PropertyOfZack was lucky enough to interview Elliot James, Skyler Mondell, and Marc Ryan of Easton. The band sheds like on future touring plans, a new music video, and the re-release of their EP. Enjoy!

So for the record, could you state your names and roles in Easton?
Skyler: My names Skyler Mondell I play guitar and sing backup vocals.
Elliot: And my names Elliot James and I play drums.

So, Elliot, around 8 months ago you announced that you were leaving Hey Monday. Then in January you guys started posting hints to a new project, or rather an old project coming back together, called. Was it a hard decision to leave Hey Monday just when things were heating up?
Elliot: Yeah, absolutely. I mean I had grown up with a lot of those kids that we started Hey Monday in and it was my first time being in a band that actually toured the world and did everything on the scale that I wanted to. I sat on that decision about leaving the band for over 6 months. It just basically got to the point where I wanted to be doing all that stuff, but playing different music and stuff that I felt more for. It was just my time. And then around the same time as that, when I came back home and started playing with a lot of older friends and I was going a bunch of very different things, like not even just band and music related, but like theater stuff as well and Easton kind of just reformed at the same time as all of that.

Easton actually came to life back in 2005, but then Hey Monday caught on. So how did things start back up again?
Elliot: Yeah, I mean, basically what happened was, like I said, I was going a bunch of different stuff and projects, but the people that all play in Easton now…There’s only two of us that were back in the band in high school. All the members that are in the band now, we’ve all basically known each other and played together in different bands or at different shows and stuff growing up in the scene here and like for Skyler for instance, he played in this other band Mason, who Easton used to play with on like the regular like back when we were both in high school and the same thing with Chris, the singer. We had done the same thing with him as well. The people who are all in the band now have been around through all the ups and downs and stuff for all our different bands to begin with. So it made sense for us to play together and to go into the studio together and just see what would happen and basically that’s what H & H was. Us all going into the studio and writing songs in the studio on the spot and seeing what we could all do together.

You guys did release H & H back in February, it’s 6 songs, how do you think the reaction has been?
Skyler: I think there’s been a pretty good reaction. I think the reaction has been pretty good. Personally, I think the songs are the best songs that we came out with and every one I’ve talked too…Like Elliot said we’ve been playing in bands since we were kids basically. All my friends that I’ve grown up with who have basically been spectators of all our bands and they’ve heard Easton back in the day and they’ve heard the new Easton and everybody’s only had really, really good supportive things to say.

Did you guys just start writing together as soon as you started to play together once again or has some of the material been brought back to life from older times?
Elliot: It’s more newer stuff. In the live show I think there’s one old song that we still play because of the jam behind it and it has this instrumental thing we do live and Marc, our keyboard player, plays backwards, there’s a bunch of crazy stuff. But more or less it’s been writing new music together and stuff even past H & H that we haven’t recorded or released yet.

How was the recording process? Was it fun being back in the studio after touring for so long?
Elliot: Absolutely. For people like us that thrive off of that stuff, getting to the studio and being in an environment that really, truly motivates you and challenges you is the place that I think we all feel most comfortable, even though most other musicians and bands don’t, we get off on that stuff.

Easton posted YouTube videos of the band in New York City back in March. Did you guys come up to write with anyone? Or was it just to get away from Florida and to be in a different mindset?
Elliot: Yeah, we came up to work with Julio from As Tall As Lions and then there was another songwriter up there that we were working with. It was more so for us all to write together in a different environment as well and it made sense for the band to be up there at that time because all the labels and management and a lot of other things and studios and people that we were working with at the time were up there.
Skyler: The streets will inspire you.

So, did that writing that took place up there…Should we expect to see another EP or maybe an album by the end of the year?
Elliot: Absolutely.
POZ: How many songs do you guys want to get in?
Elliot: As much as they’ll allow us to put on the CD. We have a lot of stuff and we’ll continue to have more stuff. How much of all that stuff will actually end up on a CD, who knows. I would like to put out a full-length, whether we put out another EP before that. It depends on a bunch of things.
POZ: Is just demoing at this point or has the actual recording process begun?
Elliot: It’s all demos at this point still. We’re still trying to work out when in fact we will actually go back into the studio and record something. We’re about to re-release H & H, which will take place within the next couple weeks and then at that point after that we’ll probably go back into the studio and then do all the new material.

What have been some of the influences right now while you guys have been writing all the new stuff?
Skyler: The big influences of mine being a guitar player is definitely some old school blues stuff like Jimi Hendrix meets As Tall As Lions and Radiohead. But all in all mixing that into something practical in today’s music industry in kind of like a pop sense of that. Kind of like a crazy baby of pop.
Marc: Personally, my influences recently, I’ve been getting into soundtracks and trying to make soundtrack music. Like taking the power and ethics of like a soundtrack and making it into like pop music. That’s just kind of what I’ve been trying to do. Oh, and I’m Marc and I play keyboard.

Easton has only played just a few shows up to this point, but should we expect any summer shows to be announced?
Elliot: Yeah, there’s gonna be an announcement again with the re-release of H & H, which will have all the information about what we plan to do over the summer in terms of shows and touring.

So Elliot, in the past year you’ve toured with Fall Out Boy around the world, and you dropped everything and started fresh again with H & H. Could you have pictured any of this?
Elliot:  Absolutely not [Laughs]. I mean, to think where my life has gone in the past two years since I’ve left high school is pretty unbelievable for me to sit back and look at all of it, but at the same time I don’t regret anything that I’ve been able to do and I count my blessings everyday, trust me. But to be doing what I’m doing right now and the situation that I’m in I’m also happier than I’ve ever been at this point as well.

In a year from now what would you guys on a whole like to have accomplished for Easton?
Skyler: In a year what do I hope to accomplish? I mean, personally I would just like to get in a lot of touring time and getting a lot of kids involved in the band and helping spreading the word as much as possible.
Elliot: Pretty much the same. In a years time it’s more little personal goals that we have ourselves rather than an overall band goal. We’re not trying to throw this down anybody else’s throats like a lot of bands do out there. We’re not going against any particular formula. We’re doing this stuff because we want to do it. We hope to have a CD in stores that kids can pickup if they wanted to, and if they don’t that’s fine as well.

So within the next month or two we can expect a re-release, some touring announcements, and possible a label announcement as well?
Elliot: Yeah, and there’s also a music video that will be coming out.
POZ: Oh right, you guys just shot that right?
Elliot: Yeah, we just shot the video last week.
POZ: Did that go well?
Elliot: Absolutely. It’s probably the coolest thing we’ve done.
POZ: That’s for one of the songs on the EP?
Elliot: Yeah, that’s for the song, “Us (Nobody)”.

Thanks so much for your time guys, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Elliot: Stay tuned. Just keep checking back with all the future announcements we have, because we do have a lot of announcements coming up even though stuff online is still slow. We’ve just been getting our base and ground work set up. But, we’re putting our ducks in a row and then we’ll share it with the world.