Eyes on the Shore Discuss The Lineup Showcase, Oysterfest

Eyes on the Shore haven’t been on the scene for long, but with an energetic style of music that blends heartfelt blues guitars with edgy bass lines and dynamic vocals, they’ve acquired a quickly growing fan base.

The charismatic and recently transformed four piece knows what it takes to promote themselves after beating out an always talented and competitive group of bands for The Lineup, earning them a headlining slot at Boom Boom Room this Thursday (April 24) followed by a performance at this year’s Oysterfest with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. We caught up with the guys to talk about the tumultuous (and fun) tactics of winning the Lineup, what to expect at Oysterfest and their upcoming full length album.

Eyes On the Shore is:
Kayhan Golkar – Bass
Antrom Kury – Guitar
Cory Tauber – Vocals
Kyle Albery – Drums

How did you spend your 4/20, or um, Easter? 

Antrom: I had a bunch of family in town, so I went with the girlfriend and escaped San Francisco. I’m not a huge fan of what happens in Golden Gate Park that day.

Kayhan: I live right near the park so I just hung around in the city. It was the first warm day in a while.

Kyle: Took the dog to the park and went to see Bombay Bicycle Club.

Cory: I hung out in Oakland at home and went out and saw some art galleries with some cool art.

Kayhan: We’re pretty boring.

Sounds like you were more productive than sitting on your ass all day in a park. Speaking of parks, I’m curious about your formation. On your website it says you formed at a small café near GG Park. Were you in other bands before? 

K: Antrom and I have the longest history. We grew up in the South Bay and played together in a band that formed 10 years ago called Ambient. We broke up about four years ago and he and I were looking to put together a new team and we didn’t want to lose any momentum. It took us two years, but we put out an ad looking for a vocalist and last year is when we met Cory.

Our debut show with Cory was last December at Bottom of the Hill. We played as a trio with Cory playing drums and singing. The whole time we were looking for a full-time drummer and our producer knew of Kyle. Kyle was looking for something new and it was a funny thing because he was in the same practice studio as us for two years, and we just ended up meeting.

Has the addition of a drummer affected you guys musically?

C: I would say it was a bit of a transition. Kyle was a really good singer as well. I’ve been playing a lot more guitar as of recent. I’d say it’s really added more elements that to work with for our brand and vision. We’re in a better position to culminate that.

K: We can experiment more with guitar rhythms, harmonies and polyrhythms now.

You won the headlining spot at the Boom Boom Room for SF Station’s annual The Lineup showcase. How did you prepare and promote for this contest?  

A: Preparing for the concert, it’s a long set so we’ve been working overtime getting the songs ready and pulling our forces together to make things best as possible. I’ve personally wanted to play at the Boom Boom Room for a long time. This has opened up a really cool opportunity and I’m really excited.

It’s a huge show for us, so we’ve been spreading the word as much as possible. The competition itself has been a great thing as a band. We’ve been making really cool videos. Kyle works for Pedicab on the Embarcadero, so we hopped on the back and stopped and performed around the city.

K: We were hustling. We were pretty burnt out after we won because we were out on the streets every night, getting people to vote on their phones. Kyle knew this secret location by the bridge where we shot a couple videos, that stepped up our game. It was a fun week.

C: We learned a lot about ourselves and what we could accomplish as a band.

And now you get to open Oysterfest with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Poolside and Ra Ra Riot. Do you have any expectations for this event?

K: Right off the bat we are extremely excited. It will be fun to be back on a festival stage. Antron and I have been fortunate to play festivals before. We’re really grateful to be getting that opportunity. We’re working really hard to play the most engaging and entertaining set, brainstorming super cool ideas.

Edward Sharpe is one of my favorite bands. Antrom has seen them before. I really love the incorporation of horns so I’m excited to see how that all comes together on stage.

Hopefully you guys like Oysters…

K: I hate oysters, but I love OysterFest!

You’re preparing a release of your first LP, what can your listeners expect?

C: We’ve spent the last year and half really honing in and learning each other. With Kyle in the band now we’re reforming what we’re capable of. We have some firm foundations of who we are that’s energetic and dynamic through all our influences. We don’t want to go overboard with layering, but the next album we’d like to incorporate horns and strings.

K: Basically the EP is interesting because those are songs that Antrom and I wrote about three years ago, so we’re proud of what we accomplished. Having written this album that’s about halfway done, we’ve written as a complete band. Our fans and family and friends tell us the new songs sound more cohesive, so that’s gonna be the biggest thing for us on the album. As far as sounds, we’re gonna keep the surf vibe with a Soul/Motown vibe—anything from the 50s and 60s. We want to create a rock album with a blues and Motown feel. We also have a darker psychedelic side that comes through.

Any chance for a “Path of Fire” part two?

K: Our songs generally tend to have something western in them, this time I want to have horses and some babes and some real guns.

C: It will be like that Kanye video.

A: Just us riding motorcycles.

K: To answer that question in short, absolutely.

Eyes on the Shore perform at the Boom Boom Room on April 24. More info and purchase tickets.