The New Eves: meet the Brighton quartet with a mind-bending live set

It’s 2021, and four friends find themselves lying on a bed together in Brighton. After hours spent laughing and chatting together, they decide to start a band and call it The New Eves. “We didn’t even know how to plug in [our instruments]”, says violinist Violet Farrer, recalling the memory three years later. “After our first rehearsal I was shaking the whole way home”, adds drummer Ella Russell. “But in this band, we give feelings power.”

From their formative jamming sessions “in a carwash below a viaduct” to taking over east London tastemaker venues like Moth Club and Rich Mix, The New Eves have gained a reputation as an unmissable live band. When NME arrives at the capital’s 21Soho venue to meet them, however, their soundcheck appears to have halted. Equipped with a cello, violin, flute, and accordion, the four-piece aren’t the typical client for London’s guitar-centric, ‘plug and play’ small venues. Case in point: the sound engineer is having a tough time grappling with the band’s intricate tech spec. It’s a quietly amusing moment.

The quartet have enchanted audiences with their bucolic mash-up of folk, punk and ’60s garage, all woven into a new genre which they call “hagstone rock”. Their sound is somewhere between The Velvet Underground and the haunted folk of Dublin’s Lankum, alongside a show that merges moments of experimental ballet with chanting and heavy feedback. “The Velvet Underground are the only band I can compare us to,” drummer Ella Russell tells NME. “There’s a similar spirit there, but The New Eves aren’t about genre. We’re about taking charge of who we are with the hope that [our vision] spills over to other people”, adds cellist Nina Winder-Lind.

The New Eves’ originality can be traced back to their deeply loyal sisterhood, serving as a welcome antidote to the all too common band dynamic of one figurehead writing all the music. When four people with varying perspectives let loose and write together, they can create a unique amalgamation of ideas. “I feel a lot of awe for natural phenomena, for being alive, and for being a girl with other girls”, Winder-Lind says earnestly.

Bassist Kate Mager adds: “Part of being a woman is crafting your own sense of self. The reason I joined this band was to create my own myths, and it’s only now that I feel that I’m in control of my story.”

Last month, The New Eves released their stunning third single ‘Astrolabe’, a love story based around its titular astronomical apparatus. With lyrics taken from a 17th Century ring inscription – “Many are the stars I see / But in my eyes, no star like thee” – ‘Astrolabe’ may be inspired by history, but the band say that it also speaks to finding connection in the here and now.

“The song is not just about a romantic love, but also a universal love that’s so big you can’t write about,” explains Farrer. “There are many things which are hard to express with words. With our music we create expansive spaces which people feel in their bodies,” adds Russell.

An hour after our conversation wraps up, the band take to the stage. A rapid fire of loud, meaningful drum patterns quickly begins to unfurl, supported by stabs of the cello and violin alongside Mager’s bass guitar. Like a scene from The Wicker Man, The New Eves whisper, cackle, croon and yell, reciting tales of desire, anger, grief, and love – shot like flaming arrows into the audience. It all feels akin to a moment of pure euphoria.

The New Eves’ new single ‘Astrolabe’ is out now

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