Sharp Tongue: The Beast Eagle Screeches!

For those not in the know, Midwest heavy rockers Austin L’Ecuyer, August Sievering, Nick Olmsted, and Kate Prokop are behind the up-and-coming band, Beast Eagle.

With a thunderous blend of gritty and riffy guitar lines, a beefy and driving rhythm section, and soaring vocals to top it off, this band’s groove is most assuredly intoxicating.

During the pandemic when live music was at a standstill, it was 2020 when Omaha natives made the decision to join, write, and help keep the vibrant music scene alive.

Being discovered and signed to Iron Head Records (Golden Robot Records) in 2022, and a self-titled EP having been released in 2023, Beast Eagle now bring forth their brand new EP entitled Sorceress (out November 21st, 2025, once again via Golden Robot Records).

I recently spoke with Austin L’Ecuyer about their upcoming new EP, what went into making it, what the meaning of some of the songs were, and, oh yeah, penguins!

Being that this new EP was created by a quartet out of Nebraska, one that brings forth power female vocals amongst the melodically loud riffs, before we explore it can you please explain how long it took beforehand to bring everything together for it? “The band began during the pandemic. Myself (Austin) and August were living together for many years playing music together. We had our friend Aidan join us to play bass and we just did an instrumental band for the first couple of years. We then brought on Kate as our vocalist and had a few bassist changes until we brought Toby along which had been Kate’s bassist that she had worked with for many years.”

What were some of the biggest obstacles along the way to bringing this EP to fruition and how did you overcome them “Being that this was a concept album it had its own challenges. Writing songs that were giving the correct feel for each chapter of the story was complicated. We wrote closer to 8 songs and ended up choosing 5 out of the 8 to fit the narrative. Also doing the research for the lyrics for the storyline definitely took time so that we were period correct about the storyline definitely we were telling.”

As for the EP, Sorceress, I understand that it is being touted as one featuring mesmerizing groove riffs, with fiercely enchanting vocals, along with guitar-driven arrangements, so can you please explain just what that means to you within the context of how it came together, both thematically and musically. “Well when we write it usually starts with my guitar parts. We then start to find grooves with drum and bass and finally add vocals once we like the arrangement of the song. We always try to keep heavy grooves in mind when writing our music. With each song being a chapter we really wanted to think about how to keep a good dynamic with the music with what would be going on in the storyline.”

With everything you do inclusive of thunderous echoes of the Midwest, with that in mind, how does the music you create and perform meld itself into the Midwest ambiance, and how is it then different to the music of the same genre created outside of the Midwest? “I don’t really think there is an influence just being here in the Midwest. We’re all from a few different areas and the Midwest seems to have a stronger pull for more Indie oriented bands than our genre.”

A lot of words have already been used to describe your music, but how would you yourself sum up your sound on this EP ... and in just five (5) words? “Rifftastic rock with soaring vocals.”

Please tell us (in a couple of sentences or less) a little more about what these tracks noted below mean to you and how they came to be:

Sharp Tongue - “Sharp Tongue is about the witch gaining her powers, and feeling confused and scared of the uncertainty.”

Send Me Down - “Send Me Down is the point in the story where the witch is finally feeling comfortable and empowered by her new reality and surroundings.”

The Demonstration - “The Demonstration is the end of the story. The witch has been captured, and the town has surrounded to watch her burn.”

And was Sorceress always going to be the EPs name or was there another that nearly won the race come the time to take your hands off the project? “I think Sorceress was the title we felt would work the best. We wanted a simple title and something that would catch your ear right away.”

Being that we’re not called Exclusive Magazine for nothing, is there a hidden message, a secret notation or an easter egg to be found amongst all the tracks assembled for Sorceress? “No, sadly we did not hide an Easter egg within the album but we will keep that in mind for the next one.”

And just where did the band’s name originate and what were some of the others that were in the running?: “I came up with BEAST EAGLE in a random conversation with the members of August and I’s old band. We were talking about floating down the river and seeing bald eagles and somehow I had brought up a story about a really big eagle that I had seen and said it was a beast eagle. We had decided on this as a band name a few years before we actually started this project.”

What are some of the last albums (CD, vinyl, cassette, et al) you physically purchased (vintage and/or new releases) and which one have you already gone back to listen to more and why? “A couple of us have a pretty solid vinyl collection so usually if we’re purchasing music it’s through vinyl. The last few albums I’ve bought were Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol and Baroness. I’ve gone back to listen to both of them multiple times. They both have very interesting grooves to certain songs and great riffs rolling throughout each song so it’s nice to help find more influence for writing new material.”

The video for Send Me Down is very well filmed (I love the red, fiery backdrop to the dark night aspects), so who came up with the idea and what can you tell us about the behind-the-scenes set up of it and how the filming went? “We worked with our friend Aaron Gum for the music video. We had discussed wanting to do a part of the storyline all outdoors and have a witch be burnt at the end. We used our drummers place to shoot the video since he has a few acres of wooded area and a small ravine which worked great with the fog machine. We brought out lots of lights and ran the song a multitude of times to get all the shots we could. We had lots of our friends come help be in the video and it was a great night all around.”

Beast Eagle - Send Me Down (Official Music Video)

And as we come to the end here, with regard your upcoming new EP Sorceress, what would you like all the readers of this interview to know about it and what to expect? “The new EP is a tightly knit concept album that we really want you to concentrate on the lyrics to get the entire story. The feels of the songs reflect the storyline of each chapter. Crank it up loud and bang your head.”

We here at Exclusive Magazine love Penguins and so we were wondering if you had any love for them and/or had a story of one (soft toy, zoo, chocolate bar, relative, etc.) that you could share with us? “The flightless tuxedo bird is always a cool animal in our book. Not sure we have any stories about penguins, but I’d love to kick it with a few of them for a day.”

And finally, we asked both Austin and the band to kindly take a never-before-seen selfies of themselves. One that perfectly personified their readiness for the world to hear their new musical endeavor. And kindly, this is what they sent back!