A Diem and a dream
If you’ve regularly attend theatrical productions on the campus of SUNY Oswego, you’ve seen him in “Mousetrap” and “Pirates of Penzance.” Or perhaps you live in Hart Hall, or happen to be walking outside Hewitt on a nice day, and you’ve been graced with a free live guitar performance.
Wherever you’ve seen him, one thing becomes evident. Evan Debevec-McKenney, also known by his stage name, Evan Diem is talented and confident.
But you don’t have to tell him that.
“A lot of my current personality is based off what I needed to do in order to be comfortable with creating things and hearing feedback,” says Debevec-McKenney. “It’s made my personality very strong. I come across as very arrogant and conceited, but I need those things in order to feel comfortable and like myself.”
What that confidence allows is an ability to perform and create, no matter the time, place, or circumstances. With the help of his friend Ben Mueller, who Debevec-McKenney calls his musical confidant, he’s become more proficient in turning those performances into tangible works.
Debevec-McKenney’s new album, Narcissus, which released on March 20th of this year, is the latest in his line of produced works. The title is something that fits him well.
The inspiration came from a daffodil. Narcissus is the genus of the daffodil, which is actually toxic to the touch. Debevec-McKenney likes the dichotomy this name represents.
“I like to write very happy, upbeat songs, but a lot of the times, they’re darker underneath. Or there is a disconnect between the lyrical picture and the aural picture,” says Debevec-McKenney.
This duality of being pretty on the surface while still having a toxicity to it, along with it sounding like the word narcissist is where the album name originated. It certainly appears to fit his style well.
On top of that though, Debevec-McKenney likes to create. For a while, he had the dedication a lot of us dream of.
On his YouTube channel, Evan Diem, he released a cover of a song by his favorite band, The Mountain Goats, every Monday from December 2014 to December 2016 without missing a week.
The series, aptly named Mountain Goat Mondays, gave him a small fan base to work with, but more importantly, gave him a consistent outlet to hone the craft of his guitar playing and vocals.
“The most important thing I can do is keep making things,” says Debevec-McKenney The more stuff that you make, the more things people have of yours to consume, which means you have a higher percentage of things that they will like.”
While music isn’t the only thing Debevec-McKenney likes to do, it’s one of the things he’s most proud of, and something he wants to continue doing. He already has new things lined up for the future, including collaborative efforts with other people. He’s also already thinking about his next album, which will be more biographical in nature.
With all of those creations though comes the issue of time. Debevec-McKenney is a full time student, who is also a part of this semester’s production of “Pride and Prejudice,” and as we all know, finding the time for our own interests on top of school work can be difficult.
“A lot of what I do is manage my time relatively well, not based off getting work done, but based off enjoying myself,” says Debevec-McKenney. “Being really low stress for me makes it a lot easier to do these things. I need a deadline, but I can’t be uncomfortable.”
Whether he’s on stage as Evan Debevec-McKenney, or singing as Evan Diem, it’s pretty clear he likes to be the center of attention.
Although taking criticism, and even compliments, is something he had to learn to do in high school. In middle school, he had a bit of an inferiority complex, which he then over corrected to bordering on superiority.
His next project includes pulling himself toward the middle.
Narcissus is Debevec-McKenney’s third solo-titled album to go along with three EPs, the first of which debuted in 2013, all of which can be found at https://evandm.bandcamp.com/.
Narcissus and his prior album, Mitigations, can be found on iTunes and Spotify as well. You can also see him in “Pride and Prejudice,” which opens next Thursday at SUNY Oswego.
