Scottish art-rockers EBB burst onto the prog scene with their dynamic, edgy sound and hypnotic live shows. Such was their impact, Prog readers voted them Best New Band in last year’s Readers’ Poll. We catch up with Erin Bennett and Anna Fraser to discuss supermassive black holes, interpretative dancing and their future plans.
There were celebrations in Scotland when art-rock collective EBB heard they had picked up the Prog Readers’ Poll’s Best New Band award. Speaking from EBB HQ near Dumfries, Erin Bennett and Anna Fraser are still buzzing from this very unexpected accolade.
“We’re really very surprised. We put it out on social media and said: ‘Hey, the Readers’ Poll is out: vote for us.’ But never did we expect to get the email which said, ‘You’ve won!’” enthuses Bennett, the band’s vocalist, guitarist and composer.
Their debut album, Mad & Killing Time, coupled with live appearances at three notable festivals –Fusion, Summer’s End and Prog The Forest –sealed their reputation for bringing a unique, show-stopping gritty dynamism and individuality to the prog party. But it was a one-in-a-million meeting back in 2005 that originally brought them together. EBB’s producer-bassist Bad Dog (Finn McGregor) managed a band touring the USA. It included backing vocalist/percussionist Kitty Biscuits, multi-instrumentalist Nikki Francis and synth player/backing vocalist Suna Dasi.
Bennett explains: “I’m originally from Texas, but I ran into them when I was cooking in a greasy spoon café in Dothan, Alabama that’s in the buckle of the Bible belt. Their bus broke down on the way to Florida. Nine British women walked into that café with their very different aesthetic and accents –and they all played music. I was in love. I grabbed hold of their legs and never let go! That was serendipity, if you ask me.”
Two weeks later, she joined that band, MT-TV, as a sound engineer and tech, going on the road with them for two years before moving to the UK in 2008. There, she started a band called Syren that included her wife, drummer Jo Heeley, who died of breast cancer in 2012.
Drummer Fraser, who comes from the Shetland Islands, signed up in 2013. “My schoolteacher managed to get a drum kit and since then I’ve been obsessed,” she explains. “I was quite a hyper child, so the drums calmed me down as I could put all my crazy energy into that. I did a music course at Edinburgh’s Napier University when the guys were looking for a female drummer. I met them and started jamming with them. Th
