The Eyeliners L to R: Gel, Laura and Lisa
Up Close and Personal with The Eyeliners
The three highly motivated and talented sisters who make up, The Eyeliners, may at first glance seem no different than any of the other emerging female punk rock/pop bands. But upon closer inspection, it becomes obvious quite quickly there are as many layers to these hard rocking sisters as there are guitar layers in their new release, "No Apologies." And those many layers go a long way in explaining the strong chemistry they share that adds to an energentic stage show they deliver with the same rapid fire precision you hear on " No Apologies."
The sisters who between them earned at least 8 scholarships including a NASA scholarship and internship that was awarded to big sister Lisa, boast an elementary education degree, a computer science degree and baby sister geL who still awes her big sisters with her near photographic music memory.
We met with The Eyeliners after their show at Toad's place in New Haven, Ct while on tour with Time Again, The Aquabats and The Phenomenauts with the hopes of grabbing a quick ten minute interview. That ten minutes quickly mushroomed into over an hour as the sisters chatted about their their early musicial memories, working with Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett on "No Apologies" and their parents who remain their biggest supporters today.
Chuckling in amusement when asked about the difficult task facing Laura of juggling both lead vocals and drums they recall how they "tricked" her into the job.
geL: Yeah we learned to play our instruments by playing The Ramones and stuff like that. Lisa and I knew how to play drums so we were teaching Laura how to play drums. So we taught her how to play and so we started playing and she started singing.
Lisa: The first song we ever learned that the three of us played together was " I Love Rock N Roll."
Laura: They were playing " I Love Rock N Roll" and I just started singing, like without even thinking about it. I turn around and they say you can drum and sing! You know!
geL: We used to tell people, cause its really weird, the first few years when we were a band and used to tour and it was just the three of us we didn't do the switch with the drums you know. We played the entire set with Laura drumming and singing and people would come up and say " You know its so hard how do you do that?" And we would be like " No! Don't tell her!"
Laura: People would come up to me and say its so hard to drum and sing. But since I didn't have that kind of attitude, you know that was the way I learned how to do it. I never had the challenge. Had I learned to drum than tried to incorporate singing I'm sure it would have been a whole different story.
Lisa: It was just natural for her.
Lisa who affectionately refers to geL as the decoration of the group because of her energentic personality on and off the stage recalls how they learned to play guitar together when they were 12 and 13 years old
Lisa: It was ridiculous how quickly she learned so I was like you know what I'm fine on bass. geL is like, she is really, really good.
geL: I actually made myself learn classical guitar at one point.
When discussing signing onto Blackheart Records and working with Rocker Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna excitement enters their eyes as they talk about their experiences with Blackheart Records so far.
Laura: You know that's the thing that is kind of cool about it. Growing up and being a little kid you know and seeing Joan. It just kind of made it seem kind of possible you could do this kind of thing. You never thought, Wow its a challenge for females to be in the music business, because it really, really is.
While On Tour:
geL: Yeah they're awesome to us. They take good care of us. And they like don't tell us how to act. I think they kind of know like I'm the one who likes to party. And Lisa she comes off as the mellow backbone but she's just like me!
Lisa: Actually we are the two that get party crazy. I get crazy if I get drunk enough. Laura is the one who tells us when we had enough.
geL: Yeah!
Lisa: And like that Reno show it was going to be a thousand miles to Reno than a thousand miles from Reno to Colorado Springs for our first two shows. And Blackhearts are like no your not going to drive that we will just fly you over. Stuff like that you know.
In The Studio:
geL: On this album I used like five guitars and Kenny was like what are you doing! Why are you bringing in another guitar? And I was like Kenny let me do it you know, and its funny because that's how Kenny and Joan are.
Lisa: It was hilarious because thats exactly how Kenny and Joan are.
geL: And we write everything together but as far as the layering, all the guitars I come up with all those. And well this time we did things a little different I would come in and say check this out and it would be a verse or chorus or whatever. And Lisa would come in and say check this out I have this and we would just go from there you know. where in the past we would just do it as a group.
Lisa: Laura does the majority of the lyrics, she does like 85% if not more. I contribute here and there but she does the most.
Filming their first Video "Destroy"
geL: One of the cops actually got mad.
Lisa: The girl cop.
geL: Yeah the girl cop. It was so funny. The cops in the video, one was actually like a porn star ( laughs ) Yeah we didn't know we show up and the other cop is an extra on Law and Order. So they rented you know its like a fake cop car they use on movie sets and they had the graffiti artist do Destroy and stuff. But they had actual cops on the set, so you know nobody goes off in the car and like robs a bank. You know what I mean? So their there than and once we did the " Destroy" graffiti they came up and got mad at us. They were kind of like " Oh that's disrepect for the cops." And we're like oh, its just a music video and they're like, " Oh, ok." But that was very pretty funny. They were alright, really cool afterwards, but for a little bit they got a little you know.
We asked the gals alittle bit about filming their first video "Destroy" video with Joan Jett.
Joan was behind the cameras at times doing her best to help the sisters through the filming of their first video. Which Joan herself knows at times can be trying as she recounts in her DVD "Real Wild Child" when discussing her Crimson and Clover Video.
geL: She's really cool to because you know sometimes you kind of have a camera like this ( makes a motion showing right in her face) when your filming the video. You know sometimes you get like a little uptight you know and Joan like she was there. Right behind the camera making faces trying to loosen us up. So she was awesome but yeah Joan was great.
Hinting that there are two more videos in the works, the sisters remain mum on the second release, suggesting only that fans might be able to influence the decision by sharing their favorite songs, on their message board and while meeting them on the road. More chatty about the third release and clearly excited to be doing " The Promise" they reveal it will not be shot in NYC, but in their hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
While admitting they would love to have their fans in their video, they do leave most of the decisions up to their director and hope fans will be used in their upcoming video of the "The Promise." When asked if Laura would stay behind her kit during any of the upcoming videos, Laura immediately jumps in voicing her desire to do so and says they are thinking about it. Adding they are thinking about adding in a couple of the old fan favorites and having Laura spend more time behind her kit during the current tour. Along with a second guitar that would be manned by their guitar tech, Tony.
When asked about geL's strong stage presence:
Lisa: On the stage yeah, I'm totally aware of her and I just want her to do her thing, because thats geL. I'm just kind of like, maybe like the backbone. I don't want to be like the... you know she's the decoration. We used to joke we share the same brain because we are like so similar you know and we are like so similar. But when it comes down to it she is the decoration. I'm happy just being there. I don't like to be the center of attention at all.
geL quickly jumps in to set the record straight on why she has such a strong stage presence in the midst of her sisters playful ribbing.
geL: The thing is I don't jump around to be the attention hog. So when I started being crazy on stage was when we started Laura was behind the drums, so a lot of people were telling me well you got to be the front person. Like because Laura is actually the singer your going to have to be the presence so I started getting crazy. I mean I have stories of falling on my head and I can tell you about that if you like.
When asked about their parents after joking they wished there was one more sibling for drums the sisters quickly agreed their parents were their greatest supporters.
"When we were on Warped Tour they came to two of the shows and like all these punk rock bands wanted to meet them. So my parents met them all and it was really cool. Our mom loves punk music, she loves Flogging Molly, Joan, Social D, The Ramones. Our parents are the best parents ever. Yeah and Mom used to post alot on our old message board we are trying to get her to do that again!"
Checking in about their fans and street team, geL quickly pulls out her sidekick and shows us how easily she can log in online and read the message board. All the sisters read the message board almost daily. They love seeing what fans have to say, love reading show reviews and seeing the photos. Very much aware of the underground that has much to say about their music, they quickly voice their support for the underground. " That is so special to us when they break down the music, especially on this album. We love everything our fans do. We want them to share it all with us. Tell us what's good or bad, thats the most important thing to us, hearing what the fans have to say." For their street team, " Get the word out however, where ever you want. Any message boards, anything you want!"
And backing those words up with action as The Aquabats set wrapped up and fans began to approach them they quickly wrapped up the interview and went to join Laura at the merchandise table eager to hear what fans had to say about their show.
The Eyeliners have just wrapped up their second tour this year with The Aquabats, Time Again and The Phenomenauts. To read show reviews, view photos and read their tour diary, visit their official website, www.theeyeliners.com
GWGS © The Cover Zone August 2005