Levi Evans Finds The Beauty in Complex Simplicity with “You I Think Of”
Levi Evans, the 23-year-old Irish/American artist has been successfully climbing the hip-hop, indie-alt ladder since his first single release, “Back In My Head Again,” debuting in 2021. Now, the son of U2 guitarist David Evans (aka The Edge) releases another genre-bending single produced with Dublin-based artist CHAMELEON. At just 14-years-old, relocating to the fast-moving city of Los Angeles from the smaller, grey skied city of Dublin showed its troubles - just as it would for any teenager. Growing up surrounded by his musical family, Evans showed interest in music at an early age but his dream was to become an animator. It wasn’t until he recently found a hidden love for ‘90s hip-hop where he began to take his own spin at music production.
“You I Think Of” mixes Evans’ ever-changing styles and sounds into one track. Although he told us he’s still finding his feet in the industry, “You I Think Of” showcases the talented hand Evans has at songwriting and production that will take him to great heights with his career. We’re calling it now, Evans is an artist to look out for. With single releases that feature a stylistic range of multiple artists such as Lucy McWilliams, Garrett Gloom, Huebline and now CHAMELEON - As it’s hard to completely categorise Evans’ music into one genre, he intends not to put himself into a box while creating his music - and it’s paying off.
[UNPUBLISHED]: How old were you when you moved to LA and what was the most challenging aspect to re-locating at such a young age?
[LEVI EVANS]: I was here from 14 and you know, those years you’re really still finding yourself. With the culture, it was hard as it was a big move. Dublin has about 2 million people and I mean Ireland has about 4 million so it took me a while to sort of acclimate culturally.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Did you start playing music while you were still living in Ireland or did you begin to focus more on music once you moved to LA?
[LEVI EVANS]: I always played guitar and piano because my parents sort of put me up to it when I was young, and then, I lived in New York for a little while and was playing trumpet and drums. I was about 8 years old but I never practised, so I did all these little things but never really practised much. So I never really got very good. Then when I moved to Dublin, I kind of forgot about the instruments and I started drawing more so I really wanted to be an animator. I then became that rebellious adolescent and wasn’t doing anything productive. It wasn’t until I was about 16 when I was enrolled in a school here and I had taken a production course, and thought ‘oh this is kind of fun’.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Since you came from a musical family, when growing up did you ever feel a larger pressure to have a career in the music industry?
[LEVI EVANS]: Not at all. I didn’t really think about music as a career until it was time to go to college and even then I didn’t know what I wanted to go to college for. I was getting more serious into music production and being an artist. I lived under a rock for a while and only listened to early ‘90s hip hop. I was just kind of doing that and it was mainly in production. I then dropped out after a semester because I was never a big ‘school person’, it was only until later in life that I decided that I actually wanted to pursue a music career.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I feel like so far, your discography ranges with different styles and sounds, in three words how would you describe your music?
[LEVI EVANS]: I get asked this question a lot and I always forget what I say! I think it’s complex simplicity which is kind of an oxymoron but you know, I think my music is simple but also complex. I’d also say authentic, and I’m pretty emotionally attached to a lot of my songs.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Your new single “You I Think Of” touches on the theme of drifting apart from someone you love - can you elaborate more on your writing process behind these intimate details?
[LEVI EVANS]: I sort of just listen to the music and then the lyrics come to me. A lot of the time, it’s after the fact the song is written where I actually come up with the meaning and where my mind was going because I kind of write in a flowing state. I feel most young adults have experienced that very emotional withdrawal. I’m a very emotional person also, and you know that kind of teenage love that we’ve all sort of had where you love someone but you’re growing apart and you’re kind of both heading in different places? But that’s just the reality of life. I think looking back at this song, it definitely takes from a chapter of my life where I was going through that feeling.
Photo by Louis O'Sullivan
[UNPUBLISHED]: You worked with Dublin-based artist CHAMELEON on this new single, can you walk us through on how that collaboration came to be?
[LEVI EVANS]: I’ve actually known him for a really long time, we went to secondary school together. We knew each other back in the day when I was around 13-14. When I moved to LA, we lost contact, and we weren’t even particularly close, we were acquaintances back then. But going back to Dublin and Dublin being so small, I came back doing music and he’s actually come up as a prolific producer in the up-and-coming Dublin scene. We were friends of friends, and he was coming over to LA where we had worked on some stuff and he ended up staying with me for a few weeks. This was just one of the products that we had come up with while he was out here.
[UNPUBLISHED]: I feel as though the track moves through this genre-bending world of rock, indie, alternative and indie-pop, - how do you feel the production compliments the narrative of the piece itself?
[LEVI EVANS]: I think production wise, as you said, it’s a lot of different genres. For this one, it’s a reflective song and it’s all about this reality that a lot of us face. I think it’s a good vessel for those things because it mixes that theme into the production, which when I think of it in that way it’s exciting.
[UNPUBLISHED]: For your upcoming releases can listeners expect more genre-bending tracks and is there any specific sound that you want to explore more in your writing?
[LEVI EVANS]: I feel like I’m still finding my feet when it comes to what my sound is. I think we’re starting to narrow it down more now, but when I sit down to create, I’m sort of all over the place. There’s going to be more stuff like this one but also more that’s not like that. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.
[UNPUBLISHED]: Out of your complete discography released thus far, if you could pick one song that you feel best compliments who you are as an artist, what would that be?
[LEVI EVANS]: Oh, man, that's a hard one. I have my favourite songs where I feel “Lay Low” is a good mesh between all of the styles that I’m doing. But I also love “Numbers,” so I’d pick those two songs.
