PRESS RELEASE:EVAN O. ADAMS DEBUTS A POWERFULLY IRREVERENT SOUND ON “OF FEELINGS AND FICTION”
New York, NY – December 9, 2022
Cmntx Records announces ‘of Feelings and Fiction,’ the debut album from composer, guitarist, and label co-founder Evan O. Adams. This album finds Adams at a watershed moment in his career, stepping out from his contemporary classical background and into distinctly personal sound steeped in progressive rock, jazz-fusion, and absurdity.
Adams embraces polystylism through a post-genre approach, shifting and inserting idioms within a single song, work, or moment. His music is about discovery - of self, taste, style, and what works - and the attempted abandonment of ego. As a co-founder of Cmntx Records, his guitar playing can be heard throughout the Cmntx catalog, and his touch as a producer can be heard on Lena Ruth’s debut ‘Hold My Threads.’
Adams describes this music as a longing for belonging: “I’ve spent most of my music-making career in the classical and new music realm - “concert music” as it has been called, or more ridiculously, “serious music.” Truthfully I’ve never been that serious, nor have I been concert - it was a world that I never really felt I belonged in, musically or friendship-wise. Ultimately, I’ve never really felt like I belonged in general. It seems my whole life I’ve been playing tourist across multiple friend groups and situations, never really landing anywhere for long.”
The album is divided into three storylines, each in three acts: the Unknown arc (Sink, Unknown, The Truth), an expression of feeling like you don’t fit in; the Loverboy arc (Little Eyes of Scarlet Blue, Loverboy, Loverboy II) explores difficulties in forming romantic relationships; and the Life arc (Where I’ve Been, 16 Years, I Want Off This Ride) is about the difficulties that come with just trying to be a human. Adams goes on: “Before you ask, yes I’m fine. The topics aren’t the happiest, but I do think they are relatable for a lot of people and are things many of us have ruminated on at some point. I’ve injected some of my own experiences throughout (as is natural, I guess) but in general these narratives are fictional exaggerations of grounded feelings.”
Adams is the composer and lyricist of the entire project, performing guitars throughout, with brief stints on bass and ukulele bass. In a new venture for him, he also sings lead vocals. He is joined on vocals by frequent collaborators Lena Ruth and Michael Denis O’Callaghan and two old bandmates, Madison and Jordan Skinner who now perform as Jaye Madison. The rhythm section features rising star bassist Gui Duvignau and drummer Steve McArdle, quickly becoming somewhat of a house drummer for Cmntx Records. ‘Loverboy’ features a string section of NYU classmates, Yaz Lancaster (violin), Harper Randolph (viola), and Dorothy Carlos (cello). Finally, Adams is joined by horn players Michael Denis O’Callaghan (trumpet) and Blake Opper (tenor saxophone). The album was mixed by label co-founder Dan Langa, mastered by Toshihisa Tsuruoka at Ecotone Lab, engineered by Alex Gray at Dunvagen Music and the musicians, and the album art by Brittany Hayden.
is available for purchase on Bandcamp and is streaming everywhere now. For more information, visit cmntxrecords.com/records/of-feelings-and-fiction.
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