Yoko Ono 'The Sun is Down!' Remix Contest

Hello to all (or none);

December 8th, (yesterday), marked the 29th anniversary of the death of John Lennon and while I usually reserve that day to sit and quietly mourn or get lost in the thoughts of 'what if it never happened' while I listen to Beatles/John Lennon music, (like many others I suppose), this year was unwittingly different.

As it happens, two weeks ago I was cruising the net for some new inspiration to get me through the creative lapse I have been suffering as of late in finishing my own records and decided to see what Yoko Ono was up to, (I do that every so often, being a real fan of hers since I was 5 and being too young to get caught in the blame game drama the rest of the world had been going through with her in regard to John and the Beatles break-up), when I ran across her new track 'The Sun is Down!'. (Mind you, I had just spent the evening doing a South Park style tribute to the controversial 1969 album cover 'Two Virgins' by John Lennon & Yoko Ono).


A few clicks later (on a different site) I had run across a remix contest for that song. My first thought, of course, was "Oh My GOD!". Especially since I had totally missed out contributing my re-mix of 'Walking on Thin Ice' to her in 2003 when they finally respected her work enough to create a re-mix compilation disc.

So, I tried a few attempts, but was not happy with any of them and decided to go back to the task at hand which was finishing up the re-mastered 'Darkland' CD for re-release in 2010. A few days upon the completion of the 'Darkland' CD it was time to finally record 'Darkland', the single which is not on the album. It is a standard tune that was intended in 1995 to bridge the 'Darkland' CD to my more contemporary work. After about 5 attempts at a guitar track, I decided to call it quits for the evening (4am).

The following day I went back in the studio to do more work and remembered the remix contest and the thought occured..."The sun is down in Darkland!". So, I immediately went to work doing what is technically a mash-up, I incorporated two of the three versions of 'Darkland', ('Darkland' the single version and clips from 'Darkland (Seascape)' and started doing my arrangements and mixing. Two days later, (yesterday), after sending the final version, (along with cover art featuring the back cover of 'Darkland' artwork by Bill Brown III), off to the contest, I went to lie down and realised what day it was and that I had just spent December 8th doing exactly what John had been doing on December 8th before he was shot; remixing a Yoko song.

I feel a connection to him, like I have never felt before. I could almost feel him smiling down at me at the irony. I doubt December 8th will feel as dark and dismal to me any longer.

Win or lose, I have gained something no contest could ever give me. Peace.

Thanks John & Yoko!

P.S. I am currently putting a video together for the track for YouTube and it shall be posted here when completed.

Happy Holidays

Tim Curry Fearless/Simplicity

Tim Curry had a short-lived recording career lasting three albums: 'Read My Lips', 'Fearless' and 'Simplicity'. Although I wasn't very fond of 'Read My Lips' I was totally taken with both 'Fearless' & 'Simplicity'. A&M in their infinite wisdom has discontinued all 3 records leaving Tim Curry fans somewhat flat in the digital music age. I have taken vinyl rips from the latter two lp's and digitally remastered them as a favor for my stepfather, Joe Evans, over a year ago. Since then, I have had many requests for the files and am just now getting around to posting them on the web. I would be more than happy to pull them if A&M decides to re-issue his work on CD.


Download Fearless.rar from Uploading.com

Now with the 'Simplicity' album, there were just two spots that I am aware of that the pops couldn't be filtered out completely due to losing part of the track. The rest of the re-master came out beautifully.


Download Simplicity.rar from Uploading.com
Hope you enjoy both downloads as I imagine I cannot be the only one to have been searching for these album collection staples for the past 15 years!

I May Be a Stoner (But, I Ain't Fucking Stupid!) by AJ Evans

Here is the cheesy, trippy Flash video I mentioned in the last posting.

"I May Be a Stoner (But, I Ain't Fucking Stupid!)" 1 year anniversary

"Who'd have thunk it?"

Besides being my late brother Brian's birthday, August 25th marks the 1 year anniversary of the release of "I May Be a Stoner (But, I Ain't Fucking Stupid!)" on iTunes and various other .mp3 sites. To my surprise, it has done really well. What started out to be a test marketer to see if I should continue in my musical endeavors after kicking AIDS' ass, has turned into a beast of its own.

I truly did not expect to get much by way of recognition with this tune. In fact I really thought it'd be shit-canned by most of the Internet stations due to the title and content and would have to rely solely on word-of-mouth. Boy was I ever wrong. This track totally beat out 1998's "I Don't Need This in My Life" in spades.

The cheesy, trippy flash video I made for it to have a YouTube presence has gone totally viral and demographics show it is really popular in Japan and (my personal favorite) Australia.

As far as record sales, at a residual .01 cents per copy sold, if you want to go by dollar amounts it is not that impressive on the whole, but if you were to go by individual sales, I couldn't be more pleased. Hopefully the next record will generate some sincere interest from those closer to me since the success of this record has relied totally on the interest of strangers.

To those who have purchased the record I say Thank-you from the bottom of my icy little heart. To those who haven't, give it a listen. While the video production was cheese, the recording itself is not.

Brian: I miss you. Happy Birthday Bro.

Thanks for reading and cheers!
AJ Evans

AJ Evans - My Love is Forever [Studio Rehearsal]

This is one of the tracks for the 'Deviant' CD. This video is from the studio rehearsals before the actual recording of the finished product. Ant Kremski on guitar and myslef on vocals. Enjoy!!!

AJ Evans' Group of Deviants

Well. here I am working on new music past my death-deadline. Since this CD, 'Deviant' is not as much of a solo a project as any of my other releases, I decided to give the guys helping out an identity, Group of Deviants. A most fitting name for me and my associates. There are some AJ Evans tracks slated for this disc, but the majority is comprised of songs I have written with others, so they are helping to lend a personal touch of their own to the tracks they helped write. Among the performers is John Phetteplace - my collaborative partner since 1989, Ant Kremski - who is also SHAGGS from the "I May Be a Stoner" single and Pat Lincoln - a phenominal guitarist.

Featuring tracks such as "Barb Wire Casket", "Heavy-Hearted", "Running at Full Speed", "A Fucked-Up Kinda Guy", "My Love is Forever" and "Excerpts from a Conversation with an American Anarchist (Take Back the Nation)" this is proving to be the best collection of songs I've recorded to date.

John Phetteplace is also the director of the accompanying documentary "AJ Evans: The Making of a Deviant" from which clips will be posted on YouTube as they are completed.

All of this is scheduled to happen in 2010. Meanwhile the single tracks will be made available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster & Aime Street until the full CD is completed.

Thanks for readiung and feel free to hit me back, I love reading your responses.

Cheers!
AJ Evans