The Eddie 9V Story

Eddie 9V is a rising star in the modern blues rock scene. Blues Rock Review caught up with Eddie while touring his new album, Capricorn.

“It felt like a dream,” said Eddie 9V who at just 26 years of age, earned his first #1 Billboard blues album with Capricorn.

“And I got the call and the emails. They all popped up and I didn’t believe it,” added Eddie. “To come out and debut #1, I’m super proud.”

While Eddie’s success may seem fast, he’s already been touring for over a decade.

“I went on my first tour when I was 15 years old up in New York City. And so it looks like on paper it’s been quick, but it has been a very long, long process. That’s why we enjoy it more when we get these successes.”

Eddie’s peers weren’t listening to the blues growing up, so what drew him to the genre?

“Blues is the first music that I heard it right away, and I just felt immediately, just completely like the most, different thing I’ve ever heard in my life. And that was Howlin’ Wolf at Newport.”

But Eddie’s sound is more than just blues.

“We’re from the South, so we’re going to have Southern influences, whether it’s Allman Brothers, Ray Charles and James Brown, stuff like that. So we pull ideas from older music, but it’s definitely a new fresh sound, too,” says Eddie.

One thing you’ll notice with the band is the matching jackets on stage.

“We used to look like a bunch of hippies and we didn’t really know what our style was and and our manager said, hey, you know, put on the suits, everyone wear matching suits. And we were like, this is gonna suck, especially when we play Florida, but we do our best with it. And yeah, we want to look sharp everywhere we go, so that’s where the suits came in.”

So where did the name Eddie 9V come from?

“Honestly, the real answer is that we were on the road a lot with another band,” said Eddie. “It’s kind of the same band really. And we came up with nicknames and mobster accents. Being from the South, you know, we’re not really mobsters, but they came up with Eddie for me and they said I would get a temper and they’d call me like a battery. He’s fizzing out. And so Eddie 9V and nine volt are in a lot of pedals and stuff. So we just said Eddie 9V and it fit a lot better than Brooks Mason Blues Band.”

Joining Eddie in the band is his brother and producer, Layne.

“It’s the best and the worst thing,” says Eddie. “I’ll start with the best. A: it’s someone you can trust, we’ve been in every band together. We’ve done everything together. Yeah, we bicker, we butt heads a little bit, but at the end of the day, we have a home studio and that’s where we recorded all of our albums realistically and half of this new album and just having him being able to go over to his house and, and spend ten, 15 hours on a project instead of having to worry about shoving all that money out it’s been been such a huge help. And he’s just as much as me as a big part of making the record sound the way they do.”

On what fans can expect at a live show, Eddie says, “We just have a blast. And that’s the number one thing that people always notice is like, wow, you guys have so much fun.”