EEP have released their long-awaited LP You Don’t Have to Be Prepared. This concept album was created by the collective, which consists of Sebastian Estrada (Guitar, Bass, Synth, Keys, Drums, Percussion, Vocals) Ross Ingram (Guitar, Synth, Keys, Drums, Percussion, Vocals), and Rosie Varela (Guitar, Synth, Keys, Percussion, Bass, Vocals). The lushly layered work is a sonic novel that everyone can relate to.

In fact, the record is based entirely on an old audio that was found on a reel-to-reel tape recorder which was discovered inside the band’s 1979 Hammond Cougar organ. They said, “It was hiding in plain sight”.

It’s the late 70s, or perhaps the early 80s, and a middle-aged woman in Clay Center, Kansas–possibly named Anne–is leaving an audio message for her sweetheart in El Paso, Texas. She’s exiting her old life and entering a new one, jumping across the country and into her next chapter. A second chance at love, and an optimism that’s palpable through the recording; a recording that found its way to a Sunland Park, New Mexico studio housed by El Paso-based three-piece band (EEP).

The beginning of “Ghost” starts with duet-style vocals with contrasting timbres. A running eight-note bassline combines with percussion and culminates into an indigo-melancholy.

The opener speaks of displaying crumbling memories in a case inside, and begs (In a Paramore-ish way) “Will you ever let me go?”

The end of the song feels like a reprise, as it fades out and restates key themes. We continue the story with the heart-rending “My Lack of Symmetry”. This song leads the way with electronic drums which then pair up with an exposed guitar and keys. While the song began with haunting vocals, the message we arrive at is unexpectedly warm: “You head on my chest, your body folds into my arms”

At its heart, track 2 is about “keeping the lights on”, and not being afraid to be exposed or imperfect. The zen of giving it all away to your lover- exactly as you are. Uneven phasers and delays surround us in a chaotic and psychedelic form of bliss which then ramps up to the final.

“14 Days” is poignantly different from tracks 1 & 2 with its rhythmic modulation and bold static sound. Despite wanting to be in bed, she is packing her bags and leaving. As we dive deeper into Anne’s story, we begin to feel her more deeply.

For example “Here’s What I Want You to Forget” showcases apocalyptic despair, and bittersweet amour. Pained and beautiful, the closing 6/8 guitar lines almost begin to sound like a harp as they fade into… “Here’s What I Want You to Remember”. the sequel to track 5 makes us wonder- Is this a sonic letter to a long-gone, or is the seed of love just beginning to sprout? Perhaps, it’s both.

The woman bears it all on an audio tape tape. We’re overcome with nostalgia as the track crackles. Drums enter, creating interest with their metric modulation. She’s laughing, but the bassline feels a touch of darkness, too.

It is raw, and not at all what one would expect based on the title. This over-halfway-point song segways without stopping, straight in with a continuation of rhythm. “On Tenterhooks” has phasing and gentle guitars. It is an instrumental which gives us a reprieve before the final chapters… “Clay Center” then imparts to us a sense of finality. The song is a sort of “Let me go” mantra. A piano solo becomes the focal point, a forward-moving minor impetus, and violins swell into a closing crescendo.

You Don’t Have to Be Prepared has treated us thus far with Radiohead-ish metric modulation, life-like lyrics and speech, and varied emotional expressions that are very easy to tune into. Throughout the album, there is a strong percussive feel, which makes the LP even more emotive and powerful.

The penultimate “Always’ features an unexpected synth loop, which resurfaces multiple times in this pop-punk-centric tune. The male vocalist has a Jack’s-Mannequin-type, forward vocal placement in this one, and showcases the band’s impressive flexibility of sound.

Finally, we reach the title track and the end of the story…Or is it just the start? “You Don’t Have to Be Prepared”.

As the title track plays, it’s all too easy to imagine a lead actress, Emily in Paris, standing at the end of a season. She’s looking longing at a momentous city, realizing for the first time that life is messy (and maybe that ok). It’s easy to imagine anyone on this journey, past or present.

Q&A

How do Anne’s experiences pull from pieces of your lives?

Ross: Any time that you’re writing about anything you’re going to have to pull from your own experiences and emotions. I have to find ways that things I’ve experienced or seen relate to what Anne went through and to try to find that common emotional ground.

Rosie: I went through a very similar experience as Anne in the relationship that I’m in currently where I moved from one city to another to be with my beloved and I know exactly that anticipation. It’s just so hard to wait to be with the person you want to be with and you have to cut ties in a way that isn’t comfortable sometimes to be able to make that change to be with your loved one.

Ross: When my wife and I were first together, we ended up long distance for a period. So, I can definitely sympathize with that aspect of it – the anticipation and following someone somewhere else and knowing that that requires sacrifice and tie cutting, but knowing that’s what you want. No matter how certain you are, the uncertainty is never gone.

Rosie: It’s excruciating and yet when the moment comes that you’re finally together in your space, it’s really satisfying. Where does “My Lack of Symmetry” come from? It’s a very beautiful expression of perfect imperfection.

Ross: I think there’s a lot of writing about idealized romantic love and happily ever after, etc. and I find it more interesting and honest to write about a more real world experience. How loving someone means accepting not just the perfect things about them but the imperfect things. How amazing it feels to have someone who knows your imperfections but still loves and embraces you regardless – whether those are physical or mental or emotional or whatever imperfections or lacks of symmetry.

Rosie: I felt especially for the female part of it, I was imagining some things from my own life like loved ones that I’ve had who had to have a breast removed due to breast cancer – that lack of symmetry that happens after something so difficult. In the lyrics I write, “Leave the lights on love/I want to see you close/That beautiful scar on your chest.” That one I wrote specifically for my son because he had to have surgery and they opened up his chest and he has a big scar going up his chest. And for some reason, I thought about his marriage and how they have accepted each other completely for who they are. So, in a way, it was a little nod for him to know that his mom’s thinking of him.

The cover art for this album is very nostalgic and interesting. Is it a photograph of real magazines and photos, and do any of the items have a metaphorical meaning?

Ross: We selected items that tied to the storyline to try to create something that looked like Anne packing to move, or at least packing to go visit. So, we collected some things we found online and ordered from Clay Center, Kansas and then went to a couple different kind of flea markety, antique places and found pictures and brochures and stuff that felt like they tie into the story.

Rosie: And I brought a bunch of my mom’s photos. So, the little suitcase is her cosmetic suitcase that she would use from the 70s, and one of the perfume bottles is hers. My mother’s 93 years old and the pressed flowers are from her pressed flower photo album We also used a photo with Ross’ wife Kristyn and her sister when they were babies. And then it’s all laid out on a crochet tablecloth which my mom made. So, we put some of our personal pictures in and if you really look carefully, you’ll see a few pictures of us with our pets.

You’ll see a picture of the band doing something in the studio, but you have to really focus to find it. It was a really fun collage to do and it was spur of the moment. We got the items together, set them up in front of where we had some blinds, and we liked the way the light hit. So, we took the photos and sent them on to our graphic designer Nathan McGehee, and he did some amazing things with that and the photo of the organ itself.

As for “Here’s What I Want You To Remember,” what do you believe the most poignant thing said in the tape is?

Ross: I think the part about not needing more love, just needing to be told she’s loved. The story where she talked about how she would go up to her mom and ask her if she loved her and how that made her mom uncomfortable; and figuring that out about herself and then finding someone that can accommodate that need. It was such a vulnerable and honest kind of thing that she’s talking about, and then that it ends with ‘I do know you love me’ – that part always resonated with me.

Rosie: I have nothing to add to that and I agree that was my favorite part.

What artists inspire you currently?

Ross: I try to listen to a lot of music, both just because I need to be aware of artists for work but also I don’t like stagnating in one style. There’s so much great creative music and art out there, so I’m always trying to listen to new things. One artist that I’ve listened to a lot since her record came out is Josaleigh Pollett from Salt Lake City – she put out a record called ‘In the Garden by the Weeds’ and it’s beautiful. I’m always listening to a lot of Beauty Pill. And on this record we referenced a few things – Radiohead is always a big reference for us, Portishead is always a huge reference along with Björk. I’ve listened to Pavement forever and on this one, it definitely kind of came into the discussion. We listened to a ton of Karate while making this record – that’s definitely an all-time favorite band of mine and their album ‘Unsolved’ was a life-changer for me.

Rosie: And it became a life-changer for me, too. Actually, Ross has been a bit of my guru as far as discovering new bands and Karate was a big one. I know that I’ve been at different times when we were looking at aesthetics, sometimes we would talk about Peter Gabriel, Air, Broadcast, even Jimmy Eat World.

Ross: There was a song off ‘Clarity’ that we used as a rhythmic prompt. It didn’t end up sounding like it at all when we were done, but we sort of used it as a jumping off point.

Rosie: Someone asked me a question about what was the difference between giving AI a prompt for music and us using prompts in our music. The answer that I gave was that AI is just going to go through and randomly pick something, but when we do a prompt, we go by the feeling of what we get from that prompt. It’s not going to sound like the prompt – it’s just going to take us to a place in our heads when we’ve heard that song.

Ross: We also paid for all that music so there’s that. We bought those records from those artists. We supported them, promoted them, and here we are. We’ll talk about them in an interview and say, ‘We were inspired by this, we inspired by that’ instead of just having a black box data algorithm that pulls in all this stuff, doesn’t tell anyone who it came from, and pretends like they made it themselves. Not to be cynical about that kind of AI generation.

Rosie: It was a good question, though.

Ross: There’s some very cool AI-adjacent things. The AI sample generation stuff is interesting, but not the ‘fill in a prompt and give me a song’ stuff.

Rosie: It’s pretty painful, isn’t it?

Ross: Yeah, the same with the art.

If You Don’t Have to Be Prepared could be described in only three words and a single color, what would you say?

Rosie: I think You Don’t Have to Be Prepared is universal in a way. Everyone that I know always feels like they’re not prepared enough for anything in their life. It’s really hard for us to let go of the control of every outcome in our life. So, three words – ‘You are okay.’

Ross: As for a single color, I spent a lot of time in that control room with the cruising blue on the walls so that color always comes to mind here. That doesn’t fit the look of the album or necessarily even the sound of the album, color-wise. I feel like the album is just in a pastel peachy-orangey color.

Rosie: Definitely a pastel peach.

Featured image by Mary Moreck.

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