No.1 How would you describe this week in a sentence?
Hot. [laughs] Period. Yeah, hot and hectic.
I did have to move Nova into a new apartment over the weekend, so it's been kind of a whirlwind, starting off with the show last Wednesday. It's been a lot of longer nights and less sleep than normal, plus the heat. So, I'm just kind of, totally boggled this week. But, a lot of good things within the week, too. Like I said, the show was cool, and then her new place is all set up. I got a new air conditioner out of it.
Hooray!
Yeah, I guess that's the summary.
No.2 An artwork that inspired you this week. It can be anything.
What I've been into this week that I've also just been on for the last three months is this album by a guy named Greg Freeman. I think he's based out of Burlington, Vermont, these days. It's just this beautiful, alt-country rock album, super well-produced. The songwriting's incredible, lyricism is incredible. I guess Lil [the cat] liked it, too. And I got to see him perform it two Saturdays ago at the Knockdown Center. That was the culmination of it, so I'll fit that into this week, too. That counts, it was close enough. But it's such a cool album. I recommend it to anybody.
Was there anything [about] the show that you anticipated or surprised you?
I ended up front row, which I've never really done before. I went by myself, it was a smaller venue. It was the ruins outside of Knockdown Center, [an] outdoor show. I timed it up perfectly to, when the crowd dispersed after the opener, I just went right to the front. And it was such a visceral experience. I knew all the words and everyone around me was, I think, Greg Freeman's friends and family. So everyone knew the lyrics, everyone was shouting and dancing, which was a really cool experience. And not to mention, just seeing the way he performed and the way he moved on stage. His setup is a little bit unconventional, I would say, compared to a normal rock group, so it was cool to see. His pedal board was in some kind of bowling ball bag that he rolled out onto the stage and he would really stomp on the pedals in kind of a violent way that I thought was just super cool. He's a very, in an authentic way too, not performative at all. He's got this unique physicality about him that I thought was awesome.
No.3 A memorable moment from this week.
Memorable moment from this week... I mean, the most memorable thing, I would say, I'll go week time based on last Tuesday till now. I'll say the show that we put on, that Revelator [Records] did at Berlin, was the most fun, I think, we've had on stage so far, Simple Son as a group. Which is unfortunate, because our lead guitarist was sick so he couldn't play. But Patrick [Murray] subbed in and did the most incredible job. I really felt like we hit our stride in that set, and the reaction from the crowd was pretty gratifying. And I'm really excited to keep this momentum building and start recording some of the stuff we have, so that show feels more of a launching point than anything else, hopefully to some cool projects coming up.
It was an amazing show!
Thank you. And all the bands, too, obviously. I thought it was one of Sockeye's best shows with our new bass player, Cat. And then Dogwood [Gap], we always do something different every show. We didn't have Carlie, but we did some really cool experimental stuff. I thought it was a really fun night for all of us to combine.
It reminds you that you go out in New York and there's good music. Everything was so good! It was such a good show!
That's what makes me excited about Revelator, too. We're building it together and it feels like... I would put us up against... I mean, it's certainly not a competition but it's hard not to view it like that sometimes, especially in a city like New York. But I would put our little group of bands up against any other kind of music scene in this city. I really am excited about this. And it's only been, like, what? A year and a half, two years of us all playing together. So it feels like it's starting to pay off. We've been doing this for a while kind of in the shadows, I would say, and then to have a show like that was pretty cool.
I agree. And as a fan, and a friend, it's always exciting to see. Also, how it translates into different venues. Berlin [has] a unique layout, but it was a fun crowd.
Totally. Windjammer is a different vibe. We've played shows, with you as well, at Windjammer, where it's a cool space, but it feels cavernous and big. And I feel like the space in there, the physical space, leads to a different energy, if that makes sense. Berlin is compact. We had maybe a foot to ourselves, each member of us on stage, and we had to bring the crowd in close and it looks packed. It's a little bit like Pete's Candy Store, where there's no room to move so it looks more packed, which is kind of fun. But then also, I think people just being next to each other and being sucked into the performance really creates a different type of energy. It escalates things in a cool way.
So this is a two-part question. Feel free to answer whichever you want-
No.4 A motto you swear by and/or any advice you received and would like to share.
That's a good question. The motto that I try to live by, especially musically and with any art, and advice I would give to other people is - process over product, to boil it down to something super simplified. I talk about this a lot with other members of Simple Son and Sockeye, and I think the way we go about music is more important than getting all the streams all at once and getting all the recognition all at once. We have been chipping away, like I said, in the shadows for a while and we just do it because we love it and that process is going to lead to a better payoff than focusing on that goal or that product and saying, ’oh, I want to take a shortcut to the best album possible.’ And I've known people like that in the city and no disrespect to anybody, but if you don't have the experience and you don't go through that trial period and that growing period, and you just pour a thousand dollars into an album right off the bat, it, I think, shows in what you get out of it all.
That's what I try to do with art, is not force anything, just live by that process and then hopefully the results come after. That's how I met Hayden [Carr-Loize], really. We had a mutual friend, I went to high school with him and he went to college with him. I just had met up with this guy, he was visiting the city, he lives out of town. Hayden met up with him, too, we didn't know each other yet. And I just brought up, like, Hey, yeah, I play cello if you need anybody’. And then all of a sudden I'm playing in Sockeye. And then I said the same thing to Patrick. I said, ‘Hey, by the way, if you need a guitarist in your band to fill in, I can do that.’ And then all of a sudden I'm playing guitar in his band. And then, oh, the bass player leaves, and now I'm playing bass. And I add my band to the set. And those connections you make along the way and living by that kind of motto, if you will, instead of jumping for the next thing. Just letting it take its course, I think, is great advice. If you just do what you love every day, if that's not corny enough, you'll get where you want to go eventually.
Thank you. That's amazing!
I've listened to the EP again on my way here, twice, and one of the lyrics that is my favourite is - “In [another] life, I’d be a deadbeat musician, but happier. In this life I'm a deadbeat musician, that's all.”
I love that one, too. I appreciate you picking that out.
Yeah, because it's… you got to do it.
Yeah, I mean, that whole EP was my perspective. It's a lot of things to me personally, but, I think what comes out is that perspective of being a struggling musician in this specific point in time. Where Spotify is producing AI artists and shipping money to companies that we wouldn't agree with and all that crazy stuff. Where at the same time, they don't pay artists. And we love this so much, this is all we do and all we ever want to do with our lives. And to have that thrown in your face like, ‘Yeah, you can try, but it's not going to work out.’ And, I'm sure you know, people along the way, as you keep doing music, people who don't believe in the journey will tell you, ‘It's not going to lead to anything.’ ‘Oh, do you have, like, a different job? How do you make money?’ All those different comments of like, you're not really going to do that. That's not what you're going to pursue for your life, right? And my feeling is, or at least what came out in that lyric was a feeling of - in the past, you would have just done it. You would have just been a musician, paid a hundred bucks a month on rent, had some money left over for beer, played a couple shows throughout the week. And that's your life. And it's a pretty good life, in a very simple way. But these days I couldn't live in this apartment if I didn't have a day job, obviously. And those kinds of things, where you are totally beat down through the process of trying to do what you love. But, you know, it's aspirational at the same time. Maybe we can get back to that.
No.5 What would you like to share about The Other Side and/or any other Simple Son projects?
I listened back to that actually yesterday as well, just by chance. It's kind of funny, I almost forgot that I had put it out in a way. I hadn't listened to it in about two months for whatever reason. I think anyone who puts out music has that moment where you're like, ‘I'm sick of it, I want to move on to the next thing’. And I re-listened to it and I couldn't stop smiling because I was thinking back about how I recorded some of those pieces that came out really how I envisioned them.
Two of those songs were just recorded on my iPhone initially. The bedrock of Shadows and the outro on the EP, the piano piece, Looking Back, those are just iPhone voice memos that I took. One was at my parents' house in their basement on this old upright piano, that's Looking Back. And then Shadows was just my phone on top of my amp in my old apartment, with reverb all the way up. They were both spontaneous experiences and great takes, and maybe this is my other piece of advice to people is - the spontaneity and the creativity that comes out of those special moments should be captured and left as they are. If I really had the money and the time, maybe I would go back and try to recreate it and record it in the studio, but I think there was something so soulful about those first takes that made most sense just to touch it up slightly. And Pat [Patrick Murray] did a great job also helping me on the back end with EQ and things like that to make them presentable. But the essence of it was that moment, and that was really special.
That's what I love about the EP. It is a collection of different moments, more than some kind of really well produced experience or album, which I want to do in the future. That's kind of my goal for the next project, is to have something a little more buttoned up. But I am proud of the feeling of that EP, I think it comes across. So I appreciate you saying that about the lyrics and I think that's evidence that the feeling is coming across.
So that was supposed to be the last question, but I also wanted to ask if you'd like to share anything about the cover art for the EP.
Oh, yeah, that's a good question. I actually have it over here.
It's a real full scale collage, 17 inches square. And I just started doing this at this local shop in Greenpoint, Happy Medium. You basically pay for supplies and you do an hour or two of collaging. You can do pottery and other stuff there. But I didn't start it with the intention of turning it into the album art. I just had this base picture that was black and white, paired it with the other one, and then found this old DC comic book. I'm not much of a comic books guy, but it's a 1984 issue or something like that, ‘82-’84, that just had the coolest pastel color scheme, and I started cutting out the most interesting quotes that I could find.
I was a little disappointed with the resolution I got because I just took it with my phone. But for the album, if you really zoomed in on the artwork, I think it captures the ethos of the EP. A lot of despair and existentialism, but with a hopeful bend to it, if that makes sense. What are these quotes? “At last he understood.” Let's see… What's another good one? “How could I have been given such a miserable fate?” Things like that. If you were to zoom in super close, it adds to the EP. But that was the cool part about it too. Zoomed out, the colors work as an album or EP cover.
One day I'll get this framed. I should do that sooner rather than later because it's kind of already slouching. But I was proud of that one.
That's amazing! And I'm glad I can look at it in this format.
I also want to keep the comic book. I think once I get it framed, I'll stick this inside because I think it's an interesting context. It's totally the opposite virtue of what I wanted to create in the EP. It's kind of a propaganda comic, Cold War era, US in Vietnam and Russia kind of vibes. It's very military propaganda, white savior-y stuff that [are] not a great vibe. But I picked out the pieces that I thought were interesting, and I think you could make a larger point about whatever that means. But even just visually, I think it works well.
I guess collage plays very well into the way you described making this album. Some [of it] was voice notes..
That's a really good point. I hadn't even thought of that. It is exactly. Kind of a hodgepodge of -
I don’t want to superimpose something on it but -
No, I think that's definitely true. I guess that's why they pair so well together, and also what Pat and I did. I did the mixes for all but the First Time Last Time track, which is the second to last, and Pat did an awesome job matching the vibe. There's a grainy element to it all because I put them all through a tape effect. My goal one day is to record either a song or an EP all on cassette or actually reel to reel, I just can't afford either machines at the moment. But I wanted it to sound like that, and I think the grainy, pastel, 80s vibe of the comic book matched that aesthetic well.
This is wonderful. Thank you. And it looks great on the cassette, I just got mine.
Oh, you got one?
Yes, at the show
Oh, thank you. Yeah, I love the cassettes. Pat did a fantastic job, and Carlie did, with all the merch and the cassettes. I mean, who has a cassette player these days? I don't, but it's cool to look at, and it's a cool thing to put on the wall. And one day I'll actually listen to it. But for now, it's just cool to look at.
Snapshots by Rachel Bard
Keep up with Evan’s upcoming projects -
Simple Son - https://www.instagram.com/the_simple_son
Spotify
For Simple Son’s and the Revelator Records bands’ live performances and behind the scene footage you can check out Revelator Records’ YouTube’s channel - https://www.youtube.com/@Revelator-Records
Revelator Records’ Merch - https://revelator-rcrds.bandcamp.com/merch
Support the New York Indie Scene -
Music Venues we mentioned -
Berlin - https://berlin.nyc/
Windjammer - https://www.instagram.com/thewindjammer
Pete’s Candy Store - https://www.petescandystore.com/
Knockdown Center - https://www.knockdown.center/
For more details on Revelator Records and the other bands that were mentioned you can check out interviews no.1 with Patrick Murray and no.6 with Hayden Carr-Loize