The Hume Highway, not the long and winding link between Melbourne and Sydney, but the life route travelled thus far by New Zealand’s Hume brothers, better known as Evermore has been an extraordinary jaunt. The eldest of the trio is just 20 years old–yet their debut album "Dreams"–overseen by respected producer Barrett Jones (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) has garnered an impressive array of complimentary reviews. Once Network Ten matched their single "It's Too Late” up with promos for their new hit show "The OC", the flood gates had opened and album sales surged. Australian Musician asked 17 year old drummer Dann to document some time on the road with the band as the drama unfolded.

Friday 24th September, 2004

We woke up at 5am, and had to be at the Melbourne airport in 20 minutes. We played a gig at Revolver last night, and our stage manager Oscar had volunteered to drive the trusty Ford wagon "Floyd" back to Sydney over night. The 80 minute flight made a mockery of the 10 hours it took us to drive there! We arrive in Sydney for promo all morning, which was followed by a show on MTV’s TRL boat, which was recorded, floating in Cockle Bay. Oscar turned up at 2 O’clock, still standing and ready to help load in.
" Oscar, you haven’t slept, go home, have a night off!"
" Nah, guys. It’s cool. I’ve had so much Red Bull that I might as well hang out."
He's a rock’n’roll machine! We soon discovered that also playing on the boat that night was Selwyn. Cool. We played ‘It’s Too Late’ at the end of the show and decided to keep playing tunes until they kicked us off.

Wednesday 29th September 2004

Tonight we are launching our debut album ‘Dreams’. The launch is at Trackdown studios at Fox Studios in Sydney. We get on stage at 6pm and do a set of eight songs. We’re a bit nervous, as most of the crowd is made up of radio people, media & retailers… but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We spent the rest of the night consuming the free alcohol and getting followed around by a photographer asking us to pose for photos with lots of people we didn’t know.

Thursday 14th October 2004

Wollongong. The Gong. You gotta love the place! We have an in-store at 7pm and we’re playing with Little Birdy at Woolongong Uni at 9:20 later that night. It would’ve been ok if it wasn’t raining and if we didn’t get lost. We turned up at the store about quarter to seven, quickly setup and played to about fifty people, it was actually quite a cool vibe. We sold lots of our album ‘Dreams’, which made it worth it.

We were in such a hurry; the staff helped us load out into the car. I slammed the trailer door on the store manager’s head!! He took it like a man though; I would’ve punched me. At the end they gave us a few CDs including Delta Goodrem’s new single. Splendid!

Time to rock, speed up to the Gong Uni Hall and play probably one the best gigs of our lives. Except no-one turned up until after we'd finished. Wollongong. The Gong. You gotta love the place.

Friday 15th October 2004

Wow, today looks quite impossible. It appears we are booked to play two shows in three hours. We have a 1:15pm gig at McKellar Girls High School, and then a half-hour drive away is a 3:00pm performance on Channel [V]’s 'What You Want'. I give our mate Oscar a call who is a gear-lugging-machine, to ask if he can join the gang of Jon (Vox, Guitar), Peter (Keys), Me (Drums), Alex (Sound-guy), and Floyd (the trusty Ford wagon). Little did he know what he was in for.

We arrive at the school about half-past twelve. It’s a steaming hot day. We ask some girls where the school hall is, praying that it’s air-conditioned. We soon find we’re not playing in a hall, but outside! We had to do a cut-down acoustic show to narrow the likeliness of passing out. We started setting the P.A. and gear, but before we knew it, there were about 200 girls waiting for us to start playing.
" Check, 1, 2."
" Sing something!" someone yells.
" Um, Check, 2, 2."
" Don’t you guys do the O.C. song?" yells another.
" Err. 2, 2, Check, 1".
We start playing and everyone goes a little crazy. It was quite laid-back until we started playing ‘It’s Too Late’. It’s a little odd seeing 200 girls moshing in a schoolyard when all I was playing was a snare drum with brushes!

After playing about six songs, we quickly throw the PA and everything in the trailer. We speed over to Fox Studios and find the friendly security guards.
" Do you have your car pass?"
" Nope, but we’re on air in half-an-hour!"
We quickly set up everything while Andrew G and James Matheson are announcing that GOOD CHARLOTTE ARE COMING ON THE SHOW! And also, Evermore…
We kick ‘What You Want’ off with ‘It’s Too Late’ and ‘For One Day’, which ends with a spur-of-the-moment instrumental jam with Andrew G on Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’. I’m not sure if anyone recognised it though!
A very busy but rewarding day, now it’s time to get an early night in preparation for the Arias!

Sunday 17th October 2004

The Arias are finally here…. I’m so excited at the thought I could meet Delta!! We get to the red carpet at about 5pm and there are so many screaming fans when we jump out of the limo. I didn’t realise so many people knew who we were! We spent about twenty minutess on the red carpet, giving interviews and getting our photo taken. It was definitely a surreal experience.

My favourite moment of the night was probably jumping into the mosh pit with all the kids during Eskimo Joe’s performance…oh, and meeting Delta! We didn’t get home till very early morning…luckily (for once) we had NOTHING to do on the Monday after.

Evermore’s album “Dreams” is out now through Warner Music
Website: www.evermoreband.com

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