EOTO's Jason Hann on Their Early Days: "We Were the Only Ones Who Liked What We Were Doing"

How do you think the strong emergence of electronic sub-genres in the past few years has paved the way for a live act like yours?

In some ways, the electro scene has become prevalent with DJs and producers, and it can be hard for a band to have a pristine sound and be mixed just as right as a DJ can get just by playing tracks off a computer that are already produced. It's a challenge to play in these environments. With the number of DJs out there playing that music, we think we hold a unique spot in that category.

We are playing all our instruments live and making things up. It's a whole other level of appreciation, playing these live instruments, and the music being heard is actually happening in front of the audience. And, so our quest is to know that that's what makes us unique, and that's what we really want to pass on to the people who take another minute to see what we're doing is all on the fly.



Tell us the story behind integrating Lotus Stage into EOTO's live show. How did the concept develop, and how does it enhance the show?

Last year, we were just doing a video screen behind us, and we really wanted to step up our production. Everyone is, a lot of the bigger DJs and bands. But, now, everyone is doing it on the club and theater level, and as we were going to the bigger venues, our manager convinced us to go for a bigger production and to find animators.

We just set out for another animation team that was hungry, and excited about working on a project like this. I had come up with the original design of us playing in different lotus flowers, and then I threw one big lotus flower into the mix. The person who actually made it for us was Blake Courtney. He sculpted it into its present shape, and the projectionist got the animations innovated into it, and we were just really happy to put it together. It's been nothing but a pretty amazing response.

A few weeks ago, EOTO released its 500th recorded of 800 total shows together. When the side project formed in 2006, did you ever imagine it would grow to such great heights?

Not at that time, we were up against it when we first started. We were the only ones who liked what we were doing. Our first big tour together was when we knew SCI was breaking up. We weren't doing what everyone expected us to do. Older Cheese fans came to see us with our computer on stage, and were like, "What they hell are you guys doing? You suck." And we were like, "Thanks!" But, we were having fun with it, and we could tell we were getting better.

And then, a lot of the younger kids thought it sounded cool. Those people really tried to make other people see we were doing this live electronic thing, and that nothing sounded like it. People have a really fresh perception -- the ones that are open to electro. We really didn't know what we were doing, and then we got a little chip on our shoulder...

EOTO with Liquid Stranger. 9 p.m. Wednesday, October 3, at Revolution Live, 100 SW Third Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Tickets cost $17. Visit livenation.com. 

---

---

Follow @CountyGrind