EGG DROP SOUP’s (yes, that is their name) last EP EATSNACKSANDBLEED became my defining purpose as I ventured into 2021. Imagine a small five-foot-two millennial holding her middle finger up at all the screwed-up entities brought forth by everyday things, as simplistic as they may seem. If your inner monologue meets complaints with the single justification: “Ah, but that’s life”, this band asks “but does it have to be?” That’s where this band takes me, always.
To succinctly describe Egg Drop Soup’s sound would be minimizing the complimenting influences from Weezer to Nirvana- hell this band has tiptoed into thrash metal with their single adequately titled “Rank Heavy Metal Parking Lot” after the movie, Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Yes, all of these bands create rock, but this particular rock serves as the rainbow wavelength of saturated skepticism concerning what we are told to do. EDS’s new release, ‘Or Durves‘, is unapologetic. It has two main functions:
- A traditional punk rock dare of status quo and grind culture (I got fired today cause of my bad attitude but my boss was a bitch and I just wasn’t in the mood)
- A wickedly catchy breakdown of one’s flaws (I’m smart but I never apply myself/ getting high in a room all by myself).
Lead singer Samantha Westervelt abandons all corporate of professional social conventions and swaps it for a sarcastic- punk darling tone that “the man” would dismiss as grotesque or vulgar. I couldn’t help but think about the likes of J.K. Rowling who was fired from her job as a secretary at Amnesty International (using her computer for “personal” reasons) or Madonna who was canned from Dunkin’ Donut on her first day (apparently she shot jelly donut filling at a customer). The vocals go on to poke fun at insecurities, but don’t express any doubts or regrets. Duality humanizes us, we can have high self-esteem without necessarily fronting as anything.
I got a chance to chat a little with Samantha, honoring COVID-19 precautions of course:
The single is a completely new sound from your last EP. How did that sound surface?
Actually ‘Or Durves’ was written somewhere in between the songs that are on the EP. About the sound, that’s kind of a tough but also I guess simple answer – it sorts of just bubbled out. I had gotten fired and I was doing a job search the morning after. On applications, they sometimes ask you if you’re ever been fired, and “I got fired today because of my bad attitude” popped into my head and I picked up my bass and wrote the bass riff and the lyrics – it all just came to me. The next time we practiced I played it for the band and they just picked it up right away. It was one of those easy, magical things.
Would you say this sound could be compared to like Bowling for Soup, or The Offspring? Specifically, the guitar riff?
Yes! I would say for guitar, Olivia is most influenced by Sabbath and Motörhead in general, but for this particular track yeah there’s definitely an offspring kinda vibe I guess!
EDS is Bailey Chapman on drums, Olivia Saperstein on vocals & guitar, and Samantha Westervelt is on lead vocals & bass. In other words, an all-female band begetting other females to keep pushing forward.
What is your song composition/collaboration process like?
It depends! Like I mentioned before where something just comes in full like you’re just channeling something from another dimension. Other times one of us will bring a riff or lyrics and we build on it together. We often find ourselves having these cosmic/telepathy moments where we’ll just be reading each other’s minds when we’re writing. So there’s really no one way we go about it. Each song is like a fresh little baby born in its own special way.
Side note, based on these answers I think I have maybe lived in LA for too long LOL!
How has the pandemic informed the conception of the single, specifically the music video?
Well, the single was written and recorded in 2018. Luckily we had it ready to go, along with one other track that we’re releasing on a 7″ split with another LA-based band Broken Baby. I thought it would be really hilarious to do a video with sock puppets, and not just hilarious but also COVID-safe! I was also going through a breakup at the time and needed a project to just fully immerse myself in. I did almost all of the production design, Bailey, Olivia, and our friend Jess were the puppeteers and I shot/directed, and then I taught myself After Effects to do the green screen compositing and edited the video in Premiere. Was a really intense time, haha, but we are all so happy with how it turned out and I am just so grateful to my bandmates for trusting in my capabilities and giving me the freedom to explore and execute my vision.
Also, I read somewhere that you guys grew up all over and somehow wound up in LA? So how did you guys originally meet?
Olivia and I met in early 2015 right after I first moved to LA. We were both on set acting in a short film, but at the time neither one of us was playing music really. Cut to 2019, SXSW, we were on tour with EDS and there was this amazing band, Pearl Earl, playing one of the venues where we also had a show, and it was love at first sight! We met after their set and became friends, and then when Bailey moved to LA we happened to be looking for a drummer, and we asked her to join us. And the rest is history/future because there’s much more to come! We’re hitting the road in October and can’t wait to shredddd.
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Words by Ella Aziz