Eva Sheldrake is the lead singer, and female powerhouse of Brighton-based band, Eville. The trio have made quite a noise in the metal and alternative music scene over the last year with their self-proclaimed ‘brat metal’ sounds, and with their upcoming EP out on Friday, it’s clear they won’t be quietening down anytime soon. I was very pleased to catch up with Eva to talk about everything from the workings of an independant band, to her loud support for needing more women in metal, let alone the music industry. Her fearless nature to not shy away from speaking out on what’s important, and advocating for women to dress how they want to on stage is honourable, and a great portrayal of what the next generation of artists are bringing to the table.

Would you like to introduce yourself?

I'm Eva, I'm from Eville, I play guitar and sing in the band.

How did your journey into music start?

Oh my gosh, well it kind of started when I was around 15. That's when I realised I wanted to play guitar and I kind of just started like different bands. I then met Milo and we started our band, and then we met Jude, but yeah I've been around music all my life really. My Dad's a musician and there's been a lot of music in my family, so it's kind of just always been something I've been around, but I decided I wanted to be in a band and do music when I was about 15. It was quite a solid decision, I was pretty dead set on it haha.

Did your Dad play in bands as well?

Yeah he did, like all of my life he's been playing in bands and he plays guitar too, so it's something I've always been around and you know, the heavier side of music, I've always been around that too, so I guess it was just a natural thing really for me to go into music.

Who would you say some of your biggest inspirations were growing up?

There's definitely been a lot. I like a lot of different music… So I love Britney Spears, but my biggest musical inspiration would probably be System of a Down. I really love them, but there’s a lot of inspirational women like Delilah Bon. She's a big inspiration, just for like motivation and feeling like you can say whatever you want in music, you know, you can just be honest, and there will be people that will listen, you know what I mean? When we played with her at the Garage in London, it was just a room full of women and loads of different kinds of people, it was so accepting. It made me realise there is a scene out there for this, so yeah she's definitely been a big inspiration. Also again Courtney LaPlante from Spiritbox, she's a big inspiration because she's just killing it at the moment. It’s just really nice seeing a woman out there screaming and fronting a metal band. She's definitely very inspirational to me.

What is Eville, as a band, all about?

Well I guess, the whole concept of Eville is like taking the hyper-feminine, like really cutesy, girly, pink aesthetics and mixing it with really hard, aggressive, quite dark things. The whole juxtaposition thing is something that I always really wanted to do, and that's like the whole idea of Brat Metal - it's like mixing two opposites together and kind of just having fun with the fact that I'm very hyper-feminine presenting, I'm like quite stereotypical looking, but I also scream and play guitar and play really heavy music. So it's kind of having fun with that. People probably wouldn't expect me to sound or play how I do, based on how I look, and it's kind of fun to surprise people you know. There's been a few times where we've been sound checking or something, and all the men in the room are like looking at the floor or whatever, probably assuming I’m just going to be singing, and then I'll play guitar and they'll be like, wait what, is that actually you? But that's kind of like the whole thing with the band really. The unexpected.

What do you tend to write about within your songs? What inspires you?

We write about a lot of different things, but it's usually putting a bratty spin on it. I always aim to empower with my songs and my lyrics, like whenever I'm writing I want to make other women feel empowered by it, especially the song Ballistic that we wrote, for example. All the lyrics are just my experience as a woman basically. I wanted it to be empowering and for other women to hear it and be like, yeah I've heard that before, like you know, I've been told to smile before, and stuff like that. I wanted it to be something people could listen to and feel that they’re not alone. But we do write about a lot of random stuff and some of our songs are quite silly. Bratmobile is about pink cars and stuff, but I guess it's always coming back to the fact that we always have a lot of attitude, and there's a lot of anger as well in our songs. To me, brat metal means to be rebellious and, you know, attitude. So it ranges from serious subjects to just fun silly stuff basically.

Eva Sheldrake, 2025 © Alia Thomas - do you use without permission.

Now you said that it was around the age of 15 that you knew you wanted to pursue this as a career. Do you think there was a defining moment that made you think you wanted this, and could do it?

It was basically all started with me and my friend at school. He said to me, do you want to start a band? I was like, “why not!” So we went to this school that wasn't really like a normal school, you could basically do whatever you wanted, so you just booked in whatever lessons you wanted to do… anyway there was a music room, so me and him always just spent all of our time in the music room. I didn't even know how to play guitar when he asked me, but it just evolved into what I'm doing now. I never stopped basically, and like the minute he said, “do you want to start a band?” I was like, yep, I'm doing this, like we're doing it seriously, I'm gonna learn how to play guitar, this is going to be my career. It's really silly to be honest, but I was like, I'm not doing my GCSEs, I'm not doing anything, I'm just doing the band, I'm going to be a musician. I was just going to make it work.

And you are, so we love that commitment.

Yeah haha, you’ve just got to be driven, that's what I say to people. You just have to make it work yourself, and you can. You just have to believe in it basically. You have to just believe in it, that it's going to work. I think also not having a backup plan has worked to my advantage really.

How do you feel you've made it work? Are you just that type of person that when you commit to something you just do it?

Yeah, very much so. I think that's just me. When I care about something, it's like all I can think about, and when I found Milo and Jude, they’re both very like-minded to me. We're all very like-minded people, and we're all really driven, and we've just worked really hard over the years playing the really small shows, taking every opportunity that we can get really. Someone said to me once that the good stuff doesn't go unnoticed, and I've always thought about that. Like with the music, if I believe it's good, I think there'll be other people that do too, but I think just working really hard and taking every opportunity, you know, that's just worked to our advantage, and like at times dropping everything to do it, because a lot of the time things will come up really last minute and you just have to drop everything and go for it. We've had gigs that have come around like the day of the show or the day before, and we’ll get asked if we’re free to do a gig, and you know, we're like, we'll make ourselves free. So I think that's the trick, and just doing what you want to do as well, and being authentic with it. We just make the music that we want to make, and I think that works.

Do you feel like there's been things that you've had to sacrifice to do this?

Oh definitely. There's a lot of sacrifice, but you just have to think about the big picture I guess. There has been a lot of stuff where you just have to think, this is the most important thing to me, so I'm just going to have to go for it. It's never really been a question of “am I going to drop this for the music thing?” There have definitely been some sacrifices I guess, but it's all worth it, because it's a very rewarding thing being in a band, and making music.

You've had quite an exciting year already. You've been on tour with Red Hook, and you've had a pretty solid summer of festival lineups as well. How have those experiences been for you?

It's been kind of crazy really, because all the years prior have kind of been a lot of groundwork, and it feels like this year we're reaping the rewards of that. You know, we're building a team, we're building a following and all that, and I thought that next year was going to be the one, but we seem to have got loads of really sick stuff this year. We've had our first ever festival season - we'd never had a festival season before, not even small ones. This has been the first go at it, and it's had like bucket list festivals. We’ve wanted to do 2000Trees and Reading and Leeds for years. I didn't think that would happen for a while to be honest so it was kind of crazy when we got that. And Burn It Down as well - I've really wanted to do that festival for a while, and even just getting to go, and being invited to some of the festivals, just to watch, that's also been really sick. Just the fact that we've been acknowledged by those festivals. Touring is really fun as well. We love touring, and we've done a lot of touring over the years that have been very small things, but the Redhook tour was probably our first bigger one, and we went on tour with The Hara as well which was fun. That was in January, and so it's all this year, like a lot of the big stuff has been this year really. We played with Wargasm last year as well which was cool, but this year has definitely been like the year for reaping the rewards in a way. Touring's always fun though, we really like touring because the three of us are like best friends, so that makes it a lot easier. We're very lucky that we're friends outside of the band as well.

Do you spend most of your time together?

Oh yeah, absolutely. We basically live together honestly. We're always just hanging out together, which is nice, and it makes it easier to make music when you're always with people. I think that's how like the best music comes out, because you're not like booked in, we're just gonna do it when we feel like it. Most of our songs come out of a really random moment, where someone would just play something and we'd be like, “oh my god, what's that? Let's make a song out of that.” So yeah, for us it’s definitely helped being friends anyway.

One thing you're very open about is the need for more women in metal, and more women on lineups in general, but particularly festival lineups. Why do you think there's still a lack of female presence and also diversity in general in metal?

I will admit it is getting better, but I still don't think it's quite there. Take Download for example. There wasn't a lot of women on the lineup really in general, and if there were women, they were on the smaller stages, but that's why I brought up Spiritbox, because there was actually a female fronted band high up on the main stage! I haven't really seen that before, and I almost got emotional, because it is definitely a very male-dominated genre, and you know, it is very difficult being a woman in this industry really. There's a lot I could say about it.

Why do think they are not on the bigger stages generally at festivals like Download, and what do you think could be done to push those women out onto those bigger stages?

I honestly don't know, like that's the thing, but it does just come down to that glass ceiling kind of thing. That's what I talk about in Ballistic a lot. I say this a lot, but it feels like as a woman, I have to be working a thousand times harder than my male counterparts. I have to be working way harder to be on the same level. It is difficult being a woman in music because it feels like you can never really win, like whatever you're doing is going to be wrong to someone. People always love to talk about what I wear on stage but no one talks about men being shirtless on stage, you know? Why is that? You know, if I'm wearing a baggy outfit, that's not good enough, or if I'm wearing a more revealing outfit, then that's not okay either, so in a way, it's also kind of freeing, because whatever you're doing is going to be wrong, so just do whatever you want. That's what I've been doing! There was definitely a point where I thought like, you know what, I'm just going to do what I think is right with this band, because we've had a lot of people involved with it over the years, and at one point we kind of just went, no, we're not doing this, we’re going to do what we want. There's going to be a lot of men that tell you what to do. There are a lot of men in the industry who think that they know better. I've definitely had some very toxic experiences in the music industry, but I think it's just better to do what you want, because it's never going to please everyone. I get really frustrated about it.

Understandably. Are you able to give more insight into these experiences that you’re referring to?

I mean, generally speaking I think a lot of people, and a lot of young women specifically, in this industry will have experienced certain behaviours that aren’t ok. There are people out there that want to just take advantage of you, and make you into what they think that you should be, and not let you be authentic, and I think that's why it's important to just trust your gut, and just think, “I'm just going to do what I want to do.” There's so many people who love to come and review our shows, and all they'll talk about is what I'm wearing, and I just think please just talk about the music! Sometimes they'll specifically just drag me down. They won't talk about the boys in the band or anything, and it gets to a stage where it’s just coming across as incredibly misogynistic. They make it obvious that they've just come to hate on the women that are playing. There was one person that reviewed us at a festival, where they just tore down us and all of the people that were similar to us, and you just think, they've just made it obvious that it's not really about the music. I don't get it, let's just talk about the music! That’s what we’re there for.

Exactly that. Eville don't have a manager at the moment, so how are you doing with no manager? What have the differences been in terms of having a manager and doing it all yourself?

Well, we have a small team of really amazing people that we work with, and we've got our booking agent and our press agent who both genuinely care about us and they're brilliant at their jobs. We're very picky with who we work with, because, as I said, we've had some bad experiences in the past, and I honestly do really just like being in control of everything. It’s more of a choice, really, to not have a manager at the moment, but sometimes it is difficult, because managers can open certain doors for you, but I will definitely advocate for managing yourself for as long as you possibly can, really. Keep it all within your control for as long as you can. Having a manager and a label early on can do way more damage than good actually. You know what's best for your band, and also you can just be your own cheerleader. I've got quite far by just being like, “you need to put me on this, you need to put our band on this”, and it works. You just need to be confident, and you need to be like “I know that we can do this, we will deliver, please just put us on this show.” I've booked us a lot of stuff by doing that. It’s important to be persistent as well. Don't be afraid to ask because if you don't ask, you don't get, and all that. Don't be afraid to be loud. You know, shout about yourself to everyone, and don't be afraid to advocate for yourself.

I love that. I suppose as you say, there’s a big benefit to not having a manager straight away because you do learn so much more about the industry and what you have to do to get anywhere. So in terms of festivals, you've got Burn It Down and Reading and Leeds coming up. That must be very exciting?

Yeah, we're definitely very excited about those. To be at Reading and Leeds is definitely like a bucket list moment as I said. It’s really like a massive goal already ticked off for us, which I didn't even really foresee happening so quickly. We’re playing on the BBC Introducing stage which is very exciting, and I mean, shout out BBC Introducing, they're really cool. They've helped us a lot over the years, and we're very grateful that a lot of the people on that team like Melita Dennett from Brighton and Alyx Holcombe, they've believed in us all over the years, when we didn't have anything, like, no followers or anything. We’re just really grateful that they played us, really, and, yeah, playing festivals is crazy. It's kind of unlike anything I've ever done before, because you wouldn't expect it, but it's totally different. Like, playing in the daylight, in a tent, in boiling hot weather, or it's usually boiling hot anyway! And you go out and there's just so many people. It's definitely different than playing a show in a venue.

In what ways do they differ to you besides what you’ve mentioned already?

The sound's definitely a lot different. Being in a tent is going to make you sound a lot different, you know, it’s all coming back at you, but I don't know what it is, it just felt, like, totally different, really, and they run a lot differently. It's a really great learning experience actually, doing our first festival season, and it's been so exciting. I've always wanted to have a festival season as a band, you know, being able to play them, and it's cool going to these festivals that I've never been to before, as a band who's playing it! That's really cool because as I said, the only festivals I've ever been to before is Download. So it's cool that we get to go as a performer, that's fun.

Definitely, and you've got your EP coming out in October. Tell us more about the EP - what can we expect from that?

I'm very excited to finally have it announced. We've been working on it for a long time, actually. We actually recorded the tracks, not really intending for them to necessarily be an EP, but they all just came together and we realised this was actually a body of work. I said I thought this should be an EP, already thinking about what the order of songs was going to be. It just felt right for it to be called Brat Metal, and we say it in the songs as well and I'm always a fan of naming a body of work after a lyric. I love it when you're listening to a song and you suddenly hear the lyric matching the title. So that's exciting. It's definitely a bit different than our stuff that we have out at the moment. “Bratmobile” is the first track off it, and we've been opening the set with it for a while as well, so that's fun to finally have it out in the world.

And do you feel that's had a good reception so far?

Yeah, I think it definitely has. We worked really hard on the music video. The music video was something we were, like, really proud of, and when we were writing the song, we all agreed that it was going to have a video. Stuart Alexander is the guy who directed it and made it, and he did an incredible job.

It does look great!

Yeah, he's amazing and he was such a pleasure to work with. He really did just bring our whole vision to life, and all the people that came down with their cars, you know, shout out to them. They were incredible. We wouldn't have been able to do it without them. It was really fun because we've never had a music video with a storyline like that to it. It was definitely quite ambitious of us, but I think it came out really cool. I'm so glad it's finally out that we’ve got the EP coming. It's definitely such a relief that it's announced because I can talk about it now, and I'm so excited. Like, all three of us are so proud of it, and we've worked really hard on it. So we're very excited for it to come out. We’ll be releasing another single [“No Pictures Please” out now] as well before it comes out.

That’s very exciting. I’d love to discuss the “Bratmobile” music video a little further. It seems like the production was quite big on this video - it certainly looks like it’s got a fairly big production value. When you’re an upcoming DIY band, how do you go about making something like that happen? As I would imagine there’s always the consideration of budgets and such.

So as we’re an independent band our this video was entirely self funded but we didn’t want to let that get in our way or stop us, so we just decided to find ways of doing stuff that worked for us and our budget! You don’t always have to compromise artistic vision for the sake of a low budget, there are definitely lots of ways to make it work. Luckily we had lots of incredibly kind and talented people who wanted to work with us out of love for the project which we are so grateful for. We found lots of different ways to help save our budget, for example lots of our outfits and props were second hand or homemade and we found sick locations that didn’t need to be hired out. I’d like to give a massive shout out to Leanne Emily who went absolutely above and beyond to make this video a success, we couldn’t have done it without her. We were lucky enough to use Leanne’s beautiful Honda prelude to portray the bratmobile in the music video which was exactly how we envisioned it.

Okay, so we’ve got the EP out in October, but what can we expect from Eville following this?

There is definitely more shows…

Is there a tour coming up at all?

We’ve got a tour at the end of this year in November with As Everything Unfolds! We're playing in London, Birmingham and we’re also playing Germany with them too which is really cool.

Will they be your first European shows?

First ever. I think the first shows out of the country at all. It was funny because this year I said to everyone that we’re going to Europe this year. Before we even had a booking agent, I said that, not knowing how we were going to do it. I just had full confidence that it was going to happen, and it has. Eville world domination is happening haha.

Love that. You mentioned that earlier this year you went on tour with The Hara, an all-male 3-piece band, and then with Redhook, and female-fronted Australian band, and Defences, another female-fronted British band were also on that lineup. Did the two tours feel different for you?

They definitely did feel different, of course, because a lot of the time I'm the only woman at all, because I play in a band with two boys anyway. It was definitely nice to have some girls around, but on the Hara tour, their audience was a lot of women, so that was really cool. We definitely went down well on that one because of that. On the Redhook tour, everyone was so supportive of each other and it was very empowering. I remember on the last day, Emmy from Redhook gave me this massive pep talk because we'd just been given this review where the guy had been sexist towards me, basically. I was tearing up, and it was so emotional. She was so kind, and so unapologetically herself. She just does not give a fuck, and I love that about her. And Cherry from Defences too, they're two very inspirational women, so it was nice to look up to them every night and watch them slay on stage. That was really cool, and empowering. I got to go out on stage with Redhook and sing a song with Emmy too which was really sick. The energy was so cool. They all took the time to say hello to all of their fans and stuff and Emmy had the worst cold too, but she was still out there talking to everyone. They definitely took care of the support bands too, which was so nice. They really made us feel properly included. I was so sad when we had to leave everyone on that tour.

They both sound like great tour experiences. So we've spoken about the fact that there should be more women in metal, as well as on lineups in general. Hypothetically, in an ideal world, what would you be hopeful to see in the industry next year or in a few years for example?

Again I don't really go to that many festivals as a fan but I have been to Download, so I can only really give personal experience examples of this, but I'd like to see some women headlining it, because I don't really think I've ever seen a woman headline Download. I could be wrong, but I don't think there's been a woman, or female-fronted band, headline Download, and I'd really like to see that! There's so many female bands that could do it. I would love to see Paramore headline Download. I think that would be sick. They're one of my favourite bands. I love them and they were a big inspiration on me actually, when I started my band. Hayley Williams is awesome. She gives all the men a run for their money, and I really like that about her. So for next year, I just hope to definitely see more women, and more people that we don't see enough of - more LGBTQ+ artists for example, on the lineups. Definitely some female headliners, because there's just too many men headlining, and they get the same male bands to headline. I have no problem with male bands at all, but when I see the same ones, I just think there's so many women out there that could do it. Evanescence could headline! Essentially, giving more opportunities to people we don't hear enough of.

I would also love to see a lot less of judging women based on what they're wearing, or what they look like. I just don't think that should matter. Something I want to advocate for is to absolutely wear whatever you want. It shouldn't matter what you wear. It should just be about the music, because a lot of people feel comfortable in different outfits, and that's a big thing that really annoys me in this industry. It should be less talking about how they look, and more about the music.

And lastly, a question I give everyone. For the young girls, or for the women who want to get into the industry in some way, what bit of advice could you give them? What do you think has been one of the most important things that you've experienced or taken on board to get you to where you are now?

Definitely just not listening to other people's opinions, and just doing what I genuinely want to do, and wearing what I want to wear, and playing guitar how I want to play it has helped get me to where I am. Not feeling like I have to adhere to other people's ideas of what a woman in a metal band should be, and I would just say, again, trust your own instincts. You know when something's not right. Don't feel like you have to put yourself in situations you don't want to be in. Just trust your gut. There's so much advice, really, I could give.

Actually, something that I feel should be spoken about more is producing your own music, and writing your own music. You don't always need to have help on it. Learn how to produce your own music - I would definitely advise that. That's something I would go back and do. Really get into production, because production's definitely a very male-dominated field, and I feel like it's quite intimidating, but don't be afraid to teach yourself how to do things. Learn how to play guitar, learn how to play an instrument and start a band, and just start shouting about it. Shout about your music. Again, do whatever you want to do, and if you want to look really hyper-feminine, then look really hyper-feminine. If you feel like you want to look more masculine, then do that. If you feel like you want to cover up more, do that. Just wear whatever you want to wear, and don't be afraid to learn how to scream as well. We need more women screaming, because again, that's seen as a very male thing as well. It can be very scary. I hate going into a guitar shop, because I don't want to play guitar and feel like everyone's just going to be staring at me, waiting for me to make a mistake. Do you know what I mean? So it can be very intimidating really, going into metal and all that, because you already kind of feel a bit unwanted, or a little bit unwelcome if you know what I mean, but it is getting better. There's definitely a lot more women in metal now, which is cool and really nice to see, but one of the biggest pieces of advice for me would definitely be, as I said before, to trust your instincts.

Thanks to Eva for sharing her insights into the industry as an independant artist, and her continuing huge support for women progressing and showing up more in the industry. Eville’s debut EP, Brat Metal, is out everywhere this coming Friday 17th October, which you can preview on streaming sites with their already released singles. Find Eva and the band at the below links:

Eva @evashels - IG/TikTok
Eville @evilleband - IG/TikTok
Spotify + Apple Music, search ‘Eville’

Is there someone you’d like to hear from in UNMUTED? I’d love to talk to a range of women in the music industry with varying roles. Let me know if you know of someone I should speak to!

UNMUTED: A Conversation with Eva Sheldrake

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