Evan Barlow
BIO
Evan Barlow is soon to be recognized as one of the most creative artists of the millennial age, boldly shattering genre-meshing barriers to put out a new sound that mixes Hip-Hop, Pop, Rock and everything in between, described as “Music of the day after tomorrow.”
In 1991, Evan Barlow was born in a small rural town in Virginia called Frog Level. Evan spent most of his childhood back and forth from the country to the city of Richmond, VA due to his parents divorcing at an early age. In his youth, he excelled in everything from basketball to baseball, until he got involved with drugs. “I just loved the feeling of not having to feel,” Evan says. “I loved that I could take all my pain away with just one pill, which eventually turned into two, then three and so on. Eventually I was sticking needles in my arm every hour just to feel normal. Well, what I thought was normal anyway.” Furthermore, Evan said, “Growing up I had no idea what I wanted to be. I always knew I just wanted to make people laugh and be happy. I was always the class clown or the one doing crazy stuff to get attention. I knew I had a talent for rhyming at a young age, but just never took it seriously because I thought there was no hope for someone from a small town like me. Then once I got clean in 2012, I realized I had a hell of a story, I can rap and I’m good at it. So I decided to put my story on paper and start taking my rap career seriously.”
Evan was first exposed to Hip-Hop at the young age of 11 by listening to Tupac’s Greatest Hits album, and was instantly hooked. Meanwhile, Evan’s father was a huge Elvis Presley fan, so the budding star would come home to hear Elvis and Lynyrd Skynyrd blasting. The contrasting genres would inspire Evan to experiment with his piano and guitar, thus allowing him to envision music on a major level. Evan reflects asking himself “If I put my story to a beat, what would happen? Once I finally found my voice, there was no stopping me,” he said.
In September 2013, Evan met a producer named Andrew Hypes at Sam Ash, a music store in Richmond, VA where Andrew was employed. Later that evening, Evan invited Andrew to his house to go over his production work and they clicked right away. From there Andrew became Evan’s main producer and live DJ. Andrew’s production credits range from Mad Skillz, Nappy Roots, French Montana and more. The following year, Evan flew to Seattle, WA to work with Ouwor Arunga and Greg Kramer from Macklemore’s camp, which allowed him backstage access to Macklemore, studio time with Ryan Lewis, and a chance to speak on his drug addiction and recovery with Macklemore. Evan Barlow has performed with Diplo, Travis Scott, 50 Cent, Pusha T, G-Unit, Lil Dicky, Dizzy Wright, Caskey, Mike Stud, Waka Flocka, August Alsina, Rico Love, Mack Wilds, Sean Paul, Pharrell Williams, Daya and Rotimi. He has played shows in Atlanta, New York, Rhode Island, Florida, and all over the East Coast. He’s also worked with Grammy Winning producer Bink Dog. In 2014, he was named Top 3 in Richmond Style Weekly Magazine and a Top 10 Artist on the DMV’s area website, dmvlife.com.
“I describe my music as meaningful, powerful, feel good music (for the most part) and it’s however I feel at the time I’m writing,” the Virginia native says. “I like to think I’m very diverse and the music the people haven’t even heard yet, will prove that more and more.” From influences stretching from Justin Timberlake to Tupac and 112, Evan Barlow is truly a one of a kind Hip-Hop artist. Growing up in a household where Lynyrd Skynyrd was the record of choice, to finding a 112 CD in his cousin’s room and falling in love with it, it’s obvious why Evan’s sound is so different. There aren’t many people who can say their iPod goes from “Sweet Home Alabama” to “Peaches And Cream.” If you put Elvis Presley, Kendrick Lamar, Timberlake and Timbaland in a blender, then you’d have a tall glass of Evan Barlow.
About his new project “FABRICS:”
“We named my upcoming project ‘Fabrics’ because fabrics, distinct from textile materials are the basic structure of something. And for my project I chose not to be limited to an ideology that my music had to fit a certain format or sound. So Music in general was the basic structure of this project, not the format of the music,” he explains. The East Coast artist says his fans can expect an unexpected sound on this body of work. “What makes ‘Fabrics’ unique is the genre-crossing. We have straight up Hip-Hop tracks, transitioning into alternative tracks, raw rapping, then melodic singing. The song ‘Left Hand Jump’ has an Alt-J, mixed with a House of Pain sample, underlined by Nirvana. That’s unique in itself,” the rising star explains.
Evan worked with an incredible group of artists on “Fabrics,” including the talented producer Bink (Kanye West, Jay Z), the phenomenal Pop Wansel Producers Some Randoms, Chally who is signed to Timbaland, Macklemore’s horn players Greg Kramer and Ouwor Arunga, as well as Andrew Hypes, Will Perry and more. “A lot of key people here. Also, just the fact we did what we weren’t supposed to and risked being washed out with the people who have no image. The whole point of ‘Fabrics’ was to not have an image. We wanted to see how far we could run with not sticking to one genre,” Evan unveils.