FROM THE PIT TO THE MIC: BLUE RIDGE ROCK FESTIVAL ARTIST – INTERVIEW WITH MISTY EYED – JULY 11, 2021

Blue Ridge Rock Festival that runs from September 9th through September 12th has a stellar lineup of 180+ bands. A good portion of those bands are up-and-coming artists that may not be as well known now and hopefully will be soon. This is starting a series of interviews The Photo Pit is doing with a number of the artists that have been labeled as Rising Talent.

First up is the band from, as they say, Atlanta, GA, known as Misty Eyed. Joining us for the interview were Jeremy Yurcaba (drums), the most recent member, Megan Burke (vocals), and John Eck (guitar). The band first formed in 2016 and has gone through some lineup changes over the years, but they feel they have their most solid lineup now. The band has released two EPs titled In Lou Of… (2017) and Eurydice (2018) and John said, “We’re working on a third major release right now that is projected to come out right before Blue Ridge.“

Megan describes the band as “Really fun. I feel like we’re all just really cool people. Come hang out with us! Our music is great to listen to and there’s some great stories in there.” As for their music, John describes it as “early 2000s style of hardcore rock/metal with a refreshing modern take on it.” Their producer even said guitar-wise there’s a mix of metalcore, rock, jazz, blues and even funk.

And I did have to ask about some of their favorite songs they like to play. Megan called out “SOS” as one of her favorites to play. She didn’t want to tell the story because “I want people to have their own interpretation of it”, which makes perfect sense to me. She describes it as a “stand up” and “fight back” song. Jeremey said their recent single “Run” is one of his favorites because “when I first heard it it was song just full of hope. It’s hope for the future no matter what happened before you can get up and move forward.”

Misty Eyed is a band of chance encounters. When they’ve taken their shot at getting something it seems to work in their favor. Megan saw an Instagram post from Blue Ridge Rock Festival and misinterpreted the post and reached out saying Misty Eyed wanted to get on the lineup. She was told the lineup was full and the post wasn’t about joining the fest. But, a week later, the festival emailed them back saying someone dropped off the lineup and wanted to know if Misty Eyed wanted the spot. They said yes and performed at the 2018 festival. Another time they wanted to get onto a future lineup of the Georgia Zombie Fest. They had just released a single called “Freakshow” and send them the single. The festival said they wanted them there that year and the video for “Freakshow” was filmed at Georgia Zombie Fest. After that performance, they invited Misty Eyed to play it every year since. Misty Eyed is currently signed to 59 X Records, which happened back in 2019. They defined the label as an “artist development” label to help bands build-up to get signed by bigger labels. But the meeting with their label was a chance encounter as well! Megan and John described this small venue they played at (so small the stage could only fit the drum kit) and one of the members of another band performing that night said he was starting a record label, which came to be 59 X Records.

And those chance encounters lead them to playing on the big stage with bands like Hollywood Undead, Lacey Sturm, and even The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

Besides having some really great music, I truly enjoyed doing this interview with Megan, John, and Jeremy. You can easily feel how genuine they were, how much they care about their music, care about the fans, and more than happy to share a laugh or three. When I asked what they did for fun, Megan said in the straightest face ever, “There’s stuff outside of the band?” That started a laugh-fest all around.  John is an avid mountain biker, Megan is into exercise and loves to play Unstable Unicorns (and is hoping Unstable Games will sponsor them), and Jeremy is a very creative artist. Check out Jeremy‘s Instagram page @yarkooba.

Misty Eyed will be performing at Blue Ridge Rock Festival on Friday, September 10th. Ensure you check out their set and hear some really cool music. And watch the full interview below where you can hear the band talk about the Cosmic Brownie, the bands they’re looking forward to seeing, and listen to some really great stories they have to share. It was an absolute pleasure talking to them and definitely looking forward to their new album coming out right before Blue Ridge Rock Festival!