Eye Am, featuring members of Crowbar and Type O Negative, is in the studio working on its debut album. The group has holed up at OCD Recording and Production in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The band features former Type O Negative members Kenny Hickey (guitar/vocals) and Johnny Kelly (drums), along with Kirk Windstein (guitar/vocals) of Crowbar and Down, and Todd Strange (bass) of Crowbar, formerly of Down.
Windstein said the group was “thrown to the lions, so to speak” in the writing process of the album. While band members always have been on each other’s radars, this is the first time they have all gathered to create something together. Kelly saidw this experience has allowed them to get “to know each other even though we’ve known each other for a long time. We’re getting to know each other as players.”
Brought together by mutual friend and record label owner Andrew Spaulding of Corpse Paint Records, the band members used their respective experiences in the industry to create “Dreams Always Die with the Sun,” which was released on June 2, 2023, and has gained over 62,000 streams in only a month.
Hickey said one of the best parts about Eye Am is “pulling things out of the void.” During their studio session, the band members recognized that there’s a certain power that comes from spontaneity, and they focused on this element as one of the strongest attributes of their sound.
“That’s what I love about writing,” Windstein said. “Not quickly or hurrying on the spot—because you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Because when you woke up, this thing didn’t exist. And then, at the end of the day, you have a recording of it. It’s like it’s there forever.”
“We all have our writing styles, and the band is really finding our own kind of sound that works for us with this recording session,” he said. “It’s original, and it’s cool. Of course, it’s difficult not to show your style and your influences, but this doesn’t sound like our other bands; it sounds like us four dudes. This time we’re learning to feed off each other and bounce ideas off one another, and that’s when you truly collaborate.”
Each member brings something unique to the team. “Everything Kenny writes is pretty,” Windstein said. “His melodic stylings add their own layer to the music.”
Kelly said with bands in the past, he often noticed a lot of overthinking, and with Eye Am, he has seen an incredible amount of spontaneity replacing this. He appreciates all the input he gets from his band members. “They’re not short on ideas,” he said. “So we’ll be working on something, and then somebody will come across something else in a sidebar and say, ‘Hey, try this.’ And then it works.”
Eye Am is preparing for another single to follow up in October/November with an EP/album release by spring/summer 2024.
See Eye Am’s deep dive studio conversation covering the new album here. Stay tuned for more solid details about the new record coming soon.
Leave a Reply