Solo project Spylights, the baby of former The Scorseses vocalist Vincent Ebeier, is the focus of today’s Band of the Day…
Simple things first – where are you from?
I am from a city called Metairie, Louisiana which is right outside of New Orleans. Most bands in the surrounding cities like to say they’re from New Orleans because it makes them look cooler, but I have to represent my stomping grounds.
How did you meet?
When I was a bored teenager on LSD, I think.
No, I’m just having fun with the question because I am a solo artist and composer. I’ve known some of the members that were assembled for the live band for years, and they are all talented passionate musicians who are solid guys as well.
How long have you been playing as a band?
I’ve been writing, producing, and recording music for Spylights since early 2015. So I guess It’s been close to about 2 and a half years now.
Before you get sick of being asked…where does the band name come from?
Spylights was a name that I came up with during a period of time when I was feeling lost, down, and imprisoned by the redundancy and uncertainties of life. I just visualized the image of someone trying to escape a prison in the dead of night surrounded by miles of snow and forest with spotlights searching for them.
What are your influences?
Almost too many to name because I’ve been injected with inspirado by so many different bands, movies, video games, and things over the years. My musical influences have a pretty wide variety and range. I love Queen, Rush, Iron Maiden, John Mayer, Smashing Pumpkins, Plini, Glassjaw, Enya, Opeth, The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Yes, Misfits, Otis Redding, Hans Zimmer, Alice In Chains, Stevie Wonder, Protest the Hero, Weezer, Imogene Heap, Dio, Sarah Mclachlan, Tonic, Metallica, Christian Lindquist , Intervals, Pearl Jam, K-OS, Tupac, James Taylor, Deftones, Tom Jones, Death Cab for Cutie, Pantera, Owane, Johnny Cash, Monserrat Caballe, The Every Brothers, Elvis, White Lion, I could go on for days with these!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
In the game of music it’s pretty hard to be totally unique. All these chords we play, the melodies, progressions, and styles have all been done or mixed together before. I just try to always stay true to my gut, my ear, and what feels right for that song or part. No pretentiousness, nothing overly done or contrived to impress. No matter the style, mood, or musical genre, you are always the main key to your music sounding unique by coming from your heart with it.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the thing that makes me semi-unique overall is… me. My voice, my personal character, and my willingness to stay open minded to anything with no drawn lines, set genres, or limits.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
I write glass half-full as well as glass half-empty, depending on how I am feeling at the time and what’s on my mind. Some songs have different flavours of emotion. Some with different moods and hints of inner strength, common sense, positivity, discord, anger, love, heartbreak, death, addiction, respect, struggle, passion, enlightenment, and integrity. You know the usual stuff.
What’s your live show like? And how many shows have you played?
No live shows as of yet, but I am currently recruiting the rest of the musicians for the live band. I performed and recorded all the instruments and all the vocals on the record, but I can’t pull it off all by myself at a show. I can promise you though that the live show will be on point and as captivating as I can make it!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Personally it would have to be between stabbing myself in the eye mid-song with a cracked and pointed drum stick and finishing the set squinting with a bleeding eyeball.
Or
Falling to my knees with heat stroke and blacking out three separate times on stage in 100-degree weather at an outdoor festival on tour. I couldn’t even step anywhere near the sunlight after that show for two hours, and my organs were starting to shut down and I couldn’t urinate for hours because of being numb. It was pretty scary. It still affects me sometimes if I’ve been in the sun for a long period of time. Always stay hydrated kids!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
I play…
- Tama, and DW drums
- Fender guitars
- Fractal Audio AX8
- Fender Basses
- Akai Keyboards
- Vater and Zildjian drumsticks
- Roland V Drums
- Elixir strings
What are your plans for 2017?
My plan for now is to keep writing new material, further expand some of my horizons, play some live shows, make some new fans, and start preproduction on the full length Spylights record in the beginning of 2018.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
That’s a tough one. It’s so hard for me to only pick two total, but if I’m throwing bones I could name so many talented and hard working local artists that are also my friends that could use one. I would be happy no matter which one of my friends opened for us whether it was a band like Resurface, Like Water, Bending, House of Goats, Zombies Eating Sheep, Rathbone Balthazar, The Arbitrary, Raise the Death Toll, Event Horizon, Solunar, Typical Stereo, Big Story, Tomb of Nick Cage, Jack Locke, The Absence Project, Harvest of Lions, The Weakness, The Continual, the list goes on with all the talent around here! Sorry, but I couldn’t just hook up one band on the opener part of the question!
For the headlining band it would be a tough one. It would be between Karnivool, Thrice, Coheed and Cambria, Haken, Agent Fresco, Iron Maiden, Weezer, Jimmy Eat World, Tesseract, David Maxim Micic, Plini, Intervals, or John Mayer. So many headliner music gods as choices! I would have to say that Spylights would prob a great fit with Coheed and Cambria than anyone else because of their versatility.
Spylights: facebook | twitter | soundcloud | bandcamp
