Written on the edge of a breakdown, a stream of consciousness style, Field Division’s new track “Manifest” conjures up a contemplative dreamscape, a brilliant starry sky illuminating the darkness.
How did you get into music and art?
Evelyn: – I sang in choir growing up and took a lot art classes and classical voice training lessons. My mom raised me with a heavy influence of 60’s and 70’s music and I knew from the time I was in elementary school that writing and singing was what I wanted to do. For awhile my dream was acting or Broadway but I soon realized that being a singer/songwriter was more my vibe and came pretty naturally.
Nick: My immediate family had a huge part in my musical influence growing up, and my older siblings had some instruments around. Mom loved Billy Joel and Mannheim Steamroller, and my Dad was into Phil Collins, ZZ Top, and a lot of Jimmy Buffett. My sister and brother got me into anything from 2Pac and Eazy-E to Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica. While my childhood best friend and I bumped a lot of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and Rush. I was fascinated by music and remember thinking musicians had superpowers and were the coolest people on earth. So I up-cycled some No. 2 pencils and my parents empty coffee tins to make drums until I got my first real kit at age 8. Then it started.
What do you like the most about being a band?
Evelyn: I love traveling and performing our songs for folx around the world. I love building other worlds within our songs, having the music take you away to another place and feeling. I adore recording and living at the studio or even just creating in our own home together. The music feels bigger than us and I’m grateful for a partner that is a wizard at playing and engineering. Collaborating with Nick is the dream. When we started recording together in 2013 I had no clue I was missing my other half but that’s what it feels like. He helps bring out the magic in the music I create.
Nick: No, not really. The act of creation itself is liberating in what ever form. Whether we’re writing a song or producing it, or working out the visual aspects of our art like video and photography, there is usually plenty to love about it.
What is your creative process like?
Evelyn: – I always try to visualize what it is I’d like to create. Oftentimes I can hear the whole song arrangement and instrumentation in my head before we even record. When exactly inspiration strikes is very cosmic and confusing but I try to be open and channel what it is that I’m trying to create. My best ideas come to me on a drive or even in the shower. Nick and I are cognizant that we spend a lot of time on our music so we both are trying to be more prolific and not overthink anything.
Nick: Sometimes we work on a song together from the ground up, other times one of us brings a song or melodic idea to the table that we want to work on together, and other times a song will manifest in real time while jamming.
What inspires your lyrics?
Evelyn: – The cosmos, love, transcendence, hope, peace, healing pain and trauma…
Nick: Real-life experiences, mostly. Because it turns out a lot of our experiences are shared, and that alone is powerful.
Who are your all time musical icons?
Evelyn: – I’m into bands mostly. The Beatles & Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks. As far as modern icons, I love Father John Misty, Fleet Foxes, & Radiohead.
Tell us about your latest release and how it came about:
Evelyn: – Manifest came one night straight from the universe. Nick and I were jamming on drums and keys and made a loop we liked and a half hour later I had the melody and lyrics. I love when songs just seem to appear out of nowhere like that through pure spontaneity. When you’re more open to creating it feels like you can do anything. “Manifest “ is literal bedroom pop that we made at home with the exception of the string-like synths that our friend Evan Jacobs played for us at Redwood Studio in Denton. I didn’t even intend to write about the Law Of Attraction specifically but the lyrics came stream of consciousness style in a way that it felt like we manifested the song.
How are you dealing with Covid preventing you from performing live?
Evelyn: – We are keeping ourselves distracted by finishing our album and working on other musical projects. We both help out at Redwood Studio in Denton. We’re manifesting a West Coast and UK/EU tour when the world is much safer to tour in.
Nick: We have done a couple online videos /live streams, but we’ve mostly taken this time to focus on the new music we’re creating.
What’s the future looking like for you?
Evelyn: – The future looks bright like diamond skies. We are excited to share our new music and carve more of a name for ourselves in the industry as independent artists. We’re building a team we can trust and learning how we can better share our music with the world. We want to create music you can transcend to, songs that inspire you to love, heal, and make the world a better place.
