‘I’m never really fully satisfied with anything that I do, but this record was extremely personal to me and when I was finished with it, I was actually really happy with it.’, says Everet Almond.

He has just released a new EP, called ‘Ten Days’ but we spoke about the record he released earlier this year, titled ‘Everet Almond’.

 

 

 

 

What was the most fun you had during the making of the last album?

 

This is the first album I recorded completely by myself – the writing, playing (almost) all the instruments, producing, recording, mixing, and mastering.  But my favorite part of the recording process (and my favorite parts to listen to) were the few parts that I didn’t play – which were the drums on ‘Thought This Through’, the snare drum/military cadence on ‘Beautiful Neighbor’, and drums on the little jam at the end of ‘Black Car’, which were all played by my son Waylon, who was 6 years old at the time.  My daughter Nelle (3 years old at the time) does some singing on that ‘Black Car’ jam and she starts the record with some illegible interjection as well.

 

But the fact that Waylon could make those parts happen really impressed me and I was incredibly proud of him.  Watching him with the headphones on and the click track metronome in his ears as he pretty much nailed it on the 2nd or 3rd take is something that will always be etched in my mind.

 

At what point, during writing, rehearsing, recording, did you knew you were on to something special?

 

I’m never really fully satisfied with anything that I do, but this record was extremely personal to me and when I was finished with it, I was actually really happy with it. I set up a studio in my attic and it was me myself and I for 2 months just grinding it out. Track by track.  It’s pretty much my memoirs of the last 15 years, from high school to the present day. All the right and wrong choices I’ve made in life are all there in the lyrics.

I guess I knew I was on to something during the writing process. I wrote 90% of the record before I ever recorded one note and I was really excited about the whole biography/concept record thing.  I basically taught myself how to engineer, mix and master while recording this album and was surprised when I would finish a song and it didn’t sound like garbage!

 

 

 

 

The music industry has changed a lot (or so they say). What did it bring you? And what not?

 

Freedom. Not being tied to a label or taking anyone else’s money to record means that I didn’t have to listen to anyone else’s ideas and opinions while doing it. Everything on the record sounds like I wanted it to sound. That was incredibly liberating.

 

The meaning of ‘success’ has changed over the years. When will the new record be a success?

 

To me, every time someone listens to it and tells me how much they loved it and which parts and songs and lyrics they specifically liked on it are so satisfying.  But true success to me is when my peers – fellow musicians and songwriters – tell me how much they like it.  Two weeks ago I received some very kind words from my idol and absolute favorite songwriter of all time, Sir Paul McCartney, about this record – that’s more success than I could have ever hoped for!!!

Can you still recall the moment music became important to you? What happened?

 

My Dad is a great drummer and introduced me to music at a very early age.  I’m a drummer first and was actually only a drummer til my 13th birthday when my parents bought me an Epiphone acoustic guitar – which is the acoustic guitar that I used on this album.  From that day forward, music was the most important thing in my life.  I wrote my first proper song about 2 weeks later, and from then til now music was all I ever thought about.

 

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Don’t forget to check the new EP as well.