Ask Emmanuel Ayvas how he would describe his band and suddenly the articulate front man is at a loss for words.
"I don’t know. We are not easy to categorize,” he finally says.
It might be hard to categorize Emmanuel and the Fear because they have 11 band members.
That’s right, 11.
Ranging from Ayvas, the lead singer to David Nelson the trombone player, Emmanuel and the Fear is not your grandfather’s rock band. If Sufjan Stevens and Beethoven made a love child, it might just be Emmanuel and the Fear.
The fact that you can’t quite put this New York rock band in a box is something the band enjoys and even came up with their name because of it. The band’s name came from a theme the lead singer found a lot in his writing. "It’s centered on fear and how to handle fear in our lives. Also, I liked the fact that it didn’t brand us. It leaves room for the imagination," said lead singer.
In March the band released Listen, the 19-track album that continues to receive rave reviews. The lead singer describes the sound as "dreamscape" like and says that the album is very visual.
"I think there is a very clear story being told,” Ayvas said. Many artists have a set pattern on how they create their music; either music first or lyrics. Emmanuel and the Fear are neither. "I like to write the lyrics and the music at the same time. We want to create music that provokes an emotion. The lyrics are very important."
One of the songs off the album was featured in the ABC Family series “Huge.”
"It was weird for me," he said. "I watched the show and the words of my song lined up with the story of the show. I’m flattered that they believe our song evokes what they are trying to evoke."
The band has also been featured on Fearless TV and the new ABC aired Jimmy Lloyd’s Songwriter Showcase. Also, as the band gains more recognition, they also receive more acclaim. Earlier this spring the band was named BMI’s Band of the Month.
Currently, the NYC rockers are on tour. Touring with eleven bands members may seem like a recipe for disaster but Ayvas believes the band is a perfect mesh of personalities for life on the road.
"We are lucky we are with really cool people," he said. "Touring with so many people sometimes isn’t easy after breathing each other’s air for months. So far it has been a lot of fun."
Some of the favorite places for the band to perform thus far have been Amsterdam and Germany. In Germany, the band went on for three encores. "It kind of strange,” he admitted.
"Hopefully we are still touring as much as possible," said Ayvas. Ultimately the band hopes to be "on the map throughout the world.”
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