Bay Area music veteran Izzy The Gent has come a long way from playing at his Monterey middle school talent show (performing "Scrape Me" their PG version of Nirvana's "Rape Me") to producing alternative new wave post punk out of East Oakland. His current project Everything But The Everything has gone from a one man band to a collaborative.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Vocals: Sophia Prise

Drums: Landon Cisneros

Guitar, Bass Guitar: Israel Chavarin

Studio Producer: Rex Shelverton

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Everything But The Everything? How long has the band been around?

Izzy The Gent - The band is a collaborative, so everyone involved has a main project they focus on. I am fortunate for their time and contributions to EBTE. For example, the drummer Landon Cisneros plays with Spirit Mother, I met him when he played with Zodiac Death Valley. Our studio producer whose kind of the unofficial member played in Vue and currently leads his band Bellavista. Sophia Prise has been performing as Sophia Prise as long as I've known her, but I do know that she also sings opera. I've been in a bunch of SF bands but had the most fun with my time with The Frail. Everything But The Everything officially began early in 2018.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Izzy The Gent - The band was always a bit of a fantasy since I never actually believed I would start a band, I always pictured myself as a role player on other projects. In this fantasy world, I chose the name Everything But The Everything when I was in my early 20's since I was really into Everything But The Girl and maybe borderline infatuated with them.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Izzy The Gent - I write the music but can't take credit for all of the music. For example, Rex and I will set up a basic drum machine pattern as a placeholder until drummer Landon Cisneros gets a hold of it and does his thing. I will also send the songs to other musicians (i.e., guitarists, synth players...) who send back layers. Then it's about finding the best part that fits the song. Sometimes they perfectly mesh together and sometimes we have to pick and say goodbye to a part we previously fell in love with. The vocals and vocal melodies are handled by the singers.

Sophia Prise - For my songs with Everything But The Everything, I think each song takes on an emotional character: for “Just”, an obsessive lover, for “The Story”, a rebellious reveler, for “Never Said”, a breakaway cynic. All of these characters have some fiery passion so finding the direction and expression of that fiery passion, whatever for, is what I like to dig into vocally. But for writing lyrics in the future I leave it wide open as far as thematic choice, as long as there’s an intensity to it.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

Izzy The Gent - As far as inspiration goes, I've been inspired lately by Rancid. I was never too into them but venturing into some punk playlists, every time they came up, I found myself hitting repeat. For the overall sound of our project, I defer a lot to Billy Idol, The Cure and Depeche Mode.

Sophia Prise - From a vocalist standpoint, singers who play outside of the box with different resonances of the voice as an instrument, sometimes keeping the rhythmic gesture or the timbre of the vocal line ahead of the melody in importance. Singers like Alison Mosshart in The Kills, Karen O in Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Alice Glass come to mind as modern muses of this kind of sprechstimme-core style you hear in my first two singles with Everything But The Everything, Jump and The Story. In those songs, I was also going off scratch tracks from Izzy, who had also written the lyrics, so it kind of turned into my interpretation of his vocal ideas too, which was fun.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Izzy The Gent - The movie La Bamba was where it all began for me.

Sophia Prise - Izzy was one of the first promoters to book me for my original music when I was starting out as a musician in the Bay and I also remember going to his shows with his band at the time The Frail, so I suppose the bands we were playing with around that time in the Bay Area fed into inspiration later on. The Religious Girls come to mind, just because they always put on killer local shows with a wall of sound, and that’s part of what pushes me in this band now- finding a combo of musical intensity, simplicity and fun, for high-energy sets that build the frequency of the crowd. Personally, my musical North Star in the past has been Karin Dreijer Andersson, and for “Never Said” I definitely could hear some strains from Deep Cuts’ “Pass This On” floating through to influence some of my vocal parts.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Izzy The Gent - I generally run through the set the day of and double check my cables. Nothing too exciting.

Sophia Prise - To feel ready to sing, I always do a set of classical vocal warmups and scales first, because I know I’ll be tearing up the cords a bit later and it's a healthy way to ease them in. I also swear by fresh-peeled and chopped ginger boiled into a tea with some raw honey to keep my throat feeling great, and I’m one of those that likes to do a few push ups before any set, because I think it helps my breath support kick in.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Izzy The Gent - Creating relationships with bloggers and having their support when releasing music has been the best thing to date. It does feel good to know that those connections are there. We recently started playing live shows, so I hope more highlights are around the corner.

Sophia Prise - With this single coming out and playing at the top of a great bill of bands this week in support, I’m thinking that will be a new highlight. Since “Never Said” just released and that is our first single so far that I’ve written the lyrics and melody for, it feels extra special to play this upcoming show.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Izzy The Gent - Touring with Billy Idol and Depeche Mode would be super sweet but I would also add Christian Death to that list. I really dig their sound.

Sophia Prise - I feel like I’d want to tour with the bands that reviewers have compared us to, so far Siouxie Soux and the Banshees, The Cure, and Phantogram… I think I’ll keep taking notes because what a wild fantasy tour bill.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Izzy The Gent - Thank you to everyone who gives us a listen. We really appreciate it.

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