We Were Evergreen – Track Preview - Daughters

New York – For any tireless music hound seeking the next sonic fountain of youth, look no further than Parisian pop-rock trio We Were Evergreen. With their first full-length album, Towards, on the horizon, the group has just made public a music video for their synth gem “Daughters.” The single itself isn’t scheduled for release until March 3^rd, with the record in full to follow on May 5^th via Mi7 Records/Island Records. This song is twinkly like a daydream, but grounded by a demure tone, and the video is at once stunning and curious.

We Were Evergreen is Michael Liot, Fabienne Débarre and William Serfass. With stacked three-part harmonies, the instrumentation the group employs is as varied as their sense of humor, and includes the usual acoustic and electric guitars, bass and percussion, but incorporates the banjo, trumpet, harmonica, xylophone and charango, to name a few.

These Parisians, now London transplants, first met as students at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. Their work offers up effervescent, bubbly ballads that land somewhere in the realm of indie-electro-pop. A write-up by The Guardian described the band mates as “cute as hell,” and called their music “maddeningly pleasant and obscenely nice.” While this group could be categorized as “twee pop” (twee is a British slag term for something sickeningly sweet), don’t take this as a deterrent. This trio makes music that is “feel good,” and there is nothing wrong with that.

Their first, self-titled, EP was released in 2010. The group released a second EP, “Flings,” in 2010, followed by their third EP, “Leeway,” last year. The tracks that span all three EPs exude a kind of youthful splendor that is hard to hate. That Paris produced this vivacious trio is an unlikely feat, yet a welcome reminder that molds are of the mind and are always made to be broken (especially by the young).

In what can only be described as a beautiful metaphor for the loss of innocence, this group displays inherent development with “Daughters.” The video was directed by Dominique Rocher, produced and mixed by Charlie Andrew, and is a noteworthy tribute to polish filmmaker Zbigniew Rybczyński’s Tango. In 1982, Rybczyński won an Oscar for Tango, making him the first Polish recipient of the award. The video features a group of 20 women, entering and exiting the one-set stage in looped choreography. The players stack up, each actress vying for our attention with her bizarre behavior, and by the time the video culminates we hardly know which performer to watch. Yet, WWE implants their own personas in the center of the madness and ultimately win our eye with their charming demeanors.

“Daughters” is a clear departure from what WWE has produced in the past. The band is quoted as saying “We have evolved in the process of making this first album, which is why it is called Towards. It is about going somewhere… it is about movement versus stillness, body versus mind, personal mythology versus collective memory.”

This first cut seemingly attains the impossible – evident maturation with sustained youthfulness. Only time will tell if WWE continues to guard their inner children on their latest work, but what’s certain is that their sound has undergone an evolution of the deepest sort.

Full disclosure: I actually saw this group play in Paris back in 2010 by accident. We happened on their show at La Bellevilloise, and their live set was stunning like a surprise party. I recall Michael Liot saying something starry-eyed about Sufjan Stevens to me at the time, and my heart was practically gift-wrapped. Give these Parisians a chance and they’ll blow you away. Check out their tour dates and get giddy about getting back in touch with your inner kid. The group is set to tour the UK from May 1^st to May 15^th.

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Liz Rowley

Born in Mexico and raised in Toronto, Jerusalem and Chicago by a pair of journalists, Liz comes to BestNewBands.com with an inherited love of writing. After discovering a niche for herself in music journalism and radio while at Bates College in Maine, she always keeps a running playlist of new music to soundtrack her place in the world. Liz is passionate about helping dedicated, talented musicians gain the exposure they deserve. A recent transplant to Brooklyn from Hawaii, she is plagued by an incurable case of wanderlust and cursed with an affinity for old maps and old things like typewriters and vintage books. She adores photography and running and is very good with plants. Having come of age in Chicago, Wilco speaks to her soul. If she could be anything, she would be a cat in a Murakami novel.