THE EAMES ERA
The SiS Interview by Rusty Roberts

Hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, The Eames Era aren’t going to let a hurricane hold them down. After getting loads of exposure from college radio with their 2005 debut, Double Dutch, the quintet is back with their second album Heroes And Sheroes. Packed with 17 poppy and catchy tunes, the band is getting ready to hit the road in support of the self-released effort. Now that their songs are being used as the soundtrack for some show starring a fellow nicknamed McDreamy, the men and woman of The Eames Era let Stranded In Stereo in on their 2007 and how the Mayor of New Orleans gave birth to Sheroes’ title.

SIS: The song “When You Were A Millionaire” was used as the theme for MTV’s I’m From Rolling Stone, and “Could Be Anything” was featured on Grey’s Anatomy. How do you think these appearances will help the band become a household name?

Eames Era: Once your song is on TV, your perspective changes a little. It sort of demystifies the idea that getting on the TV will instantaneously change your whole world. It obviously doesn’t really. It didn’t ever really occur to us to try to license our songs to TV before it just started happening. It was never a goal we had had. At some point it just becomes this thing that validates your band to your friends’ parents and people who don’t know you. Like “wow, you guys’ song was on TV?!? Good for you!!” Some of them might incorrectly assume that we’re rich now. We enjoy playing into that myth; that TV automatically makes you out-of-control rich and famous. Then there are those who are too cool for TV. The whole idea of “selling out” is a mute argument these days though. We’re making music and this is the best avenue we’ve found to share that music with the most amount of people. If it pays for us to go on tour and write and record more albums, then even better!

SIS: For Heroes, you worked with (Oranges Band guitarist) Daniel Black who took on the role as producer. How did this come about?

EE: Ted enjoys taking credit for this one, because it was he who, in a drunken state confronted Dan in a booth at a bar about recording and engineering our next record. “I mention my drunkenness only because that is the only way I would’ve been able to conjure the nerve to ask him. But the truth is we had sort of known him for a little while (Brian, Greg, and I all went to architecture school with his cousin Travis), and at some point Grant started hanging out with Dan through other mutual friends. I remember after I broke my arm and I was sort in a Percocet-induced haze for several weeks, Grant started playing me the Oranges most recent record over and over again. It remains probably one of my favorite records to listen to all the way through. So we--at least I-- were kind of intimidated my Dan early on, because of how awesome his band is. But working with him on the record was one of the most fun and educational experiences I’ve had in music. We made it at his parents’ house here in Baton Rouge, recording straight for like a bunch of days in a row. It was great. I would commit murder to get to work with him again on another project.

SIS: Who came up with the title Heroes And Sheroes, and what are you trying to say with that?

EE: Brian came up with it. “I got it from a speech given by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin just a couple days after Hurricane Katrina. At one point he thanked all the “Heroes and Sheroes” of New Orleans who aided in the recovery effort. The funny part was how he stumbled into the word sheroes, as not to use the word ‘heroine’. We are all familiar with the drug problem in New Orleans. But the title was not chosen because we were trying to make a political statement or because we were trying to pay homage to the city we are from. We chose it because we thought it was a cute phrase. There are things you hear or see or experience and you feel like it matches what your doing with your music.

SIS: A lot of people might compare The Eames Era to other noteworthy bands, one that comes to mind being Rilo Kiley. Do you like the idea of being compared to bigger acts like that, or would you prefer to not live in their shadow per se?

EE: From our perspective it’s kinda frustrating to hear the same comparisons over and over when we just want people know us for what we are on our own merits. On the other hand, it’s quite flattering that you would mention us in the same sentence as such noteworthy bands! Some people need that kind of reference point, and it can be helpful to people who’ve never heard us... as long as those bands don’t start to define who we are.

SIS: What’s 2007 looking to hold in store for The Eames Era?

EE: We’re touring the east coast and Midwest in June, and hope to head west as soon as possible after that. After that it all depends on how the record is setting with people. At some point we’d like to sit back and relish our accomplishments, but up until this point there hasn’t been time for that.

SIS: What do you find being the most difficult thing about being an unsigned artist who self-releases their material. Are their aspirations to be signed to a major label at some point in your career, or a well known indie at least or do you prefer this entire DIY ethic?

EE: Of course it’s with a certain sense of pride and accomplishment that we can say we produced and paid for our whole record by ourselves. We truly enjoy keeping control artistically and business wise. In addition we maintain all the rights to our material, which pays off both in personal satisfaction and monetarily in the long run if done properly. Of course being truly independent has it’s own cache. Brian says, “We’ve flirted with record labels of every size, ranging from micro indie to major labels, we’ve just never found a suitor.” Whether that’s by choice or by circumstance is open for interpretation. Either way, I’m really discouraged with the direction in which the conventional label model is headed these days. I just don’t have any faith left in it… not only as a musician but even more so as a music fan.” That’s not to say we wouldn’t be interested in seeing what a real record deal looks like.