The Waterside

The reason we do it, the reason we started it, was to escape the constrictions of the every day and to have adventures, so it was this little train that you could get on or get off, and people have got on, and then they’ve got off, and then they get on again, so we’ve had heaps of people through the band, but that’s cool, it’s always been that way.

– The Eastern co-founder Adam McGrath on the inspiration behind the band, AudioCulture, 8 November 2019

I remember coming offstage and Marlon was backstage and he was just crying cause of all the shit he’d been through and I gave him a hug and I said look man we’re just gonna sing man. It made us stronger to be together.

– The Eastern's Adam McGrath on connecting with fellow Lyttleton musician Marlon Williams after the 2011 Christchurch quake, AudioCulture, 8 November 2019

We tried to to punch above our weight, to not be afraid of cracking open our hearts, to be a dispatch from our corner of the world, to marshall our meagre resources creatively and industriously and prove we could make something in Christchurch for and with little, that could hold its ground against bigger, smarter, flashier records.

– The Eastern co-founder Adam McGrath on 2012 album Hope and Wire, Elsewhere website, 12 March 2012

Their history is tied inextricably to the port town [of Lyttleton], but also to Christchurch and the earthquakes that shook and reshaped the city. They are more than a band, they are a collective, a family, a union — but they can sometimes be as small as a duo.

– Writer James Dann on The Eastern, AudioCulture, 8 November 2018