Will of the People, Part II
Guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich details what it’s like to add additional color and shadings to the guitar work being done onstage every night by Styx’s ace guitar tandem of James “JY” Young and Tommy Shaw.
Text & photos by Mike Mettler, resident Styxologist
Band photos by Jason Powell
“You do always want to make things better. You don’t want to be the parsley on the plate — like, ‘Oh, who cares?’ You gotta try to do everything you can.” —Will Evankovich
Hello my fellow Stygians, one and all!! We trust your 2022 continues to be on an upward trajectory! We also acknowledge the deep-seated meaning behind today’s national holiday, which recognizes the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and we continue to reflect upon what his life’s work and teachings mean to each and every one of us, to this very day.
In addition to all that, we continue to feel very excited about the year-long celebration of Styx’s 50th anniversary, which has already seen our favorite band play a number of en fuego gigs to date. Naturally, if you want to see any of that tantalizing live Styx action yourself, just head on over to our Tour section to see what shows are already slated for the year ahead. (More dates will be forthcoming, of course, so stay tuned!)
As we noted in this space last week, to assist in getting 2022 off on the right foot, we duly commenced a brand-new interview series with Styx’s newest bandmember, guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich. Not only has Will been guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw’s key songwriting collaborator for the past decade or so, he’s also been the man in the producer’s chair for Styx’s two most recent studio albums, June 2017’s The Mission and June 2021’s Crash of the Crown.
Recently, Will and I got on Zoom together to share a good number of hours covering a variety of Styx-related topics, ranging from how important recognizing the 50th anniversary of the band is to what his current impressions of COTC are and how much joy he gets by way of playing music from the new album live alongside his fellow bandmates, night after night.
Last week, in the inaugural installment of this series, Will and I discussed what it was like getting back on the road after an extended break, how it feels to be an acknowledged member of the band, and what vintage Styx songs he’d love to see played this year if possible. This week, we talk about the extra punch Will’s been able to add to longtime setlist favorites, how he approaches taking a supporting role when it’s called for, and how he responds to the give-and-take vibe that exists between his fellow guitarists onstage.
Mike Mettler: We were just talking about the songs Styx were focusing on in preparation for the live sets you guys are performing at the outset of 2022. Since you played 70 or so live shows in 2021, do you feel any of the pure catalog stuff — as in, the hits, and the other songs that were in the setlist before you started adding in material from Crash of the Crown — has evolved differently, now that you’re onstage performing them fulltime with the band? Have you been able to add something new to a song that’s been played live countless amounts of times?
Will Evankovich: Well, you might have to ask Tommy about that (laughs), but my role is to find the place where what I do would best support the song. Sometimes that means doubling Tommy, and sometimes that means doubling JY [i.e., co-founding vocalist/guitarist James “JY” Young].
Or, it might mean creating — as we’ve done in “Man in the Wilderness” [one of Tommy’s main showcase tracks from July 1977’s The Grand Illusion], where Tommy plays acoustic, and James plays the main riff. [Will vocalizes JY’s riff.] For a while, I was doubling it, and James was like (says in booming JY voice), “We don’t need that doubled! Why don’t you play some big chords?” I went, “You mean like this?” [Will plays some big “Wilderness”-like chords on the guitar he has in his lap.]
What I’m adding is thickness, and I’m also enhancing and augmenting what they have — and I think it’s working pretty well. Everyone says it’s bigger. As Charlie [Brusco, Styx’s manager] says, “When [Lynyrd] Skynyrd went down to two guitar players, I thought everything kinda got thinner.”
Mettler: That’s true. And you really do want that extra layer — that extra punch, that extra kick — the stuff that’s already there in the original recordings.
Evankovich: Yeah. In all these recordings, especially with Crash of the Crown, there are even double guitars doubling each other! There’s a lot of stuff going on in Crash. We violated the Styx rule of, “It should sound like five guys playing it,” because there’s a lot more production going on. And with the new stuff, everyone’s got a role to play — including me — and it acts as a support for the whole thing.
For the hits part of the set, some of it doesn’t necessarily need it, and some of it is augmented by it. I’m just happy that it seems to be working, you know?
Mettler: I do know, yeah! The added element you bring to it all really makes an impact, in my opinion. One of my touchpoints for realizing that came back in January 2020, when you were originally scheduled to just play the Mission shows on the West Coast. But everyone recognized right away that you really needed to be out there on that whole two-week run, because all the colors you were adding made everything in the set you were playing on that much better. I mean, who knew? (chuckles) Well, of course, we all kinda knew at the time — even if we didn’t “know” it, if that makes sense. The bottom line is, you were always trying to make everything better — and it showed.
[Your Styxologist clarifies: The string of Styx dates we’re referring to here ran from January 10, 2020, at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix, to January 19, 2020, at the Pearl at The Palms in Las Vegas — or seven public shows, all told.]
Evankovich: Well, thanks. You do always want to make things better. You don’t want to be the parsley on the plate — like, “Oh, who cares?” You gotta try to do everything you can.
For example, our sound engineer, Cookie [Chris “Cookie” Hoff], said, “If you listen to the original version of ‘Too Much Time [on My Hands’], there’s some weird, flanged kind of clean guitar part going on . . .” [Will plays the song’s signature riff on his guitar] — and that guitar’s playing along with the keyboard! I never really noticed it but it is done with the guitar, so I said, “Well, I’ll do that! No one’s doing that, so I’ll do that.”
And once you add that into the live mix, suddenly, it sounds more “authentic,” and more like the original recording.
Mettler: Yes! And that’s a perfect example of something being fattened up, thanks to you — and that makes it a lot cooler too, I’d say.
Evankovich: And it frees — sometimes, it frees JY from just playing the basic rhythm parts, to be the great JY. He’s got these amazing, flashy riffs that he’s always doing in a [Jimi] Hendrix-y way. And that’s what people come to the show to see — that. The rhythm parts — yeah, they need to be there, but you also want that guy to be free over the top to do what he does best.
Mettler: Yeah, because sometimes it felt like JY was somehow “containing” himself in that area, if I can put it in that way. Like, “Ok, this is what the song calls for here, and I have to be the one to do it.” But now, in you, the band has their own Malcolm Young, so to speak — if you don’t mind me calling you that. (Will laughs heartily) I mean, you’re Malcolm when you need to be — or even like Tom Fogerty, for example — because every band needs “that guy” to handle that role. But you get your own moments too. I’m not downplaying what you do at all, because you do get to step out front sometimes too.
[Your Styxologist clarifies: Malcolm Young, older brother of lead guitarist Angus Young, was the linchpin rhythm guitarist in AC/DC until he left the band due to health reasons in 2014, and he subsequently passed away in 2017. Tom Fogerty, the older brother of lead guitarist/vocalist John Fogerty, was the rhythm guitarist in Creedence Clearwater Revival. He passed away in 1990.]
Evankovich: Oh yeah, and they’re both great about that. A lot of times, James will be like, “You take this. You do the two-part guitar solo with Tommy.”
Mettler: I like how everybody gets a chance to shine on the frontline like that.
Evankovich: I’ve never really been the kind of guy who goes (puts on cheesy grin), “Hey, everybody — it’s me!!” I’m really into supporting the song.
Next week: Our man Will E shares even more firsthand insider info about being a fulltime member of our favorite band in Year 50! See y’all right back here in 7 days!!
