Evan Voytas

Evan Voytas doesn't know where he is or what he is doing, and it is this mindset that has dropped him into the most extraordinary environs. At 26 years old, the singer/multi-instrumentalist has taken these experiences and developed his own brand of catchy pop music that sounds like Cat Stevens experimenting with party drugs.

Born in rural Pennsylvania, Evan was raised on the oldies, listening to his father's cassette tapes of Elvis and the Righteous Brothers. As a teenager, he discovered jazz. At age 18, he moved to Harlem where he immersed himself in various religious texts and 70's new age paperbacks. He grew a beard and befriended a group of Franciscan friars because they too had beards. Together, they enjoyed hours of silent reflection as well as family-style pasta dinners.

It was here in New York that Voytas cultivated his musicianship. Studying music at the City College of New York, Evan started his own quartet and began making a name for himself in the modern jazz scene. Then he left.

Voytas boarded a Greyhound bus and settled on an Indian pueblo in northern New Mexico. After a few months meandering in the desert, Evan returned to New York City, shaved the beard, and found himself playing lead guitar and singing back-up for teen-pop phenom Teddy Geiger. Evan's trance-like stage performances started to gain attention as he toured the world with Teddy, and he soon discovered that he had developed his own following, complete with internet fan clubs. After completing the tour, Evan again retreated into obscurity, moving into a farmhouse in his native Pennsylvania. Here, at the end of a dirt road, Evan set up a studio and began recording the songs that would become his debut EP.

With influences ranging from T. Rex to Daft Punk, Evan's music is a new sound. Voytas writes an instantly familiar tune, but frames it with a sonic landscape that simultaneously references '60s pop and Baltimore Club music. The result is something that sounds like Burt Bacharach and Bjork collaborating in a bedroom studio.

Evan continues to write and perform his music, and in March 2008, released a 7-song EP, "Introducing Evan Voytas." Recently, his single and B-side, "I Live This Life Here For You," was released on RCRDBL.com. He currently resides in Los Angeles.