Einvera is a young band based in Los Angeles, CA, whose EP debut In Your Image has made an impression on me this year. Grant, who handles vocals, guitars and whole slew of other instruments, has graciously agreed to answer a few questions ...
Your debut mini-CD In Your Image has been a total pleasant surprise for me. As I said in my review a sure sign that I enjoyed the album is the fact that I start re-listening to many a band in the genre. After In Your Image I kept going for what I call the quirky side of my collection. Does this tag shock you, offend you or suit you well?
Thanks so much! We are thrilled you enjoyed it. We have heard about many labels and brands on our album and nothing offends or shocks us. It is interesting to hear others interpreting our sound and what it means to them. It’s a rewarding part of the process.
Even more specifically, after listening to Einvera I wanted to refresh myself on unexpecT, Estradasphere, Sigh and especially Diablo Swing Orchestra. It did appear to me, however, that Einvera is a lot more into blackened thrash than any of the aforementioned acts (some of them, like Estradasphere, are probably not even metal). What do you think is at the root of the band sound? And how does one come up with an idea to combine thrash, country, American folk and bluegrass in one setting?
We never sat down and drew up a plan on what we were going to combine and mash up for the album. It’s just something that came through in our styles and what we love. The multi-instrumental route is nothing new, but with some of these juxtapositions we felt it injected a fresh vibe into it, for better or worse. It’s a neat challenge to try and make a banjo and trumpet arrangement lead into some vicious blackened metal cohesively. The metal music is a part of what we love to play with, but it’s only a small fraction of our process. There is far too much music out there to be bogged down by the straight and narrow. In short, it is not really like we came up with the idea to do it, it just happened due to our styles. There are so many sounds to play with, which is why we love the aide of natural instruments like vibraphone or pedal steel vs. synth sounds. I am by no means knocking that style, but for us it was important to be able to hear the acoustic imperfections you get with these second hand, beat up instruments.
How did Einvera come to be? What’s in the name? Was it always a trio? And given how many instruments (some of them of pretty unusual kind) are used on In Your Image, is three enough?
We all met in music school and wrote and recorded the album while we were all between the ages of 20-21. When I found Mike and Zac, the talent, feel and open-mindedness they possessed blew me away and we instantly clicked. Each player contributes such a personal stamp on the songs and I think that’s why this album comes off as real and intimate experience. You can hear it in the final product. There are mistakes and flubbed notes etc. Cracks in the walls, so to speak. It’s not a lab experiment. There was no over-editing/quantizing or obsessing with a million takes, like you hear in so many extreme productions today. It’s human, it’s gritty. We have always been a trio and when it comes down to it, no, it’s not enough. But with that in mind we couldn’t compromise the vision we had. We haven’t been able to find a correct match for new members yet, so we are utilizing what we call our “ghost” member. The “ghost” is there to keep the song intact, but in no way it is leaned on. The live show is a mixture of spontaneity and improvisation and overall wildness. Needless to say each of us usually sustains some minor injury from each performance, haha.
Quirkiness or more direct thrash, Einvera songs eventually always made sense to me. By any chance, does any one (or all) in the band have some sort of formal music education, and Einvera is simply an outlet for some hidden emotion or pent up aggression?
Einvera was formed in a music school, where we all met, but by no means does that make it some formal, analytical project. We wrote the album in dank rooms and stumbled upon the sounds by feel. So, yes, we do all have our music education background, but when we write it’s more like carving pictures on a cave wall rather than calculating binary. It’s very much the point you nailed down. “...eventually always made sense…” The songs are made for involved listening, yes, but we still made the songs for listening, not exercise. They had to have a musical structure, albeit left of center from time to time.
The reason I asked the previous question – the three dudes in the band picture look like music art students rather than headbangers. Is this the case of not judging the book by its cover? What is the background of bandmembers and how/why Los Angeles is called home?
Haha, I suppose you could say that, yes! None of us really call Los Angeles our permanent home. We all landed here in pursuit of education and wound up with this on our hands. I come from the Bay Area, Mike is from Ohio and Zac bounces from coast to coast. Maybe you can hear some of that ol’ homesick sound in the music.
Speaking of the cover, the cover of In Your Image is an exercise of Dali-like quirkiness in and of itself. Who was the artist and how does Bach profile (is it him, please correct me if this is some other classic composer) fit alongside tuba shaped as a ribcage with the meat picked off?
The art was done by our friend Jarrod Schneider (jarrod-schneider-art.com) and we couldn’t be happier with it. I bounced a few small ideas off him and he came back with something so above and beyond our expectations our jaws hit the floor. The correlation between Bach and Edison, as Jarrod puts it is, "The Scientific Merging of Ingenuity and Music." You can see the point in the skeletal form meeting the phonograph on how the body and mind are literally musical instruments.
In Your Image is a short (but impactful) mini-CD. Did you ran out of cohesive stuff to say, or is the length intentional, serving as a hook-and-bait for somebody to offer Einvera a deal, with a (hopefully no less impactful) full-length to be then released shortly thereafter? In fact, are there talks with any labels at this time and is there a hidden stash of material?
A few things came in to that factor. We wanted to make something that was both quick and to the point without compromising our vision and artistic integrity, whatever the hell that is…Also, as an independent unit we didn’t have the budget to record an hour long opus, nor did we want to. With how saturated the music scene is out there for new bands, such as ourselves, we tried to create something that would represent us well and leave the listener wanting a touch more. These days people give you 15 seconds, if you’re lucky, before they click the next link. I don’t blame them, I do the same thing. It’s not the way I want it to be, but in reality there’s just too much being thrown at you at once. We have a lot of hidden music in the works right now. It will be a drastic expansion on In Your Image in every department. We like to think of the new material as an expanding circle. Each aspect of Einvera’s sound growing. Louder, softer, spruced up, striped down etc. We have a few plans on the horizon that will come to fruition soon, but we need to stay present, as not many people know of In Your Image now.
Whenever people interview a newcomer/young act, the trite and cliché question is whether you are going to tour. I pose this question to Einvera with trepidation. As much complexity as there is on In Your Image, will it be possible to replicate live without resorting to much in a way of samples and outtakes?
There really is no other option to get a young band’s name out there other than to go out and play under the worst conditions possible. Put in ten thousand hours and maybe people will think you’re OK. We will be playing as much as we can to try to get this idea out into the public. We do use samples in the mix for now, but by no means are they leaned on, as I mentioned before. It’s just to create the atmosphere,e before we can find some other multi-instrumentalists to contribute to a live performance.
What’s in store for Einvera members outside of the band? Or does the band consume all?
Einvera is definitely a top priority in our musical lives, but each of us has multiple projects/sessions. We play in separate bluegrass, folk, psyche-rock or fusion bands, while working in studios, teaching music or attending school. While it seems that music consumes every aspect of our lives we find a way to separate with various activities. Maybe join us for whiskey arts and crafts day? Ya’ll are welcome.
Thanks again for the opportunity to review and subsequently interview. I’ll give you the last word to remember Einvera by for all of MetalReviews.com readers.
Thanks to everyone who bought the album and came out to the performance part of the program. It means a lot to the little guys like us!

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