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Click HERE to listen to tracks from "Lines On The Wall"
The player will start and you can choose what you
want or let it shuffle through the songs for you.
You can even surf off to somewhere else and keep
listening
(but you wouldn't do that would you?)
Please take a moment to
email me at tse@toddevans.net
and let me know what you think of these tracks
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Sonic Doodles
These are small
recordings I made while learning to use my new recording gear.
11-16-05:
A bombastic synth and drum sampler piece
Synth
Scratch: Playing with some of my virutal synths
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A Million More Kisses (Evans)
Todd
Evans - Guitar, Keyboards
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
This
track was originally written in 1991 as a project for a jazz theory
class at Berklee College of Music. I don't remember all the elements
the project was required to have but that's fine by me. The melody
still haunts me.
I began
recording the track during the "Lines on the Wall" sessions but it
didn't make it on the disc. I've re-recorded some of the parts, added a
few things and re-mixed it in my home studio during January 2007.
Special thanks to Dave
Halverson for his helpful insights!
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photo by Dave
Hitchborne (used by permission) |
Into The Sun (Evans)
Todd
Evans - Guitar, Vocals, Keyboards, Drum Programming
Ariane
Cap - Bass
Mike Carrerra - Background Vocals
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
A song about facing the
great unknowns we all encounter in life. This was written in 2003 after
I had pretty much totally uprooted my life and was looking to come to
terms with that.
Into The Sun was chosen
by Garageband.com as the Power Poptrack of the day for 10-07-07. Click
on the graphic to go check out what people have said about it over at
the garage.
Thanks again to Dave
Halverson for the virtual synths!
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All the Way (Evans)
Todd
Evans - Vocals, Guitar
William Maxwell - Bass, Drums
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
All The
Way was written in early 1997 while I was living just
outside Boston, MA. My wife and I were preparing for a move to
California and into the great unknown. At the time I had a job as a
computer specialist. I had decided to leave the cash cow behind, head
west and pursue my dreams of a career in music.
Anyway, I was playing some open mics and was inspired by one guy's
guitar phrasing. I decided to see if I could write a similar guitar
line and sing over it at the same time. The chorus melody is one of the
first I wrote that feels like mine, in it I hear the roots of the
musical direction I've been headed ever since.
I was
also thinking of something I once read about Bob Dylan's way of
"singing across the bar lines." I tried to write a melody in which the
accents would fall differently from those of the guitar. It seems I
succeeded - as a result the chorus can be tricky to perform.
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The Way It Goes (Evans)
© 2002
Todd Evans
Todd
Evans - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Adolfo
Lazo - Drums
William Maxwell - Bass
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
The Way
It Goes began
as a guitar rhythm that I wrote while working at The Plant, a recording
studio in Sausalito, CA. The riff features some snappy pull-offs and
stuck in my head for weeks so I knew it was plenty catchy.
The
first verse came to me pretty much all at once. I hit a mental block at
that point as I tried to figure out what the song was about and where
to take it from there. After I hammered out the chorus I knew what the
song was trying to say but it took me a couple of years to finish the
lyrics as I tried to decide what else to take for granted.
I like
the contradiction between the upbeat sound and the rather dark tone of
the lyrics. It's something I learned listening to Morrisey and The
Smiths
"The Way It Goes" was selected by GarageBand.com to
be the Acoustic Track of The Day for 1/23/2006!
Click here
to read what others thought about 'The Way It Goes" on GarageBand.com.
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Celebration Song (Evans)
© 2002
Todd Evans
Todd
Evans - Acoustic Guitar
Adolfo
Lazo - Drums
William Maxwell - Bass
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
Celebration
Song began to
take shape way back in 1990 as a guitar rhythm played on electric
guitar with lots of distortion. The song grew and grew as I added parts
over the years and I moved away from the heavy sound which didn't seem
appropriate.
I
originally intended to have lyrics but I've never succeeded in writing
any that could match the joyousness of the music. Around 1995 FEED (a
metal band I helped form) again tried to create words to accompany the
music. The results were mixed because of the juxtaposition of happiness
and metal which I wasn't ever fully able to swallow. Eventually I gave
up and let the music stand on its own
"Celebration Song " was selected by GarageBand.com
to be the Acoustic Track of The Day for 12/24/2005!
Click here
to read what others thought about 'Celebration Song" on GarageBand.com.
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Hang On (Evans)
© 2002
Todd Evans
Todd
Evans - Guitars,
Vocals
William Maxwell - Bass, Drums, Keyboards
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
Hang On started
as a fairly upbeat guitar part. On a whim I arppegiated the chords and
came up with the introduction. At that point I realized there was
nothing upbeat about the song anymore. I started playing around with
words and the story began to evolve from the opening phrase "I don't
know where you're going." That was me talking to the song itself.
The song
turned into a big production the second William played a few notes with
an oboe sound on the keyboard. The possibilities flooded into my mind
and I was off and running. Without a doubt this song has the most
production of any on the album. I like to call it my "soundtrack" song.
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So Far (Evans)
© 2002
Todd Evans
Todd
Evans - Vocals, Guitar,
Percussion
William Maxwell - Bass, Drums, Percussion
Recorded, Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
So Far will
always be special to me. I wrote the melody and lyrics to this song
shortly after moving to California. I wasn't working at the time so I
had plenty of time to play guitar. One day I just sat down to fiddle
with I guitar part that caught my fancy and out came the melody. The
lyrics fell in to place almost effortlessly and the song was finished
in about four hours. I had never experienced such easy creativity and
I'm still waiting for it to happen again.
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Lines on the Wall (Evans)
© 2002
Todd Evans
Todd Evans -
Vocal, Guitar, Keyboard
William Maxwell - Bass, Drums, Keyboard
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
Lines On The Wall began its life as a concept. I had fallen in love
with a Gypsy Kings song called "Montaña". Every time I hear it my
spirit lifts. I wanted to write something that might have a similar
effect.
The
first line in the lyric reflects my mood that day. I was feeling a
distinct lack of purpose because I had no work and, I thought, little
inspiration. It seemed that I was standing still while the world passed
by before me.
I
just kept coming up with new sections of music which were progressing
further and further away from the opening section. I began to think
maybe I should write two songs since I really liked all of the parts
and didn't want to just waste them on a single song! Then I hit on the
idea of splitting the song into two very distinct sections. I have to
admit that part of why I liked this idea so much was that I didn't have
to figure out a way to return to the first section of the song.
Musically I had strayed so far that I just couldn't think of a way to
complete the cycle. In the end I was very happy with the song and the
sort of 'before and after' story of the lyrics. I was able to refer to
the first half of the song in the lyric when the character mentions
"Time does fly away from that hill and that moment of clarity"
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Roadside (Evans)
© 2002
Todd Evans
Todd
Evans - Guitar, Vocals
William Maxwell - Bass, Drums
Recorded,
Mixed and Produced by Todd Evans
From the
independent CD "Lines on The Wall."
Roadside
is the condensed story of the trip my wife and I made from Boston to
California. I intended the song to be a travelogue that would remind us
of that wonderful time when we grow old. We left behind everything and
everyone I knew good and bad and I felt a world of possibilities open
before us. It felt like a rebirth.
The United States is an amazingly beautiful and
diverse piece of land which I think everyone should be given the time
to explore it at least once in their life.
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Comfort
Zone (Evans, Maxwell)
© 2001
Todd Evans -
Guitars
William Maxwell - Basses, Keyboards, Drums
Recorded by Todd Evans
& William Maxwell
Mixed by William Maxwell
Mastered by William Maxwell
Produced by Todd Evans & William Maxwell
Recorded
November 4 - 5, 2001
Thanks to Two
Street Music, Eureka, CA
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Into The Storm (Evans, Maxwell)
© 2001
Todd
Evans - Guitars
William Maxwell - Bass, Keyboards, Drums
Recorded by Todd Evans & William Maxwell
Mixed by William Maxwell
Mastered by William Maxwell
Produced by Todd Evans & William Maxwell
Recorded
November 4 - 5, 2001
Thanks again to Two
Street Music, Eureka, CA
Into the
Storm was featured on the EMG 25th Anniversary CD
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