Ten Questions with The ECKO

Llanelli Music Scene tracked down The Ecko, ahead of their gig alongside Fatal Desire, Seconds from Ruin and Dodgem-X at the Kazbar in Llanelli on 17th February 2013. Lee from the band agreed to answer a set of ten Questions put to him as follows:

1.Tell us about yourselves, (Names and role in the band)?

Lee Shears, Singer/Guitarist/Songwriter

2. How you get together?

Me and my brother Nick (the drummer) starting learning our instruments together about 4 years ago, we started to write songs together and I knew Matthew ( bass player) from school. We started out just playing in my bedroom and it all sort of went from there.

3. What made you choose to play Llanelli?

We first played Llanelli in the Battle of the Bands in The Met in August 2011, from there we’ve played pretty much all the venues, The Masons, The Kilkenny Cat, The Vestry, The New Dock Stars, The Thomas Arms but 17th February is our first time in The KazBar.

Alun from Cadno Music has been one of the biggest reasons we’ve had so many gigs in Llanelli, he’s been a great help to the band.

4. Any other gigs booked?

We’re playing in Sin City on the 22nd of February with Carbon and The Manhattan Project.

5. Are there any messages you are trying to get across in the music?

Our music style has changed through the 3 years together. There hasn’t really been the same message in our songs, there’s certainly a thread that connects them, lyrically anyway.

6. Are there any funny stories behind why a song was written?

We’ve written a few of our song after a few drinks. We had one song where our bassist thought I was singing “She looks like an aubergine”. We have a song called Planets, the lyrics start with “There’s a planet far from here”, which I was just singing to figure out the melody and it just stuck and our drummer named it “The Planet song.”

7. What are the downsides / upsides of being in the band

The downside is when having band members who are your friends who either leave or it doesn’t work out, and friend ship suffers. The upside really is gigging and getting our music out there.

8. Any advice for other musicians to get started or gig finding?

Starting out and getting gigs is hard, especially if you want to play original music. We got together with two of our friends bands Stand Up and Shout and The Vibe, we did alot of gigs together with them which helped out a lot. Having other bands about that support each other is one of the biggest advantages

9. What is it about your band that makes you different to all the others?

There’s not a lot of bands around this area that play the same kind of music as us. Which makes a diverse scene.

10. What methods of advertisement besides from Llanellitown.com’s music scene do you find has helped you gig?

We’ve promoted ourselves all through facebook. It seems to be the place where all bands promote themselves now.

Click here to listen to an exclusive recording filmed by the Music Scene team.

For more on The Ecko check out http://www.facebook.com/theeckomusic

– http://www.soundcloud.com/theecko

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheEckoMusicOfficial

Questions formulated by Keith Evans, arrangements of feature by Trudi Goldsmith.