Introduction & Background

Tell us a bit about yourself. (Location, artist name, the works!)

My name is Ian Revell and Double Eyelid is my vehicle as a writer and performer. Most of the time I work with other musicians but it's always been more of an augmented solo project than a band. The project was formed in Toronto but I relocated a couple of hours away to my hometown of Belleville, Ontario after the first album was released - I still describe us as a 'Toronto band' though just to keep things simpler for our non-Canadian fans, plus Toronto's still where my heart is to a great degree.

What's your musical origin story? (when did you start? What inspired you?)

I learned piano as a young child but became more passionate about music and songwriting after taking up the guitar. I played electric bass in high school and was basically recruited from there to do a music degree at Queen's, which is where I met Double Eyelid's original guitarist and producer Karl Mohr and my frequent pianist Benjamin Mueller-Heaslip. As a teenager I was into both what we now call 'classic rock' and goth/postpunk. Discovering David Bowie in my early 20s was pretty pivotal. My interest was mostly in being a support player until, after playing in a number of bands that didn't go anywhere, I thought that maybe my own songs deserved a chance.

What were the driving forces or pivotal moments that inspired you to pursue music?

There were many, but a few that stand out are hearing Queen's 'Greatest Hits' album as a child, going to see The Cult for the first time with my father, and hearing the internationally renowned Ukrainian concert pianist Ireneus Zuk playing our piano (my grandfather - an interesting figure on his own - had helped him book a tour, so Zuk was nice enough to visit us).

Musical Identity

How would you describe your style of music?

Genre categories are difficult and can be quite limiting. It's goth/darkwave with a flair for the dramatic; someone called us 'cabaret goth' in a recent review, I guess I'm OK with that.

But the really honest answer is that it's a multi-genre project. We had an underground hit with our first single 'Dead is Better' in 2012 and people thought we'd be the next saviours of gothic guitar rock; when the album came out and it started with massive 808 kicks, fretless bass and jazz piano I think we dashed that hope pretty effectively. I just go to whatever sound I want to use to express my ideas. But it always comes out sounding kind of 'dark' due to the sound of my voice and the subject matter I gravitate towards.

How is your personality reflected in your work?

This sort of picks up on the last question, but one of the great things about this being a solo project is that I don't have to have debates with anyone about what Double Eyelid is - if I have an idea I want to express I just do it. Double Eyelid is my personality and my vision, and my only concern is expressing that effectively. I think that probably makes it hard to be a fan though - my whole career has essentially been me running away from having a 'thing.' Example: I didn't release anything for a year and a half and then came back with a 21-minute adaptation of 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Poe - I KNOW that isn't what anyone was expecting or hoping for, but some people dug it.

Describe your creative process when you write new music.

Songs come to me as fragments, usually music and lyrics at the same time. I don't rush production, at all, because I have a lot of ideas and like to give them a great deal of thought before recording. I play piano to work things out, I also have a simple home studio. I like to use Maschine when I am building instrumentals and that's usually where I start, but once I'm ready to record audio I take it into Logic and work there.

Current Work

What is the name of your latest release?

I released a single titled 'No Control' which is a David Bowie cover - but it's not one of his hits, it's one from his 90s period when he was experimenting with industrial music and jazz a bit.

What was the inspiration for that release?

It had been 10 years since Bowie's passing in January and so honouring him as an important influence was probably overdue. I picked that one because I thought it had aged particularly well as a song but not as a recording - tonally, what the bass was doing in his original reminded me a lot of what is happening in darkwave music today, but I find his original recording to be a bit static and flat-sounding, it's not very dynamic. So I thought it was kind of a 'hidden gem' in his catalogue that I could polish up a bit and bring into 2026 darkwave, and people have seemed to appreciate it.

What challenges or unexpected moments did you encounter during the writing/recording process?

To be honest - there were no huge challenges. This was probably the easiest recording I've ever made. I had essentially been in a studio mode for about 7 months by the time I did this, though, so I was on top of my game.

One thing that was unexpected - I didn't realize until I was finished just how far my performance had strayed from Bowie's original. I had very strong memories of his performance, but memory's a funny thing, and I'd intentionally avoided listening to his original while I was working on this version. In my mind, I was doing a very faithful cover of his original, but if you listen to them in succession the emotional quality of mine is quite different.

Promotion & Engagement

What strategies do you find most effective for promoting your music?

I don't think I'm particularly effective at promoting my music. I've been lucky a few times to be able to collaborate with incredible directors to make our music videos, and those have been great for us. When I can afford it, I hire PR support. Having someone else do the promotion is an effective strategy!

How do you engage with your fans online and offline?

I have a mailing list and use Instagram and Facebook. At the level this project is at, the line between 'fan' and 'friend' is a pretty thin one. I hugely appreciate our fans. Planning to start a Patreon or something like it later this year.

What upcoming promotional activities or releases are you most excited about?

Right now I'm in the studio for the foreseeable future. The next release will be an EP that is planned for fall 2026.

How can folks contact you (socials/email/websites etc.)

doubleeyelidmusic.com is my website and has a contact page; I also have FB and IG profiles - @doubleeyelid on IG and facebook.com/doubleeyelid - and I'm pretty responsive on those.

Additional Insights

Is there anything else of interest that we should have asked about?

People ask about the origin of the name sometimes - it goes back to when I lived in Seoul, Korea and worked as an English teacher. 'Double Eyelid' is a term that Asians coined to describe having a crease in your eyelid - for Asians it's less usual than it is for Europeans because there is a bit less skin there, I guess. When I lived in Korea it was pretty common for people to get a cosmetic surgery that would make that crease.

I like the name but it creates a bit of a 'google problem' for us in that most of the results when you search for Double Eyelid will be about plastic surgery - so if people are looking us up, maybe search for 'Double Eyelid music' or 'Double Eyelid goth band'...