Music had always been a part of his life, but for Evan McMillian, it really began to take shape in a new way during his early teens. He would spend most of his time after school in those days listening to music with his uncle, who had schooled him on the lyrics of Bob Dylan, sometimes reciting lines back to him. The moments of discovery that occurred back then turned his mind into a sponge, soaking up everything he had heard and tirelessly searching to find more. During that same period, he had first found the music of Jackson C. Frank, Rayland Baxter, and Justin Townes Earle. It took years after that, for the desire to even pick up guitar occurred, when he was 19. What first began as a guide to learn and further understand his favorite music, that relationship had drastically changed in January 2020, with the passing of a friend. Around that time, he wrote his first song, and by the time he finished writing it, the world had seemed to turn into a frenzy, during the early days of the pandemic. With now a lot of time on his hands, he would retreat to an old summer camp cabin on his family’s property to try and chip away at this newfound love, songwriting, and many of those first songs ended up on his first EP, One Way or Another. Once some open mics began to start up again, he trekked his way out into nearby Cincinnati Ohio to whatever coffee shop or bar that happened to host one on any given night. At that point he started making his rounds in the local music scene and when he wasn’t at a show, he was writing, then after a short period of time, more songs had begun to unveil themselves. This ultimately led to his first full-length record, For A Dreamer, which had chronicled his time during those first few years of writing. As of early 2025, he is working on his second full-length record, Dark & Light. This project will explore the trivialities that occur in our day to day lives, that often go unnoticed.
