Exclusive Interview with Indie Pop Group Eyelid Kid

 

Eyelid Kid is a rising force in the music industry. With songs written in the forest and performed in the city, Eyelid Kid constructs spiritual adventures through his music.

Born in Austin, Texas, music has always been a part of Eyelid Kid’s life. Some of his first memories are of dancing under the bar light to his father’s Blues tunes. Naturally, Eyelid Kid followed in his father’s footsteps and created a world for himself within music. Piano notes became water and guitar notes became air thus began the development of this extraordinary composer.

From an early age, Eyelid Kid knew he wanted to play music. He was drawn into the stories that lyrics told and the emotions the sounds evoked. He was hooked on the feeling he experienced when the right song paired up with the right moment in his life. Drawn to music’s ability to define, control and alter perception, Eyelid Kid pulls from relationships and experiences in his life to create his music. Sometimes it starts as a drunken voice, or as an instrumental skeleton. No matter the way his music starts, Eyelid Kid takes inspiration from an eclectic group of other great musicians like MGMT, Animal Collective, and even Justin Bieber.

Eyelid Kid’s sound is defined as indie pop or as the band puts it, “frosted pop”, but it is much more than that. It awakens powerful feelings that grab you into the experience. His vocals weave in and out of layers of ethereal synthesizer while live drums anchor the music to the here and now. The rhythmic backbone gives shape to the sound and turns what could be another keyboard-pop two-piece into a duo that delivers well-composed electro-alt that is as catchy as it is engaging. Eyelid Kid’s expressions can be felt with every cord.

Eyelid Kid’s forthcoming self-produced debut album, ‘Hometown,’ will be out in April. The album is a creative effort by Eyelid Kid and his supporting band. The band consists of Sam Jordan, Mackenzie and Morgan Taylor. Production wise, Eyelid Kid is supported by videographer and creative advisor Garson Ormiston, photographer Jinni J, and designer Chris Dock Davis. They form a close-knit group of artists pushing the creative genius that is Eyelid Kid.

2016 is going to be an incredible year for the band that describes themselves as “frosted pop.” Their music is catchy and hummable, but once you listen closely to the lyrics, you realize the despair and the constraints of time. They tour extensively, and this year they will be playing the vanguard pop culture event, SXSW.

TNWU was lucky enough to have a chance to talk to Eyelid Kid and are pleased to share some of their secrets they shared with us.

Do you still consider yourself an indie-pop-experimental band? You seem like a band that evades labels of any sort, but if you had to put the band into some category, would you say that would be it?

EK: I think as we continue to go through different phases, our label may change. At this point, Experimental Indie-Pop sounds pretty accurate. When we were first starting out and thinking of what to label our music as a friend of mine suggested calling it “Frosting Pop” which oddly seemed fitting, so occasionally we label Eyelid Kid as Frosting Pop.

How is Open Up different from your other tracks? How would you say you have grown musically since 2014?

EK: “Open Up” has a unique summertime vibe to it that I don’t tap into that often. In 2014 I had just gotten the software Ableton and knew little to nothing about it, so over the last few years, my production has gotten noticeably better. But from a songwriting standpoint, I feel like I’ve grown into my own voice these last few years and can more or less collect the thoughts in my head and express them in the form of a song rather than just an idea.

Is Eyelid Kid an official full band, or the brain child of Paul Grant, or a little bit of both? Other than Paul, is the musical lineup consistently the same?

EK: Eyelid Kid is an official full band, but also the brain child of Paul Grant, so yeah a little bit of both! Eyelid Kid as a live act is a consistent 4 piece composed of Sam Jordan on live drums, Mackenzie and Morgan Taylor as a dance duo AKA: Strikes & Strobe, and Paul Grant AKA: EK on midi controllers and vocals. Sometimes we have additional dancers or installation artists but that’s a story for another time…

Will you continue to keep the air of mystery around the other members of the band and their roles?

EK: (laughs). Nah, I pretty much just gave them away. I want everyone to receive the credit they deserve for applying their energy to Eyelid Kid!

Do you feel any artist can make it in their field without a social media presence? Fans love the closeness that Facebook and Twitter provides them with; some would say this makes the industry even more fan driven than ever before, even when MTV appeared on the scene, demanding a visual presence. What are your feelings about this?

EK: That’s a nice way to put it! I think that social media is a great tool to connect with fans that artists haven’t had in the past. However, the direction that social media seems to be heading is going to make it harder and harder to reach your fans without paying for it. Which generally isn’t good for artists who don’t have a whole lot of money starting out. I enjoy social media cause it feels like the imagery side of Eyelid Kid.

Is this your first SXSW? Are you excited to be a part of such a large and important event?

EK: This was our first SX as an official artist. I have mixed feelings about SXSW, however, each year seems to get better and better and it is definitely an honor to be included in a festival with its reputation.

Who will you be sharing the stage with?

EK: The Rite Flyer, The Blind Owls, Next Stop: Horizon, Bloody Knives, and Guten Birds. None of which I was familiar with but I think it was a mixture of local Austin bands and international bands.

What other touring plans do you have? Who will you be touring with, and who would you eventually like to tour with?

EK: We are excited to take our first official tour this summer, we are still planning it out but it sounds like we are heading for the west coast and making our way back through the mid west. We will most likely be going solo and teaming up with acts we know along the way. Over the last few years, I’ve become homies with electronic artist Robert Delong, I know him and his team pretty closely now, in the future I think we’d have a blast on the road together! In addition, I think our sets would stylistically match up and complement each other.

Can you give us a hint of what a live Eyelid Kid show feels like?

EK: Your heart is pounding as a few undertones hum through the venue’s sound system, you look down at your half empty whiskey ginger and consider heading back to the bar for a refill. In that moment of indecision, you catch eyes with the same girl that was in front of you in the line to the restroom, the one you were “not drunk enough to talk to yet”. Suddenly two clones appear on stage wearing human masks but they don’t seem to be moving like humans. As the music begins to build you start to feel not only your heartbeat but what feels like the entire audience’s heart beating in unison with the electric sound coming from the stage. You look over and restroom girl is standing next to you… Yet she’s not just standing, her feet are shuffling, her hips are twisting, and her shoulders are rolling to the voice of Eyelid Kid. You realize in this moment you don’t need another drink, you don’t need to check your phone, you just need to open up.

I understand you have other musical projects besides Eyelid Kid. How do they differ, and how are they the same as Eyelid Kid.

EK: At the moment, Eyelid Kid is the main focus. I’ve been in a number of projects prior to Eyelid Kid that have helped pave the way as an artist. My previous band Brotherhood Electric really showed me what it was like to simply just love music, but it seems like love is somewhat of a chase so I found myself breaking away and chasing music as a sort of a future companion.

Since our site is called Talk Nerdy With Us, we like to ask: what nerdy things are you into?

EK: Well the 4 of us are super into anime (more them than me) so once a week we have Naruto night where we get ramen to go and watch back to back episodes of Naruto together!