Evil Twin – Upside Down We’re Flying
Indie rockers Evil Twin, release their full length LP, Upside Down We’re Flying.
Fronted by songwriter, guitarist and vocalist, Peter McGee, the ten-song album embraces fuzzed out guitars drenched in effects, melodic hooks, and poppy vocals that evoke classic indie rockers Dinosaur Jr, REM, Pavement, contemporary indie songwriters like Courtney Barnett and Sufjan Stevens and the big, organic sounds that only arrive when the members of Evil Twin are in a room playing together, leaning into a musical conversation. The album was produced by Brayden Baird and in addition to McGee features guitarist and singer, Claire Stevens, and bassist/vocalist Riina Dougherty. Prior to their departure from the band, Thomas Kikuchi provided drums and percussion.
“We are a callback to the days of three to four person bands – where you kinda marveled at the fact that just a very small group of people on stage are able to make music this big,” says McGee. “Nowadays you have whole orchestras on stage and multiple guitar players doing backup, backing tracks and drum machines. And of course we use all that on record too, but at the core every song on this record is the four of us, in a room, playing with each other, reacting to each other. It’s organic. That’s how we recorded it, all live tracked together, then the overdubs sit atop it as a hyper real sheen. Same with the harmonies – we could have done layers of me in overdubs or brought in professional singers, but I feel something is lost when you do that. We wanted the unique flavor that each band member’s voice has. The history of us as a band, and each member’s own history, is in all those voices.”
“We are very out of time aesthetically,” McGee continues, “and we want to feel like an indie band from the late 80s and early 90s that fits seamlessly into the canon.”
Upside Down We’re Flying kicks off with the driving, dreamy and atmospheric, “Frost on the Lillies.” “The most remarkable thing about the song to me is the layers and layers of guitar effects we built on top of that percussive assault and Bass Groove, there were a lot of overdubs and a lot of processing with my effect pedals and also post effects,” says McGee. “We got a device called the dream reaper that creates a controllable infinite feedback loop that we used to create some of those shrieking rises in the drone sections, and overblown fuzz/synth bass comes in below. I think that big moment (the drone section) is a statement of tonal intent for the album that we’re gonna try and bring a lot of different sonic colors into each song.”
Up next is the poppy, second single released, “California (She’s So Royal)” – a bouncy tune with peppy backup vocals, energetic alt rock drums and a blissful wall of fuzzy guitar. Instantly infectious, deploying hook after hook in its first two minutes, before entering into an extended instrumental break that sees spoken word monologues, bleep bloop synth effects, searing twin guitar solos, and heavy drum fills, all of which culminates in a climatic active jump for the third verse vocal.
“Lyrically,” says McGee, “the song is an in character kiss off to an ex-lover, the kind of lyrics that feel like they should be sung with sunglasses on at night – but the chorus hints that this character knows they aren’t really as cool or put together as they seem, and in the end don’t know much more about life.”
This song swings in the complete opposite direction from Evil Twin’s first single, “In Flames,” showing the range that will be found on the upcoming Upside Down We’re Flying.
Things take a darker turn with the previously released, “In Flames” – one of the album’s heaviest songs. “This one’s more about instrumental hooks and that fun 90s bass groove, but lyrics hint at something dark. It reminds me a bit of ‘The One I Love’ by R.E.M. and I think in flames refers to a sort of hellfire burning desire consuming the protagonist of this song,” says the songwriter.
“Red Thread” cranks the distorted guitars up before centering on a melodic guitar riff and an instrumental section that drummer Thomas Kikuchi contributed. “There’s a deep melancholy to all of it as well and that informed what I wrote the lyrics about: wanting to encounter a long lost crush at Penn station in New York, where you might run into anyone theoretically, though you know it’ll likely never be your crush,” explains McGee. “I think the protagonist wants an excuse to reach out, but doesn’t feel like they know this person well enough to do it so this kismet meeting, so it lets them get around that, perhaps this masks an obsession! “
Of the Pavement flavored, “Gym Gurlz,” McGee says, “It’s meant to get across a feeling – when you feel OK with yourself and everybody else, OK with naming your desires and your shortcomings.”
The gentle groove and chorus drenched guitars of “Aren’t You Lucky” asks the listener to consider the first time they felt happiness. “I had a professor who grew up in the eastern bloc, and once said that he didn’t recognize himself as feeling happiness till he was about 50 years old, ” explains McGee. “Quite a life, but perhaps people don’t let themselves feel happiness until they reach a life stage where it’s possible to keep it, at least for long enough that it means anything. The song feels like walking outside in a December snow storm to me, looking out across Lake Michigan, and feeling warmth despite the cold.”
The jangly, laid back “Kudzu” features an impactful main guitar part written by Claire and a bouncy, melodic bass line by Riina peppered throughout the song. “I use my guitar as more of ambient texturing/a way to create variety throughout this song rather than having to carry any specific melody. I explore a lot of different sonic colors that way,” says McGee. “Me and Claire also spent some time coming up with those woozy slowdive harmonies on the verses and then Riina comes in for a three-part harmony on the chorus.”
The penultimate, gentle “C74” “is the one that most feels tied to the overarching song cycle,” says McGee. “You have two people in a casual relationship that becomes dangerous to them as time goes on and there are some tragedy that they’re both moving towards, this song would represent a time where they’re still working on solutions. It’s about trying to build something with someone with severe mental issues as well, or maybe they are deliberately sabotaging anything you try to build, anything that could make their life better, cause it’ll force them to confront something.”
“The main riff was written by Claire and then we as a band developed out the other parts we took a symphonic approach to it, having each bit be a movement, and then that polyrhythm at the end shows to different parts of the song crashing together,” McGee continues. “It’s a very strong emotional dissonance which is what the characters are feeling, but it builds up almost triumphantly against that, as if, despite the strong dissonance, there is some great value to what they’re going through. There are a lot of strings on this song too, and some minimal horns adding texture in the background and tricky, but cool drum parts and great backup vocals by everyone.”
The album closes with what begins as a solo the piano ballad, “ Eta Carinae” As the song evolves, band members join the sparse piano and vocals one by one in a huge finish – one that ends both the song and the whole album. “It’s from the perspective of Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who was on the Challenger disaster talking to her parents,” says McGee. “Our producer, Brayden read into the song as a metaphor for starting a music career and I think that is there, though I wasn’t thinking about it at the time. I just thought the idea of Christa (or someone like her) talking to her parents (who might’ve had reservations about her doing something dangerous like going into space while she’s not an astronaut) and giving a convincing, movie-like speech, only for disaster to happen, to be extremely sad and striking, and I couldn’t get it out of my head, so I put it into a song.”
Evil Twin was born from the members of several local bands at Northwestern University in Illinois, after the members migrated from basement venues to NYC stages. The band is comprised of three members, each assuming a different genre of musical expertise that include shades of jazz, blues, classical, and pop punk. Together, they’ve created an innovative sound with soulful vocals and intricate instrumentals – a synergistic whole bigger than just one person, ready to steal listeners’ attention. Evil Twin is Peter McGee (lead vocals, lead guitar), Claire Stevens (rhythm and lead guitars, vocals), and Riina Dougherty (bass guitar, backing vocals). Thomas Kikuchi provides drums, synthesizer, and additional percussion to the album ahead of their departure.
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