Album Notes

"Great songs and a haunting voice."
Martin Hughes, BBC producer, London.

"Flat-out gorgeous!"
P.J. Hawkins, San Diego, California.

"Some of the most beautiful and original songs around."
[Internet review - see below]


You can also hear me with my band Mermaid Kiss on The Mermaid Kiss Album.

My music has been described as 'Melodic,' 'Stunningly beautiful with an edge,' 'Dreamy stuff,' and 'Gorgeous.'
I love being in a studio atmosphere, be it a large professional studio or the computerised system on which we now do a lot of our work.
Music is a very large part of my life. I sing and play guitar although flute was my first instrument and as a result it features in a lot of the music.
Below is a section of a review of 'Shine' together with an interview I did recently - they'll tell you more about my music and me.

evelyn downing: shine (flame 20012 cdus)
Living proof that not all 18-year-olds are wannabes - Evelyn goes her own sweet way regardless of fad and fashion and produces some of the most beautiful and original songs and music around.
Whether she's playing rock, pop or atmospheric cool, her distinctive voice, intelligent lyrics, and memorable tunes, together with some stunning harmonies and sexy flute playing lift her way above so much of the derivative pap being produced these days. 'Shine' has eight tracks and every one is a gem.
Terrific. Go get.


Interview with Evelyn Downing:

Al. Your second CD is called 'Shine'.

E.D. Yes. It's an eight track album.

Al. It's got a very laid-back feel.

E.D. Yeah, although the songs are different in style, the tempo throughout is pretty constant.

Al. But the title track 'Shine On You' is a pop song.

E.D. I hate categorising music. If I say 'yes' to that people are going to have a preconceived idea of what it's going to sound like. I want them to approach my music without any prejudices.
It's the most irritating thing in the world when you've developed a sound that's 'you' and finding the first question that everybody asks before they bother to listen to it is: "what's it's like?" It's not like anything else.
That's the point of it.

Al. Okay. The title track 'Shine On You' is more radio friendly.

E.D. Yes, I might concede that - except at five minutes it's probably too long for most radio shows.

Al. I wanted to ask you about 'Heart Sings'.

E.D. Everybody wants to ask me about Heart Sings!

Al. It does have, how can I put this, a very sexy feel.

E.D. It's a song about a long hot summer's day and how that can make you feel.

Al. I think it goes a bit further than that.

E.D. Do you? There's nothing very sexual about the lyrics.

Al. True, but parts of the vocals are very sensual. Did you set out to achieve that effect?

E.D. I think it must have just happened in the studio, I played it to a few friends afterwards and was surprised when they pointed it out to me.

Al. Your main instrument is the flute. It's a bit unconventional, probably unique, these days in contemporary music.

E.D. Yeah, it's that preconception thing again. You say 'flute' and people immediately think 'folk'. I hate that. I do not play folk music.

Al. I have to say the way you use flute on the cd is about as far from folk as it's possible to get.

E.D. I can probably get a good bit further yet, but yeah. Jamie [Evelyn's songwriting-partner and guitarist] tells me that the flute was an accepted rock instrument in the seventies, groups like Caravan, Focus, King Crimson, even Genesis all used the flute and nobody seemed to bat an eyelid. Not that we sound like any of them either.

Al. And there's actually more flute on this CD than the last.

E.D. Quite a bit more. I think this is me getting more confident. With the first CD maybe I didn't want to scare anyone off - like you say flute is considered unconventional - but this time around I wanted to put it more centre stage - it's an integral part of my music.

Al. Do you think it's that that has created the current interest?

E.D. Yes, the flute together with the strength of the songs. Oh, and my voice. They seem to be the factors that are mentioned most. So probably, yes. I've dared to be different and it's paying off.

Al. Especially in America.

E.D. That's the weirdest thing. It's taken off more there than over here. We've got a proper distributor [www.cdbaby.com/downing] for it and everything. The States seems far more geared up for people making music independently. There are radio programmes that just play music from unsigned bands and people who've got it together enough to put out their own CDs.

Al. And you've got a another track coming out there soon?

E.D. Yes, it's on an album called "Love Her Madly" - it's a Doors song - 'Summer's Almost Gone'.

Al. Do you do many covers?

E.D. Only the occasional one offs. Jamie and I write everything that goes on the albums or that the band perform live.

Al. So how does the songwriting work?

E.D. It usually starts with a simple idea - one of us will turn up with a couple of lines of a tune with nonsense words - or maybe a chorus or something. Then we'll keep playing it over, changing the tune a little and the words a lot until we've got a verse and a chorus we feel work together. Then I might go away and write a couple more verses and come back and sing them to Jamie who'll make a few changes. Then we'll lay down a basic voice/guitar take and take it from there. It's kind of evolutionary.

Al. But as we mentioned earlier, some of the songs are moving away from the verse/chorus format.

E.D. Absolutely. We're working on one at the moment called 'The Dark Horse' which doesn't seem to fit any known song form.

Al. And 'Dark Cover' and 'Heart Sings' on 'Shine' are hardly conventional.

E.D. No - it's exciting finding new ways of expressing myself musically.