Evan Myall is the full-length debut from LA-based singer-songwriter Evan Myall Reiss, who performs and records under the name Evan Myall. Evan has spent the last decade playing guitar, writing songs, and touring the world with Sleepy Sun, as well as writing and recording with Fine Points. Inspired by classic songwriters like Glen Campbell and George Harrison, he set out to make an album of his own songs, informed by timeless sounds as much as the post-modern psych and swirl of his other projects.
Working with producer David Glasebrook (Patti Smith, Oliver Ray, Sugar Candy Mountain) and co-producer Nicholas Frances Stein (Fine Points, James Williamson) the trio decamped to Glasebrook’s Bay Area studio and got to work. The resulting album runs a gamut of sounds like the range of human experience—from fuzzed-out dirges, to mellow groovers, intimate crooners, and baroque pop wall of sound. In the words of the artist, “We threw all of our colors at the wall; aspiring to make something wondrous. But within the words and melodies, a darkness revealed itself. So we had to learn how to grow and glow in the dark.”
Lyrically, many of the songs are about the space around life and the afterlife. Glide is proud to premiere ‘Winsome Way’ which poses the question—what’s so appealing about the afterlife anyway? Musically the song touches on the hazy retro arch pop of Rex Orange County and the folk bravado of Sea Change era Beck. M
“I don’t have anything close to a religious background but the idea of an afterlife always fascinated me,” says Myall. “The first line of the song is “The faces stare and sway in ire. My eyes are filled with blue desire.” I was picturing myself being greeted ‘at the gates’ by a bunch of angry/mean-lookin heavenly dudes saying: “This guy…he got in…?” It’s sort of about getting on the guest list to heaven without believing.”
Photo by Amy Harrity