For most bands, changing half their line-up would usually mean a setback of immense proportions, but for Eve Ransom the radical reshuffle has brought with it various opportunities.

The first of these is an important live gig at the Rock Café in the German city of Plauen, following which the band will be recording new songs that will spearhead a fresh promotional campaign.

Later in the summer, the band will go back to Germany for more performances, around which there are sure to be a few dates in Malta too.

To date, the band has released six singles, all of which garnered regular airplay and high positions in the radio charts, with one single in particular – Alisha’s Room – even sparking off a controversy that resulted in an effective campaign against child abuse.

Add to that several nominations for local music awards and the band’s in-your-face presence and it’s not difficult to understand why Eve Ransom’s star is rising.

Brendan Jackson, the band’s singer (and one of its two guitarists) spoke about the band’s upcoming concert in Germany and their plans for the summer.

Eve Ransom has undergone some changes in recent months. How has the line-up change affected the band’s progress and direction?

In most cases, a line-up change is usually always for the better. Having Ken Chircop and Alan Fava in the band is probably the luckiest break Eve Ransom has had so far.

I told them some time ago I was saddened we didn’t meet 10 years ago.

For the first time I feel I’m working with musicians who are completely on the same wavelength as I am.

Ironically, it’s taking much longer to write new songs but this is to be expected given there are so many ideas floating around, to the point that we sometimes have to leave a few out, which can be frustrating.

I feel an element of trust I’ve never encountered before. I was always the main songwriter in the two bands I have been in and everyone was generally happy with what I came up with.

With these guys, I get more direct feedback – they’ll tell me straight up if an idea is bad or if it needs tweaking, and I find this all the more challenging.

They’re brilliant musicians so I find myself under constant pressure to match up to their talent and their expectations, and because of this the new songs are much more mature and innovative.

We’ve also recently started a complete overhaul of our guitar effects, so our sound should improve drastically over the next few weeks.

Your recent promo CD compiles all of your singles to date. Does this collection mark the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one for the band?

More than the end of a chapter, I like to see it as a reminder of what we’ve done these past three years or so and how much more we can accomplish.

We’ve had loads of requests to make the EP available for retail, but really we only did it to have a professional product to send out to labels and contacts abroad. The response has been quite positive and in fact our forthcoming dates in Germany came as a result of this.

As you can imagine, songs like Souvenir and Alisha’s Room will always be special to us and we’ll always be grateful for the exposure they gave Eve Ransom, but I’ve never been one to dwell on the past too long.

I don’t want to get to the point where I start to hate a song because I’ve played it too many times, as had happened with Room 7 when I was with Scream Daisy.

I know the public will move forward with us and be as receptive to the new material as they were to our previous singles.

It’s not a question of new ones being better or worse. Music is an artistic expression, and as we continue to mature, so does our music.

You’re headlining a multiple band concert in Germany later this month.

Can you tell us a bit about this event and your plans for this summer?

We always intended to focus on Germany when it came to promoting our music abroad, simply because our style seems to be quite popular over there.

For about a year now we have been managed by a German company and they’ve been doing sterling work promoting us there.

Thanks to them, we have been contacted by a significant German promoter who is very interested in Eve Ransom and got us this prestigious gig, which we will be headlining.

This concert should be the first of several others to come, and the plan is to fly back to Germany in the summer for more gigs which should also include some festival dates.

We will be in Malta in time for the Beer Festival as we wouldn’t miss it for the world. In the meantime, we’ve booked some studio time as we’re planning to record two new songs in May.

One thing’s for sure, it’s going to be a busy year for the band, and we’re looking forward to every minute of it.

www.everansom.com