We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Evan Volk. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Evan below.

Hi Evan , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

For me, the passion of writing songs had a spark from the very beginning. Sitting on a couch in Canada at ~6am writing a few poems (which would eventually be merged into my first song) on the notes app of my mom’s iPad mini was the start of it all (excluding me learning Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “Can’t Hold Us” by heart). Fast forward a few months, the opportunity to perform at the middle school talent show popped up. Contemplating it, I remember thinking “I REALLY could actually do this…and rap on stage.” Although the performance of my song “Never Give Up” (over a self-produced track off some loop-beat making app I hadn’t used until then) wasn’t the greatest in retrospect (to put it lightly), the middle school I went to (High Tech Middle Media Arts) has a very supportive environment. A group of older kids (8th grade) hyped me up, my mom took photos, my dad said he was proud, it felt amazing. This was a key event in igniting my love for music.

Evan , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an artist born/raised in San Diego, California. I summertime lifeguard at the beach/bay, write/record/mix/master music, and attend San Diego State University for Business. My style’s every-changing and I’m always trying to learn new things, but “Beach Rap” is a term often used for my recent catalog!

One piece I’m proud of is my music video/song “FeetinthaSand!”. Although it’s not the best, I 99% (can never be sure with variety of perspectives in the world lol) guarantee there’s nothing out there like it. It’s a sound (produced by dsktkg) that blends surf rock, punk, and hip hop into one. I also surf and rap simultaneously which was a challenge but ultimately fun hahaha. I edited/directed the video, huge shoutout the homie Claudio for filming.

Another piece that was challenging but fulfilling was my song/music video “Lost at Sea” where the entire music video is based in the middle of the ocean. Although (shoutout Claudio again) we obviously didn’t travel out away from any land, we shot the video and certain angles to make it appear as such. The concept of the video/song was about me metaphorically being “lost as sea” while trying to find myself as a person/artist. Throughout the song lines such as “surfboard covered in kelp and the scent foul, I got bad habits holding on things I should let out/Catch some waves of optimism help unload the tension, in a storm those same waves might hold my stresses, knock me off my board in the waters of old regressions” etc. etc. you get the point. Regardless it was one of the toughest projects I’ve ever set out to complete and I’m happy it’s out for others to enjoy/resonate with.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a kid, I rapped about patience in a negative context. Regarding myself as “impatient” and eager to get after my dreams and ambitions. Growing older, my perspective has changed. I previously pictured patience as waiting around for things to happen, when in reality true patience is exemplified through staying consistent with the grind-and having the patience to maintain that pressure despite plateaus, failures, setbacks, etc..

Although this more a belief rather than a lesson that I was taught, I hope it’s helpful for someone out there reading this!

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

They’re interesting…but I’m definitely not buying any hahah. I still have a lot to learn regarding investing but I know there’s much more reliable areas to put your money. I actually know a guy who’s buddy reportedly sold an NFT to Jay-Z and made a lot off that market. Regardless, there clearly was demand at one point. It almost seems like people are creating a currency and saying “hey, I have only one unit of this currency…and THAT IN ITSELF is what makes it valuable. Oh, also it’s represented as a picture of a-“. I don’t know if that’s the best description, based off my knowledge it has nothing to do with the quality of the art, but who makes/promotes it/the hype around it. All love to the NFT fans out there. If you’ve invested, I hope it works out for ya.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/evanvolk/lost-at-sea
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/711evan_v/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-volk-3302a9291/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@711evan_v
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/volk7
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1p3mo3evjwte64iESiFrQj?si=pbsqwZDFRRGBzDSd8-ILAg
  Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/evan-volk/1489783794

Image Credits

1. Jake Douglas (@jake_douglas9 on IG)
2. Leek Filmz (@officialleekfilmz on IG)
2. Claudio Flynn (@cpflynn04 on IG)
3. Ryan Cook (@program.junkies on IG)
4. DEEP$IDE (@deepside999 on IG)