There’s a bit of advice that Neil Young reportedly passed on to his opening band, Everest, a few months back: “Do what you want and persevere, and hopefully you’ll make a living.”

Russell Pollard, the L.A. band’s frontman, values the sentiment, but after two decades as a working musician, he also didn’t need the reminder. Pollard, like his bandmates, has slogged it out since 1990 in the L.A. music scene. He’s drummed for Sebadoh and the Folk Implosion, and he’s played and produced for the Watson Twins (he happens to be married to the folk duo’s Chandra Watson).

Since his latest project, Everest, released their debut LP, Ghost Notes, this past May Pollard’s been hitting unprecedented career highs, including an opening slot for Young – first in Europe over the summer, and throughout North America since October.

“Right now we’re at a peak,” says Pollard over the phone from L.A. – unintentionally referencing his band’s mountain namesake. “And it’s totally amazing and I’m enjoying it thoroughly and learning from it and not taking it for granted because I know in my experience that there will be another valley, where you’re wondering, ‘What the hell am I doing?’”

Fittingly, there would never have been an Everest if Pollard and his bandmates hadn’t found themselves in a “valley” moment of sorts – dissatisfied with the various bands they were working with and looking for a new direction. “There were moments of frustration for sure,” says Pollard of the time leading up to the last months of 2006 when Everest came together.

But what was he dissatisfied with exactly? “That’s a good question,” he says before pausing to reflect. “I think it was – you know, I’ve always wanted to be in a band where it’s friends first and just one facet of what you do is you go play shows, and write songs and make records. I’ve always wanted to be in a band where you hang out with each other’s families, we cook for each other, we look after each other, we’re like a gang. And then, when it’s time to go on tour, that’s just one thing that we do together. And I’d never really been in a band that’s like that. There’s some magic in Everest, and that’s what we’ve achieved with this band.”

Pollard had friends in J. Soda (guitar), Rob Douglas (bass), Joel Graves (guitar, keys) and Davey Latter (drums) – all fellow musicians he’d either gigged with around Los Angeles, or met while touring with other bands. As luck would have it, all five found themselves restless at the same time. One rehearsal was all Pollard needed to know he’d found something special. Their first jam, he says, was “transcendent.”

“It took us out of our heads and out of our daily lives and it made us all really happy,” he recalls. “And we decided then and there, let’s make a record, let’s try to do this. And after that, things just started falling into place.”

Their record, Ghost Notes, is an album steeped in the golden, country-rock tradition of the 1970s. Still, the band mines their best influences to infuse the 11 tracks with a variety of styles. At times, the record – and even Pollard’s voice – recalls Elliot Smith (“Black Covers”). (The album was recorded, incidentally, at the late singer-songwriter’s New Monkey studio in the San Fernando Valley). Other tracks take on a hint of ‘60s British Invasion (“Reloader,” “Into Your Soft Heart”).

Lyrically, the album dwells on themes of death and loss, and as Pollard previously described it, he sees his songs as a “series of letters to people who have passed away or who have moved away or who I’ve lost contact with for whatever reason.”

“It was a heavy time when I was writing those songs,” says Pollard, “and for me it was just a way to let go of some of that worry and emotion that’s conjured up by your experience of loving people which is hard – especially when they’re gone. Some of it was immediate relationships in my life,” says Pollard, who references the loss of all four grandparents within a year. “And some of it was metaphorical – you know, me seeing what other friends of mine were going through and writing about how that would feel if it were me.”

In November 2007, the band shopped some of their demos to Elliot Roberts – Neil Young’s manager and co-owner of Young’s Vapor Records (whose roster includes Tegan and Sara, Jonathan Richman). Everest was signed by January ’08, and when Young chanced to catch the band playing a show at the Sundance festival, he was so impressed he personally invited the band to join him for a few dates in Europe.

Any “moments of frustration” Pollard was suffering in his career seem to have been exorcised. And while each set Everest plays – to the tens of thousands of people who’ve been flocking to Young’s North American stadium dates – has Pollard revisiting songs that came out of loss and frustration, he doesn’t foresee falling into another valley any time soon. Thrilled with the crowds and with his bandmates, his view from the top is all about good-times and friendship.

“It’s like a celebration,” he says of the current tour. “Everybody hangs together and takes these big steps together and tries to crack each other up and tries to focus on the positive. It’s a really cool thing.”  

Everest’s Canadian Tour Dates:

Dec. 1, Montreal

Dec. 2, Ottawa

Dec. 4, Toronto

Dec. 5, Toronto

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