Evan Sky-EP7

All things Evan at  https://www.evanskymusic.com/ !

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to the Sound of Podcast. It's me, your host, Steven. If you're a fan of songwriting, if you're a fan of music, if you're a fan of local, if you're a fan of local music, if you're a fan of songwriting, local music, then this is the show for you. We're talking to Maryland singer-songwriters, and on the show we have Evans Guy. It's the Sound of Podcast. Hey! It's the Sound of Podcast! Thank you. Wow. I'm really glad that that worked. I'll put it over here. That was a little It was a little nerve-wracking.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

A little nerve-wracking. I was like, ooh.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

I know.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

You only get one shot.

SPEAKER_03 0:52

Sorry to put you on the spot. Well, that for all we know with the audience, we could be like, this is actually the that was the third time. That was the third time.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

It took me a hundred times to do an intro. To do an intro.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

That I asked you to prompt you to be like, hey, by the way, play listen. No. Um that was cool. Hi, Evan. Uh, what's she doing, man? You you playing guitar?

SPEAKER_00 1:16

I do be playing the guitar sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 1:19

Why do you like to play that guitar? Why do you like to twang that twanger?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

Why do I like to twang that twanger? Well, it all started when I was born. Um Yeah. Like why like guitar specifically?

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Or just like uh yeah, let's go with guitar specifically right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Okay. Okay, sure. Um if we want to go guitar specifically, I was like, um, we'll start off a little dark. Okay, um, a lot of my kids were a lot of my kids, a lot of my peers who were kids at the time. I didn't have kids when I was 11. A lot of my peers were were playing the guitar. And around when I was 11 years old, um, my mom died. And uh I was like guitar is a cool instrument, and everyone was also playing this video game that was really cool, and it's called Guitar Hero 3, Legends of Rock.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

That was with Slash, right?

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And I kind of uh in my grieving stages, I kind of shut out the world and I started doing nothing but playing Guitar Hero 3, Legends of Rock, and I got really good at the game. And then I thought what would be better is if I actually learned how to play the guitar. And that's how I started playing the guitar.

SPEAKER_03 2:50

Whoa, you were the or you were one of those success stories.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Right, it doesn't translate. Well, it's like a rhythm game.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Yeah, no, I mean what was frustrating was that I played guitar regular, and then when the game started coming out, they're like, you gotta try it, you'll be good at it. I was not, I was not good at it, and I was not good at the drumming aspect of it either. Well, the thing about it, and listen, no shade to the people at what is it, Rockstar Games, whoever makes it. Activision is Activision. No offense to anybody out there in Activision land, but it seems like it's a very rhythm-based, you gotta hit exactly when they want you to hit. And from a musical perspective, it's like you're not keeping time game, I'm keeping time. Don't tell me to hit at the exact point when you want me to.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

There'd be like lag too on the screen sometimes. You have to like adjust it to get it like just right. But I don't know, I've always You were able to sink in there. Like I I was able to lock in. And I love, and the songs were all just like, I don't know, it was just cool, cool soundtrack.

SPEAKER_03 3:52

Do you remember a cool soundtrack? Do you remember? Yeah, they always had a great select. There were songs on there that I didn't realize existed until I was like, dang, how'd they get, you know, who is this? And it was the particular one, I'm aging myself, I think it was Guitar Hero 1, but it was the Toadies, Possum Kingdom. Um, and then there was another song I forget that I didn't know existed until I had heard it from Guitar Hero. But I'm so glad that that was. Do you remember the first song that you learned to play on um non-I don't want to say actual guitar?

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Yeah, non-review. I mean, this is boring, but the first song, yeah, like Smoke on the Water, probably. But like um, I think the first like song I learned to play all the way through, like that was just like the riff from Smoke on the Water, but the first song I learned all the way through was uh Stairway to Heaven, and we had like the chart for it. That was your first song that I played like all the way through, though.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

Yeah, but talk about like a first song to play all the way. That's a that's a Herculanean Herculanean uh challenge to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

I I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Do you remember what about that first song kind of uh caught your ear?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

That's just the first one I remember. There might have been, I don't know. There might have been other ones. Uh I was really into like the Beatles and like learning like never heard of them.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Who are they?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

I don't know. A lot of they're kind of underground.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Um but like you know, like, I don't know. I was just like obsessed with learning all these different chords, but uh that particular song, I don't know, I liked the the finger picking aspect of it, and I've never really never played with a pick really that much. I do now. I learned way later on how to play with a pick, but I think that one was a good one to like not play with a pick, and that's probably why I liked it.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yeah, I mean that song has got the little thing in it. The little thing. It's an audio podcast. People don't know where you're doing like uh I'm not gonna Yeah, I don't wanna look, I don't I don't wanna I don't wanna to sing a clip of the song and have Oh, we'll get yeah, we'll get fine. I'm sure Robbie Plant and Jimmy Page's lawyers are gonna come to little podcasts.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

They're gonna be listening to the sound of podcasts and be like, that guy really hummed the riff and it wasn't right.

SPEAKER_03 6:31

Fine this guy, throw him in prison. How dare he take all the money from that we could have been from that song. Um I did note that about your style, maybe not at first. I mean, maybe because I think a lot of the times I'm not able to put concisely or categorically when I see people like they're playing a different way than I am normally used to. I mean, I I know my brain says that, but I wasn't able to articulate it. And then when I was looking over your bio, I believe you have jazz infused on your style of guitar playing?

SPEAKER_00 7:06

I think my guitar playing, I mean, we probably gotta go back further than the guitar because guitar was not my first instrument.

SPEAKER_03 7:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Um uh because I think my guitar playing was really kind of more inspired by my piano playing, but uh was that my first instrument? It might have been the clarinet.

SPEAKER_03 7:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

I started from a very young age. Um I think like second or third grade was like school band. You had to pick an instrument. And I was like, I'll do the clarinet, because that's the instrument that my mom did. And uh we had a clarinet, and I started like figuring it out. I was like, oh, this is like this is like cool. Um I like spending time on this, and then took piano lessons, really liked it. Uh but you know, piano is like it's all like classical music stuff, and when you're like an 11-year-old and those extra. I love that stuff now. Now I'm like a nerd about that stuff. You want to talk like Rachmanonov or whatever, like, or Chopin, and I'm I'm all for it. But um, you know, back then I was like, no, I just want to rock. So I so I picked up the guitar, but I didn't really I didn't really know how to rock, so I just played it like a piano.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

I would say that's rocking in a way though. I guess. Well, uh no, that is interesting in that your brain was kind of uh already understood the idea of, I guess, keys and notations in the way that a piano is set up and maybe translating that to guitar. What's interesting to me is that I I started so it was drums first for me and then guitar, and then I kind of later got into piano. And what's more interesting to me is that I like the idea of how a piano is set up more than I do a guitar. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Is that the piano is a way more intuitive instrument? It probably is the best, in my humble opinion, the best like first instrument. Because I think like all the notes are just there in order. There's no like like the key bunch of strings. You gotta like there's like an entry level to just even being able to make a note happen with the piano. All you gotta do is like hit a button. Yeah. And there you go. You made no music. You made a note with the guitar, you gotta like, how do I hold this thing? Like, what am I doing? Like, ah, that sounded weird. Like, you know.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

I always see that in movies too, and you can tell if like a person got instruction on if they didn't play guitar, like the actor. They'll some will get good instructions, some will get no instruction. You can see because sometimes they're not holding the fretboard in a way that would make sense as to why they're playing that note, or even more hilarious is that their hand isn't on the fretboard, it's on like the headstock. If you know what I'm talking about, I look at them like you're not playing the guitar correctly, and like I'm not a virtuoso virtuoso by any means, but I'm like, you're not even in the ballpark of where where that would be in terms of a guitar. No, it it is it's it's a better yeah, I guess that's probably why I was attracted to the piano too, is because yeah, it's like you hit a note, that's the note. Whereas guitar, it's like, well, you gotta move your hand around in this way, and if you want to do a chord, it's this way, and the note, well, you gotta move it in and around this area. It's it's a little daunting at first. Do you remember when you started writing your own songs?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Writing my own songs, ooh. Um I think I started writing my own songs. Not until a bit later. I had been playing the guitar for a few years, and I'd been playing the piano for a while too. And it was probably, I guess I was like maybe 13 or 14. And you know, I would just write like it started off with just like instrumentals. Like I would just write like little like instrumental pieces. Because I didn't really have much of like I didn't really have anything to say at that age. I feel like I was just kind of taking it all in, you know. Um, as many, as many are at at that age. And I don't know, it was uh it started well off with just like instrumentals, um, you know, stuff that probably sounds like the Beatles or like the Rolling Stones, or like some classic rock stuff that I was grew up listening to. I was very like only listened to certain music when I was growing up. Very like classic rock, like 60s, 70s music. Because that was like just the house that I like grew up in.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Your friends did your friends turn you onto different types of music too, or you were a little resistant.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

No, it's not that I wasn't I was resistant, I just wasn't really exposed to it that often. Guitar hero was one of those points where actually I was like, oh wait, there's like modern stuff that's really cool too. And then I went through the whole I didn't even discover like pop punk until I was like late teens, like until I was like in high school in like jazz band. I'm like 17 years old.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

And I'm like talking with, you know, my friend uh who was the bass player in the uh in that shout out Logan. Um and he was like, Yeah, like there's l you should listen to like this pop punk stuff, like it's pretty cool. And I kind of got into like pop punk and emo music through that, and that was kind of uh a little bit more of where I was like, oh, okay, like you can write about like your feelings and stuff. That's kind of what it started off with, I guess with writing my own songs. I'm trying to think. Uh I wrote my first song that I sang was called Stuck Inside Stuck Inside My Dreams, maybe. It was uh it was a song that I wrote for my mom. Uh and I wrote that when I was like that's the first song I sang, and I was very shy about singing too. So that's why I didn't write songs for a while, because when you can't sing, um, I don't know, I feel like that's a big part of like songs where yeah, you can write an instrumental and it might sound cool, but like you know, the say the singing is really what you connect to with a song most for most people. And I didn't really I didn't think I could sing well, and I really I until I listened to Elliot Smith, who's like just like got the whispery vocals, and he's like, you know, he's just very like I was like, oh, I could do that, like and then it kind of gradually I got into singing more, and that was the first song I sang.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

And a lot of my early songs had a little bit more of a whispery falsetto, but uh yeah, that's the first song that I really it's it's interesting when you get exposed to other music and then you realize that there is yes, there is indeed all different types of music. When you used to go to the the record stores or the brick and mortar places and they had all the different genres and stuff, you could pick out whatever and you could um listen to you could listen to a beautiful soprano singing in Aria, and then you can go down the line and you can hear some cannibal corpse and these exist, these can exist in that same world, and it's always interesting to me of the definition of somebody's you know version of like someone having a quote unquote good voice, and this debate can go on forever. Yeah, um, and and to s everybody's specification of whoever's voice. And I remember watching like a masterclass with Christina Aguilera, and she's of course a you know trained professional vocalist. Sure. Um and you know, she is a student of that, and there was this whole you know section of her talking about the right way to sing the national anthem. But again, she's coming at it from that perspective of your voice is this But is there a right way? Apparently so. I mean, in according with that, well, in terms of note and pitch, yes, but then also you look at it too, this is a bad example. But I was also watching some clip of Roseanne Barr singing the national anthem, and nobody stopped her. She sang it. But I mean, again, it's all about the interpretation, the subjectivity, and you know, again, somebody's you know, Celine Dion voice is going to be or the way that somebody views Celine Dion's voice is gonna be different than the ways that somebody views uh uh you know a a death metal singer, uh the original arch enemy singer or something like that. Um when you were starting to write your own songs, were you also uh stipping stepping into the the pool uh with with jamming with people?

SPEAKER_00 16:39

So I had an interesting experience with that because I was very like I didn't really grow up in a uh in an environment. I did I did go to open mics from a young age when I was you know throughout high school, even when I was writing those little instrumental songs, but I wouldn't really sing at them until much later on, around senior year of high school, is when I finally started singing. Um but I didn't really uh I didn't really jam with people until a little bit after high school. Um because like I don't know, I I I lived in an environment where I wasn't really like encouraged to go out with my friends and just kind of like hang out. Um I don't know, I don't know if I want to like delve too much into the details of you know my early adolescence and all of what ensued, but I guess I guess we we could we could do the short version. Um I you know when I was when I was done with uh my first year of college, I went to community college for uh for music. Um and I was still hanging out with some people that I knew from high school that played music and stuff, and I really wanted to get out and kind of like jam more with people, but uh I never really fit into a specific like scene of like jamming with people, and I don't know if that was just because all throughout high school I was very like introverted, like I didn't really I don't know, I didn't really make a lot, I didn't really go out a lot, you know. Um but I really started to break out of my shell in um in high school because like or at in senior year of high school because I was on like I don't know, I was this is just my personal experience. I was on ADHD meds for most of early high school. And once I got off, I was I was like this m I don't feel anything. Like I'm this is great for homework and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

But you mean it was an emotionally it was emotionally numbing?

SPEAKER_00 19:04

Yes, very much so. Like that's probably honestly why it took me so long to find my own voice, because I was just wasn't I wasn't really I don't know, I wasn't really experiencing things in a way that was normal to like human emotions and stuff. So once I kind of was realized that and I was like, oh like I don't think I really want this, then um I kind of started going out and seeking out that that voice more.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Um and that was a whole new adventure, right? I mean, or was that scary?

SPEAKER_00 19:37

No, that was a that was that was a great thing. It was a great thing. I realize I wish that happened sooner. Um But yeah, and then I started playing in some like I'm trying to think, the first band that I was in. Well, there were a couple like little bands in high school where yeah, I would jam with some people that I knew. Like it all came from like the people that I knew in high school, really. I played in the Pit band in um and you know, people that I met in like school band and like jazz band. Um, and then we played in some like like underground DIY shows on an island. Those are the best. That was some of my favorite mem my favorite memories. Um so yeah, uh so we're we're going through the chronology. So finished high school, now we're going now we're going to college, went to community college to do music as well. Um, I knew I wanted to do music, definitely. Um thinking about becoming a music teacher at this point, not entirely sure, but mostly set on being a music teacher. Actually, I was very set on being a music teacher at that point. Um but yeah, I was just hanging out with friends and trying to play music whenever I could. I had very like controlling parents growing up. And um, you know, things were kind of things were got kind of weird with them. Um and I I was just like I gotta go. This isn't I can't do my thing. I can't make new friends in this environment. Um and it just got to a point where after the first year of college, I was like, I'm moving out, like I've had enough of this, like I can't take it. And I I moved out for the summer. It was actually I was supposed to play a a show uh in someone's basement and it was gonna be really fun. And um I don't know, they had been trying to like control me and keep me grounded for months at a time. Your parents. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and I was like I was like, no, like I gotta go I gotta go do my thing. And I moved out. To play that show. And that was probably one of the best decisions I ever made. Um because, you know, I really you know, I I mean, I mean a I made a lot of great friends that summer, but I also like found within me the desire to like like this is my voice, like I want to share these songs with people. It was right after I had written my first EP of music, which that that song that I talked about was on. It was called Big Boy Hours. You can still find it on the band camp, I think.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Um I don't think I've heard you play that one.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

I haven't played a lot of Big Boy Hours. It's like we're getting serious now. It's yeah it's big boy hours.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

Um, but there there is something to be said for that, and in that if you're coming from a place or a home where they are not understanding your passions and joys and being restrictive in that way, so I understand why you would need to break away from that.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Yeah. And I mean, you know, they did support me. They put a roof over my head, and you know, I lived in a nice area, and they helped me out with my music lessons and stuff growing up, but it was time. Uh, it was very apparently time, uh, in my mind, and you know, um, so I you know, I went out and I did my thing. And at the end of the summer, I think it was the fall, and like I ran out of couches to crash on, so I had to go back. Oh man, of course. Um But it was fun, did a couple EPs that summer, played a whole bunch of shows and people just like house parties.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Wait, I like how you just rambled off. Yeah, did a couple like you just released multiple EPs over the summer?

SPEAKER_00 23:52

There were two EPs that summer. Okay. It was the second one was called Hags, which is still up. Which is still up. I still play stuff from that. Uh have a great summer, you know. Um but yeah, so and all of this, okay. The way that I started recording music, the chronology of this all sounds so crazy, by the way.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Um we'll we'll put uh we'll put an extended map up.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah, we'll put up a lore map to dissect what I'm talking about. The time mode. So I started recording on my phone, on garage band on my phone, and just with the phone mic. And that was kind of like my introduction to just recording. And I was like, I was kind of like impressed, I was like, oh, you know, this this actually sounds pretty good. Like, you know. You know, because I mean, hey, you know, the mic might not be the greatest in the world, but if you're playing, if you're playing the instruments right and you're singing the right notes, it still does what it's supposed to do. And I, you know, I got into that. I had this little like toy piano that I would like play on. Uh, and that was a really cool thing. That was just for uh, you know, for one of them, uh for one of the EPs, but that was how I really got into recording. I was like, oh, this is cool too. Like I should, I should like get into recording more of my stuff. And uh yeah, that was kind of when I decided I want to just like this has got to be a part of my life where I just record the songs that I write and you know put them out there for everyone to hear.

SPEAKER_03 25:28

I think that stops a lot of people though. I mean, I know I I've talked with people and and there's other songwriters that I've written, and they can't they can't get over the hurdle or um maybe it's not a can't thing. I mean, I I understand because it's scary. It's a big leap because yeah, everything will be forever in how you record it. And at the same time, how how do you want it to be remembered, or do you want to keep it as as it is of you're just playing these in a live setting? And there's nothing wrong with that either. But um I think now it's it's more it I guess it depends on what you want out of your songs and your music. And for me, it was always too like this has to be um committed in some way. This there has to be a way that people are able to listen to this, that there is a recorded proof that this existed at some point in time. Um But I understand um why people would be nervous about that because it is, you know, for however long existence is existence. That recording will be there forever. And I understand all the perfectionism that can come in with that too.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

It's like uh it's like another form of of radical acceptance where it's just you have to like at some point that's just gonna be what it is. Yeah. And that's honestly, I think the hardest part, probably for everyone, is not like it's not like adjusting the little knobs and getting the right sound or sort of sifting through like, you know, you could spend hours sifting through what's the right snare sound, I gotta get it all perfect, but a lot of the times it's just excuses that people are making for themselves in their head to not uh because that's a scary thing.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:21

Because some people have this idea of like, oh, what do I want my my image to be? What do I want my legacy to be? And I mean that's where I think I think that's like the big that's the big thing. Especially when you're especially if you're trying to like uh if you're trying to monetize it, then yeah. But I've always been I've always kind of just been like, I'm just gonna do this stuff and it's gonna be fun and we'll, you know, we'll we'll see where it goes from there. And it's almost like, I guess, and I don't know, I guess it's been doing something because I'm still playing shows, I'm still writing music, and you know, I'm still able to do it. So I don't know. It's it's uh that's gotta count for something.

SPEAKER_03 28:05

Did you find that as you started recording more and more that the process got easier in terms of the nuts and bolts of it, or has it become more difficult or most definitely yes and no, actually.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Um because I didn't really record anything on a laptop until much later. Um I was I recorded everything on my phone. Um, and then like I recorded those two EPs, and then I said, I'm gonna do an album, and I was still doing it the same way, like on my phone, and eventually I just hit this wall where I was just like I don't have the technology. Like this is not enough. This is not enough for me to capture the ideas that I'm having in my head, and uh I wasn't really in a position where I could where I could buy a laptop. Like I was um, you know, after you know, I I I moved after I moved back in with my parents, I I lived there for a couple uh for like a year maybe. I finished my associate's degree in music. Um I got accepted to a bunch of really good music schools in New York State with scholarships and stuff, but uh the financial aid situation did not work out. I'm not gonna point fingers, um, you know. But it didn't work out that I could do that. So I said, I guess I'm just gonna work in the food industry and you know, do music for fun, because that's what I gotta do now, I guess. Um with no experience working, you know, in a musical field and no connections to like get gigs or whatever um that would pay like good I don't know. So yeah, that's what I did for a long time. And eventually, you know, I bought a laptop and I started learning uh I would do just garage band on the laptop and I was like, this is cool. I got better with it as time went on. I, you know, I just studied up. You could just there's a lot of YouTube videos and stuff if you have a particular thing. It's kind of like you gotta do the thing, and then once you hit an obstacle, like it's like, oh, how do I do this? Um that's the best way to approach it. You can't just like sit down and be like, I'm gonna learn it all, and then I'll never need to look at up another. Like, I still like if I'm recording something, I'll be like, oh, how do I like set up this like weird compression thing? Or how do I like do something? I always have to like, you know, you you have to there's a lot, there's a lot that goes into it. Um I didn't even know what a compressor was until like two or three years ago.

SPEAKER_03 30:59

Um you know, it compresses.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

Yeah, it compresses.

SPEAKER_03 31:02

It just takes, you know, it just like it just goes wrong and you gotta do the sound whenever you talk about it.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah, but like, I don't know. I didn't understand, I don't think. Um, or like what like okay, it comprises. What do you do with that? Where do we go? Yeah, or when do you do that? Yeah, yeah. You know, and you know, I got you know, I was recording on Garage Band on my laptop. That sounded really good too. Same interface basically on the laptop, and I was like, okay, you know, I mean, I don't need to know too many crazy things to just a lot of the stuff I was recording was just like acoustic, or I'd like DI an electric guitar. Um, I didn't really have many live drums. I never I've like almost never had live drums on my stuff, except for two EPs. I did a a season series where I wanted to do an EP for every season. Oh, nice. I still haven't done the winter one. I did summer, spring.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

Well, it's coming around. You got the time.

SPEAKER_00 31:58

Yeah, you got time. Yeah, but this was like a while ago.

SPEAKER_03 32:00

So I've just been like, so it'll just be a long anticipated.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Yeah, like yeah, 20 years from now I'll be like, all right, here's the winter EP. Finally. Finally, um, yeah. But uh and my good my good buddy from high school, Max Hanks, uh shout out. He was he's in a bunch of cool bands. Uh I I don't know. I think he's out in Colorado now. But um, yeah, he's he's on a couple of those albums, like live drums, but I didn't really have live drums on anything. Um and I just got good at like you know, just programming them, yeah, just tapping them out. Yeah, you can do that, just like guitar hero, just tapping them out. And I um eventually I was like a garage band started feeling like it was a choke, and then I was like, okay, I need to get logic. And then I got logic, and then I was like, how do I record in this?

SPEAKER_03 32:55

Keep up in it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Um, and then you know, that was when I kind of really started to dive in because logic's got a bit more features, and that was when I really started like being like, I need to, I need to know how to do this interface with myself. And you know, I just didn't have the resources or the time to like go out and like just be have somebody like engineer, yeah. You know. And you know, it's like you gotta find the right person. You gotta be, you know, you gotta be in a situation where it's the right situation to do that. I think. For sure. Yeah. And I I wasn't really um, you know, I wasn't really in that situation.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

I was just constantly working and now did the songs that you were doing, were they pretty much you'd written them and they were complete and ready to record? Or because you were doing it on your own, did you find times where you could be like, I want to rework that bit and maybe put a little bit of both?

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Most of the time the song would be done and then I would like record it. Um but there were a couple songs that like went through like reworks like over time. Uh I don't do that too often because I feel like the like the song is this is just in my opinion, like the song is easier to capture if you just get it all at once, and it's way harder to like go back and like add to something that's uh that doesn't feel finished. Like I need to like I need to write until it's finished and then be like, okay, it's it's or or it's like that's enough for me to work with if I want to change anything later, like that's enough for me to work with. But you get ones in the four minutes, yeah. And I started off with really short songs too, like under two minutes, like oh wow, really short. Was that a conscious thing? Dense songs. Like I would like like a lot of chords, yeah, but like really short.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

But was that something that you were like, I'm going to write, or these songs are going to be short, or you were just like, oh wow, it just okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

Yeah, I would um there's an album, uh Joyce Manor self-titled album, uh, that I got really into. Um and the album's under 20 minutes. It's like one of the best The Hives. One of the best punk albums like ever, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03 35:28

The Hive's a bunch of their albums, it's under 20 too.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

And I was like, you don't need to take all that time to say stuff. And then I and then I one of the when I started playing out, I was like, oh, people want me to play for 30 minutes. What? I gotta play like 30 songs.

SPEAKER_03 35:42

You just play it slower. Just play all the songs slower.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yeah. That was so so then I started being like, okay, I gotta, I gotta make them longer.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

There's something very um, I think uh I don't know. I don't know if it's tongue in cheek or not, or I don't know if your music has been described as such, but there's something in kind of a you have a larger scale uh storytelling aspect that's clearly prevalent in that song about your friend with the uh moped.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

That wasn't just me. That wasn't just me. That was a co-written song. Oh, it was co-ridden. Yeah, my yeah, my my buddy uh Steven uh who I guess his artist name is Charlie Invictus.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

Charlie Invictus. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 36:32

But yeah, we were we were hanging out, and this was just about both of our our really close friend uh Diego, who I played music with for a long time. Um and we just he he was like you know, this is a great idea.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

And we we got together, and you know, I did a lot of the the musical aspects of it, and we wrote the lyrics together um in the same room, and that was really fun because it's such a well-crafted song.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Right. When I first heard it, I was like, yes, paints a picture.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

Lyrically, it's different than anything I've ever done because it's not entirely just me like painting that picture, you know. Um but I did, you know, I did like kind of like a lot of the way that the song works musically was like all me and like finding a way to fit that. Like, how do you get this picture?

SPEAKER_03 37:35

Well, and it's very cinematic in the way that you were talking about it lyrically, but then also the music was as uh it's informing all of what you're saying as well. And I've heard that song as an electric version with the band, and then I've also heard you just play it by yourself, and it works on on both of those levels, which is which is great.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 37:56

Uh and then some of the other newer stuff that I'd heard you do, I don't know if it's recorded yet, but you have one about your living situation. Oh, which is that one? Which is such a which you really of something like that? Like I heard you play it at a at an open mic.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Oh, yeah, the one that I wrote the day, the same day, and played at the open mic.

SPEAKER_03 38:17

But there was such like verocity to that because you're talking about a living situation. Well, it was fresh at the time. Yeah. That was But I completely picked up on that emotion, and also just that your lyrics were so poignant in Yeah, that it was that fresh and direct, and you were talking about the direct problem of this kind of bogus living situation that you and many people have. I gotta record that have landlords, and this is a common problem. This is a universal uh global problem of people having issues with the way that their living situation is run from landlords.

SPEAKER_00 38:57

I got most of my security deposit back. Oh, did you? But it was like I don't know, it was like $99 short of what I should have gotten back. And they were basically like, they were like, sue me, bro, do it. And basically is what they did to me. And I was like, Well, that's the next one. I was like, what you suing them? The song's just about me suing them. And then also like you not worth my time. Not worth my time.

SPEAKER_03 39:25

Maybe worth the song, though. Not maybe not worth suing. Maybe worth the song.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Maybe I make the song about suing them, but then I don't actually sue them.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Sometimes uh the artistic approach is better than the actual, you know, uh legal approach.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

Yeah, that was the worst living situation I've ever been in.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Um but the songwriting probably helped though, right? I mean, in uh being able to communicate how frustrating it was.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

It was the greatest thing. That's the see, that's like the power of songwriting, right there, is I'm just like, I'm in this situation, and I'm just like man, there's like I don't know what else I can do asides from just, you know, try to express myself and how I'm feeling about this situation, and the only way that I know how through writing a song about it, and then having a room full of people all scream F you at my landlord was like one of the most cathartic moments probably of this entire year so far. It was very gravity. It was very, very validating, uh, you know, to for everyone to just like to be able to connect with people on that level where it's like, ah yes, everyone gets it. Like this is this is not I'm not alone in this issue, like it's and that's like just like I don't know, it's such a such a powerful thing to be able to just to connect with people through your music. And I don't know, that's been what I've been thinking about a lot recently. Um is just like what messages do I want to connect with people through, and in these uh trying times, that is a very uh an important thing to like be conscientious of. But I'm also trying not to like let that be like an obstacle. Like I gotta I gotta write.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

Yeah, and and what I always appreciated about your songwriting that I've heard is that it's it's direct, but it's not in like a hand-holding way. You're just kind of being very honest um about the situations that you're talking about. Um and it it to my ear, it doesn't seem like you're leaving much room for that we have to fill in spaces. It's more just like this is this is the scenario, this is the world that you've built in that. Do you do you know where that comes from, just in terms of who you were kind of sponging from in terms of how you were telling stories within your songs?

SPEAKER_00 42:06

From how I'm telling stories within my songs?

SPEAKER_03 42:08

Yeah, I guess the voice that you're using.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

I don't know. I think a lot of the songs that I write, or basically all of them, it's hard for me to like it's hard for me to just like make stuff up. Like a lot of it's just really you mean imagination. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Yeah, imagination, I don't know. And like I guess it just kind of comes from that where I'm just like this has gotta be, I don't know, it's gotta be this has gotta this has gotta feel real, you know, like this has gotta be something that is like an emotion, a situation, uh I mean, you know, an a a uh a point in time, or uh, you know, like it's gotta be about something that's real. And it's hard for me to like make a song about it's like I feel like some people could just like make up a song about something and be like, well, actually Or like a topic that they don't know about or they're not knowledgeable on.

SPEAKER_03 43:19

I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

I think I think some of that's role-playing, but that's there's like a certain level of role-playing, there's a certain level of like building up an image thing, I think, and then like being able to play into that, which I don't really I don't know if I have that down.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Uh well I I would just say it's not it doesn't seem like it's your approach.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

It's just not the way you just hasn't been Yeah, it just hasn't really been my approach.

SPEAKER_03 43:44

Aaron Powell It's it's almost like a stand-up comic approach. In a way, an observation. Yeah. And I mean there's funny stuff to it, like there's a sideline. Lines and everything, but that doesn't make me take the music any less serious.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Yeah, like the the honesty of it isn't coming from me like trying to be funny. Like, yeah, like I might say I might write a line and it's like kind of funny about the situation, but I'm not like trying to be funny. I'm just trying to be real about it.

SPEAKER_03 44:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

You know? And I think that that kind of that connects with people when you're like when it's like an actual thing or feeling and you're able to, you know, I don't know. I I think about when you when you you know when you use wordplay, you use that, it almost kind of emphasizes it. It's like you're you're painting more of a picture with the word with the words themselves. And then let alone all of the wizardry of using weird chord. I love weird chords.

SPEAKER_03 44:51

Yeah, where does that come from? Where where did you learn to start doing that, or what kind of brought that into your arena of your like, I like doing this type of style?

SPEAKER_00 45:00

I swear this is gonna sound so basic, but I swear the Beatles.

SPEAKER_03 45:06

Yeah, they had a bunch.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Like what is that? And you're like, oh, this is like really like, you know, this is so pop, like this is so catchy, or whatever. And then you like you start to like, you ever pick up like a Beatles songbook, like, or I had like I actually what I had growing up, I had these two volumes of like it was sheet music, yeah, and it was every song that the Beatles ever wrote. And like the way that they would just work around different chords was just like you know, it was crazy at times. It didn't fit in, and I would like compare it to other artists, and I'd be like, oh, like this sounds like blues music, or this sounds like this sounds like it's part of a formula. But what you know, adding all these extra, you know, classical and jazz influences in with the blues stuff really created all these, you know, these these weird pop progressions, and I've always been, you know, and that kind of spun me into the direction of jazz because I don't you know I've I've heard all the Beatles that there is, and you know, I still I still love it. I still love some of the solo stuff too. Um you know, I'm mostly a Paul guy, but uh Team Paul. Team Paul.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Uh those guys are explorers though.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

But like the thing, explorers in songwriting. And like that kind of spun me off into like, oh, like you can have really like dissonant chords that you might not think would work, but you can make them work, and then it's very powerful when you do make them work because it's different. It's like not like I don't know, it's not just like following a particular formula. And I know that that's like I feel like a lot of people base their stuff on that, and does that become the formula, but the formula's not following it. That's not the aspect of it that I'm appreciating. It's not other people following that formula, it's just how do you take something that exists and add other things to it until it becomes something new?

SPEAKER_03 47:33

Well, we'll wrap it up on this, then. When do you feel like you've accomplished that as a songwriter?

SPEAKER_00 47:39

When do I feel like I've accomplished it?

SPEAKER_03 47:42

When you've when you've written a song and that it's it's all been wrapped up in the way that you are able to communicate what you've communicated communicate and all the chords and the structure of it is there, I guess, in in the broader aspect, when is when is the song a song and when is the song done and ready to be, you know, unleashed for you.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

I don't know. I think I don't know. I think you just you just play around with it, and then when it's done, like when the moment that I'm willing to let it go, I guess. Like the moment that I'm you know willing to say, like, okay, like that was that was enough. And like I can listen to the song and be like, hell yeah. You know? That's like awesome. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

Thank you so much, Evan. Alright, now you gotta play us out, though.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

You gotta play us out.

SPEAKER_03 48:49

You played us in, now you gotta play us out.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Um can I play a deep cut from the discography? Like a whole song? It's like a minute and thirty seconds.

SPEAKER_03 49:04

A minute and thirty?

SPEAKER_00 49:05

Okay. Sure. Wait, I don't know how it's called it's called Obama Gave Me a New Guitar. Yeah, go for it. Can I play it? It was uh I wrote it when I was like a teenager, and I had a dream that Obama gave me a new guitar. It wasn't a political song at the time. It still isn't. It's just about Obama giving me a guitar. I'm probably gonna mess it up.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

I can't afford to feed myself. I don't wanna be around anyone else. I like to stay inside my head. I like to stay inside my bed. And is it important to know what are you gonna do when someone comes up to you and starts talking away? Is it important when the president says he's gonna give you a present? Obama comes up to you and hands you a guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar, Obama gave me a new guitar in my dream.

SPEAKER_03 51:20

Thanks so much for listening. You can follow us on Instagram for show announcements and other episodes. And if you dig the artist stuff, give them a follow, give them a like. And if you want to go the extra mile, check them out at one of their shows, buy their merch, keep the scene alive. And I'll see you out there. Take care.

SPEAKER_01 51:42

So just remember when it feels like you're having those first world blues, someone's having a shittier day than you.