Eesti Laul 2018 is underway, and after a fascinating first semi final last weekend where 5 acts progressed to the final on March 3rd, we have the 2nd semi final coming up this Saturday

A further 10 acts will be performing to get those last 5 places and an opportunity to perform at the Saku Suurhall, which was the venue of the Eurovision Song Contest 2002.

One of this weekends performers is the Industrial Rock act, Evestus with their song “Welcome To My World”

We were lucky enough to chat with Ott Evestus about his background, his song and his thoughts on Eesti Laul and Eurovision as a whole!

Hi Evestus, and welcome to Eesti Laul! Tell us a bit about yourself, and your band

Hello! It’s an absolute honour to be chosen for this competition. I am Ott Evestus – you can call me Evestus – and me and my band, we’re representing the new alternative at Eesti Laul 2018. The old alternative has become like a discounted t-shirt at H&M, if you know what I mean, so it’s clearly time for a new one haha!

Your music has been described as “Symphonic Orchestra scoring a fight between Marilyn Manson and The Prodigy”. I’m a bit of a novice when it comes to Industrial Rock, what do I need to know?

Well now, as an avid fan of industrial music I could go on for hours about the history, labels, genres, statements and copious amounts of drug abuse that makes Mötley Crüe look like a bunch of sharpie-sniffers.. but to me personally, it’s a language which helps me describe the world the way I see it. The moment I heard “Mr. Selfdestruct” (Nine Inch Nails) – I knew this was going to be the soundtrack to the rest of my life.

Evestus has been going since 2008 and you’ve had a huge amount of success and some high profile live appearances. How have you ended up in Eesti Laul in 2018?

I have always been keeping an eye on it – it’s like a small town thing you know – you always check out your neighbour – what are they doing, how they do it, how they SHOULD be doing it, how YOU would do it so much better haha! It’s funny, but it’s true isn’t it! Well, so I’ve been also critisizing the HELL out of everyone at the competition for years now – it’s easy to do it from the couch, but deep inside I always wanted to go there and show them all how it’s done! Well, speak of the devil, here I am now, walking the plank myself haha! It was just a coincidence – I had the right song at the right moment and I knew I’d hate myself later if I didn’t submit it!

Looking at the lyrics to “Welcome To My World” they’re a real social commentary about everything that’s wrong on our planet. How did the song come about?

The main kick was the North-Korea vs USA missile/twitter drama that happened around August I think? That’s where I went like, “Welcome to my world, come take a look before we blow it up again” because it felt like now is the last chance to take a quick tour around the planet. And that’s it really – look at the leaders of our world right now – are these really the people we want representing us in the universe? Are they really the best humanity has to offer? Are WE the best we can be? I think there’s never a bad time to think about that for a bit. You know, wolves destroy their pack leader if he becomes too aggressive – because that’s not healthy for the pack. An aggressive leader is reckless and emotional. Apes on the contrary choose the most aggressive member to follow. We humans apparently do not originate from wolves, but perhaps there’s something we can learn from them.

Your music videos are incredibly theatrical and have a real energy about them, what are the plans for the live performance on the Eesti Laul stage?

Thank You! I am very proud of our music videos – our visual side is very important to me and I have a great dark artist Grete “Stitch” Laus to thank for all of that! I cannot reveal the plans for our show, but it’s something that has never been done at Eesti Laul or Eurovision before. ! I did have to put up with some restrictions – the organisers of the competition don’t want me to use nudity or real blood on stage and they’d rather I don’t set anything on fire.. but the song IS only two minutes – how much damage could I really do?

Is Eurovision something that you follow? Do you have a stand out memory (either an Estonian one or the contest in general)?

Yes, absolutely! As an artist it is of course very important and a huge inspiration to see different shows and performances – I never look ahead so I see and hear all the acts for the first time at the semifinal and that’s so exciting because you never know what’s coming next! And even though I’m not a follower of pop music, every year there is at least one song that I really like. Last year it was “Skeletons”.

What do you like to do when you’re not performing?

I like to get away from people, from society. I have a small house at the seaside in Estonia where I go to for weeks sometimes and I just completely shut myself off. Some people insist that I only go there to do drugs – that’s a lie!

What are your plans following Eesti Laul and beyond?

I have no idea what Eesti Laul will bring and how it goes – Evestus is a misfit there so it can absolutely go 100% one way or the other. But I’m focused on finishing my album and booking tours for the second half of the year – I have an album full of the best songs I’ve ever written and I can’t wait to release them and play them! I’m really excited about how this year will work out!

Thank you for your time Evestus, very best of luck to you in Semi Final 2 of Eesti Laul 2018!

Watch the video for “Welcome To My World” here

Keep watching escbubble.com for the latest news from Eesti Laul, Joe and Anne will be at the Saku Suurhall on March 3rd for the final, bringing you all the active live!

What do you think about Evestus’ entry “Welcome To My World”?  Vote for your 5 qualifiers in our poll for semi final 2!