EWERT & THE TWO DRAGONSOur first experience of the strangely named Ewert & The Two Dragons came during last winter's pilgrimage to Tallinn Music Week - March 2011. For reasons we can't be bothered to explain, The NMO attended only the second half of their gig during the festival and we regretted missing the first half immediately. Songs with more hooks than a multi-hooked hooky thing, wrapped in warm acoustic layers, and laced with ear-pleasing harmonies, left us with our jaws slightly ajar and our spines tingling with sensations of glee. E&T2D manage to captivate each audience member by releasing within them the same chemicals that make you feel that you are falling in love; that woosh of adrenaline that leaves you with spiders in your stomach and the taste of your own warm heart in your mouth. To say this band has become a sensation since then is a laughable understatement. Having taken their home town and nation by storm - breaking all kinds of records along the way - and managing to spread their message across the Baltic borders with ease, most NMO readers will have had their first taste of the band during their victorious invasion of Groningen last month at Eurosonic Festival, where the name of Ewert & The Two Dragons was on every delegates lips and the two shows the band performed were seen as highlights of the whole event. It seems that everything is falling into place for this Estonian group with the Scandinavian look, with a plethora of booking agents, labels, publishers, and media already searching their wall maps to figure out how exactly they can get to Tallinn for the band's next performance.
For more info: toomas@madeinbaltics.eu |
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Name: EWERT & THE TWO DRAGONS / From: TALLINN, ESTONIA
Q1: How did you start? And where did the name come from?
All four of us have been playing in various collaborations for years and years. Evert, Kristjan and me (Erki) even had an acoustic trio for like a year, we played mainly covers and some old tunes of Everts. 2007-2008 we started writing and producing for an estonian pop-rock singer, we did a whole album (thats when Ivo joined really) and after this we got many offers to write and produce some more as a team. It is pretty funny how many years it took us to figure out that: “hey man, we could have a band of our own and write our music for OURSELVES!!!” Some people are a bit slower than others i guess...
Q2: For anyone who has never heard of you, give three reasons why they should?
I could never come up with a reason not to listen to us. Our music is lyrical, its not hard to relate to. Real-life or almost real-life stories. Something for people that like the flirt with melancholy.
Q3: Tell us a little about where you’re from and how your surroundings affect the music that you create.
We all live in Tallinn, in a City then. But i dont think that the city life its self affects our music. Maybe it does, but not that I'm aware of. I think our music is more affected by the funny things going on in ones inner self, in the head and in the heart.
Q4: Which other artists influence your work?
I think i let myself be influenced by everything i hear: music in a store, supermarket, on the streets, in a club or pub, radio, television or music in movies. And ofcourse the records that i buy. I find it to be a neat trick to let yourself be influenced by everything, because then you get this mix out of everything. And when you create something yourself (and it always has some influence from somewhere as a rule) then you dont have any particular song or artist that influenced you, but this big mix of everything. I do that subconciously, of course.
Q5: What has been your most memorable experience of being in the band?
The concert we gave at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn this fall. And the festival held in Latvia “Positivus” which was held in summer 2011. And i do appreciate all the travelling we get to do these days. That is very memorable. And the judo competition we held in a hotel. I lost. Still memorable.
Q6: If you could organize your own dream festival which three acts would you choose to headline and why? St. Vincent – because this artist is really making something extraordinary and beautiful music. Something really really fresh and exiting in years for me. Bon Iver – because the music of this artist has accompanied me for years and years, in good and in very hard times. Beach House – The magical voice of the singer, the songs that are truly original and the mood which is really characteristic and extraordinary.
Q7: What are your current plans and what are your main ambitions for the future?
Our current plans are to tour and play as much as we can. And on our free time live our lives andgather new “material” to write about. And as for the future, my wish would be to do the same thingand have an opportunity to play even more. Times more.
Q8: Which other new acts would you recommend to The NMO and its readers?Iiris – a singer also from estonia. We Invented Paris – a supercool Swiss band. VETO – an extraordinary Danish pop group.
For more information contact: toomas@madeinbaltics.eu
All four of us have been playing in various collaborations for years and years. Evert, Kristjan and me (Erki) even had an acoustic trio for like a year, we played mainly covers and some old tunes of Everts. 2007-2008 we started writing and producing for an estonian pop-rock singer, we did a whole album (thats when Ivo joined really) and after this we got many offers to write and produce some more as a team. It is pretty funny how many years it took us to figure out that: “hey man, we could have a band of our own and write our music for OURSELVES!!!” Some people are a bit slower than others i guess...
Q2: For anyone who has never heard of you, give three reasons why they should?
I could never come up with a reason not to listen to us. Our music is lyrical, its not hard to relate to. Real-life or almost real-life stories. Something for people that like the flirt with melancholy.
Q3: Tell us a little about where you’re from and how your surroundings affect the music that you create.
We all live in Tallinn, in a City then. But i dont think that the city life its self affects our music. Maybe it does, but not that I'm aware of. I think our music is more affected by the funny things going on in ones inner self, in the head and in the heart.
Q4: Which other artists influence your work?
I think i let myself be influenced by everything i hear: music in a store, supermarket, on the streets, in a club or pub, radio, television or music in movies. And ofcourse the records that i buy. I find it to be a neat trick to let yourself be influenced by everything, because then you get this mix out of everything. And when you create something yourself (and it always has some influence from somewhere as a rule) then you dont have any particular song or artist that influenced you, but this big mix of everything. I do that subconciously, of course.
Q5: What has been your most memorable experience of being in the band?
The concert we gave at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn this fall. And the festival held in Latvia “Positivus” which was held in summer 2011. And i do appreciate all the travelling we get to do these days. That is very memorable. And the judo competition we held in a hotel. I lost. Still memorable.
Q6: If you could organize your own dream festival which three acts would you choose to headline and why? St. Vincent – because this artist is really making something extraordinary and beautiful music. Something really really fresh and exiting in years for me. Bon Iver – because the music of this artist has accompanied me for years and years, in good and in very hard times. Beach House – The magical voice of the singer, the songs that are truly original and the mood which is really characteristic and extraordinary.
Q7: What are your current plans and what are your main ambitions for the future?
Our current plans are to tour and play as much as we can. And on our free time live our lives andgather new “material” to write about. And as for the future, my wish would be to do the same thingand have an opportunity to play even more. Times more.
Q8: Which other new acts would you recommend to The NMO and its readers?Iiris – a singer also from estonia. We Invented Paris – a supercool Swiss band. VETO – an extraordinary Danish pop group.
For more information contact: toomas@madeinbaltics.eu