I wish Owen Evans was my dad. That's it. Thats the entire intro.
Rapid-fire Questions
1. What have you been listening to lately?
Magnetic Fields
2. What is the opposite of Coldplay?
Hot work (someone read my tweet!)
3. If you could do a wrestlers entrance song, which wrestler would you pick?
Undertaker
4. Can you give my friend Taylor your worst piece of advice?
Compare yourself to others constantly
5. Do you think you could beat up Mr. Bean?
Hell no. Rowan Atkinson has got to be secretly swol.
6. What has been the best concert that you’ve been to?
Deerhoof, most likely
7. Favorite AJJ member?
It’s all good
8. Any bands that we should check out?
Carol Cleveland Sings
9. Can you write a song about Ray Romano?
With enough research
10. Who would win in a pickup game? The Phoenix Suns, or all of the characters that Joaquin Phoenix has played?
Suns
___________________________________________
Born Loser Magazine: To start off, can you introduce yourself?
Owen (Roar): Me llamo Owen
BL: Can you give us a little background on how Roar started?
Owen: I wanted a moniker for my songwriting and I picked the least google-friendly one. I was in a band called Asleep In The Sea, and when that project ended I wanted to have a “band” that couldn’t break up. I’m not very prolific, so when I do complete a song, I’m fairly precious about it. When a band stays together it’s nothing short of miraculous to me.
BL: You’ve been making music for a while. Before streaming services were as prominent as they are now. In your opinion, what are some downsides and upsides that you’ve seen as streaming platforms became one of the biggest sources for music consumption?
Owen: One can instantly decide, “I want to learn everything I possibly can about (insert specific sub genre),” and complete that in a few dedicated hours. More access for more people to more art seems like a good thing. It does make something that often requires an immense amount of work, easily expendable.
BL: Why did I phrase that last question like an essay question?
Owen: I’ll try to get over it.
BL: Are you aware that your song ‘I can’t handle change’ is viral on tiktok? What are your feeling on that?
Owen: I am aware. It’s pretty funny to see it. From what I can tell the song mostly represents melodrama, which is funny and v appropriate. I’ll take love wherever I can get it though. I feel grateful.
BL: What do you like to do when you’re not writing or recording?
Owen: I’m a full-time, single dad who is attempting to home school, so that takes almost all of my time. I love building electronics though when my kid is asleep. My son and I have been doing disc golf a little, hiking, planting seeds for an indoor garden, swimming, reading, nintendoing. I love to cook. Maybe this reads like a dating profile.
BL: What is your favorite part of the music process?
Owen: Recording is really fun for me. Watching something begin to take shape and helping it along is exciting. I think there’s a feeling of almost limitless potential when recording or even thinking about recording. I think writing and producing go alongside that.
BL: I hate asking cliche questions like ‘What is your writing process”, but I’m genuinely interested because you have interesting melodies and chord progressions.
Owen: I just sit (or stand) with an instrument and hum nonsense words while trying to change chords in a way that’s interesting for me. If I do that for a few hours, often something small will come out of it. I record the part on my phone and do it some more. I collect a bunch of these small things and sort through them, matching them appropriately. I’ve lately been trying to take one idea and expand on that instead of being quite as piecemeal. My lack of attention span causes me to struggle with organizing things though. The hard part is fitting lyrics overtop. All my songwriter buddies, unless lyrics are “their thing” tend to struggle with lyrics too. Lyrics are often the thing I can’t force with any amount of work. I find myself having to just sort of sit around patiently with an idea in my head and just meditate on it. I could certainly stand to write more. Reading is important. Honestly, every time I finish writing a song I feel a kind of amnesia where I can’t understand how I did it or how I’ll be able to do it again in the future. Most good songwriters I know suffer from this imposter syndrome, existential problem intermittently. It’s been helpful to realize that it passes and will come back again too.
BL: What is the thing you focus on the most when writing a song?
Owen: Chords and melody. When I hear certain combinations of chords and melody in a song, it feels as though someone is playing my soul like an instrument.
BL: What has been the most challenging thing about pursuing a
Owen: I accidentally deleted part of this. My bad.
BL: What motivates you or pushes you to continue making music?
Owen: It’s just all exploring. If you’re free to explore as you like, then I can’t imagine how it would not be stimulating in some way. I don’t really think I’ve ever thought about being motivated by something. Making music or art in some way is just something I can’t picture NOT doing.
BL: What has been your favorite show experience?
Owen: My old band was opening for this band (The Spinto Band) in 2005 at Modified Arts, and I had no idea what they sounded like or what to expect. Almost every single song they played floored me. We’ve since maintained a pretty solid friendship. I would count it as one of the more important shows based on its sustained impact on my life.
BL: What is your least favorite show experience?
Owen: After being sober for 4 years, I can say that I regret playing drunk and sloppy prior to that. It’s embarrassing.
BL: What are you currently working on?
Owen: New tunes!
BL: What can we expect from Roar in the future?
Owen: New tunes!
BL: To wrap things up, do you have anything you want our readers to know?
Owen: Everyone has value! If you’re able to show another being kindness, you inherently have value. All humans and even some animals are capable of this. Maybe this is too earnest, but I feel like it’s important.
Listen to Roar Here
Keep Up With Roar Here
Keep Up With Us Here
Thats it. Stop reading. Leave me alone. Go away.
