press > time off 11 /01/2006

THE TONIGHTS ‘Six-Pack’ Article

Inter-band relationships have killed many acts over the years, but in local act The Tonights, the marriage between vocalist Eva Fritz and drummer Christian Sargeant does wonders for the band’s creativity.
As Fritz reveals, it was her relationship with Sargeant that inspired current single ‘Tiptoes’. “I  could get myself in trouble here,” Eva giggles. “The lyrics of this song were inspired by a crappy wifey day I was having. I think I was just responding to that female sentiment [of] ‘I’ve got to do everything around here, be Mrs Universe at everything and be loving and domestic’, and that paranoid feeling of conditional acceptance.”

Luckily, Sargeant can laugh about the situation.

“While drummers are the best lovers, I guess there has to be a compromise!” he jokes. “I’m not the perfect husband, but if it inspires this kind of primal riff-pop action in my wife, I think I can lie with my inadequacies!”
‘Tiptoes’ kicks off The Tonights’ ambitious self-titled debut album. Rounded out by Eva’s brother Henry on guitar and occasional bass, the band have crafted lush arrangements around Eva’s piano-based tunes.
Sargeant, who’s drummed on both Pete Murray albums, took on much of the production duties and was happy to help realise the entire band’s vision.

“We’ve listened to a lot of amazing music,” Eva says, “and I think we all agreed that we weren’t going to release something we were going to cringe at in another two years. Christian has the most recording and production experience so he pushed us to our limits. It was about as stressful as renovating.”
“The starting point,” Sargeant explains, “was definitely the songs Eva had written on the piano. Luckily I found Eva’s piano songs fairly suggestive from a production point of view, so it was a fairly streamline transition from having the ideas in our heads to reaching a feeling of satisfaction with the recordings.”

Nick Coppak
[TIME OFF Magazine, Brisbane, Australia 11-01-2006]