Evan Shornstein (Interview)

Today we’re listening to Evan Shornstein, an American electronic musician based in Los Angeles. Also known as Photay, Shornstein grew up experimenting with turntables and playing in bands as a drummer. He made his first records as Photay while in college, including his excellent self-titled debut from 2014. We’re first playing his new album, released under his given name. Frog Raag is an ambient jazz record made in collaboration with saxophonist Will Epstein and the spring peeper frogs that were active in the pond where they were recording. Shornstein plays a Buchla and Prophet 6, Epstein plays soprano sax over the synth pads, and the frogs croak on their lilly pads. A conversation with Evan follows the streaming links.

Frog Raag - Evan Shornstein & Will Epstein (37m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Photay - Photay (39m, vocals on track 2)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

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What's your earliest memory of music?

As a kid I used to fall asleep to Shepherd Moons by Enya or a CD of train field recordings. My earliest memory of musical discovery was “Analogue Bubblebath” by AFX.

How'd you get into making your own music, and what were your very first recordings like?

When my family got their first personal Windows computer, I started using a range of DAWS like Acid Pro. It was a good early lesson in song arrangement and layering sounds. In 5th grade, I got 2 turntables, a mixer and a digital recorder. I recorded a lot of scratching, beat juggling and audio experiments straight to CD. Parallel to this, I was a drummer and songwriter in many bands from middle school till college.

We loved your first couple albums on Astro Nautico. What were you listening to in those days that inspired Photay's sound?

I made my first Photay records in college during a musically explosive time. I was really inspired by the music of my friends: Ari Finkel, Ace Mo, Lord RAJA, Kallie Lampel, Mood Tattooed and Tony Seltzer.

On Hold (which we featured previously) was a turn toward pure ambient music for you. What motivated that change in style?

As a drummer, the idea of ambient music had become enticing over the years and the concept of On Hold came about in a very natural way. I was sampling call waiting music and making these blurry looped arrangements. After creating about 10 or 12 tracks, I was traveling internationally and got sick during a layover. As a result, I missed my connection and had a long night in the chilling airport fluorescence. Luckily I had the On Hold tracks in headphones soothing my soul on repeat. These tracks become a personal companion and I was waiting for the right moment to release them. It wasn’t until March 2020 that I felt the relevancy and urgency to put out the record.

How'd you get connected to Carlos Niño and what was that recording process like?

Carlos sent me a really warm email in 2017! His kid Azul heard one of my songs in a TV show and urged Carlos to check out my new record Onism. I first recorded with Carlos in his home studio in 2018 putting some final touches on my record Waking Hours. In 2020-2021, I sent Carlos several pieces created from Waking Hours outtake material. In turn, Carlos added overdubs and excerpts from various sessions. This is how we made An Offering … sort of like a bi-coastal collage. Since then, we’ve played many concerts together including one next to a hot spring in Los Padres National Forest. My last solo record Windswept features some excerpts from improvised sessions with Carlos and Randal Fisher. I think Carlos has a great creative effect on people. He creates a space where people can explore musical parts of themselves that they either didn’t know existed or watered down in fear of judgment or interference from the music industry.

For Frog Raag, who discovered the pond setting where you and Will recorded your improvisations? What was the eureka moment behind deciding to record there?

Evan: Frog Raag was recorded in my old backyard actually. I lived on the edge of a forest with adjacent wetlands and rivers (the river also being a prominent sonic and visual inspiration for An Offering). I had just returned from a long trip when Will called me up to make recording plans. The spring peeper frogs were in full effect that week and I knew we had to jump at the opportunity to record with them. The song of these frogs appears every year after the long winter. It’s a rich sonic window that lasts only several weeks. So without further ado, we made a plan and I gathered all the extension chords I had.

Will Epstein: I remember when we first got together to play music discussing playing outside. I think we both felt a desire to sublimate our sounds and ourselves into the unpredictable waves of the elements and the swells of animal voices. I think Evan even mentioned on that first meeting, this pond outside his house where the peeper frogs sang especially loudly. There is a wonderfully confused wisdom that comes from this blur of electronic, acoustic, and organic acoustic sounds that invigorates one's ear and always inspires a fresh direction.

We've seen some amazing records come out recently where musicians collaborate with nature:

Patricia Wolf

’s The Secret Lives of Birds comes to mind, as does

Brendan Principato

’s On Fire Island. How'd you come to this concept and do you have any other albums in this vein to recommend?

Listening to music or field recordings is like astral projection. While I’ve always used a lot of field recordings, I’ve dreamed about making a record in the actual environment that it is representing. I’ve come to really love music that is made outside of the “studio” and inside reverberant spaces:

• Paul Horn - Inside the Taj Mahal I & II

• Paul Horn - Inside the Great Pyramid Album

• Yasuaki Shimizu & the Saxophonettes - Cello Suites 1-6

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

Co La.

What are you working on next?

Several collaborations for my Extravagant Frequencies label, a film score and a lot of solo Photay.