Nearly one year from the release of their debut album “Look Alive,” the Minneapolis natives that make up Early Eyes took the road for their first North American tour. Credit: Katherine Saorise, edited by Joe Villano
On its first-ever tour in 2017, Midwest indie-rock band Early Eyes came to Columbus and played at The Basement “to like, seven people,” guitarist John O’Brien said. This February, the band returned to the venue, this time headlining its debut album, the COVID-19 pandemic brainchild “Look Alive!”
“Hopefully there’s eight this time,” O’Brien said before the show.
O’Brien’s hopes came true after filling The Basement Feb.19 for a lively show filled with new and old Early Eyes fans as it headlines its first tour across North America.
“It’s totally shocking to go somewhere across the country, and there are a bunch of strangers who, like, want to be a part of the evening with us, and they sing along,” vocalist and keyboardist Jake Berglove said.
Composed of guitarists John O’Brien and Joe Villano, vocalist and keyboardist Jake Berglove, drummer Sam Mathys and bassist Meg Mahoney, the earliest iteration of the group began in 2016 as a one-time jam, Berglove said. They met as students in Minnesota, experimenting with the conventions of the indie genre and combining rock and funk influences.
“Sam went to college across the street, and Meg Mahoney went to McNally Smith,” Berglove said. “[John, Joe and I] went to the University of Minnesota, and while we were there we kind of started playing music together for fun, and eventually we stopped going to college but continued to play music together.”
The band has amassed over 200 ,000 monthly Spotify listeners since its creation. Berglove said Early Eyes’ songwriting and sonic identity developed as each member pulled from their own artistic influences.
“We all listen to so much different music and take inspiration from everywhere,” Berglove said. “When we finally get into the studio, and we’re writing a song, it feels as if our biggest inspirations just become each other because we all individually have such a wealth of musical knowledge.”
Despite their proximity, Mahoney and Mathys didn’t join the ranks until 2021, just as venues began reopening from pandemic-related closures, O’Brien said.
When the two joined, Early Eyes’ debut album was months from release, being written and recorded during the height of the pandemic, Villano said.
“Writing ‘Look Alive!’ was all done on the computer during the first months of quarantine, which we had never done before,” Villano said. “We were always like a practice room band. That completely changed the way [the album] turned out. I think we would have made a super different album if COVID had never happened, and it probably would have been way worse.”
Although excited to return to their practice room roots, Villano said the band members felt the time spent exploring electronic music broadened the band’s horizons. O’Brien said the band was uniquely fit to balance both electronic and more organic influences.
“We have a skill set that’s really conducive to that kind of acoustic and electronic, mixed fidelity stuff,” O’Brien said. “A lot of ‘Look Alive!’ and a lot of the sonics of that album came from the demos that Jake and Joe just kind of made on the computer.”
Berglove said the two years without the opportunity to tour was frustrating but necessary.
“It needed to happen for us to make the album,” Berglove said. “We made a lot of decisions of what kind of band we wanted to be, what our relationship with music was, what it means to have a balance in your life between working towards a career in music, while also, keeping up with your friends and your family and your cats. In those two paused years, we really defined our future.”
Going on the road as tour support in 2021 after COVID-19 restrictions initially lifted, O’Brien said it took time for both audiences and artists to rebuild their stamina for live shows. On its current tour, Early Eyes members said they had to prepare differently to play music made without concern for the restrictions of live performance.
“We had to learn how to play ‘Look Alive!’ songs as a band after the album was finished, which was really challenging and instructive to how we view those songs and how we approach newer stuff that we’ve been working on,” O’Brien said. “I think it was a huge leap of faith, and I think we learned a lot. I’m really proud of what we did.”
The band said touring for this album has been “an evolving process” of discovering which elements they can recreate on stage and which require assistance from sound effects and instrumental tracks.
O’Brien said while these tracks were helpful and at times necessary, the band began decreasing its use as the tour went on.
“When you introduce tracks into a live performance, that sort of limits what you can improvise around. There’s a static element to every performance that stays the same,” O’Brien said. “Before this leg of the tour, we actually went back and trimmed down a ton of the tracks. A little more subtle, and a lot of the elements we can recreate with our own playing.”
Mathys echoed the sentiment.
“Things that work super well in a recorded album context don’t translate so well live,” Mathys said. “I like to go to a show, and I want to hear all the songs that are on a band’s album or whatever, but I really appreciate when it doesn’t sound exactly like that, and they’ve taken liberties or made tweaks, they’ve changed things up a little.”
This learning curve, as well as playing to some of their largest audiences yet, has given the band a lot to reflect on, Berglove said.
“We’re so privileged to be able to just, like, drive around the country and play music to people who like us every night,” Berglove said. “Every show bangs, there’s no way around it.”
Early Eyes wrapped up the East Coast leg of the tour, including a Feb. 25 performance — the one-year anniversary of “Look Alive!” — and announced new music coming soon on its Instagram.
“It’s been so cool every night,” Mathys said. “It honestly does not get old for me. Just to look out and see people who know the words is really cool.”
