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When you listen to music, what is it that draws you to performers and makes you want to go buy their CD and listen to it over and over again. I'm not a music collector. I hear something and I'll just like that thing. And I'll listen to that thing for years. I'm embarrassed that I'm not a music collector. Coz when people ask me things and they think that I know it, and they talk to me like they think that I know it (laughs) and it sounds like something I should know and I'm like, 'I'm sorry I don't know it.' But when I want to hear something I put on Chaka Khan, I put on Bob Marley. And uh, I like reggae. I think that's my favorite. The only thing I can listen to probably all day is reggae. Just Bob Marley or all reggae? All reggae. As long as it's roots reggae. I love roots reggae. There are so many people who, if you say 'reggae', they say 'Bob Marley,' and their collective knowledge ends and begins at Bob Marley. Exactly. He's like the sun and then everybody else is like a ray. You know what I mean? But yeah, he's like the…he's one of my spirutal fathers, I always say, because I didn't have my own father, I had to adopt people, you know? What do you think the record was that changed your life, that pulled you into music and made you say that you definitely wanted to do that? What thing happened? Uh huh. It goes back to Chaka Khan. The way I would feel when I would hear her sing, you know, it was like, 'I wonder if I can send out a vibration like that.' Right. Not hers, my own, but you know, like I wanted to, yeah, I would say just feeling that vibration that I would feel when I would hear her. It made me want to see if I could channel a portion for myself. And you've been out of Jacksonville and in New York and you were in Atlanta? Did I what? You were in Atlanta also, and New York. Mmm hmm. What drew you to those places, and do you prefer their music scene's over Jacksonville's? Well everybody in Jacksonville thinks you have to move. They think you have to go to New York, or move to California. And there was probably a time when that was true. And so it was just me following a repetitive cycle: 'Oh I'm out of high school, if I am going to do anything with myself I've gotta go to New York.' You know, when really, you could come back here and get it together and create what you need to create here and take it to New York rather than spending your life and your time and your energy and that sort of stuff… And your money. And your money! The money you don't have. Exactly, renting out a person's living room. Not a whole room, a living room! You know, you find some way to do it. But the best learning is here. My best learning was not in New York and touring and doing all those things, it was right here, in Jacksonville. I never thought I would want to come back here, and now I love it. That's awesome. Do you think Jacksonville's ever going to develop a scene like in Portland or New York where there's a bunch of high-talent art on a consistent basis, good local music. Yes, eventually. Do you think we're remotely close to it? I think we're a third of the way. You know, because it also takes venues, you know. There's a lot of people here who want to express themselves, but, they have to go out and play for free sometimes before they can start making money. We've had to play for free, you know, everybody's trying to be in the music industry already and try to make all this money. You can't do that out of a bar, you know. So yeah, I think it's gonna come around, especially with the Super Bowl coming and all these things. I think it's gonna be outside influence that do it, rather than the people who live here. They'll be musicians coming from other places, there will be entrepreneurs from other cities coming here and opening clubs that'll be the venues where people get to show their stuff. What is your favorite venue to play here? Voodoo! Soulhead Sundays, mmm hmm. But I enjoy playing at Da Capo, it's new, you know, and I do enjoy it, but my favorite, and it's probably familiar, I've been singing there two and a half years, over a year with Arial Tribe, and then a year with another band, Color Blind. So that's so consistent. That's my favorite place. Soulhead Sundays. Mmm hmm. Definitely. They've got the hip-hop going in the back, and you in the front. Exactly. I love it, Therapy, that's the DJ, you know, and he's been there for two and a half years also, so we've been there together. He's great. Do you want a DJ ever to perform with, or are you really happy with what you have? Because so many artists now are throwing in DJs. If I did it I would want to do it because it was necessary, not because I was trying to follow anyone. Right now, I'd like to add a keyboard eventually…We're talking about Britt, Batsauce. He programs all these different sounds…We go off on a Britt/keyboard tangent, where other musicians are recommended to Patrick. A friend of mine comes up. She should sit in sometime! I would love that! Is she brave enough to do that…You know how I do it, I have people sitting in, playing drums, singing. I love that. I think that helps create, when people sit in. Right. It makes it feel like they didn't just come to see you. You invite them in, and let everybody create and throw out some energy, you know, it makes people feel like they're a part of the show, rather than, 'Oh we're coming to see the show.' I love that. Your friend, Amir, went up there [the last time I saw Patrick at Da Capo.] Who is he, do you work with him on a regular basis? Well, when I met him he had his own band, Flipside. So you see how they come in and sing with us? We go to their gigs and we play with them. It's like a little caravan. I like it. Explain this Mariah Carey thing. You moved up to New York to be a backup singer, or just to… To become a background singer. Did you sing with anybody else first, or was it just Mariah? That was my first live professional gig.  You did sessions with…? Yeah. One before I met her, which was with, it was a movie, Fatboys, back in the 80s, it was called the Disorderlies, was the name of the movie. And my cousin got me a session singing background on one of those songs. And it was probably three years later when the Mariah Carey thing happened. I was in New York about four years before I ever got any work. So like I was saying, before the video store guy comes in and recommends me to this guy who's working with Mariah, who nobody knows, and then it was th rough that association of being a cashier at a video store that I was able to get with her…you know, you just never know where you're gonna be. What do you think was the absolute highlight of working with Mariah Carey and getting to tour, was it the music or the experience? Definitely the traveling. And seeing my name on a record. And earning, because I have uh, two platinum records from working with her, with my name on them. So probably seeing my name on those records, and seeing my name on an album. That was the highlight, that was my fantasy, to see my name, background vocals, you know, Patrick McMillian. Even though I go by Patrick Evan, I go by my middle name, but that was the highlight definitely. Seeing it in print, that felt like it validated it. And then what came after background vocals for Mariah? Michael Bolton, Brian McKnight, a lot of sessions. Yeah, C&C Music Factory, different producers…I can't even remember everybody. Some people made it, some people didn't. A lot of people were calling us for work, a lot of new artists were coming out at that time, so we were getting a lot of work. It was cool. Did you then move to Atlanta or come back to Jacksonville? I moved to Atlanta after eight years in New York. Eight years, wow. Mmm hmm. The work started slowing down, I was getting very depressed, and I didn't want to be there anymore. So I moved to Atlanta. Transferring trains in Atlanta to come to Jacksonville, Freaknik was going on. Have you heard of Freaknik? It's the black college weekend in Atlanta. Well I had never seen anything like that. So I stepped off, and I'm looking at all this, and I called a friend of mine who lives there and said, 'Well can I stay here the weekend, I'm just here to transfer a train, but can I stay for the weekend?' I wound up being there a year. Awesome experience, you know, just very spiritual. Got into a good church. Didn't get any work, wasn't able to, but just the experience and having my own apartment, you know, growing spiritually. Started writing in my journal for the first time and that kinda thing, that shaped me into what I've become. Exactly what you need after eight years in New York. A purging. A spiritual baptizing. Definitely. It's a wild place… And then what brought you back to Jacksonville from Atlanta? I got evicted from my apartment in Atlanta (laughs). And that's why, because if I hadn't, I probably would have stayed in Atlanta. Trying to live as a musician and, you know. It was just rough. Back home I have family, I have friends. It gave me a chance to re-establish myself as a man. And I'm still waiting to get a car…(tape cuts out) …Were you a part of Atlanta's ever-increasing rap scene? Because now it's like, Outkast, and all those people kind of brought the attention back to the South. Whereas before it was kind of East coast/West coast. Mmm hmm. Do you wish you had been a part of that? Well I wanted to be, but it was very clique-ish. It's the same in New York, like in New York they could call in me, they would call Tre, they would call my cousin. There are certain hot names, and Atlanta, they didn't want Mariah Carey's background singer coming in, they were like, 'Well here's the people we use.' And if I had stayed, I probably would have been lucky enough, over time, to get in, but I didn't feel that I was welcomed in with open arms, you know? (Laughs) That makes sense. There wasn't much music going on [for me] in Atlanta. It was more praying going on. check out part two of the Patrick Evan interview @ springfield arts and living |
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LOCALS ONLY
Patrick Evan
by Whitney Weiss
The first question, of course, is how did you get started, what made you want
to do music?
Genetics. My father was a singer, and he moved to New York to try to do his
thing, which I never met him, he died three days after I was born, so I hear
the stories. And then my brother was a performer in New York, he used to do
shows and he'd come down to Jacksonville. And when I was a teenager, I
realized one of my cousins in New Jersey was singing. And I'd see her on
television, singing backgrounds on Arsenio Hall for different people, so
that's who I moved [in] with when I left Jacksonville. I moved to New Jersey
and moved in with her, so I was right in that scene. It was my family that
got me going. And then Chaka Khan, who is still my favorite singer…so my
family and Chaka Khan.
Your family and Chaka Khan.
Mmm hmm. My brother, my cousin, and Chaka Khan were my three inspirations.
Who was your first real band?
Vibe Element.
I've heard of them.
You have heard of them, right?
I have, actually.
Ah yeah, oh wait, no actually, that was the first band I sang lead in. Big
Band Theory was the first band I sang in in Jacksonville. So the first band I
sang lead in was Vibe Element. And that led to Color Blind. That led
Collective Dream. That led to Arial Tribe. You know.
Are any of the people in Arial Tribe leftover members of the other bands?
Jared, the bass player. He's a relic.
He's great.
Mmm hmm, mmm hmm, he is great. And you know, all of us are different ages,
and we come from different parts of Florida, at least, so there's a lot of
different influences. I'm talking about I'm growing up in the 70s, and their
influences are the 80s, you know. Rock, soul, you know, there's so many
different influences, and I like the whole universality of it.
Right.
I actually wanted that. I wanted a universal band. I didn't look for that, it
happened that way, you know, but I think it shows a good representation.
Especially when it's not put together like, (assumes tone) 'We're trying to
put a big band together, so we're going to audition a bass player, uh, and a
black singer,' it wasn't like that.