By Patrick Kabot
Let’s be honest here. Sometimes there are local groups that you support not because you like their sound but because it’s the right thing to do, and you’ve gotta admire anybody who’s willing to put their art out there…These guys aren’t that kind of band at all. These guys have an all around amazing sound with catchy melodies, good beats and guitar wizardry that could baffle the proggiest of players. The group is a four piece made up of Santiago Mesa on guitar and vocals, Phil Alberts on guitar, Jared Woodward on bass and vocals and Alec Eddinger on drums and together they form Europa.
So how was the name Europa coined?
Phil: We’ve always had a fascination with space and I was watching “The Universe” on Netflix and it was an episode about Jupiter’s moons.
Santiago: He called me up not knowing that Europa was my favorite moon and it’s cool because there is a good chance of sustaining life there because it has water. I thought it served as a good symbol for our music.
So you guys have a full EP on Bandcamp and are in the process of writing the second. Tell me a bit about that.
Santiago: Well we called it Stage Zero because it’s our first full piece and sort of our launching off point. We also did a split with our good friends Echo Base.
Phil: We’re also having our EP release party at Will’s Pub on January 31st. We’ll be playing with some really good bands, Lyonia and Good Morning Love
I loved the album artwork for it.
Phil: Yeah, we found a guy called Anthony Grosso who was at one of our show and he really loved us and asked if he could do artwork for us and it came out amazing.
What’s the writing process like for you guys?
Santiago: We take a really modern approach to it, we’re usually in front of a computer screen. I’m from Colombia also so I feel like that Latin influence comes out in the music.
Where’s your favorite place to play?
Phil: In Orlando it’s probably Backbooth, but we’re from down south and go play our home venue the Talent Farm knowing that we’ll lose a bunch of money making the trip but we just love playing there.
How did you guys start playing music?
Santiago: I played drums back when I lived in Colombia, but wasn’t able to take them when I moved to the states. My cousin convinced me to bring this tiny guitar with me though and started learning on that.
Phil: I don’t have a cool story, I just got a guitar because my friend played drums. Started learning tabs and that’s it.
What was the worst live moment for you guys?
Santiago: Oh man [laughs]. We play with backing tracks live and use a click and we all just got completely off.
Phil: One of the few videos we have up is actually of that performance.
Santiago: We eventually caught up at this one part in the song where everything drops and I’m just like “come back in on 4, come back in on 4!” and it worked.
That’s awesome. Let’s close this interview out with the best moment.
Santiago: We were playing at Uncle Lou’s and a homeless guy actually came up to us and wanted to give us a dollar.
Phil: That was definitely a cool moment you know? This guy’s down to his last dollar and enjoyed our music so much that he wanted to give it to us. It was definitely humbling.
These are definitely some talented cats with a really unique sound. I’m not even going to tell you why you should check them out, I’ll just let their music speak for itself and stop by their album release party at Will’s on January 31st! As always, support your local groups by sharing their music, liking their pages and all that good stuff.
https://www.facebook.com/discovereuropa/info
http://europa.bandcamp.com/
Peep Echo Base as well!
https://www.facebook.com/echobasefl
http://echobase.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/GoodMorningLoveband
http://goodmorninglove.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/LyoniaMusic
http://lyonia.bandcamp.com/
Patrick Kabot is a resident of Avalon Park. He graduated from Valencia with a pre-major degree in Jazz Guitar Performance and is currently attending UCF for an undergraduate in English Literature. Patrick plays in the local band Sela Dors, enjoys philosophy and is an avid tattoo enthusiast.
