11/10/2024
A recent collaborator with our Friday headliner, Charles Wesley Godwin, this week's first spotlight hits an ever-emerging indie artist that brings his upbeat, folk-Americana style - and two close friends - to DCMH this Thursday ๐ค
๐ค: ๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐ง ๐ฌ/ ๐จ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ช๐๐จ๐ฉ๐จ ๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐ฉ. ๐
๐ค๐๐ฃ + ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐จ
โน๏ธ: Nov 14 | Doors at 7pm // Show at 8pm
๐: t.ly/EvanHoner_Scope24
Evan Honer was still a college student in Southern California when his music โ a mix of acoustic folk, indie-Americana, and alternative pop, delivered by a young songwriter who's never been afraid to blur the boundaries between genres โ began earning a global audience.
It happened fast. One minute, he was uploading performance videos to social media with little response. The next, he was a viral success, earning 50 million streams with his version of the Tyler Childers deep cut "Jersey Giant" and building a following with his original music, too. On graduation day, Honer released West On I-10, a debut album that quickly led to collaborations with Liam St. John, Wyatt Flores, Vincent Mason, and more, as well as sold-out shows across America and Europe.
That whirlwind period is captured on his newest release, Fighting For. Co-produced by Honer with longtime collaborators Stephen Myers and Jon Notar, it's a coming-of-age record that asks hard questions and offers no easy answers. Instead, it embraces the conflicting swirl of emotions that come with early adulthood, from exhilaration to uncertainty. "I'm still figuring out what I'm fighting for," Honer says, speaking with the unguarded honesty that's already turned songs like "idk s**t about cars" into anthems for fans across the world. "I don't have things together yet, but I'm staying in the game. I'm still here, even when I'm still falling apart."
That last line also shows up in "Easier," one of several new songs that place Honer's vulnerabilities on full display. "I thought by now I'd like to read; I thought by now I'd get some sleep," he sings during the track's cinematic chorus, singing at the very top of his range, railing against the adulthood realities that don't measure up to his expectations. On the album's opener, "Nowhere Fast," he measures the distances between society's expectations of a young man โ "I'll check the boxes that you need, I'll cut my hair, get my degree, have it all figured out by twenty-three," goes one of the sarcastic verses โ and the need to chase down his own horizon. When he sings "I'm going nowhere fast" during each chorus, it feels less like resignation and more like a battle cry from someone who refuses to let his own future be decided by others.
Fighting For captures the zeitgeist of 20something life during the 2020s. It's a soundtrack for young adults navigating the long road from past to present, looking to make some sense of the relationships, regrets, and romances they encounter along the way. Appropriately, Honer recorded the album on the move, finding small windows of time between gigs to capture these songs in small studios, churches, living rooms, and even Air Bnbs. He had opportunities to do things differently, of course โ including seven-figure offers from virtually every major record label, along with Grammy-winning producers vying to work with a young musician who'd already earned 200 million streams on his own โ but that didn't appeal to Honer. He... // ๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐จ๐๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐๐ง ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐จ๐๐๐ก๐ค๐ค๐จ๐ (๐ญ๐ญ/๐ญ๐ฐ) - ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ง๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐๐ข + ๐จ๐ฅ๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ช๐๐จ๐ฉ๐จ, ๐๐๐๐ข ๐๐ฉ. ๐
๐ค๐๐ฃ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐จ - ๐๐ฉ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ ๐ค๐ช๐ง ๐๐๐ค ๐ฒ
