A little Q&A with Peter Evans (guitar, vocals, MIDI instruments, vocal percussion). His new CD is called Cricket.

Leicester Bangs: Tell us a little about yourself.
Peter: I have written, promoted, arranged, conducted, and performed a cappella music for 35 years and that experience has served me in writing contemporary music in the folk rock tradition.  Covering subjects as controversial as personal injury law, religion and technology, gun control, money and love, life after life, suicide, and politics on TV, I don’t always take sides but I usually examine all points of view with a clarity and frankness people find refreshing and unusual.  At other times I can’t resist a bit of humorous sniping at the Starbucks culture or the American proclivity for driving large SUVs. In these instances there is no mistaking where I stand.

LB: How did you start out making music?
Peter: I was raised in the Philadelphia area in a large Quaker family.  I attended Germantown Friends School, where I began to sing in an organized way and play instruments in kindergarten.  I asked for a guitar for my 6th birthday. My mother had already gotten one for me.  I studied guitar into my teens with George Britton, the Philly Folk icon who recently passed on.  At GFS I learned about music theory, was introduced to tape recording and electronically generated music.  I performed, composed and arranged music under the guidance of many exceptional teachers.  At Yale, I studied and composed contemporary music and continued his study of music theory with Maury Yeston.  I arranged, sang, soloed and directed for two undergraduate a cappella groups, including the Whiffenpoofs.

LB: Who did you grow up listening to and how do they influence what you’re doing now?
Peter: I was the youngest of five kids, so my siblings shaped my musical tastes.  The Beatles, the Persuasions, the Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Otis Redding and James Brown were some of our favorites.  My brother was in a bluegrass band and that helped to round out my musical exposure, too.  We listened to Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.  Mom played classical music on the piano and my sisters took piano lessons and brought Mozart, J.S. Bach and Schumann into the house that way.  My family had seats at the Philadelphia Orchestra and I'll never forget the goosebumps I felt when I went to the Academy of Music with my parents for the first time to hear them.  Of course, I got folk music - straight no chaser- studying with George Britton.  It's hard to be succinct about how that translates to my writing.  I try to embrace it all and find possibility in every style and learn lessons (sometimes over and over!) from the traditions and styles I have been exposed to.  That can mean connecting the dots between Motown soul and Folk or using music theory from classical roots to make sense of chord or key changes I'm working with in a rock 'n roll direction.  I never know what I'm going to bring in to the mix until it arrives, I suppose.

LB: Tell us about your latest release.
Peter: Having the finished CD arrive is like having a new baby in the house.  Everyone is asking for a little news about it and inquiring about the christening date (5/13/10) and such.  The really good part is I don't have to wake up at 3AM to get a bottle of infant formula warm!  On the downside, it took longer to develop - more like the gestation period of an elephant, about 18 months - so I felt the weight of that pregnancy for a good while.

The style is what I call laptop folk.  There is lots of tradition in the foundations of the music, but it has been completely brought into a new place with digital techniques.  I owe so much to my friend and sound engineer, Jim "Jiff" Hinger who showed me the way through a maze of possibilities.  I used to renovate houses in West Philadelphia in an area that used to be a "streetcar suburb" of the city late in the 19th century.  There are blocks upon blocks of well-built, handsome houses that have been neglected for the better part of 100 years.  I did the same thing with those houses as I have done with the music.  I used the foundations and the bones that were still good and just breathed new life into them to provide a place people could settle in and enjoy.  

LB: Do you get out and play your music live, and if so, what can an audience expect at one of your shows?
Peter: Oh, yes.  That's the part I've been looking forward to the most as the album was being developed.  I mostly tested out my songs as they were being written and recorded at open mic nights 2 or 3 at a time.  The songs evoke strong reactions in a live setting and for that reason I look forward to getting them out of the studio and onto the street.  It is hard to feel any love from a microphone and a computer screen in the studio!

I try to engage a live audience by getting them to sing bits of songs with me and break down any "us and them" barriers.  I avoid a rigid set list and try to move with the mood of the room.  I know what I'm opening and closing sets with, I have songs that get paired up in natural ways but I try to stay in the moment enough to remain flexible and almost unpredictable as a set unfurls.  One of the best parts of attending a concert is hearing stories behind the songs.  I try not to lecture, but to give people an idea of some of the origins and motivations behind the music they are hearing.

LB: What aspects of playing and recording music do you most enjoy?
Peter: Song writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration - that's not original, BTW - Thomas Edison said something similar about invention.  The inspiration part is completely cool and the thing songwriters talk about the most, which would almost cause one to think the percentages are reversed.  But they're not, I promise.  It is discussed so much because it is so astonishing, like receiving an unexpected gift or having someone throw a surprise party for you.  Inspiration for a song can happen any time anywhere, and I've taken steps to have pads of paper and little digital recorders in easy to reach places for when the inspirations come.  It is founded in the connection between the conscious mind and the sub-conscious, I think.  That's why so many people wake up thinking of their new song, or they get inspired while driving, in the shower, washing dishes, working out - all those times we allow our conscious minds to dream or to roam freely. Of course, some of the things that dwell in the sub-conscious are ideas, topics and memories that we have repressed and it can be challenging to feel that each connection, each spark really is a gift and a welcomed part of who you are.  When I shut those ideas off or push them away before expressing them in my music, I tend to experience creative bumps in the road.  It came to the surface for a reason and it is best when I don't over-analyze it too much and just go to work with it instead.  See?  I just used up 90% of the answer talking about the 10% inspiration.  That's because the perspiration part is kinda boring to talk about, unless it involves the drive you feel that commits you to the creative process and tells you that the message is important to give to others who will listen to it and to make it as clear, as complete and as listen-able as possible.  But trust me, you don't want to hear about tearing verses apart and trying out different keys and alternative cadences and melodic structures - Nooooo!  That's like watching someone putting together a jigsaw puzzle or re-point a brick wall...Yawn.

LB: Where can people find (and buy) your music?

Peter: For booking: peterharmo@gmail.com
About me: www.myspace.com/peterharmo
About the CD: www.CricketCD.com
About my a cappella band, The Tonics: www.tonicsguys.com
CD Release Party: www.worldcafelive.com
CD Baby: www.cdbaby.com/cd/PeterEvans1


Photo by Dan Brody