East Moline band to tour England

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By Stephanie De Pasquale | Tuesday, June 10, 2008 10:36 PM CDT | () comments

Guitar player Sorge Tapia and singer Billy Harris of the band Eyes plays on stage at the Redstone Room in River Music Experience in May as part of the Day Trotter Presents series. (John Schultz/QUAD-CITY TIMES) Buy this Photo

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East Moline band Eyes is used to mixed responses to its music. The crowd either loves it or hates it, and that’s just the way Billy Harris, lead singer for the band, likes it.

One time, his friend overheard a comment in the women’s bathroom at Huckleberry’s Pizza Parlor in Rock Island after the Eyes had played a set. The friend told Harris a woman said, “Oh, we had to sit through that awful band.”

“And I thought that was so nice because we got a reaction out of her,” Harris said. “A mediocre band wouldn’t get her attention, and she wouldn’t have commented on when she was in the bathroom. So I thought that was really powerful.”

Eyes plays a combination of noise, pop and dance songs. While most bands will say inspiration for their music comes from all facets of life, Eyes’ literally makes its music with the sounds they hear throughout the day. In addition to using guitars, pedals and a saxophone during performances, the band also incorporates objects from a metal detector from the ’70s to pots and pans to recorded sounds of glass breaking and people talking.

“When you’re not trying to live up to anybody’s standards or your own standards, then you just do and just exist with the music, it’s easy to concoct a weird mix of music,” said Jorge Tapia, guitarist.

“We like hip hop, we like noise, we like the sound of city buses. It’s all fluent to us, we accept them all as the same sound.”

Eyes has found that its mix of sound has a better reception in larger cities and overseas than it does in the Quad-Cities. The band loaded a couple of noise, pop and dance songs onto its MySpace page, and English bands and promoters and Australian TV shows started calling.

“It’s kind of ridiculous how popular these guys got immediately,” said Amber Tapia, saxophone.

The exposure led to Web-based Australian TV show “Vive Cool City” featuring one of the band’s songs, collaborations with bands from England and Australia and eventually British band Skitanja offering to take Eyes on tour through England.

Eyes will fly across the pond Sunday to begin a three-week 19-show tour in London, Brighton, York, Leeds, Liverpool and more.

Jorge Tapia said being able to tour in Europe is something he and Harris have wanted to do for years with Eyes and with other bands the two have played in.

“I can’t say that I’ve expected something to happen, especially in London, but I’m happy that it’s panning out,” Jorge Tapia said.

Eyes’ last Quad-City show before heading to England is at 8 p.m. Friday at the Capitol Theatre, 311 Ripley St.,

Davenport. The band will open for Botticellis, Drakkar Sauna and Driver of the Year. The show is presented by Daytrotter, and tickets are $5.

Aside from Harris being a little superstitious about playing a Friday the 13th show at the Capitol, a few days before getting on a plane when Buddy Holly’s plane crashed days after playing at the same venue, the band isn’t nervous about the

overseas tour just yet.

“I think it’s going to hit us more Saturday or Sunday like when we get ready to go. We’re just trying to remember everything right now so we can’t really freak out,” Amber Tapia said. “I’m sure we’re all screaming somewhere on the inside.”

Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.