JEV

By Sean Maldjian, Contributor

Photo by, Marcus Dergosits

Meet Jack Evershed aka JEV

In a new interview, JEV discusses music, inspiration, and pizza. The Lower East Side musician has recently released his mixtape "Talk2Much" which was created with a strong garage influence. JEV shares his funny backflip talent and reveals how he finds inspiration from day-to-day life. The article includes discussions on JEV's favorite pizza toppings, words he loves, and the music scene in New York City.

A self-portrait by, JEV

Would You Rather...

have a clown nose that honks every time you speak or a tutu that makes a sound every time you take a step?

I'd definitely rather have a tutu that makes a sound every time I take a step. I talk waaaaaay too much (hence the name of my Mixtape) to have something honking every time I speak. I think it would drive me crazy. Plus, if a tutu made a sound every time I take a step I could continue to do as I do best and not get up from my chair.

Part 3: Some Questions

WELCOME TO THE BLOG! What’s up? Can you tell us a little more about your project?

Thanks for having me! I am currently living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with my roommate Marc. He does all my graphics/covers/videos etc. He's super talented. JEV has become a bit of a collaborative thing between him and I over the years. Talk2Much is our most ambitious project ever. I knew I wanted to make a mixtape of garage tracks, and when I told Marc this, we proceeded to spend MANY nights working on the whole thing until we thought it looked great and sounded great.

Now that I've listened to it approximately fifty thousand times, I'm confident it's my greatest accomplishment as a musician so far and also something I can definitely improve upon with my next project(s).

Do you have any funny or secret talents you’d be willing to share?

I can do a backflip on the ground. It's awesome but as I get older it starts to hurt more every time I do it...

You're based in New York City, which has a rich and diverse music scene. How has being part of this community influenced the music on “Talk2Much”

I actually made all of Talk2Much in California, but the New York dance scene is something that's influenced a lot of my music moving forward. Have some really cool plans to integrate the city into some of my upcoming releases...

What is a word that does not get used enough?

Love this question. I was speaking to a friend who described something as "totally bizarre" and I just think it's such an awesome way to say weird. It's kind of a simple answer but it just adds so much punch. You see it written down all the time, but hearing someone say something is "bizarre" is awesome.

What music inspires you, and who are some of your biggest influences?

Okay, this one's easy. My biggest influence is probably Disclosure, but I also take a lot of inspiration from artists like MJ Cole, MPH, Skrillex, Flume and I've recently been digging this New Zealand artist called 33 Below. He's a really talented producer. I gravitate towards artists who are making dance music with strong melodies, singable choruses, and some punchy and fun drums but it also has to be a little weird.

How would you build the perfect pizza?

I'm a big meat lover guy. But then again, I say that and then I have a Margarita and I'm thinking the simpler the better. So I'm a little torn because the American in me wants to say "pepperoni, sausage, bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions" but the pizza traditionalist in me wants to say Margarita because I've never met anyone that doesn't like a really good margarita pizza + a lot of times I think overloading your pizza with ingredients has diminishing marginal return.

I guess it depends day to day.

What gear did you find yourself leaning on the most while producing “Talk2Much”?

I have this way of finding inspiration that I really like and I haven't shared before. It was a gear I guess I leaned on quite a bit during the process of making the music for T2M. I like to find super select things that I like from the music I hear in my day-to-day life. Sometimes that inspiration comes from me Shazaming a song I heard in a CVS because I liked one single sound or idea in the track and nothing else. Since I'm VERY limited with the tools I have to make music (I essentially have a computer and headphones, nothing else) I usually want to go into the process of writing a track with a specific idea to explore. The specificity of that idea can get very weird sometimes. For example, on 4U I wanted to build a track with a similar glitch lead to a song I heard from Louis the Child. On DREAMER, I wanted to build a track with a syncopated saxophone lead that didn't turn people away immediately (hoping I succeeded with that) because I heard a cheesy Kenny G song at the mall and thought it would be fun to try.

I did this constantly for Talk2Much because it helps me make a lot of music without running into too much writer’s block.

How do you feel about the reception to your first release Talk2Much” so far?

The reception has been really amazing to see and read. Just today someone from Slovenia sent me a really kind message and it blew my mind. I don't know a single thing about Slovenia. The internet is an incredible tool. I was a little nervous that people would think that I'm an imposter American making British dance music, but I've gotten some really nice messages from listeners in the UK that have definitely made me feel more confident as a creator in that space. I'm really excited to just get out there and make something better now.

Your collaborator Marc did the album artwork for "Talk2Much"? What was the rationale behind it?

Hi, it's Marc! Thanks for having us. When we came together and talked about Talk2Much, Jack already knew what he wanted it to sound like, so we really started talking about what we wanted it to look like and how we wanted it released. We came up with this interesting way of releasing the Mixtape - dispersing the releases over the course of a month with two tracks each week. It was in hopes that we could sort of 'extend' the release excitement over a longer period of time. It also meant I was going to have to make four unique covers. We wanted to have our friends be included on said covers so each week it was a different friend that led up to the full mixtape. For the covers, we wanted to have a different piece of media or entertainment including a web browser, magazine, and a poster all in the same y2k realm. The artwork for "Talk2Much" was pretty different from the other 3 even though it still had some similar elements. We wanted it to really stand out but also look cohesive with the rest of what we were doing.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

Thanks for reaching out to us! Excited to read what you put together and thank you for giving small artists a platform!