A five-piece band that includes two elementary school teachers, the majority of Eve's Dilemma resides in North Portland. Says Leach, "We live here and we like to support the North Portland community, we played the St. Johns Bridge Festival and we've done a fund raiser for Sun School at the school where I teach, James John Elementary."
Leach played under the name Eve's Dilemma back in college in the Midwest. When he moved to the Northwest he formed a new band with the same moniker consisting of a few friends. The quartet played in that incarnation for three years before morphing into the eclectic five-piece that it is today. "The genesis of what we do now was when we brought on Heather Torain (violin, vocals), from that she knew Cooper Harless (keyboards, auxiliary percussion, glockenspiel and backing vocals) and then we enlisted my friend Tom Finch (bass), whom I met at PSU. That's really when Eve's Dilemma started," explains Leach.
Leach credits the metamorphosis of their sound on the strength of the friendships within the band. "In the beginning of the band- I was just slap happy to be in a band and then you move past that and you have to decide- what is it that we really want this to be," says Leach, "The music is just a vehicle but the relationships we have with one another are what is most important. What we are now...it isn't what I envisioned but it's like taking that idea and making it better."
Where they landed is somewhere between folk, country and rock and roll. With even Leach having a hard time categorizing their sound, "We're folk, Indy, alternative, rock or something like that. We're folk because of the stories- we're not really country because we have hope- we're not just wallowing in our sorrow, rock of course- heart on your sleeve, raw emotion and Indy because we're not with a label, we're doing this on our own," says Leach.
Because of the biblical connotations of the band's name, Eve's Dilemma has sometimes been mistaken for a Christian band. "Really, the name Eve's Dilemma is more of a metaphor, it's the point of decision...do I do this because I know it's right or do I do this because I want to do it? I think that's a universal thing that everyone experiences," notes Leach.
The majority of the band's songs center on disintegrating relationships, with Leach writing the bulk of the words and music. " I started writing music in college, when I was going through my really messed up girlfriend years...There is something great about being completely messed up but still being hopeful...We're in a messed up world but it's about still having hope that things can get better. That's what Eve's Dilemma is all about," says Leach.
The band entered the recording studio in June and began recording their first EP, Chasing the Loneliness, which was released in early October. Eve's Dilemma will be playing the Anti-Valentine's Day Show at Alberta Street Pub on February 14 at 9pm along with Angie Foster.
