EndeverafteR is proof that there is still hope for rock and roll.  They are the band you probably haven’t heard of, but definitely should, and assuredly will hear more of.  This four-piece rock outfit, who calls southern California home is poised to bring a sexy swagger back to rock and roll, without fear and without being able to box them into any one niche or genre.  It’s straight up, shirtless, guitar slinging debauchery.  EndeverafteR, comprised of Michael Grant on vocals and lead axe shredder, Kristan Mallory on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Tommi Andrews on bass and Eric Humbert behind the drum kit have not only built their fan base by rocking out small clubs, but have also been seen next to bands like Poison, Cinderella and Fuel.  Combine any of the big rocks acts from the 1970’s and 1980’s and the result is EndeverafteR.

We recently caught up with the band during their headlining club tour as they traveled from Madison, Wisconsin to Detroit, Michigan.  They stopped in Popular Underground’s hometown of Antioch, Illinois and had lunch at Double Eagle, one of the town’s best restaurants and lounges.  From the time the band left their van, there was no doubt that EEA not only have the talent, but have the fearless rockstar mentality, without being egotistical.

PUM:  You guys are on a small tour right now.  How’s that going?

Eric Humbert:  It’s going pretty good actually.  It’s a small radio tour, kind of promoting us on radio and establishing relationships.

Michael Grant:  I think the hardest part of the tour is the cold.  Just re-acclimating ourselves to weather; at least for all of us excluding Eric Humbert.

Humbert:  It’s cold for anyone right now.

Grant:  We’re used to 70 degrees and palm trees.  So the hardest part is the cold.  Other than that, I think it’s going pretty well.

PUM:  Speaking of the weather, how do you guys stay healthy when you’re going in and out of all these wacky climates?

Band (Collectively) It’s impossible.

Grant:  I take a lot of vitamins.  I try to jog and keep my system running.  I take a lot of Echinacea.  I try to drink a lot of water.  I think another key is not eating as shitty as you possibly could.  You’re going to eat shitty regardless.  If I was to eat pizza every day, I think I’d get really fucking sick.  You know there’s something wrong when you eat Taco Bell and you don’t shit anything out and you’re like, “What happened to the food?”

The EndeverafteR journey began three years go, but the current line up is only a year and a half running.  The band put their music in the hands of Miles Hurwitz, the manager for The Matches, who said he’d pass it along.  Eventually, EEA caught the ears of Fall Out Boy heartthrob Pete Wentz who immediately fell in love with the band’s sound and style.

Grant: It made its way into the hands of Crush Management and Crush Management showed it to Pete Wentz and said, “What do you think of this band?”    Pete Wentz flipped over us and went, “Holy Shit!”  We didn’t even know that.  Our fans would send us to it, but [Wentz] was already talking on the radio about signing this rock and roll band from Sacramento, California, but he couldn’t disclose the name on the air.  The D.J. that was interviewing him, his name is Marco Collins, he used to work at KWOD 106.5 in Sacramento, he was like, “Are you talking about EndeverafteR?” And Fall Out Boy was laughing in the studio and was like, “We can’t say, but yeah, they’re pretty fucking awesome.  It’s like Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses; no songs about slitting wrists, just fucking party time.”  Pete Wentz said, “We’re looking forward to signing them to Decaydance and we’re hoping they will sign with us.”  That’s where the relationship got established.  Then we were playing Sacramento and [Fall Out Boy] invited us to open for them and Panic! At the Disco.  We did that show, and it was like 5,000 people and we just started to establish a good relationship with the band.  We were going to sign to Decaydance and then we just ended up signing to a major label.  From that moment on we were friends, and he would always give us heads up on things like uhh, Eric Humbert!

Humbert:  I remember I was in the lounge of the bus, on tour and Pete comes in and is like, “Dude, I’ve got something you need to see!”  I was like, “What’s this?”  He shows up and he has this DVD of a home video camera show recorded with [EndeverafteR].  It was a show they played back in the day.  I remember I watched like five seconds of it and I was like, “Who are these dudes?  This is great!  This is amazing.”  Pete was like, “Yeah, I’m thinking about signing this, this is so sick, this is so great, I love it.”  I met [the band] at the show with Fall Out Boy, it was cool.  Then it was probably a year later, they were looking for a drummer and I was like, “Awe man, I want to go try.” And it worked out.

Humbert had been working as a tech for Fall Out Boy prior to joining EEA.  After Wentz had shown Humbert the DVD, he immediately became a fan of the band.  “It’s kind of different,” says Humbert, “Most bands, you would come up with material or whatever, but I was actually a fan that got picked to play in the band.”  Humbert explains besides Wentz being a fan of the band, he’s also got an affinity for finding talented artists.  Says Humbert, “I think his tract record proves that he’s very adept at knowing what is entertaining and knowing, even if it’s not his style, there’s this audience that would love this.”

PUM:  He did it with Panic! At the Disco, right?

Grant:  Didn’t he say that in an interview?  He was asked, “what’s the most insane thing you ever bought?” And he said, “Panic! At the Disco.”

PUM:  How do you feel about the current state of music?  What’s missing today?

Grant: EndeverafteR.

Humbert: Mystery.

Grant: Eric Humbert sent me this E-mail and I agree with it wholeheartedly of what the music industry needs and it’s majesty, power, mystery and a band to idolize.  There’s no one to idolize.  Who am I going to idolize?  Even when they are marketing a band, everything behind the band is visible now.  Like, we’re going to put on YouTube every minute of our day.  You know what toothpaste I use.  I think that there’s no mystery.  Now, when you’re at a concert waiting for the headlining band to come out, you’re not wondering what is going on backstage.  You know what’s going on because they put out 10 YouTube videos about it.  There’s no mystery.  The audience is on the same playing level as the band.

Kiss or Kill, EEA’s debut full-length is pure, balls to the wall rock and roll.  It’s infectious melodies and hammering guitar solos are all party.  It’s an album that’s all about what music should be; sex, drugs and rock and roll.

PUM:  Tell me a little bit about Kiss or Kill.  How has the response been?

Grant:  The response has been fantastic.  My guilty pleasure is; I go online sometimes and I read reviews and I have not read all but one bad review out of close to 75 reviews from different publications, webzines, I mean even Rolling Stone.  Everybody has given it at the least four to five stars, if not five out of five.  Everybody has the same thing and they’ll try to attach it to what’s familiar.  It’s great to hear the different comparisons of who everybody thinks we sound like.  The other thing that’s great about the reviews, is seeing authors trying to find a way to advocate it without feeling like they’re putting their reputation on the line.  They’re doing the, “I think it’s awesome, but I’m going to give myself a way out to claim that it wasn’t good later if people don’t like it.”  We’re definitely a band that’s sort of risky to like.  It’s like, “I don’t know if I should like em, but goddamn do I love em!”  I’ve heard it said that the only thing that hinders the record is people hearing it.  If you can get it out there, they’ll like it. 

PUM: From listening to your CD, Kiss or Kill, I think you guys do a good job of bringing back the big guitar riffs and solos and I appreciate that.  The rock business is missing the sex swagger of a band like EndeverafteR.

Grant:  I turn on the radio and here’s what I hear; suffocate, suffer, pain, anger. [Grant mock sings] “Suffocating, anger, pain.”  It’s like, “Are you fucking gay?”  First off, life is not that bad.  It’s just not.  I have not had the sweetest childhood, but I’m not crying about it in every goddamn fucking song I write.  It’s just really sickening; you turn on the radio and it’s all this cry-baby bullshit.  It’s like, drink a few beers and go have fun.  Everything is so angry.  It’s almost annoying to see how many people are so angry.  What is so horrible in life that you can’t have a good time?

PUM:  Tell me a little bit about the writing process that went into Kiss or Kill.  Obviously there is a lot about partying, sex, etc.

Grant:  Well, for this album that’s where I was at.  I was having a lot of fun, chasing the chicks, going on the road with my best friends.  It was about [those] times.  That’s not to say that every single album is going to be sex filled.  I think this is just where we were at.  All of us were having fun and having assorted affairs, being a little promiscuous here and there.  It creeps into your songwriting because you don’t want to write about things you don’t know about.  I also wanted to write about stuff that people could relate to and everybody fucks. 

Grant highlights how much he enjoyed the recording process.  “I was spending 12 to 13 hour days, every single day, in the studio,” Grant says.  “I would just get high and play guitar all day.”  Such is life for EEA.  When asked what the band’s dressing room is like before a show, EAA will be candid about any rock and roll debauchery, but also highlight that it’s not always wild and crazy.  “There could be days where nothing is going on and we’re just watching TV and just waiting for the show because we’re so fucking spent from the night before,” says Grant.  At any given time it’s possible that the band are simply watching The Simpsons, pranking each other or being chased by adoring women.   

EndeverafteR is really only the second band to ever admit to me that what they want to achieve is everything.  “We want the largest possible audience,” says Grant, “Headlining Madison Square Garden.”  Fact is, EEA has the potential to become a household name.  Comparisons were made to Van Halen, specifically the David Lee Roth reunion tour, where the band performs on a huge stage, which is complimented by an “S” shaped runway out into the crowd.  “David Lee Roth is Van Halen,” says Grant assuredly.

Speaking of Van Halen, in 1984, the band released their video “Hot for Teacher.”  It was a video that underwent a lot of scrutiny because of its racy innuendos and swimsuit-clad teachers.  Now, in 2008 EEA are found pushing the envelope even more with their video for “Baby, Baby, Baby.”  The video, directed by Jax, an acclaimed adult film director takes EAA into the classroom with girls dropping at their feet, stripping, kissing the band, kissing each other and even pole dancing.  It’s everything a music video should be.

PUM:  How much fun was making your video for “Baby, Baby, Baby,” because I think it’s fucking awesome.

Grant:  You know what was awesome? Casting that video.  I was in the studio out in Hollywood and a bunch of girls get the casting call and the casting call requires every girl to come in very skimpy clothes or a bikini.  I’m going to say that there was about 75 girls that came to audition and about 30 to 40 made it.  Every girl who came in basically had to strip in front of me and I got them to twirl around, bend over, pick up a piece of candy, you know, all kinds of shit.  When it got to the video shoot, it was ridiculous.  Everybody found a girl to get along with and everybody was flirting, getting numbers, kissing and going in dark corners.  There were a lot of dark corners and people would just disappear.  It was just debauchery the whole night.  We didn’t even sleep and we had to do the video for “I Wanna Be Your Man” the very next day.  It was one of the greatest days ever.

EndeverafteR called upon the talents of Stacey Jones of American Hi-Fi fame to produce Kiss or Kill.  While it was a co-collaboration of Jones and Bill Lefler, Grant says overall, the process was very positive.  Jones brought a lot of ideas to the project and Lefler fueled the fire.  “There was definitely some tense moments, but the thing I love about it is, those tense moments, just because there is so much passion within the circle and everybody wants the best to come from it,” says Grant.  He goes on to say that the band and the producers would argue their stance on something, not to rule over the project, but to make it the best possible package.  “They took their time, they didn’t rush us, and they were a fantastic group to work with,” says Grant.

PUM:  So how did you get connected with Stacey Jones in the first place?

Grant:  I called all of these famous producers and the thing that I didn’t like was they kind of squawked at it, like, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll do the project it’ll be fun, we’ll get it sounding good.”  I heard these real dead [tones] in their voices.  I called Stacey Jones and he didn’t call me back for like three days and I was like, “Fuck this guy.  Who does he think he is?”  He called me and I guess he’s the kind of guy that gets a thousand calls and a thousand messages a day, and he called me and was like, “Michael Grant, this is Stacey Jones.  First off, I have to produce this record, I fucking love you guys, you guys are the shit.  We can make the sickest album ever.  You guys are rock and roll I love your efforts, your vibe.”  He was very enthusiastic.  He said, “If you do not let me produce this, I will kill myself.  I could do a great job.  Call me back man, lets talk about it.”  He was so fired up and so passionate about it.  I was like, “This is the guy.”  I didn’t care about how big the producers were or how big the records were they had under their belt.  If you’re not enthusiastic about it, then what good is it?  You’re going to treat us like just another band.  Stacey Jones went out on a limb.

PUM:  Tell me a little bit about the Poison Tour.  That was pretty huge.

Grant:  It was definitely huge.  It was us sort of getting to know each other as a unit, with Eric being new.  We weren’t the greatest of friends just yet.  You can’t force something like that.  We were trying to get used to the new guy and trying to figure out what direction we want to go in.  The tour itself was really hard because it was routed for busses and we’re in a van and trailer.  We don’t have drivers so everybody just switches shifts and that’s really hard because usually most bands play a show, go into the bus, every single member sleeps and some jagoff drives them to the next state.  That’s why they’re able to play so many dates.  Us?  Not so much.  One dude is got to be losing sleep, two dudes are losing sleep to get to the next show.  It’s really hard on us when we’re in the van.  We got some really good advice from Poison and great advice from Cinderella who became like our big brothers.  They would hand us advice all the time; watch your money, don’t fuck too many girls, use condoms.  You know, they would just give us really good brotherly advice.  It was our first taste of what rockstardom could be like.  I was also really happy that after a tour that scale, nobody got a bloated ego or became an asshole rockstar.  It’s definitely easy to lose yourself in the whole rockstar [ego].

By the time this piece hits PUM, EEA will have completed four days on the Vince Neil Motley Cruise.  It’s a Carnival Cruise that will hit Key West, the Caribbean and Mexico, but it’s not just any cruise.  The band will find themselves playing alongside Motley Crue, Ratt, Skid Row and Slaughter.  With a line up like that how could EEA go wrong?

In conclusion, look out for EEA coming to a town near you.  It’s damn near guaranteed you’ll see the band shirtless and rocking out.  It’s also possible to see some girls, uhh, shirtless and rocking out, but that’s the whole point.  EndeverafteR isn’t trying to hide anything and pretend that debauchery doesn’t exist in music anymore.  Grant describes the band’s live show as a spectacle.  “Incredibly energetic and fun,” says Grant.  “There is a unique and intense chemistry between the four of us on stage,” he says.  While the band couldn’t talk about it at press time, they are working on some very large upcoming tours.  “The CD was recorded like the live show,” says Grant, “But we’re better live than on the CD.”  So how could we sum up EndeverafteR?  As Grant concludes, “Mystery of sex appeal.”

By: Adam K. Zakroczymski III - Senior Editor / Founder

Read the review of Kiss or Kill here