Easter has entered the scene with a bang. The first clue was when he nearly swept several categories in our Music Reader’s Poll. The second was when people were singing along at his first-ever show, just a few weeks after releasing his EP. Mind you, this is a brand new band without expectations to face up to (or a pre-built fanbase from other projects). The amount of popularity that Easter has picked up in such a short time is both baffling and extremely encouraging. It could be because Kyle Lang runs with the punk kids, but comes from such a sonically opposite place that it’s hard not to notice him. The overriding theme of his debut EP (entitled Demonstration) — friendship — certainly fits with the ethos that fuels the DIY scene, but the EP’s songwriting and clean production make it a blast of fresh air after so many sweaty basement shows.
Stream the EP’s lead track, “All the People That I Love the Most” below, and check out some additional live video of “Return to Form”
I had a chance to interview Kyle shortly after that first show. Here’s what he had to say:
SP: To start off, can you talk about the genesis of Easter? Had you been making music before this project?
Kyle Lang: Yeah, I’e been making music and actually creating song since I was fourteen. I was always really into recording and recording my own stuff, and I try to turn those songs into things I could take on with bigger bands — like a full band, not just me.
SP: So were the songs on the EP written with the idea of performing them with a full band in mind?
KL: One thing that I’ve always been conscious of, or one thing that I’ve always gone for I guess, is to make songs that could be performed in any sort of situation, if it was just me or a big band. And I think with these, I wanna try and make the live performance different every single time, like with different people every time, I think that would be a lot of fun. Cause I mean I’m sorta in two different places, I’m here and I’m up close to Chicago [Oak Park], so I have different friends in different places to play along.
SP: Your album has a bunch of different cover photos. Where were those taken at?
KL: Those were taken in the town where I’m from and here, just at random times. When I took them I had no intention of using them as album covers, but then I liked them a lot. Since the intention is perform these songs with all of my friends at some point, I thought it would be cool to have all of them on the covers. And I mean, everything I write is about them, so I think it’s appropriate that they would be on the covers.
SP: So this EP came out pretty recently, have you thought at all about a follow-up yet?
KL: Absolutely, I’m going to be working on…in my mind it’s gonna come out next summer…so like a year and a few months from now, a full-length, I’m starting to plan it out in my head.
SP: Do you have any new material written other than what’s on the EP at this point?
KL: Just sort of ideas that I need to expand upon. Usually when I’m making songs and making albums — I guess I can say albums ’cause I only have that one — I have a bunch of separate ideas, and I sort them out and put them in order, put them into songs. So I have a bunch of ideas floating around, and it’s just a matter of making more ideas and combining everything together.
SP: So do you tend to write your music before your lyrics, then?
KL: Yeah, that’s a fair thing to say, but lots of times I come up with them at the exact same time, and sometimes I’ll come up with some words that I wanna put in a song, and there’s usually a melody along with that in my head, and I build parts of songs off of that.
SP: So when do you record next? Are you planning to record by yourself again, or with an ensemble?
KL: I think I always want to record by mysel, because I get a much bigger sense of satisfaction with that, and the feeling that I’ve actually done something. I wouldn’t say it has to do with me being afraid that other people will mess it up, or I don’t want other people’s ideas, ’cause that’s not true, I just wanna feel like I’ve really done something myself.