Bright and hazy, ‘Echoes at Dawn’ sparks a new creative era for American talent Evan Charles. Known for his meaningful and evocative forays into alt-country, the Austin-based singer and songwriter drew the attention of a large audience with his 2023 album ‘Between Two Worlds’. After a short hiatus, he’s now back with the aforementioned single, ‘Echoes at Dawn’, a nugget of uplifting energy still carrying the project’s usual pathos.
Placing heightened attention on kaleidoscopic synth matter and a playful piano, the record sees Evan widening his sonic references; of course, his vocals remain as earthy and gritty as they always were, still delivering a wholesome country and Americana flair. In that regard, ‘Echoes at Dawn’ flourishes on the constant contrast between modern production and Charles’ nostalgic songwriting. Co-produced by Jonas Wilson and Ricky Ray Jackson, the track also anticipates an upcoming album.
Intrigued by the project, we caught up with the Texan creative to learn more about his artistry and future goals… Interview below!
Hey Evan, how is it going? Thanks for chatting with us! Before we dive into your latest release, ‘Echoes at Dawn’, I’d be keen to know how 2025 is treating you. How’s making art in such a gloomy, problematic reality? I guess it’s a good time to get lost in introspection and escapism…
Hey, great to meet you, thank you for having me on. This year has been, as ever, a blend of pushing creative projects into existence while watching some seriously heinous things go on in our society, and then balancing all of the balance-needing aspects of my personal life and (non-artistic) work life. But to the specific point about making art, that has been wonderful. This will be a year in which my second solo LP gets released, as well as the debut EP of my new power pop/punk band The Let Down. By the way, I say “my”, but there’s another main songwriter and a very democratic arrangement process, which has been such a breath of fresh air from being the only main shot caller.
Your current work is the result of a long journey; What first drew you to making music?
Well, if we’re going all the way to the beginning, we had choir at my elementary school, in middle school I played clarinet while also taking piano lessons for about a year and a half. I traded those out for the acoustic guitar when I was 14. My dad had found one that was cheap but easy to play so that he could maybe learn to accompany himself, as he loved to sing and always had a song in his head. That half-hearted quixotic notion ended once I got my hands on it. After maybe a year and a half of learning Dylan and Beatles and White Stripes, one of my best friends who played bass (same guy who’s in The Let Down with me now, in fact) asked if I’d come play guitar at their school jam club. From there, my first band was formed.
Let’s focus on ‘Echoes at Dawn’. As mentioned, the single takes the Evan Charles brand into brighter, more eclectic territories, marking a shift from your previous album ‘Between Two Worlds’. Is there a reason why you embraced more synth-powered tones?
I think there’s an element of just change for the sake of change, but of course, it’s not that simple. Between Two Worlds was very intentionally a pretty straight Americana record that we did with a group of five musicians ‘on the floor’, as we say, meaning that we cut everything (or, almost everything) live in the studio at the same time, playing together. I had demoed all of those songs out by myself during the early part of the pandemic, so I think there was a degree to which playing with people sounded very appealing.
I also wanted to challenge myself to capture a full band’s live energy, vocals and all, on one of my records, which anyone who’s made a few records will know is not necessarily the typical way of doing things. But even on those demos for Between Two Worlds, I had been incorporating my newly acquired Micro Korg into some of the arrangements.
When the opportunity to make what would become Echoes at Dawn came up, it was an unexpected window that opened…and I swear I am getting to why, methodologically, this record sounds like it does. But about a month after Between Two Worlds came out, in September 2023, I was in West Texas for the Trans Pecos Festival of Music and Love and my wife and I were staying the first night with my friend Ricky Ray Jackson and his girlfriend Kate. Beyond being an old friend, Ricky is a longtime member of Phosphorescent and a slightly more recent member of Will Johnson’s band, and prior to that, spent six years in Steve Earle and the Dukes.
We were sitting outside listening to the recently released Will Johnson record No Ordinary Crown, which he had played on, and while absorbing those sounds, he mentioned that he would be interested in producing my next record. The only problem was I had just blown all my money on recording and releasing my last record ONE MONTH PRIOR.
That was not a problem for him, but the hiring of other musicians was going to have to be done very selectively. So the plan was always to use drum machines (more than we ended up with), and yes, synths, so that I could accomplish much of the composing at home, and basically, make a lush, multi-layered, artsy record more or less on the cheap. We ended up getting started in February 2024.
From a lyrical point of view, what does ‘Echoes at Dawn’ mean to you? What should the listeners look out for?
Well, lyrically… I have sort of a grand and ambitious notion of what this record is about, which I am almost reticent to dive too deeply into lest I colour anyone’s interpretation too heavily. In short, I see this full length record as a journey through the seasons of life, from birth to death, from Spring to Winter, with a bit of Summer romance in the second quarter and an Autumnal awakening of the soul in the third quarter, when people, things, and ego begin evaporating from the narrator’s life, until he himself evaporates at the very end.
Echoes at Dawn – the single – it’s the first track on the record, and is essentially a strange birth into a strange world. There’s an element of deja vu, or maybe of almost working backwards from the center of a maze to get back to the great unknown, where you came from. I think as a writer I also have a bit of a fixation with trying to pierce the veil of reality, and nudge anyone listening away from fixed notions or dogmatism, which is what the bridge of “stare down the barrel of your own eye/tear down a sterile compromise” is all about.
I think as humans we have such broad potential if we can engage our imaginations, and since Echoes at Dawn is the beginning of the record and the beginning of a new consciousness in the framework of the meta narrative of the record, in that regard it’s the song with perhaps the most wide open potential on the record.
Can you guide us through your creative process, in terms of production and writing? Do you prefer working alone or within a team? Is there a specific producer that’s relevant to your aural journey so far?
I pretty much always start by hearing changes and melody, and an overall mood setting, in my mind, and that becomes the goal that I’m after, and my musical and lyrical explorations are sort of able to orbit that thread towards that end point. Chords, lyrics, often the rudiments of a beat, and then those first elements will determine bass pulse and hook melodies, which will be sought on electric guitar, synth, or piano.
So for my solo project, I try and do as much arrangement as I can while writing and developing the song at home, but at the same time I try and hold that loosely once I’m in the studio and I’m in the company of people who are not only always better players than I am, but who have their own stylistic moves that I sometimes want to incorporate as well. So that’s when the collaborative element is really fun. I try and set things up where the direction is very clear and already on its way, but other people’s talents that I do not have get to shine and alter the fabric of the piece.
You call Austin your home; how’s the local music scene? We have heard it’s a pretty creative and prolific city (SXSW and all), plus it’s getting self-driving taxis now 🙂 Does the city influence your art and music in any way?
The local music scene in Austin, and now outlying smaller towns like Bastrop (where I do my recording) and Lockhart, is very strong. The level of musicianship is really pretty crazy, and for the most part, people in the scene have interesting ideas. I have been lucky to meet a handful of people who are major heroes of mine, and have become lifelong friends with some of the slightly older ones who took me in when I was young and new.
Growing up here my whole life and playing live here since I was 17, the sound of the city’s last couple of decades, and of course before then, is definitely swirling inside of me. I count myself lucky to be in a place where I am constantly inspired by my peers, who are also pretty much uniformly great people and wonderful to hang out with as well.
Artistically speaking, what challenges have the last two years presented you with?
Speaking purely artistically? Not much, but time and money, being a DIY guy. My label Mr. Pink Records, run by my friend Jonas Wilson who also co-produced and played on this record (and shout out is releasing his next solo record Smash the Control Machine the same weekend I release mine, September 13th!) affords me slashed studio rates that enable me to keep going, as well as the online distribution and limited run vinyl.
But removing all of those practical considerations, I would not say I’ve had many challenges in the realm of pure art, except just my own limitations of skill and trying to get better, weirder, more proficient, and explore new creative avenues. I love music so much, I love living the art life: that is the joyous part; the only challenges come from external factors that accompany it.
What are the next steps for your project? Anything exciting on the horizon?
Well, I’m currently angling every angle I can to take this record to the East Coast and the West Coast, as well as to the main markets of Texas. We’ll see how successful I am at that. But as I said earlier, this album almost happened accidentally because I had an opportunity to work with a friend and high-level instrumentalist and musical thinker I had never worked with. So after this, I think it’s singles and EPs for the Evan Charles project for a minute.
The other band The Let Down is going to be focused on cutting our first full-length piece, ideally before spring 2026. The first EP for that band will come out August 22nd, and the first single On a String is out now as well. So, you know, once again switching gears to a new sound. I think that’s just how I want to be going forward, exploring whatever musical area is exciting, and bringing them out on a project-by-project basis.
