Everly Pregnant Brothers

Walking around the set of Exposed’s In Session shoot with the Everly Pregnant Brothers, one cannot help but become embroiled in a certain sense of ‘Sheffieldness’.

The legendary ‘Roxy Disco’ sign lies against a wall, a few empty cans of Stones Bitter are huddled in a corner and a McKee painting hangs outside of a room, inside which six blokes are creasing with laughter whilst listening to a recording of their latest song: a moving ditty regaling the misfortunes of a man who’s received some bad news from his local GUM clinic set to the tune of Daft Punk’s hit ‘Get Lucky’.

It can only be those Everly Pregnant chaps, who each refuse Brother Richard’s polite offer of a non-alcoholic beer for refreshment.

“It just tastes like watter,” pronounces lead singer and championed pie scoffer, Shaun Doane, grimacing. Exposed politely accepts a beverage and prepares to explore the wonderful, Henderson’s sprinkled world of the Everly Pregnant Brothers.

Ok gentlemen, can you begin by giving us a sneak preview of the tracks you’ll be performing for Exposed In Session?
Shaun: We’ll be playing two new tracks; ‘Get Mucky’ and ‘Buggered Up Shoulder’. The latter is our take on Bob Marley’s ‘Buffalo Soldier’, we love our reggae, in fact we thought about doing an entire album of Bob Marley covers – but discovered that the Marley estate is apparently highly litigious…
Pete: … So we did Bob Holness covers instead. But seriously, Marley tracks just have those beautiful rhythms to them. We’ve done quite a few covers of Bob.

How does the writing process work and what gives you inspiration?
Shaun: Beer.
Pete: I think sometimes a parody title might come up in conversation and Sean is then given full rein to use his lyrical genius.
Shaun: As soon as we find a song we think we could cover we’ll take a look at how many chords it’s got. Back in the old days, if it had more than four then we wouldn’t even think about it. But now, some of our new songs have 5 to 6 chords. We’ve turned proper musical now! *Laughter*
Charlie: But those songs aren’t ready for the live performances yet.

Tell us a bit more about ‘Get Mucky’ and ‘Buggered up Shoulder?
Shaun: Well, Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ is one of the best tracks of 2013, it’s ubiquitous and we quite like the song anyway…
Klive: It’s only got four chords…
Shaun: … Yeah, it’s nowt complicated, so suits us well! And we just came out with the line: ‘I’ve got the clap, cos’ I’m mucky’ and we knew we were on to a winner.

Not based on personal experience, then?
Shaun: The official line is no.
Ginger Dave: You need to have had sex for that.

And ‘Buggered Up Shoulder’?
Pete: It’s about that bloke at work that’s always trying to pull a fast one, always ringing in sick with some form of ailment.
Shaun: Ah, I’ve worked with a couple, blokes with glass backs and dolls arms.
Richard: ‘Me favvers off work with a broken flask’ was one I always used to hear.

As much as your songs may revolve around humour, and a touch of profanity here and there, some songs inspire real nostalgia and have a genuine emotional impact on the audience at times. You could perhaps compare it with some of the work you’ve done, Pete? Appealing to people’s local identity?
Pete: Yeah, it’s that notion of civic pride and pride in Sheffield. For example our song ‘Oyl Int Road’ can be an emotional subject, singing about walking through town with your nan as a youngster. It’s certainly enough to get a lump in your throat. We try and encourage as much singing along/chanting at gigs because it can be a real cathartic experience.
Shaun: For me, good bands fall into two categories. There are those that are idols, they’re placed on a pedestal and they feel like they’re from another planet. But there also bands who you l feel you’d be able to go for a pint with. I think we fall in to that category. We are on the same level as the people that come to watch us. I don’t mind admitting that I nicked the idea from Pete of working with what you know, so I started writing about my own life.
Ginger Dave: It took him two minutes. *Laughter*
Klive: How come you write so many songs about toilet humour, then?
Shaun: I spend a lot of time on the toilet; I do some of my best thinking there. We’ve all got to go for a shit at the end of the day.

The recently released Lego animated music video to ‘Oyl Int Road’ (clicky) managed five and a half thousand views in one day. Do you think that being able to relate to your music is important?
Shaun: Yeah, I think our bond with a local audience comes naturally since we’ve all grown up around Sheffield and I challenge anybody to find a place that gives you a better grounding. In Sheffield you can’t be too much of a big head, otherwise someone will turn round and say – ‘Na’ den, knobhead, tha’ comes off Beighton’.

Perhaps you could assemble the Brethren and organise a petition for the reinstatement of the ‘Hole in the Road’?
Shaun: I don’t know if that would work, it’s nice that it gives everyone such a nostalgic buzz but we remember what it was like just before it closed. Frankly, it stunk like wee and were quite scary, but it was OUR ‘Oyl In’t Road’ and part of our fair city.

Let’s talk Pientology, what are the main beliefs and practices?
Pete: Well, first of all you’ll have to subscribe £10 for our first weekly pamphlet, £5 a week subsequently. *Laughter* and at the end we’ll reveal the secrets of Pientology.
Shaun: I mean, you only need to take a look at us to see we like our pie. ‘No Oven, No Pie’ is just the mother load of live songs and it does have a kind of religious fervour to it when it’s sung – so we kind of picked up on that and joking about we thought we’d start baptising people in the name of Pie by anointing them with Henderson’s Relish.
Pete: We have a wonderful following, so we like getting The Brethren involved in our live gigs. Pientology is something that can increase the interaction and strengthen bonds between us and the crowd. It just makes it more enjoyable.

Sticking with the subject of pie, if you had to pick between an unlimited supply of Hendo’s and Pie or a slot of Glastonbury, which would you choose?
Unison: Pie!

Really?
Shaun: If we said we didn’t want to play Glastonbury then we’d be a set of liars, but you’ve just offered us a lifetime supply of Pie and Hendo’s! What’s tha’ expect?
Charlie: Now, if Michael Eavis rang us up and said they’ve got the perfect slot for us, then maybe we’d take payment of pie.
Ginger Dave: That’s called piement, isn’t it?
Shaun: Let’s bear in mind that we’re talking about a LIFETIME supply of pie. Anything less than that and we’re doing Glasto. Imagine meyt & taters pie everyday… *Eyes glaze momentarily*.

What topics are we looking to cover on the next album?
Charlie: We’ve got another homage to pie in ‘Pork Pie’ (Cover of Blur’s ‘Parklife)
Shaun: A range of the usual topics; Light My Farts (Doors – Light My Fire), One Day On The Piss (Elbow – One Day Like This), Personal Cheeses (Depeche Mode), with a couple of new characters thrown in like Reggie Cardust (Ziggy Stardust). We don’t want to give too much away, obviously.

And what are the chances of you playing a gig in Leeds anytime soon?
Shaun: The funny thing is, we were booked about two years ago to play a gig in Leeds.
Charlie: But they only sold about three tickets.

So they actually tried to make you go to Leeds?
Shaun: Yeah, and we said F**k off.