Hello! Can you tell us about the origins of Uncommon Evolution and how the band came together?
Oh man, I put an advertisement in Craigslist, looking for people to play some music with. I came from a jam band background but listened to heavy music (Corrosion of Conformity, Helmet, Zakk Wild, Soundgarden), on my own. The guys that answered were from a punk/thrash band. Matt (drums) he was into Slayer and Gwar and is still with me like ten years later, we’ve gone through a handful of bass players but Rick finally came to us from another local heavy band that broke up and he was into Rush and Dream Theatre. River was a friend of Matt’s brother and was into bands like Sleep, High on fire. We really needed another guitar player to fill out the sound more and he really brought some extra flavor to the band. Each player is an essential part of the band and gets to write their own parts for the most part.
How has growing up and living in North West Montana influenced your music?
Well, we are pretty isolated so we have to be pretty resourceful. Not a decent music store for hundreds of miles. Not many folks around here either and the ones that are, seem to be into the country western stuff. So we really rely on each other a lot and just keep recording and playing shows.
You’ve played at the South by South West Festival in Austin Texas. Can you describe what that experience was like and what it meant for the band?
SXSW? Yep, played there for three years, I think. We played the Dirty Dog stage. It was a ton of fun man!!! Soo much happening everywhere you look. We love that area! The real reason we end up down there so often, It’s the tacos for breakfast, man!! Then Cooper’s BBQ for dinner. Hahaha naa the Machine Shop studio is down there too, where we record. We’ve spent sooo much time down there.
Your sound has been described as having “wide ranging influences”. Can you elaborate on what some of those influences are and how they manifest in your music?
Damn, that’s a hard one. We really like a lot of different music. It gets awfully boring trying to be the heaviest or hardest or most brutal, whatever. I love the freedom we have of slipping a little jazz in or blues or even drunken pirate into our doomy mountain metal thing.
Your latest album “Fry” has been highly anticipated. Can you tell us about the recording process and what fans can expect from the album?
“Fry” was a bit different from all our others. In the past, I would write most of the lyrics at the moment we are recording. But I had most of the lyrics put together for this record. So a little more self examination went into this one. The jazzy number, widow Makers Breeze, was about defending my house from a forest fire. But songs like, Funeral Samba and Mask are straight up therapy sessions. Then there’s the song, Deep Sea Lovin. We wrote that right there at the studio and recorded it at that moment. It was meant to be just a fun joke of a song. We don’t ever want to take ourselves too seriously. This is supposed to be fun after all, right? We just wanted to be ourselves on this record and have some damn fun!!
The video for “Rut Struttin'” was a long journey for the band. Can you describe some of the challenges you faced during the making of the video and how you overcame them?
The Rut Struttin video was a blast. It was shot and edited by my wife, Cindy. Keeping a story within the confines of a song is hard. But we came up with a great story board. We each had these cool characters and wanted to show off the beautiful area where we live. So we just got after it. Those under water shots were a great excuse for us to go rafting. The blood spray part was the funniest shit. We hooked up an air compressor and sprayed blood down the leg of the manikin, it was EPIC. We got a little carried away maybe.
What do you want listeners to take away from your music and live performances?
I suppose we want folks to escape from reality for a few minutes. We take them on these little mini trips. Some are heart breaking, some are hot sexy nights, some are comedies, some are encouraging. Some are epic battles with your own mortality or demons.
Your music has been compared to bands like Clutch, Down, and Black Label Society. How do you feel about those comparisons and what sets Uncommon Evolution apart from those bands?
I am proud of those comparisons. I listen to all those guys and we have even opened for a few of them. While we have those influences, we have a bit more doom and swing in our tunes than most of them. We tend to get lumped in with metal core bands for local shows because there just isn’t that many bands that do the groove metal thing in our area. So sometimes we catch a few people off guard that are expecting me to come out with pig squeals and gutterals. It’s nice to have our own thing now.
What has been the most memorable moment of your musical career so far?
Opening for Clutch at my favorite venue (the Wilma in Missoula). It was a very special moment for me. The night was amazing! All my favorite people were there. We played well, even Tim Sult (Clutch) said we had the best mosh pit of the night. Then I got to smoke a few fatties and have a few beers backstage with those guys. What a night!!
What’s next for Uncommon Evolution? Any upcoming projects or shows that you’re excited about? Thank you!
What’s next? We are gonna do a few more videos for this recent release. The Vinyl of Fry, is gonna be released soon. We have a few festivals and Montana shows coming up. We’re still writing new material too, maybe even do another record next year, we’ll just have to see what shakes out.
Hey, thanx for being interested in the band. We really appreciate you. I hope we get a chance to play for and party with you someday.
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