A Little More

Since the release of Evermore's third full-length in '09, Truth Of The World: Welcome To The Show, the three Hume brothers that construct Evermore – Jon, Dann and Peter – have collectively celebrated 11 birthdays. A lot has changed during that time and while the brothers have been quite busy with other commitments unrelated to Evermore, the time apart has allowed each member to refine their individual sound and bring something new to the table. When Evermore frontman Jon Hume answers his phone, he's headed out to celebrate Dann's 25th birthday. While pre-party anticipation creeps into his voice, a bigger celebration is just around the corner. Follow The Sun, the fourth offering from the Hume brothers, is finally ready for release and the boys are gearing up to hit the road.

Since the Truth Of The World... touring cycle died down, they've somewhat disappeared into the background. With the brothers engulfed in other projects, Evermore could have quite easily stayed dormant for years, or even disbanded, but other forces were at work, ensuring no such thing eventuated. “We could have easily gone, 'Oh, we've done this thing, we've had this band ten years and let's just go do something else now', but it really didn't feel like we've said all that we needed to say. And musically there's such good chemistry between the three of us that it's not something that we could walk away from. There's just so much good music, we can't just walk off and do something else,” Hume explains.

“If we all made [separate] music it would just be different and it's hard to put your finger on exactly why, but I guess just being brothers and making music together since we were kids, there's a certain chemistry in the whole writing process that I don't fully understand, but it works and we really enjoy it and it just felt really good, after a little bit of time working on other stuff, to get back to Evermore and make a record.”

Part of the reason they went underground for so long was because they were building their own studio in the countryside of Victoria. With their own studio in place they were able to break free from the constraints of a major labels and be completely independent – something Hume emphasises was a goal from the beginning. “We could sit down and make whatever record we wanted to make, whereas our previous three were all on Warner Music. I guess there was always a bit of pressure to work with other producers, which was a good experience, but because Dann and I are producers, there was already plenty of ideas in the mix. We didn't really need someone else to find our direction,” he says. “I think now, more than ever, you're kind of in control of your own destiny as a musician and I think it felt right to us to actually put our own album out there.”

Although they've been out of the mainstream spotlight, fans still had opportunities to connect with the band and keep up to date with the progress of the album and individual songs as the band released demos and live recordings as they went along. “[Warner] actually did stop us from doing that previously, which seems silly to me. I don't know what their policy on that is now, but back when we were making our previous albums, they had some sort of policy where they didn't want anything to go out until it went through them.”

And now they return with their a new single, which didn't need to go through any big label ears first. “Our new single, Follow The Sun, we recorded a live demo of it for YouTube probably nine months ago; the chorus has got completely different lyrics and the song is called All The Way. Our songs always go on journeys, so I think it's interesting for our friends who hear a song from the start and hear it go through three different phases of different ideas making their way into the song, and so this time around we gave our fans a listen earlier on to the album. I think people dig it, being a part of the process and understanding how much time we put into the different aspects of the songs.

“Songs like It's Too Late, once they've been out for years and we've played them so many different times, we sometimes forget exactly how the recording goes because of the slow evolution of the way we play it live. Sometimes I find myself going 'Oh, whoops, I've actually changed a lyric',” he laughs. “That's just part of the creative process, really.”

With the freedom to release their music whenever, wherever and however they wish, they've put together an EP of album b-sides that will be sold exclusively on tour. While it sounds like a unique idea for tour/album merch, that's just the tip of the Evermore merch iceberg. “The album's called Follow The Sun, so we were like, 'What's something that would be cool to have Follow The Sun written on?' and sunglasses was the first thing we thought of. I kind of think we just felt like there's only so many times that people want a band t-shirt, so we're not doing any t-shirts, we're just doing any creative thing we can think of,” he explains.

Their 2004 debut album Dreams saw Evermore pillowcases sold at shows and around the time of 2006's Real Life Evermore underwear surfaced – not exactly sure what the connection is there, but they were popular all the same. “We've actually still got a massive box of Evermore underwear in my garage,” he laughs. “They were really popular, but somehow a box got left behind at some point and it's still sitting there. They were very popular, but it always felt slightly weird, to be honest, when people are asking you to sign their Evermore underwear and I'm just like, 'This is just strange', so I think we'll probably give the Evermore underwear a miss from now on… Occasionally someone still brings [a pillowcase] to a show to get it signed and I'm like, 'Argh, I wish I had one of these myself'.” A box full of unsold underwear will have to suffice as a consolation prize. “I kind of wish we made boxer shorts, but we didn't,” he shares. The conversation then directs itself to the topic of disposable underwear, and it's clear that things need to wrap up quickly. “That'd be handy on tour, actually!”

Evermore will be playing the following shows:

Thursday 13 September - Capitol & Amplifier Bar, Perth WA
Friday 14 September - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Wednesday 19 September - The Zoo, Brisbane QLD
Thursday 20 September - The Standard, Sydney NSW