Evaride: “What’s It All For?”

Like an orgasmic Tsunami, the sensational, anthemic super-group, Evaride has already created a phenomenal buzz within the media, and fans globally with their debut single, “Heartless”. They have now unleashed their new pop-rock/ ambient flavored single, “What’s It All For”, on Friday, June 22, 2018.

“What’s It All For” is a powerful, high energy track with an addictive passion, a relevant spirit, and a sonic “Wow” as persuasive as an explosive avalanche. The song is a prolific collaboration from a faction that collectively has had more diverse entertainment investment than nearly anyone on the planet.

Enter Josh Devine, the former drummer for one of the most popular groups of today’s generation, “One Direction”, who toured sold out stadiums for over 5 years. Introducing Hayden Maringer, touring guitarist for Jennifer Lopez, Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha, Cody Simpson, and also the guitarist on “Glee.” Finally meet Sean Michael Murray, who has been featured on Broadway (“American Idiot” and “Rent”) several times, and has the voice of an angel. Combined they are Evaride, which has the capacity of conquering the music world.

I had an intimate conversation with the trio regarding their new single just out and available on every digital platform, their future endeavors, including a forthcoming EP, and their journey and celebration as Evaride. They were a blast, and had a special kinship towards each other that was refreshing and happy.

How did you guys find one another?
Josh: So, Hayden, our guitar player, we toured together. I guess it would be six years ago. We hung out a lot, he’s an incredible guitar player. We kept in touch. When “One Direction” decided to take a break, I thought that I would do my music. I had previously released my own material and I did well with it, but I didn’t really want to sing again. I just wanted to get back into drums and have fun with that. Hayden and I met up one day and said, “Let’s start a band”. We thought we’d give it a shot and then we found Sean through Hayden’s mutual friend. A few weeks later we ended up in New York with Sean, low and behold we hit it off, and this has definitely, definitely worked out, we all had a good vibe from the start.

How’d you get your very unusual band name, “Evaride?” Who thought of it?
Josh: That was me. I work with a charity called “Food For the Hungry”. I was with them visiting the child that I had sponsored for a long time filming a documentary. One of the cameraman asked if I was still looking for a band name, and I said, “Yeah, yeah still looking,” we had some pretty awful names just with the three of us. He said “oh what about your sponsor child named Evaride?” I thought that was neat and everyone agreed. It just hit me that it was definitely, definitely the name and a great way to keep added awareness for the organization through our music.

That’s a good name, and a good way to have arrived at it.
Josh: Yeah, exactly. It’s funny because I never thought I would figure it out, especially all the way out in Rwanda.

Sean you have an amazing voice. Out of all of you who writes the songs? Who wrote the new single especially?
Sean: Thank you so much. We all kind of write together. So for every song that we write, obviously all of the songs are not out yet, the process is different. Sometimes I come up with a melody or a lyrical or conceptual idea, and then Hayden comes up with either a riff idea, or Josh comes up with the drum idea, and we kind of just all put our heads together and develop it into hopefully what it becomes. But we actually collaborated on this next song with a guy named Gino Barletta who is known for a lot of the Daya songs like, “Hide Away” and “Don’t Let Me Down.” It was really cool that we got to collaborate with him, he’s a very talented guy.

Between the three of you, you’ve had very diverse experiences in the entertainment world. So separately each of you tell me what you’ve done before this band.
Sean: Before this band I started my professional career on Broadway. I started my career in a musical with Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day in a play called, “American Idiot”. So that’s where I really got my first taste of professional success in the industry. I also did the show again in Asia, including Tokyo, Japan and Korea. Right after that I did a revival of “Rent” on Broadway. During the time on Broadway I formed my first band which was a pop rock band. We won a show on VH1 called “Make A Band Famous”, and that’s how we got our first record deal. It was with Republic Records at Universal, but it just didn’t wind up working out. Everybody had a different creative vision, but obviously it was meant to be that it didn’t work out because that was only in 2016 that the band officially ended and we formed Evaride. It wasn’t too long after the official break-up of the band that I came into contact with Hayden through a mutual friend. That’s how we all kind of got together.

Josh?
Josh: I played drums with One Direction since 2011 until 2015. Before that I played with a rapper called Skepta from the UK.

And Hayden?
Hayden: I started touring at like 12 and played for a bunch of different artists, Jennifer Lopez, The Band Perry, Demi Lovato, Bebe Rexha, Daya, ….a whole list of people. Then I also did some acting on the TV show “Glee.” I was the guitar player on “Glee.” I also did a few other shows like “Raising Hope,” I did “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” and “The Mindy Project.”

You get around?
Hayden: Yeah, I’m a musician whore.

Are you guys planning on a super tour?
Hayden: That’s the plan.

If you could say anything to your fans, what would you want them to know?
Josh: Just want to thank them so far for their major support and there is just so much more to come and we promise it won’t take as long. The last one we started in August of last year, six, seven months…no it’s probably even longer, like eight months. People could have babies in that time!

Uhuh…so your brand new song that’s just been released, does it have a message?
Sean: The song when we wrote it, kind of started with the concept that the question mark at the end of the statement “What’s it all about?” “What’s it all for”?… why do we give credence and why do we give so much weight to all the stupid things you see on social media, TV, all these things that really are meaningless… at the end of the day we kind of have to look at ourselves and be like really, why do we care so much? People get so worked up about the smallest things. Life is too short. We only have one life so you got to live it to the fullest. So it’s kind of that question mark…”What is it all for”? It’s a song for people to really think about it and look at themselves in the mirror and not take things for granted.

Good message …. If you could have your ultimate stage fantasy what would you need to happen?
Josh: A lot of pyro…a lot of Fire.

Sean: I’d like to have built in trampolines. I’d like to run holding the wireless microphone and jump while singing. It would just be really cool to do something unique and different on stage.

Josh: I want to crowd surf while playing the drums. It’s always been an impossible thing to play the drums and still be in the middle of the crowd.

Hayden: I think 21 Pilots do that. They have like a fake wooden plank. They have the pedals and the hardware drilled into the platform and literally people just put their hands up and you’re crowd surfing and playing the drums at the same time. It’s pretty wild, but that would be awesome.

Josh, I think you should do that..Are there any funny experiences that you care to share with the public?
Sean: So, we met a pretty big famous songwriter that we worked with and collaborated with. She had a pretty amazing house up in Malibu. The first thing that happened when we all walked in the house, Josh asked if he could take a shower in her house.

Josh: Give her some back story…. I went to the ocean for like an hour and I was covered with salt. I had sand everywhere. I walked in and she offered the shower…

Sean: You suggested it…

Josh: So now when I first meet someone I’m going to try using their shower.

Josh you’re doing this interview while splashing around in a hot tub, and then insisting upon using some stranger’s shower after bathing in the ocean for an hour, I think there is something about you and water…
Josh: I’m a complete water baby…

What sign are you?
Josh: Cancer. July 9th.
Hayden: I’m a cancer as well
Sean: I’m the fish, I’m a Pisces.. March 10th

Is there anything else that we haven’t spoken about that you’d like to tell me?
Sean: The band name….

We spoke about it before you called in, but you can tell me your version…
Sean: We had a whole list of really bad names.

Hayden: Sean had a long list of bad names that Josh and I read in the car and was cracking up. Carpet….

Sean: All I can remember is Carpet because Josh loved it.

Josh: I hated that one.

Hayden: He thought it was the worst one…

Sean: I feel bad if Sean has kids one day. He’ll name it something like Cheeseburger….

Who’s the shyest?
Sean: We’re all pretty shy until we get going…

Josh: You can say that for yourself…I’m not.

I’ve seen some interviews with you on YouTube and I feel like Hayden has the biggest mouth?
Hayden: Maybe. I am pretty outgoing and outspoken.

Is there a particular moment in your life that changed the whole trajectory of it, and you can each tell me separately?
Sean: Right out of school I had moved to Los Angeles. It was my first go around in Los Angeles. I had some cool opportunities but nothing really active. But at the end of my time in Los Angeles I got involved with the wrong people. I got really lucky though and it was kind of one of those eye-opening experiences where I thought I was given this talent and this opportunity to do what I loved to do and I can’t screw it up. The next day I basically called it quits for Los Angeles and flew back east. A couple of months later is when I booked my first Broadway show. So everything happens for a reason, I got myself back on track. That was probably seven years ago and now I just moved back to Los Angeles with a much better head on my shoulders.

Josh: I think for me it was when I got the call to be in One Direction.

Hayden: For me, I was going to Berkeley College of Music, and Lady GaGa was having an open call on Craig’s List…like an open cattle call and thousands of people showed up. I went to audition and ended up making it to the very end. From that moment I dropped out of school and just started working. That changed my whole path from that one audition. It’s crazy…

Where is your sound going throughout the rest of the year. Since you are all from such a diverse place in music, what can fans expect that know you from your past projects that aren’t yet on board with Evaride yet? What is speaking to that crowd?
Sean: I think our sound, our fundamentals are drums, it’s Josh obviously, Hayden guitar, and then me on vocals so, keeping the main frame in the body of the fundamentals, with those three things it is the most important part for our sonic pallet. It’s maintaining the integrity of the song that we are writing. Then everything else around it is kind of icing on the cake. So sonically speaking we all come from different backgrounds and we all have appreciations for different types of music but at the end of the day we call ourselves a pop-rock band. You might even go as far as to say we are kind of an endemic pop rock, because we envision ourselves playing stadiums. So that’s what I would say. We have soaring vocals with incredible drums, tailored guitar riffs and melodies.

Josh: We want people to just connect and we’re keeping it really authentic. We are live performers, we are entertainers, that’s our job. Just because we are in the pop world it doesn’t mean we will be singing songs about the girl we met in that in the playground when we were 10.

Sean: I think when we write songs, instrumentation is more pop rock and in the vocal it’s more melodic, so that they are very sing-along type of songs. They are easy to sing and people can sing along and remember the melody in their head.

Hayden: I wouldn’t say they are easy to sing, you sing really high!

So you’re coming out with a new EP? When will it be coming out?
Sean: We know when it has to be out by, but we don’t have a date to announce yet. It will be in the fall though.

Is there a name for it yet?
Josh: We have a few bouncing around.

Are there any videos coming out?
Hayden: Yes there will be, definitely.

Is there any last words?
Sean: The million dollar question is “What’s It All For?”

Click here to download/listen to “What’s It All For?” by EVARIDENow streaming on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Apple Music, Amazon Music and more.

Follow the guys on social media:
Twitter:
Evaride – @evaride
Josh (drums) – @JoshDevineDrums
Hayden (guitar) – @HaydenMaringer
Sean (singer) – @seanmurraymusic

Instagram:
Evaride – @evaride
Josh (drums) – @joshdevinedrums
Hayden (guitar) – @haydenmaringer
Sean (singer) – @seanmurraymusic