Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: So my name is Sam Skilnik and I play rhythm guitar and sing in the band Eve Casino. We’re a young rock band from Chicago, IL and we started doing this in about 2018. Also in the band with me is Ryan “Haggy” Hegarty on bass and vocals, Marco Obaya on lead guitar, and Chris Taylor on the drums. We’ve all been playing music for a while but the project initially started with myself and Chris just jamming in his garage, annoying the neighbors. And from there we got Haggy in the mix, and then about 2 years ago Marco joined our circus as well. Personally, since about the age of 12, I was just infatuated with rock music of all sorts. It spoke to me in a way that no other art forms did. And so as I’ve grown up from that age, I’ve been fortunate enough to find a full-time career in the music industry in managing a pretty successful recording studio out here in Chicago called Enviyon Studios. So this band has almost gone hand in hand with my professional career and has grown alongside it, even often complimenting it at points, for obvious reasons. And now here we are, we’re all still youthful and in our mid-twenties & I feel like we’ve finally gotten to where we need to be in terms of organization and dedication & I can’t wait to continue what we’re doing. It’s all kind of working out I’d say.
Q: Did you have any formal training, or are you self-taught?
A: I was taught piano formally from about the ages of 5 to 16. But I had a very old fashioned teacher, and it was mostly classical pieces and music from the 1940’s and 1950’s that I learned all of those years. I didn’t get into rock music until about the age of 12. Once I got into rock music it was game over. I was just wearing black band t-shirts every day, drawing famous band logos on everything I could find, listening to music at all the family parties instead of actually talking to anyone, the whole nine yards. And eventually I was inspired enough to pick up a guitar and start teaching myself all of my favorite band’s songs. I was definitely that typical kid just rocking out by himself in his bedroom mirror. But at a certain point, both of those paths crossed for me and I caught on to how important some of those older classical songs are and I’ve even been able to integrate that all into my creative process. For example, I realized that just because I make rock music, doesn’t mean I can’t take a technique from a Mozart piece or a Patsy Cline song.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences, and why the name ‘Eve Casino’?
A: Our whole band is all across the board with this question. And I think that’s what is beautiful about our sound. Chris is the reggae guy, Haggy’s the jam band guy, Marco is the metal guy.. But I feel like I’ve always fallen into this weird pop/rock/alternative realm. I love just a nice, structured, catchy song that makes you sing your heart out. In terms of influences, the first band I ever became obsessed with was Motley Crue. They had this mythology to their story that was captivating for me. And it was just a lot of edgy guitar leads, loud drums, big choruses, etc.. But nowadays, I feel like I would say my biggest influences have been blink-182, Mac Miller, and maybe Joy Division. It does change by the week though. I just like an artist that has a controlled chaos to their music and image. I love a little controversy. As funny as it sounds – artists that just make good music and keep to themselves can kind of bore me, I really need some personality as well, whatever that may mean. Regarding our name “Eve Casino”, I came up with it after watching the movie “Leaving Las Vegas” starring Nicolas Cage for the first time. It was just a really intense movie & I actually wrote a song that night called “Eve Casino”, but it was kind of a country piano ballad, and I didn’t have anything to do with it afterwards because I don’t make country music. So I thought it might work as a band name too. I brought it up to the guys and well, here we are!
Q: You have just released your new album ‘Here’s The Thing’. Is there a story behind it?
A: The title definitely has a story. One time we were all watching a concert & the guitarist in the band we were all watching had just finished an absolutely mind-bending, mesmerizing guitar solo. And the band ends their song. There’s kind of a quiet moment in between the songs. Our drummer, Chris, just turns, in all seriousness, to our guitarist, Marco, and goes “See, Marco, here’s the thing…” as if he’s about to tell Marco that he should play more like that guitarist & before he can even finish his thought, everybody just erupted in laughter. So it’s just stuck around as an inside joke for a while until this album. Regarding the songs on the album itself, I wouldn’t say there’s any common story throughout them. Each song is very much its own thing. We would like to perhaps something a little more concept driven with a future release though.
Q: What is the message of your music?
A: That’s a tough one. All of us write songs, so it very much depends on which one of us wrote the song. But across the board, I think we really just want our music to show people how important live music is. Obviously as an artist, there’s many different avenues you need to go down in order to be successful and live performances are just one piece of the pie. There’s music videos, interviews, radio stations, general advertising, etc.. But truthfully, the live performance aspect of this is what makes it all worth it to us as not only artists, but as fans of other people’s music as well.. This whole album sounds basically just like how we sound live. And that was done intentionally on our part. We want to be honest and raw with our music. Nothing beats seeing an artist live & being taken to another world by their performance. So we just want to double down on that. It’s why we do this in the first place & we hope that we can spread some of that energy to others at our shows.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: We really have such a wide range to our sound that it’s hard to put it in a box. Some songs we play are 18 minutes long, and some are 3 minutes long. We play a lot of originals live, but we also do a lot of covers of well known songs too, but we always reinvent them in strange ways when we play them. Every performance is different with us. That’s what I love so much about having this band with these 3 other individuals with vastly different music tastes. It’s always rock, but sometimes we can get funky, sometimes it’s trippy, sometimes it’s bluesy, sometimes it’s borderline metal sounding. It makes me love what we do so much, but it makes it a total pain to describe our sound to people. All I can really ever say is that we’re “rock”.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: Absolutely. I’ve personally really gotten into a mindset of manifestation this year. And I’ve felt so much more fulfilled by doing so. I do lose a lot of sleep over this band, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not in a completely unhealthy way. It’s because there’s always something with our band that I want to work on. And the harder I’ve worked on this band, the more fulfilled I have been feeling. Like I mentioned before, I manage a recording studio full time. And with the amount of experience I’ve gained in the music industry by working there, I’ve realised that you can’t be chasing overnight success. It doesn’t happen like that. It’s a ladder that you climb. And you learn along the way. It’s a process and you need to be smart, patient, and faithful to it.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: Me personally – I come up with usually a riff or chord progression on either the guitar or piano. I’ll record it on my voice memos. Then, I’ll just hum some scat vocals until I find a melody I like. Then I’ll bring it to the guys at practice. We’ll run it a few times, and just keep refining it from there. We let the songs write themselves if that makes sense. The music always comes first, and then the lyrics afterwards. At least in most cases, that is. And I would say that’s how it is for all members of the band with their ideas too. We come up with something on our own & bring it to the rest of the guys. It doesn’t always even have to be a complete idea or thought, because once the other 3 members jump in, they breathe new life into it. Or maybe the idea just evolves in a completely opposite direction. That’s the beautiful thing about collaborating with other people, you just never know. And again, we just keep refining it down from there. Obviously there’s always exceptions. Sometimes one of us comes in with a fully finished song and says “This is how it is, here’s the chords, here’s the melody, here’s the lyrics..” and that’s cool too. There’s 100 different ways to write a song. We don’t ever want to limit ourselves. But typically it is a group effort music-wise.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: I can’t confidently say we, as a band, have suffered any great musical tragedies thus far. No plane crashes or anything like that yet. Knock on wood. We’ve kept a very focused and steady operation since we started. I guess personally though, I went through a pretty tough breakup last year that had me all kinds of messed up for a while. Was very much my first adult relationship to actually break down. And it’s tough, you know, wanting the rest of your life to be one way, with someone and then one day it’s just not that way at all. But despite all of that, the one thing that kept me from really losing my mind and going over the edge was this band, and working on this album. I think in a way, as I was going through all of that, reevaluating my actions in the relationship, asking myself a lot of important questions – I realized how I should actually be handling relationships in my life, and the amount of time and effort you do owe to something when you commit to others. Building on that thought, I also had a revelation this year that being in a band is like being in a relationship in more ways than one would think. There’s a lot of listening you have to do, a lot of meeting in the middle, and you need to have clear channels of communication. So I’ve at least been able to take some of the things I failed at with my relationship & make sure that I don’t fail at them again with this band. And speaking for myself, I feel like I have made a lot of progress on this & hope I can continue to do so. Just goes to show that even the darkest moments can bring you something positive down the road.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Hmm.. There’s a lot of points, and probably some more significant than this, but I have to say the first time we got broadcast on the radio a few years back was pretty cool for me. It was a cool moment because it was a station actually local to Chicago, so I could actually just tune in while driving, & also because it was the first time I’d ever heard my music on the radio at all. I’d always had this imaginary goal in my head that was “I just want to hear our song on the radio one time, that’s all I need.”. But then it happened. We got played on the radio. At first, I was so happy to just be driving in the car hearing our music & the DJ is talking about us, shouting us out, etc… It was surreal. Felt like a rockstar for a brief second. But then immediately after, I’m like “That was a little quicker & easier than I expected it to be, now what? What can I do to take us further? I need to think more ahead with this.”. And so the reason I chose that point in time for my answer is because that moment felt like the exact time when I made the decision to not just bask in the clout of being played on the radio or whatever, but rather I asked myself what I could be doing to improve even more with Eve Casino. And I realized then and there that the sky’s the limit if you manifest it for yourself.
