After surprising a lot of people at Lethbridge College’s Band Wars: Revenge, local band Eyes of Isis is still coming down from a second-place finish on March 11.
“Just to be able to get excited with the crowd whether we’re playing a good beat or got a good rock going on, everyone gets excited and it’s like a big party and we’re a big part of it,” says drummer David LeBel.

“It was definitely more local than most of our shows. We’ve played a lot up north and in Calgary,” says singer and guitarist Jordan Davidson.

LeBel says  the exposure to fans of other bands was invaluable.
“They all brought their fans so when we’re talking to people everyone is talking about these bands and no one really knows about us. We sort of jumped there and no one knew what to expect and did a good job.”
Eyes of Isis was a first-time performer at Band Wars, but it was not the biggest crowd they have played for. Last May at the Enmax Centre they played for 6,000 people. Band Wars was also the first show they played to an over 18 crowd, but it is not a reflection of their musical experience.
“I started off in elementary school doing percussion,” Lebel remembers.
“I was very classically trained for the next couple years. I went to university and did some classes there. I actually toured with a national youth band but after that I just wanted something more to the heart, less structure. I hate to say that but that’s really what rock and roll kind of is.”
LeBel and Davidson played together through high school before going their separate ways, only to reunite in what is now Eyes of Isis, though it has been accompanied by challenges.
“Chase and I were always the driven members in the band and the other half was always sex, drugs, rock and roll kind of thing, you know,” Davidson says.
Today Eyes of Isis, or EOI for short, is a three-piece band.
Davidson says his biggest inspiration is his father and both guys derive influence from Alberta’s Nickelback.
“I even classify Ke$ha as an inspiration for me,” Davidson says.
“I’ve done a bit of research on what she’s gone through to be where she is today. She took time off to develop herself as an artist, she wrote music for other artists. She created this image that people portray her as.”
The members of EOI devote the same sort of research and perspective to their own band, treating it much like a business as well as a musical passion, as Davidson explains.
“We treat it as a full-time job. That’s all I eat, sleep, think about constantly is Eyes of Isis, the music industry, anything to do with it basically.
“I constantly study and go to seminars and meet with people in the music industry and learn new things about what you need to do in order to succeed, make money, develop, and what professionals expect.”
LeBel says it is all in preparation for things to come.
“We’re going to try and step from being a local band that plays just around town to being a professional band that gets to go on tour. We’re just preparing ourselves for that step.”
Davidson says that he has made many connections in the last two years, and that certain ones have made the biggest impact.
“I’d say the biggest influence so far has been a woman named Meridith Valiando. She works for Columbia Records, she’s a manager. I paid for a consultation and she did a review of everything we had accomplished as a band.
“She said we have potential but she went through each portion of the song and completely criticized everything and told us how we could improve on it.”
LeBel says that honest critique of the band’s music only helps them grow, even when it’s coming from the fans.
“We don’t want you to come up to us at the end of the show and say every song was great. We want you to come up and tell us your opinion. We want to know what you liked and didn’t like. That’s the only way we connect with the fans.”
Davidson says that in comparison to bands like Nickelback, EOI still has a lot of work to do.
“I understand all the steps that are needed to be taken to be successful. It includes a lot of guarantees and a lot of numbers just like a business plan.”
LeBel adds that people are one of the biggest factors to success, just like in any business.
“Not only that we don’t have the fan content like say Nickelback does, but Nickelback is run as a business. So they’ve got employees doing marketing research, brand research, stuff like that. They’ve got probably 120 employees and we’ve got three people.”
While the year ahead won’t be as filled with gigs as EOI would like, the band will still be working hard at development, learning how to managing themselves and recording their music.