W: Noah Fashesin. I: Harriet Bols
Harvey, 24 and Rhys, 28 are Everyone You Know, the sibling duo flooding dance floors with heavy beats and lyrics that etch themselves into the listeners' mind
The pair were surrounded by music while growing up with their dad being a DJ. But with different mothers this is where the two of them would broaden the variety of music they were listening to, Harvey explained their musical journey as kids, “We grew up on all sorts, our dad was into jungle and hip hop, massively hip hop that was our main genre growing up, Biggie smalls, Jay-z, older stuff like Eric B and Rakim … my mum was into like Frankie Knuckles and the house scene, then Rhys mum was into like Rnb” Rhys followed on by adding “We were very fortunate because of our parent and all our family, we had a proper musical education”
While they were constantly surrounded by music it was one of Rhys's uncles that gave him his proper entry into music creation, with Rhys's mum's brother having mc-ed and produced in his heydays he passed down a lot of his laptops and software to his then keen-to-learn nephew. Rhys’ first introduction to making music was the production side as he used the tools his uncle gave him to start making beats during his college years before meeting friends who were rapping, which then introduced him to the vocals side of music that he eventually fell in love with, the section of Everyone You Know that he now takes care of. Harvey's journey was similar in that production was his first entry point however, unlike Rhys,
Harvey has stuck with production warning me that it wouldn't be beneficial for anyone if he picked up the mic. Harvey stumbled across programs like Fruity Loops, drum machines and Akai mpc on YouTube, and then became obsessed with beat creation and sampling old funk and soul records. The pair of them both found their own entry point into music and were producing music separately for quite some time before deciding to work together in 2017.
“We decided to put together a little project which was under a different name at the time, then we released an EP in 2017, then we got signed off the back of that and then a year later we released Our Generation. It happened quite quickly but quite organically, almost stumbled into it (Harvey)”
The group name ‘Everyone You Know’ very much stands out and perfectly sets out who the group are and what they are about. The duo started under a different name but with copyright and crowded Google searches being a problem, Everyone You Know is what they landed on. Now almost 6 years on the brothers seem to have made the right decision “It just made sense with the music as well, it's just like Everyone You know, normal lads making tunes”, Harvey is right, the group covers so many topics in their music that it's almost impossible to listen and not think about someone you know, someone who is going through the same thing or that relates to the topics the pair cover in their music. The music that I see as a creation of a commodity with so many different layers and components was simply put by Rhys, “I always say it’s music for the people'' with Harvey adding on “I think it's inclusive of a lot of people, going back to the name, the music we make and who we make it for, it’s everyone”.
The group's name and the subject matter they cover in their music made me wonder if it was something they were doing purposely to try and connect and relate with listeners. I remember first listening to Everyone You Know around 4 years ago as a uni student during the Covid lockdown and instantly connecting with what I heard, but then finding fans who were much older than me and in completely different life situations to me, who also found ways to connect to the music and with the words being sung. The pair of them were quick to cut down the idea that it was purposely done with Harvey telling me that “If you set out to be the voice of this nation or generation, it transparent” but he also understood that their music has people from all different corners of the country relating ”I think everyone relates to it whether you're 50 years old and up north or 10 years old and down south, you could be worlds apart but with the lyrics, production and our background, it's very relatable”
“One thing we have always done is spoke about what was real to us and what was happening in our life and by doing that people can connect to it and relate to it. We haven't gone out of our way to be like were gonna be a voice for this misguided generation at all (Rhys)”
The free-willed spirit of the pair and their musical education as kids is what leads to such a vast catalogue of tracks like ‘She Don’t Dance’,’ Our Generation’ and ‘Money’, music that is almost genreless, a sound that takes from some many other sounds and acts as a voice for many as well as offering comfort to others.
Before I spoke to the two of them, Harvey was working on a beat at his house while Rhys was in the studio working on some vocals, an indication of their non-confirmative creative process. The two of them don't often work together in the studio but ping beats and vocals over to each other as their creativity sparks.
Their most successful song for example, ‘The Drive’ a track that at the end of 2023 sits on 10 million YouTube views and 12 million Spotify streams. A song that's creation process started with Harvey sending over a guitar loop at 2 am, leading Rhys to write the opening line “We’re all jack the lads with bad habits” just before he went to sleep before waking up to take his daughter to nursery with the completed beat in his email, he was then able to create the first draft of the track before Harvey had even got up for the day.
While their creative excellence is showcased in their music they don't disappoint when creating videos to match the hits. Their videos often help to illustrate the ideas behind the singles, whether it’s a homemade video like the one they created during lockdown for “Do you Miss Raving’ or a video with full-scale production like the sibling duos shared favourite ‘The Drive’, their videos failing to ever let down the song they partner.
“For us shows are probably the most important part of our career”, while the songs and videos are massive parts of the musician's journey for them the shows are their favoured moments as being on the stage allows for a genuine connection with their listeners. It is a time for them to not only connect with fans but to grow their following and introduce themselves to new audiences, as they go around the country performing with the same team they started with “Bar the Tour Manager It has been the same team since day one … it's quality when we go on the road it's like a family away from the family(Rhys)”.
Everyone You know loves taking to the stage and to end 2023 they announced their plans to hit the road in the new year with their ‘Ain’t Smiled In Ages Tour’.
As the conversation came to an end the future is always something that I'm always keen to explore with artists at any stage of their career. The group ended 2023 announcing their tour as well as releasing one last anthem ‘All My Friends Are Taking Drugs’, the pair told me of their plans to tour and their hope to release an EP before that,” for us, it's just about getting music out as consistently as we can without diluting it, because everything is so instant you've gotta stay in everyone faces all the time… we used to get proper worked up in an album, we work in projects but I think the industries at a point where people just want music, it doesn't matter if you call it an Album or EP (Rhys)”.
I ended with one last question about their dream achievement, and Rhys instantly spat out ”Headline Glasto” while Harvey began listing off a few “I'd like to win a Brit or Grammy, one of those really prestigious awards, an arena tour or stadium tour, anything I'm ready to take it all. But yeah headline Glasto that the ultimate, I think after that we’d probably have to retire, you can’t top that really”