Double Eyelid

Artist Information

Biography

A band that started as an experiment and 3 years later scored the #2 single on the MuchMusic (Canada) rock playlist (July 2012) ...

Formed in the spring of 2009 for an experimental staging of Hamlet, Double Eyelid's dark, theatrical electro-rock fits somewhere on the musical spectrum between glam and goth. Driven by singer Ian Revell, the band also includes Karl Mohr on guitar (known for his “Dead Red Velvet” project) and keyboardist Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip (of the Parkdale Revolutionary Orchestra). While the band has found a home in Toronto's dark music scene, the closest parallel is perhaps to early Roxy Music, with its tension between street level expression and high art. Other main influences include Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children, David Bowie, Edith Piaf and Rozz Williams. 2012 saw the release of Double Eyelid's first video, for their single "Dead is Better," which was featured on MuchMusic, Canada's answer to MTV. The band is currently working on its first album.

Instrumentation

Ian Revell - voice, Other Instruments
Karl Mohr - Guitar, electronics, pandemonium
Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip - keyboards, scowl

Discography

Our first single and video, "Dead is Better," is now available via iTunes and can be listened to on Spotify, bandcamp and other online outlets. The video was heavily featured by MuchMusic and is still being promoted on their web page. It also won an award at the Hamilton Music and Film Fest! Go to our bandcamp page to listen to the tracks in full, and check our soundcloud page for demos, live/rehearsal recordings, works in progress and unreleased tracks! Check out our youtube page for live footage, and our facebook page for photo albums.

Official Website

http://www.doubleeyelid.ca

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Double Eyelid Homepage
• Bandcamp
• MuchMusic
• Soundcloud
• Youtube

Audio

• Dead is Better (radio edit)
  Listen  
• Double Eyelid - Interzone - Joy Division cover (rehearsal)
  Listen  
• Double Eyelid - The Hanged Woman (rehearsal)
  Listen  
• Double Eyelid - Dreamhome Heartache (rehearsal)
  Listen  
• Spiritual Cramp
  Listen  
• Dead is better
  Listen  
• Sister Morphine Live
  Listen  
• State of the Art Live
  Listen  

Video

Dead is Better - official music video

the hanged woman, live in Hamilton Feb 14/2013

Photo Gallery

Press

• Double Eyelid - review
  

  "a pretty awesome tune ..." "rather sexy vocals"

• Monster Mash with Double Eyelid [+ Show ]
  

  For episode 86, we are featuring Toronto-based band Double Eyelid and their song “dead is better”. S...For episode 86, we are featuring Toronto-based band Double Eyelid and their song “dead is better”. Singer and songwriter Ian Revell is the creative force behind Double Eyelid, who described their music as being “dark and glamourous and demented.”
  
  In addition to Ian, Guitarist Karl Mohr provides backing vocals, Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip plays keyboards and piano, and Amanda Penner rounds out the group as a frequent guest performer on viola. Ian also plays some keys and does some drum programming. Of his bandmates, Ian said that “aside from their unique musicality they all bring their friendship and moral support. Karl Mohr also brings his considerable technical/recording expertise to the table, which has been of great value. Live the lineup varies depending on the show, we sometimes perform with all 4 of us and sometimes just with two.”
  
  Their song, “dead is better”, gets its title from Stephen King. As Ian put it, “any true Horror Addict will recognize the title ‘dead is better’ as being a quote from one of the classics of horror, Pet Sematary. So this adapts that line to use it as a metaphor for going back to a toxic relationship that would be better left for dead.” Right now, “dead is better” is available as a single with a B-side cover of Christian Death’s “Spiritual Cramp”, which Ian added was “a pretty radical re-interpretation of a classic. We are hard at work on a lot of new material and planning a bigger release this summer.”
  
  When I asked about the band’s name, Ian explained that ”‘Double Eyelid’ is actually an expression that was coined by the Chinese and is used by most East Asians to describe the difference between the eyelids of a Westerner and the eyelids of an Asian. The Westerner’s eyelids are generally much fleshier, so the Asians refer to them as ‘Double Eyelids’. I was living in Asia for several years and that’s when I first heard this expression. Years later this had stuck with me — perhaps because it described something that made me ’different’ when I was a foreigner in a strange land.
  
  They haven’t toured a lot, but so far the gigs have been good. “Ottawa in particular has been good to us and we’ve made some fans and good friends there. I would love to tour all kinds of places, in particular the US, South America, the UK and Europe. We’ve done some interesting gigs. One of the most special was one we did in an art gallery as part of a launch for our video. I was so thrilled with the quality of the imagery in the video that I pulled a bunch of stills from the master the director gave me and made them into these huge photos, then stuck them up on the walls so it was a whole exhibition. It was a great time, a very unique event.”
  
  Ian has been musically active since he was about seven or eight years old. He added, “We make music because it’s fun and we are compelled to. I like all kinds of stuff, garage rock, gay disco, Bach cantatas, dead divas.” Amongst his favorite bands are Sex Gang Children, Bauhaus, the Cult, Rozz Willams, and David Bowie. As for other styles of music, “there’s nothing I’m dying to try though I do want to keep expanding the Double Eyelid sound in gradual ways.”
  He did add that he listens to podcasts, especially those “that feature good music. I don’t think he’s actively doing it anymore but George Demure used to do a podcast, you should look it up, very funny.”
  Amongst his other creative outlets, he said, “I’ve done a lot of photography and was pursuing that quite seriously for a while but I have basically stopped that because I only really need one outlet at a time.”
  
  Next up for the band is to finish their first full-length album, and then “send it all over the world and try to put together a decent tour. And definitely make another video, we have formed a strong creative partnership with Steven Cerritos (director of our first video) that I value very highly and look forward to exploring further.”
  
  When it comes to advice to other musicians, he wants you to ask yourself, “What is your legacy going to be? If you aren’t doing something new, it’s not worth doing. If I want to do something and there is a single other band out there that can do it already, I won’t do it. Make your mark and make it yours.”
  
  To find music from Double Eyelid, they are available for download all over the place – iTunes, eMusic etc. He HIGHLY recommends Bandcamp, and added they will soon have merchandise for sale there, and may even do some Bandcamp-only releases. Check them out there at DoubleEyelid.bandcamp.com/. Other than that, their main website is DoubleEyelid.ca, which lists tour dates, etc. He did suggest that if people get in touch via Bandcamp or Facebook and say they heard them here on Horror Addicts, “I guess we could give them a treat … “

• Featured Canadian Band in Dark Parlour - Issue #7
  

  Short bio and photo feature

• Review of 'dead is better' by GothicWorld, Italian goth portal [+ Show ]
  

  Recensione EP: Piacevolmente sorpreso da questa band, suono particolare, curato e molto ricercato...Recensione EP:
  
  Piacevolmente sorpreso da questa band, suono particolare, curato e molto ricercato da questa band che viene da Toronto.
  A dirla tutta l'EP di Dead is Better è un po' scarna per poter giudicare e farsi un idea piena della band ma quello messo in campo è particolarmente interessante.
  
  L'EP si sviluppa principalmente in due brani "Dead is Better" e "Spiritual Cramp" e una radio edit del singolo che ne da il nome.
  Dead is better racchiude in se lo spirito della band, ritmica constante e martellante, riff dissonanti di chitarra portati da Karl Mohr con un senso logico che li rendono piacevoli all'ascolto, tastiere molto presenti con un eccellente multi layer sonoro studiato da Benjamin Mueller e per finire una voce che accarezza l'udito, ben amalgamata con il genere, a tratti con linee melodiche particolarmente accattivanti specialmente sul ritornello che raggiunge lo scopo di rimanerti dentro e far ricordare il brano a lungo. Trovare un neo al brano è abbastanza difficile ma si potrebbe mettere in conto che un brano con queste tipologie stilistiche avrebbe bisogno di essere un pochino più brevi ma diciamo che è un difetto da cercare forzatamente.
  
  Il secondo brano della demo è totalmente (e sottolineo totalmente) diverso da Dead is Better. Spiritual Cramp è un brano in piano che non mi ha colpito tantissimo, direi, anzi, che ha spostato un pochino la lancetta della bilancia verso la zona rossa: il brano è una costante abbastanza troppo lineare di accordi con dissonanze portate in maniera, anche se ben studiate, tecnicamente poco valide. La voce avvolge e amalgama sempre il tutto in maniera eccellente ma sembra un brano di un altra band e soprattutto pare messo li “tanto per fare numero”.
  Il positivo è che si denota un sistema di scrittura brani molto dinamico che non si ferma ad uno standard e la desinenza “avant-garde” che si da la band e ben azzeccata.
  
  I presupposti per sentirli piu volte ci sono tutti, difficilissimo giudicare un lavoro con un EP di solo 2 brani.
  Sulla loro biografia scrivono che le influenze sono: Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children, David Bowie, Edith Piaf e Christian Death io ci aggiungerei anche tanto dei Muse e alcune idee per layer sonori di chiara ispirazione del superlativo Richard Wright.
  
  si potrebbe lasciare il giudizio in sospeso per il troppo poco materiale in campo ma voglio azzardare un ipotesi, sentiremo riparlare abbastanza spesso di questa band. Piacevolissimi all'ascolto ;)
  
  Tracklist:
  
  01 Dead is Better
  02 Spiritual Cramp
  03 Dead is Better (Radio Edit)
  

• Vents Magazine: interview with Ian Revell of Double Eyelid [+ Show ]
  

  Who’s Double Eyelid? How you guys all meet and how did this get band? Double Eyelid began in the ...Who’s Double Eyelid? How you guys all meet and how did this get band?
  
  Double Eyelid began in the spring of 2009. We formed when a good friend of mine, Lynne Rafter, needed a band to play a short set for an experimental theatre project she was doing and asked me if I could put something together. I said ‘sure!’ and called two of my closest friends – who are also two of the best musicians I know – to see if they could help me out. We had all worked together in a few different contexts before, but never with me singing my own songs. So they were game to give it a try. We did the theatre show and were happy with it as a beginning, so we gradually built it through other gigs and recording, a video and now here we are!
  
  
  
  The core of the band is me (Ian Revell) as the singer and the writer, Karl Mohr on the guitar and Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip on keyboards. Both of these guys I’ve known for more than 10 years, we are good, good old friends with a long history between us. So it’s a relatively new band but it is built on a very old foundation in that sense. Both of them have their own projects as well – I don’t want to digress too far here but use your Google and you can find them, they both have done a great deal of remarkable and interesting work on their own. We also work with Amanda Penner on violin, who ‘guests’ with us so often that she’s pretty much a member of the band. We’ve worked with drummers at different times but right now we are using a drum machine live.
  
  
  
  What’s the meaning behind the band’s name?
  
  ‘Double Eyelid’ is actually an expression that was coined by Chinese people to describe the way that the eyelids of a typical Westerner look to an Asian – basically, they’re just so much bigger, there is generally just much more skin there, so the Chinese call them ‘double eyelids’. I heard this expression while I was living in Asia for a while and it stuck with me because it was so strange, and it was also a very alien-sounding way of describing something that was different about me as a foreigner living in Asia so it sort of resonated in a long-term way.
  
  
  
  What’s the method at the time of writing a song?
  
  It’s different for each song but almost always it starts with the music, maybe I’ll have enough of an idea for lyrics to provide a mood but then I need to develop it. Music comes easy for me; lyrics are difficult. Typically it’s a very long process; I tend to think things through and really let them sit with me before writing or recording, sometimes for weeks or months even.
  
  
  
  What are your music influences?
  
  Biggest influences are 70s glam stuff like Bowie, T-Rex, Roxy Music and early UK goth stuff like Sex Gang Children and Bauhaus, also some of the LA deathrock stuff from that era like Rozz Williams and Kommunity FK.
  
  
  
  So tell us more about your latest video for the single, Dead is Better. How was the filming process and can you tell us more about the song and video?
  
  The song ‘dead is better’ takes its title from a classic line in the Stephen King book, ‘Pet Sematary.’ In the book, people can go to a place and bury their dead pets, and the pets will come back to life. But you know —- it’s a Stephen King book, so the pets are not the same as they were. They’ve turned evil, to put it simply. So ‘dead is better’ than messing with the natural order of life. And basically this song uses this idea as a metaphor for going back to a relationship that has turned bad, when you know that you really should just leave it for dead.
  
  
  
  We connected with a really excellent filmmaker, Steven Cerritos, who had done a number of short films but wanted to break into the business of making music videos. And his whole background was in horror/slasher films, so he really felt strongly about the song and this became a very important project to him. We cast the actress, Lovina Yavari, and spent 4 full days in November and December of last year, shooting her and me and the band. We felt like it was going to be good but we were blown away when we saw the edit, Steven did really amazing work, and so did Lovina. We released it about 3 weeks ago and it already has been hugely significant for us.
  
  
  I got understand there’s a new album going on. Can you give us some insights? Any title, official release date?
  
  Well I should say that we already released ‘dead is better’ as a single with a b-side, and it’s available now on iTunes and bandcamp as well as many other places. We are working on an album but there is no title or official release date yet. I’m hoping to have it out by the end of the year.
  
  
  
  So what has been the funniest moment you guys have been or took part while touring or playing a show?
  
  We played a show about a week before Christmas one year that was invaded by a bunch of drunken people dressed in Santa suits – one of them crashed the stage to join in with us on a song! That same night I almost fired Karl mid-set, but that’s a part of the story I’d rather not revisit. Definitely our strangest show.
  
  
  
  Are there any plans for the future we should be aware of?
  
  We just want to keep recording, make our live show better, make another video, and play as many different places as we can. We have shows coming up in Toronto and Ottawa (Canada) in September and more stuff TBA.
  
  
  
  Where can we find more about your music?
  
  Go to www.doubleeyelid.ca and you can get all the Double Eyelid you need!
  
  
  
  Do you feel you are moving on the right direction?
  
  Yes, absolutely! We started this project purely for art, mostly for fun, and with very little in the way of commercial aspirations. In the last month more people have heard our music and responded to it than I ever thought was possible. I have never felt more strongly that Double Eyelid is heading in the right direction. Keep watching us!

• Review of 'dead is better' single and video [+ Show ]
  

  Double Eyelid is een glamgoth groep uit Canada. De video van hun single 'Dead is better' - de titel ...Double Eyelid is een glamgoth groep uit Canada. De video van hun single 'Dead is better' - de titel verwijst naar een zinsnede uit 'Pet Sematary' van Stephen King en waarschuwt voor het heropstarten van een destructieve relatie - haalt zelfs MuchMusic, de Canadese versie van MTV. Je kunt de single beluisteren op hun website, en we raden u aan om uw oren even te lenen aan de bijzonder originele piano-cover van het Christian Death-nummer Spiritual Cramp.

• Rikk Agnew (original guitarist for Christian Death) likes our cover of Spiritual Cramp! [+ Show ]
  

  "Wow! Fantastic! Gothlounge meets Tori Amos! JK!!! It's amazing and a high compliment Sir Revell, re..."Wow! Fantastic! Gothlounge meets Tori Amos! JK!!! It's amazing and a high compliment Sir Revell, refreshing~"

Setlist

Double Eyelid's set list is currently about 45 minutes in length, and consists largely of original material, with a few covers thrown in.

Basic Requirements

Calendar