Auf Wiedersehen, Pets
As Everon make an improbable but brilliant return to the fray with Shells, the German band’s driving force, Oliver Philipps, explains the reasons behind their 16-year absence and long-awaited comeback.
Words: Nick Shilton Images: Axel Jusseit
Everon in 2025, reunited at last.
“It’s progressive rock, so you can allow yourself to think in bigger structures. If you work on something where you know it should be three or four minutes in length, there’s things you don’t do. But Everon is like setting my antennae in adifferent direction.”
Over the years, bands come and bands go. Some come to an end by imploding spectacularly. Others go out with more of a whimper than a bang. Some just slip quietly away. Everon seemingly fell into this last category, exiting the music scene following the release of North, their seventh studio album, in 2008.
“The process of making North dragged out far too long for a number of reasons,” explains Oliver Philipps from his home near Krefeld, to the northwest of Düsseldorf.
“When I wrote the songs, I liked the album very much. But that was three years or so before it got finished and by then, I didn’t. I believe in momentum –when I’m making an album, I stay in that world for a certain amount of time. When the ideas are fresh, it reflects where your life is at that point.