Hard-Rock-Reviews.com's First Ever FEATURE ARTIST, EYE EMPIRE
gave us four individual interviews this week...
Here you have round 3 with COREY LOWERY (bassist, backing vocals)
CLICK THE NAMES to see Hard-Rock-Reviews.com interviews with Corey's band mates
Corey & Brad started jamming together a few years ago, and what began with two good friends writing and hanging out, is now the foundation of an empire: one full of fans, friends and lots of fun! |
| Photo Courtesy: KELLY LLOYD |
Start with where this all began for you, personally...the foundation & the roots of this project, Eye Empire.
Corey:
Brad (B.C. Kochmit) and I started all this, a few years back. Dark New Day was coming to an end, Switched was coming to an end... just wanted to write some songs, and I'd played with Brad from Switched. I gave him a call, and he started flying down to Atlanta, and we started coming up with some really killer music. At first we weren't sure where it was gonna lead, or any of that, we just wanted to play. He's such a killer player & fun to write with. And at that point we said, "Wow, this music is really good." I was bringing in Morgan Rose of Sevendust, to help us lay some drum tracks down, and stuff like that. And we started trying to find the right members of the band. We said, "Wow, this could be really good. We need to find a vocal for it, find a vocalist to match the music that we're writing." We went through a bunch of different vocals, a bunch of different drummers. Then we landed on Will on drums, and Donald Carpenter on vocals. It all fit.
Angela:
Was Dark New Day already done at that point when you started talking to B.C.?
Corey:
Somewhat. Warner Bros. had kept us in a holding period forever. We were done with the record for Dark New Day, and we weren't sure if they were gonna release it or not. For us, if we're sitting around, waiting, & waiting, & waiting... writing is part of what keeps us sane. So I needed to stay somewhat sane. I was producing bands and stuff like that, but I still wanted to write my own music. Brad was coming to a place where Switched was coming to an end as well. We even had Brad come in for Dark New Day show. For a tour, Troy (DND) had joined Seether, he wanted to get into Seether, and I was like "Yeah, that's fine, totally, you know, it's a great opportunity." And so we did a Dark New Day show with Brad.
 |
| Photo Courtesy: KELLY LLOYD |
In talking to Bradley a few days ago, we were discussing how a lot of hard work goes into studio time, and sometimes you look up and you've been sitting there for hours and hours and hours, and you haven't eaten, and all you're doing is just pounding away.
Corey:
Oh, yeah, definitely!
Angela:
But there's some comic relief to be had in there, too. Do you have anything memorable, any good stories, from the last couple years with this project?
Corey:
I remember one time we were sitting around, and we must have written a million riffs, but none of it was really killer, you know? And both of us were starving, so we went and ate some soul food - some southern soul food, (beans, collard greens, etc) and came back and wrote "More Than Fate." It took probably ten minutes to write it. After that, we would sit around a write for hours and hours. The thing is about this, you know if a riffs good, you know if it's gonna move somebody. Anybody can write a million riffs, we're just trying to write something that's gonna move people.
Angela:
When you hear music on the radio, or listen to music on your iPod, what are some of the artists that you're listening to for the past couple months that are moving you, that are making you say "Wow, this is good stuff"?
Corey:
There's all kinds of stuff. There's Avenged Sevenfold, I love the stuff they've done, Machinehead, there's so many... All types of music. There's not really one style that I listen to.
Angela:
Do you think that's what helps you keep it fresh when you're writing - is by listening to all those different eclectic styles?
Corey:
Absolutely. And it's just so different an arrangement that I did; all kinds of arrangement styles. You know, rock has it's own style, you just kinda write. I kinda listen over here, to see what's going on in the world, musically. And we can stay fresh, and we want to stay ahead of the game, also. At the same time, want to be daring enough to try new things.
 |
| Photo Courtesy: KELLY LLOYD |
When you were on tour with Stereomud and with Dark New Day, and I'm pretty sure when you go on tour with this band- there's a lot of fans that have been around since Steel Rain, since day ONE. Tell me a little bit about that, and how that feels to have sort of an "underground" following.
Corey:
It's an honor. It's an honor to play music since you were a kid, and have people appreciate it, and follow you from band to band. Those are your fans, and that's the reason you love them. It's truly, truly real love to be in the position I'm in.
Angela:
You come from a family of musicians.
Corey:
Yeah, my whole family played music - my mom, my dad, my brothers...
Angela:
Can you share a little bit about your background, with your mom and your dad, you know, how it all started.
Corey:
My mom and dad started in music, they were signed a long time ago - "Lumbee" and "Plant & See" were the two groups they were in, and they were signed back in the day, and touring... yeah, it's in the blood!
Angela:
How old were you when you first started tinkering around with musical instruments and writing?
Corey:
I was around 10 yrs old.
Angela:Did you keep any of the stuff that you wrote back then?
Corey:
I hope not!
Angela:
Your momma might have kept it! Be careful...
Corey:
Oh, mannn. haha
Angela:
Eye Empire is very much at a do-it-yourself stage right now...you had the showcase for industry folks in Jan. Is there anything behind the curtains going on? You've all 4 been in signed bands, indie bands, and have
Corey:
We're pretty much waiting to see what comes out of that. It was awesome, but we're not going to jump, or to sign anything that all of us don't feel comfortable with. We're looking forward to going out and touring and playing. We worked really hard on this CD and that's we wanna get out and play it; that's what it's all about.
Angela:
If you could go on any tour with any band....your picks...?
Corey:
U2!
© Hard-Rock-Reviews.com
Written by Angela Villand
All Rights Reserved
ang@hard-rock-reviews.com
♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫
Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
Note: The content within these articles, reviews, news updates and interviews may not be used without proper attribution and credit given to both the author and the website. The content within this website is protected by License & Digital Copyright Laws. All photographs, links to other websites & news have been used with express written permission from the artist, publicists, photographers and other applicable owners of material, in all instances. This content may not be copied & re-blogged without express permission from the owner/operators of this website.
The content herein, written and published by by Angela Villand is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at ang@hard-rock-reviews.com.
