever we would want. We could say, I can
give you the ending and the first or the beginning first,
or and then I'll skip to the skip to the
middle after that, you know whatever.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
Uh, Tarantino, hold on right, It's that's that's the thing
is like.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
I also think that it was important for me on
this body of work to not shy away from my
personal experience. A lot of what John London was great
at was taking songs ideas that I had brought and
giving that space to turn into something amazing. Taking these demos,
(18:06):
taking these ideas, these lyrics that I had. There's another
song called Hello Hollow that I wrote when my dad died.
I mean that was years ago, right, My dad passed
away in twenty eighteen, and I just I never had
I never had the right people hearing me, hearing the
pain in that voice. And now it's become one of
(18:27):
our in ours like Biggest, that's like a high point
for them. They're like I love that song, you know,
And I was like, this is so cool because that
one's like a page out of my diary, like from
years ago, and I just never you know, all that
The first album was wonderful. Love, Drugs and Misery was
a great jump point, but it felt too clean and
(18:51):
it felt too you know, watered down, and I think
those things were were still you know, fun, like Unstoppable
is fun, Blow is fun. Unstoppable as my parents love story,
you know, but it really didn't get to the gritty part.
It really didn't get to be angry or mean or contemplate,
(19:16):
you know, this darker side of self that comes with
age and maturity and experience. I have that.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
I'm glad you said the darker side of self because
when listening to that album, there are it's it's musically
even it's a riff rock record. I mean, it's just right.
There's some great guitar riffs, some good work, there's some
good music, there's melodies, all of that, but it is
sort of like I'm not going to say it's lack
substance because I don't think it lacks substance, but it's
(19:45):
it is. It doesn't get you down into it. When
listening to Awakening, it's a fun listen, you know what
I mean. When listening to this song Awakening, as I
did again to try to dissect it a little bit
more before we chatted, it has that gothier darker and
you said gotham. I thought that's a great that's a
(20:06):
great example because it has that sort of grittiness to
it that I don't know. Your voice kind of fits that,
and there's something you can tell, there's something there.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
It's more desperate this time. I felt like when we
say we want to be more real or more authentic,
I think that the thing that I'm hoping that we'll
translate is that there is a lot that we have
been through that is. It's not clean. It's it's really
tough stuff. It's really gritty, it's really nasty. This business
(20:38):
is a nasty energy is. There's so much about it
that is it feels glitzy and glamorous at first, you know,
and then all of a sudden you're in it for
a minute and you kind of you see a different
side of people, and you see a different side of
the industry of places, you know, like nobody wants to
(21:02):
book you and you haven't released music in a few years,
you know, all of a sudden, people that you thought were,
you know, cheering you on, and maybe they were at
one point, right, but now it's like we've been way
too long and we know that, and we we had
been pushing to not do that for years. We've been
we've been begging booking, like, let's do headline stuff. Let's
(21:23):
do headline stuff. Let's go back to the markets that
we had so much fun and we wanted. We want to,
we want to, we wanna. It wasn't a big enough
was it.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's interesting to me because in order to get every
musician knows right, in order to get your feet underneath you, you
have to go play. You have to go play live.
You have to play on a stage, even if it's
in front of five people, you have to play on
a stage.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yes, we're a garage band.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Still, Like, it's not for lack of you need more
of that for us, right, Like we just need the
team to listen.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Like and that was just the part that was just
blowing my mind, was so frustrating. What do you mean
it's about how it looks. No, it's not. None of
this is about how it looks. Rock music is about
feel because if they don't feel it, they don't want it. It
doesn't resonate, and that's where it stops. So I was like,
this is this hold like clean energy, this like raw
(22:22):
raw type of energy, this whole like you know, I
guess basically last time, you know, we joke in the
band like we released an arena rock album, then nobody
knew who we were, you know, So like I we
finally said, no, no, we're not listening anymore to what
you want us to be. We're not listening anymore to
how you're gonna direct us on how this is supposed
(22:45):
to go. Right, No, put me back in the bars.
People feel it when we're in the bars, but put
us back in the globs. You know. We just went
out with on a run with Buck Cherry. It was awesome,
small rooms, four hundred cap let's go like, that's what
I need and if they want and that serves, that's
(23:05):
that's what I'm talking about. When we say villainous like
we don't want all the glods and things anymore, that's fake.
That's fake. That's not real that doesn't breed any real
energy or legacy or allow you to like and I
love the big stages that we've been on. Blessed, we
are truly blessed to have been able to experience those things.
(23:26):
But it is not sustainable riding other people's coattails. We're
we're not. And because of that, we did some rearranging
within our team because they weren't listening.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Sometimes it's got to be that way.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
It's got to be that way. It's got to be
because it's not sustainable to just not go back and
do the thing where you're in there with people and
in there with listeners and in there with other rockers
that just love you know. And I recently went to
a show with the Shelter and I hadn't been down
there in a while. And you know, when I was
(24:01):
sixteen years old, they used to throw a bunch of locals,
like fifteen of us on one bill and call it
like a local showcase. Oh yeah, like friends and come
up and blah blah.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
We did that in the Midwest too, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
My very first show ever was Saint Andrew's Hall upstairs,
big room, like crazy. But I went down to the shelter,
and I was like, this is where people want to
be at. It's so small and intimate and that allows
people to really like be up close and personal with
the music that they love so much. And I feel like,
(24:37):
in trying to chase the stream, maybe some somewhere along
the line, we had forgotten that it feels really good
to get back to those shows.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Yeah, I don't know, there's something about it, right, Like
I was joking around, I've started playing cover bands because
I'm a radio DJ. I do a morning radio show.
Is this syndicated radio show? Like I'm married now, Like
I just whatever, make a little extra money and still
be able to play a guitar and play some riffs. Right.
So a friend of mine, we're just jamming. We started
this during COVID. It was an acoustic thing and then it
turned into electric thing where we literally just here's the
(25:08):
basics of a song. We just go play that and
which is jamm it. Sometimes that song lasts ten minutes,
sometimes it lasts two minutes. We stopped doing that recently
because of his a life change in his So I
started talking to some guys. I'm like, this is what
I want, man, I just want to I want to
like three piece band, or you look at the guys
or girls in that band and you know what they
sound like. Yeah, you know, you know, like I ride
(25:31):
a motorcycle, I have a beard, like I have tattoos.
Like somebody looks at me. It's like, I'm not playing
cure songs, you know what I mean. I love the cure,
but that's probably not where you're get to get And
you go into those into those places with those kinds
of people and you do the things and the funnest
excuse my language, fucking things, you know what I mean
(25:52):
that you can do. Do you know a Raven Milwaukee? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Yeah, we love that place.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
So I played there like twenty some years ago. I
played my first gig there and and I'm in a
band at the time. It was called LD fifty and
ended up being a little short lived. But we played
in the bar there and it was like ten people.
And you know, we played in the bar there, and
there was another another band playing in the rave itself.
It's one of those nights where like all three rooms
(26:19):
had bands in it, and like we were the in
between basically in the bar, and but we got to
go sign the pool and you know what I mean.
And to me, although nobody was there to see it,
it's one of the coolest moments in my life. You know,
I'll never forget it because I grew up going to
that place.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah, so it's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
That's the cool real thing about rock and roll that
you're talking about. Get in those rooms and just do
those things with the like minded people.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Yes, yeah, and that's why I mean, we did what
we did on this album. We we and that's why
we want to go back and play, you know, smaller clubs,
and you know, because we also started hearing about you know,
some of that. It's very it's very cool that you
(27:04):
bring up like the visual because I had colored hair
and crazy wild color makeup and like we'd get out
there with our like glitter guitars and like play some
cool rock music. Some of it was really meaningful, yeah,
but some of it was also just take your brain
out and have fun. So like we started getting some feedback,
like nobody knows what to do with us, Nobody knows
(27:27):
what to what to make that. I was like, all right, boys,
time to take a mask off them. Nobody knows how
to just take their brain out and have fun and
let it be a thing. That's fine, because we really
haven't been having a lot of fun out here anyway.
It's been problem after problem and constant battle and struggle
and all of these things just to portray an image
online like oh, we're having so much fun and we're
(27:48):
doing all these things, and we're while we were doing them,
it was fun. But as soon as like we hit
like a screeching halt, we were like, what the fuck happened?
You know what I mean? Like so so now all
of a sudden, it's like, oh, people, this is some
of the things that we heard, like from I guess
the suits right. Our contemporaries didn't know what to do
(28:12):
with us because you know, of the look right, or
of the look didn't match the sound, or like people
thought that the band was hired because they would just
see my face online. I was like, no, they just
hate being in front of a camera and pretending, so
we're just not. I'm the one singing songs in my
(28:33):
bedroom with my microphone and putting it on TikTok, right,
Like this is they don't know. Nobody knows. Nobody knows
that I've been singing since I could talk, and my father,
who bought me my first microphone, died of a heroin overdose.
Nobody knows that, Like, while I wrote the song Heroin
(28:59):
I was, I was actually just Niagara Falls in the
studio that day, and that was like never supposed to
be a single because it wasn't written to be a hook.
Nobody knows that we're still a band of friends who
have literally known each other for twenty years that still
play in my garage and we're the only pro band
(29:19):
that I know that pulls up in a twelve passenger
van and loads their own shit, Like nobody knows. How
do we get them to know? Like, well, first you
got to take all the you know, people are like, oh,
you've got your natural hair. I'm like, yeah, that's all
you'll see from me from now on. And my name's
not Eva either, my name is Amanda. So we're gonna
we're just gonna set the record straight. So like all
(29:41):
of that went into Villainous and Gotham, and you know,
because people say they don't know what to do with me,
you don't know who I am?
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Well, yeah, no, wonder why right if you don't know?
Speaker 2 (29:52):
You know what I mean? Like, what do you mean?
I people don't know that by day I'm a therapist.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
I didn't actually ask you about that because I'm wondering
how much of this do you take your sort of
day job, right, your sort of Bruce Wayne part of
your persona, and use that as the Batman part of
your persona, especially being a therapist and understanding how words
and themes and theories and all that work within the psyche.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
I provide therapy to other people in my day today,
and I because I'm very invested. I love humans. I
love people for all the problems that we have. Connections,
interpersonal relationships is so important to me because we're all
on the same rock and existence is a real hard thing, right,
(30:45):
So I wanted to have meaningful conversations with others about
how they could live their best life, and I got
to do that. But therapy is my version of writing music.
Writing lyrics is my version of therapy, right. That's how
I process my stuff. That's my journaling, right, And I
just so happened to be able to sing, so I
(31:08):
have quite a range to be able to get that
to be you know, other people so that they can
hear that. So then my journaling gets to be you know,
auditory in the sense of writing music. And so that's
I guess that's how it is for me. My day job,
(31:28):
I give that to others and by night I process
that through my music.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, and music helps all of that and having that
outlet obviously of art, whether it whatever it may be
in our case music.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
And that's why the second album was so important to me,
because I felt like the water down first album, you know,
I mean, like you said, it's a fun listen, but
it just doesn't get below the surface a lot, right,
Like there's moments comatos Heroin, Right, there's moments, but like
I wanted to tell them to be like, we have
to shatter that surface. We have to go deep. This
(32:06):
is this is self discovery. This is I wrote a
song called Dark Soul about, you know, I became a
different person losing a parent and having to you know,
kind of go through that process with my my you know,
my father had passed from a drug over dose, my
mother was getting clean, my brother was caught in the mix.
(32:27):
There was so much about that, like I had to
become a different person. Usually I'm like rainbows and butterflies
are great, right, that required a different energy. People don't
see that side of me. They don't know that side
of me. I didn't know that was in there until
I had to use it. And so when I wrote
the song Dark Soul, it's me looking myself in the mirror,
going are you here to stay? Are you? Am I
(32:49):
supposed to be this? Now? Is this just not? I'm
never going to be able to get that innocence back? Right?
So where do you go when the light to go out? Right? Like?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Those?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Are you know? Some of these lyrics? It's like I've
been sitting on this stuff for like two years, and
I'm so ready for people to hear it because I
want I want to be understood. But part of it's
like I had to write all this out so I
could figure it out myself.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Well, Amanda, the first time we talked, because I knew
your name was Amanda, and I'm like, okay, what we're
calling her? Eva? It was a little confusing, So you're
not wrong, and like I get why there might have
been some people were like, what do we do? Don't understand?
And I'm glad you took it upon yourselves and just
did what it is you want to do, because I
(33:35):
think that's important as an artist.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, it is, and it's stepping into our own in
that way. And I do think it's becoming an artist,
you know, less of the Dog and Pony Show. And
I love that there was space for that, right, Like
on the first album, we didn't know what we wanted,
and I think that's a lot of artists. They don't
know what to do or what to want, or what
to say or how to say it. And you know,
people were coming up to me at the shows and
they were asking, are you Eva right? Because the name
(33:58):
is Evander Fire. It just assumed right, or like Eva
Eva right. So like at first it felt like a
crown that listeners gave me, and I wanted to honor that.
It was also a way for me to separate because
Amanda is a psychotherapist and if Eva Underfire has Eva
fans that want to be clients, I can't ethically do that, right,
(34:19):
So I tried to keep the two identities clean. But
it's so funny that you say the Bruce Wayne thing,
because now that I'm talking about it out loud, of
like Jesus, this is my experience. This is like what
I this is, this is what I anyway, But yeah,
so I had to figure that out. And you know,
nobody calls me Eva in my real life. But it
(34:40):
started as a song reference and then it just felt
like a really strong you know, woman fronted band deserves
a really strong woman fronted name. And that was it.
That was all that it was meant to be.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
And hey, look this way, with a new version of
songs and sounds, not only can you with buck Cherry,
but you can also play with Ice tink Kills. So
you know it just it were say that just because
Spencer was on a song, of course, But anyway, listen,
before our time runs out, I want to make sure
this information gets out. Evander Fire new song is called Awakening,
(35:15):
that is available now. It's the start of a whole
story process. Yes, the new album is once again called
I Don't want to screw it up villainous, villainous? Okay,
uh villainous? Do we know when that will be out?
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Are you willing to say I'm going to manifest this
and say spring twenty twenty six. I love it good
looks because I'm done waiting. I'm gonna wrangle the troops
and say so.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
It still seems like a long wait, but then I
remember we're in winter. Now winter is here. It has come.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
We won't allow me to do things over Thanksgiving because
everybody's too busy eating turkey.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
So yeah, well thanks for right. So I actually still
thanks for still doing something with me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
No, I love this, Thank you for this outlet. Like
I said, sorry to turn this into it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Oh, you're fine playing session. You're fine because I'm like,
I'm like, you know, before we talked, I'm like, okay,
well it's been a while, so we got to find
out which she's been up to you with the band's
been up to you. There's got to be new music. Obviously,
there's this new song Awakening. I don't know where to
go from there. So you turn it into a whole thing.
So I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Thank you so much, Thank you so much. Also, if
people will see us on the road and want to
come hang out, we are also playing some stuff that's
unreleased just because we feel like it. The one song
is called My Own Name, and it's about shedding that
whole evonderfire persona or.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Love that when you guys go out on the road.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
So we have something that we haven't released information yet,
but look for us in February. Lots of dates coming
in February.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Thank you a Manda so much. Good to see you,
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
Good to see your friend. Calls rock Cast.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Don't forget to tune in exactly
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