Will of the People, Part III
Dissecting the ins and outs of the creative process and how ideas come to pass and begin to get developed with the always-forward-thinking newest member of Styx, guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich.
Text & photos by Mike Mettler, resident Styxologist
Band photos by Jason Powell
“I like giving the audience the experience that it’s live, it’s new, and there’s some new stuff that may happen here — but the fundamentals are in place so you recognize everything, and it’s all familiar to you.” —Will Evankovich
Hello friends! It’s certainly a truly exciting week ahead in the wide world of Styx, what with the band debuting a run of five shows at The Venetian Theatre at (of course) The Venetian in Las Vegas, with special guest Nancy Wilson (of Heart fame) in tow. All of these shows are scheduled to occur between January 28 and February 5, and while we can’t give anything away here, rest assured Styx and Nancy have been working on some amazing things for what’s to come, starting this Friday.
Speaking of Styx plying their trade on the planks, if you want to see any of the band’s upcoming gigs yourself, just mosey on over to our Tour section to see what shows are already on the books for the year ahead. (Naturally, more dates will be forthcoming, so stay tuned!)
While The Venetian shows remain very much top of mind, we continue to forge straight on into 2022 — which also happens to denote Styx’s 50th anniversary year — by way of our ongoing, all-new interview series with Styx’s newest bandmember, guitarist/vocalist Will Evankovich. Will has, of course, been guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw’s key songwriting collaborator for the past decade or so, and he’s also been the main man in the producer’s chair for Styx’s two most recent, and quite spectacular, studio albums, June 2017’s The Mission and June 2021’s Crash of the Crown.
Not too long ago, Will and I got on Zoom together to share quite a few hours conferring over a good number of Styx-related topics, ranging from how important recognizing the aforementioned 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, Will and I talked about the extra punch he’s been able to add to longtime Styx setlist favorites, how he approaches taking on a supporting role whenever it’s called for, and how he responds to the give-and-take vibe that exists between his fellow guitarists onstage. This week, we discuss more about the finer aspects of recreating the depth of studio recordings onstage, the kinds of challenges artists and content creators constantly face, and what topic areas may (or may not) become the basis for the next Styx album — once it eventually gets underway, that is.
Mike Mettler: We were just talking about how you’ve been able to enhance the guitar parts usually split between Tommy and JY [co-founding guitarist/vocalist James “JY” Young] onstage, or get to add in some elements that were on the original recordings that haven’t really been played live by anyone else much at all, if ever — and sometimes, you even get to step out and take some leads too.
Will Evankovich: Like you, Mike, I’m a record fiend, and I’ve always appreciated great recordings and great production. And I always thought [legendary prog band] Yes did a great job of recreating those classic records pretty faithfully, live. I really appreciate that. It wasn’t like seeing a version of a band where you go, “They sound nothing like the recording! They’ve gone so far off script that what they’re doing on this song is almost unrecognizable,” you know?
So, I like giving the audience the experience that it’s live, it’s new, and there’s some new stuff that may happen here — but the fundamentals are in place so you recognize everything, and it’s all familiar to you.
Mettler: And it’s very much appreciated, believe me. I mean, how many times have we all gone to see a live show and thought, “Wait a minute, something’s a bit off here”? But any time we go see Styx, it’s the exact opposite of that.
Or, like whenever you went to see a band like Rush, for example — there were only three guys ever in that band [i.e., bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist/background vocalist Alex Lifeson, and drummer Neil Peart], but they always went out of their way to recreate the sounds you heard on their records, which were more often than not exceedingly complex. You’d watch them play their instruments, sing, and hit all the triggers on their footpedals — and you’d still go, “How did they do all that??” I saw Rush live countless times over the years, and it still amazes me anytime I watch them on video.
Evankovich: I know! And he [Geddy Lee] was using those Taurus pedals back in the ’70s too [i.e., the Moog Taurus bass-pedal synthesizer]. Yeah, truly amazing.
And then you’ve got Styx, adding the seventh guy. . . (chuckles heartily)
Mettler: Well, yeah, but every band has to do it their own way. And you, sir, are totally allowed, because you’re the producer on a lot of this stuff. I mean, you produced two stellar Styx albums in a row [June 2017’s The Mission and June 2021’s Crash of the Crown], after all — so, well, no pressure onstage, or anything. (chuckles)
Evankovich: Well, thank you, but I’m just honored to be here with the band I worked so hard with on those two records. I’m part of it now. I always felt part of it before, but it’s really . . . (slight pause) Yeah, it’s awesome. I’m now in the band.
Mettler: You are — and that’s why they have your name in the credits! (both laugh) But anyway! How does it feel to have produced one of the best, and best-received, albums of 2021, with Crash of the Crown?
Evankovich: It’s an honor. You know, I can’t believe we were able to pull it off twice! (laughs heartily) I mean, at least it’s something we’re all happy with. I’m really elated that you love it, and that other people love it.
Mettler: COTC is truly at that top level of albums — and you know I’d immediately tell you if it wasn’t.
Evankovich: I’m grateful. It’s a little bit fearsome. When you have a successful record that you love like The Mission, the scary part is the encore.
And now, we’re kind of faced with the same “problem,” if you will — you know, the dream is to have a trilogy, and at least make three great records in a row.
Mettler: You’ll get there. You’re all on the right path, as far as I’m concerned.
Evankovich: Thanks. We’ve messed around with a few ideas, but we really haven’t gotten there yet. But as Tommy said recently, “We’re not in a hurry. When it happens, it’ll happen.” And when that time comes, that’s when we’ll get it going.
Mettler: Yeah — and besides, there are so many other “immediate” things you’re all dealing with right now along with what else is already slated in 2022, so why force it? It comes when it comes. When ideas happen, they happen. It’s something creative people recognize quite well. When the idea hits you, that’s the time it comes out — and you can’t “make it happen,” as much as you might want to. And we know when people are forcing it, by the way. We can always tell.
Evankovich: Yes, we sure can! (both laugh)
But now that you bring that up, in all seriousness, that is the biggest issue, because the storyline of Crash of the Crown was essentially a prequel to The Mission. But now, if we are going to do the third act, it’s going to have to be something like, “Well, are we going to sing about aliens now?” (both laugh heartily)
Mettler: It will certainly be an interesting path you have to figure out for what’s next, that’s for sure. For example, I really like some of the forward-looking visuals in the lyric video for [COTC’s] “Sound the Alarm,” because it brings together a lot of these earth-to-space concepts together. I know we’ve already spoken about that National Geographic TV series called Mars — the one that brings a lot of those “what happens next” concepts together — so we actually see how we have to figure out what to do realistically as a society that might be living together on another planet. We’ve still got a lot to figure out on this planet, but Mars shared ideas about how we’d function in a potentially post-Earth world. [Mars ran for two seasons on NatGeo, between 2016-2018.]
Evankovich: Right, yeah! Exactly.
Mettler: I mean, you probably won’t be singing about aliens, but you might have to figure out how we live after certain events happen — as in, what you literally have to do once you get past the end of The Mission. Now that you’ve completed that journey, what do you do next? As writers, it’s easy to write about the journey itself and the fellowship of everyone who goes through it, but many of those writers don’t know how to write about what happens next, after the credits roll. That’s the more interesting part to me, because that’s something that is just not very well-written at all.
Evankovich: Right. It’s a new adventure of sorts — and that’s what we do. We create a whole new other destination for a whole new other, quote-unquote, “mission.”
Mettler: New Adventures in Hi-Fi! Oh wait, you can’t use that title. . . (both continue laughing heartily)
Evankovich: You’re so right about that! (more laughter)
Next week: The ever-illustrious Will E continues to give us all the fine, fine details about his journey as the newest member of Styx. See y’all right back here in 7 days!!
