Evans Blue

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Evans Blue
Evans Blue performing in 2011
Background information
Origin	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Alternative rock[1] hard rock post-grunge
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Hollywood Pocket Sounds + Sights F.O.F. EMI[2]
Associated acts	Parabelle HeavensDust Switchthree Fight or Flight
Website	evansblue.com
Members	Parker Lauzon Joe Pitter Dan Chandler Vlad Tanaskovic
Past members	Darryl Brown Kevin Matisyn Howard Davis

Evans Blue is a Canadian rock band from Toronto, founded in 2005. They have sold over one million albums worldwide, including five studio albums and one live album.

History[]

Origins (2005)[]

Evans Blue came together in early 2005. Five musicians, then in three separate bands, met through a local musician's message board. Lead singer Kevin Matisyn suggested the name, which refers to the dye that is injected into the bloodstream to measure blood volume, which he had read in one of his medical books. The band then caught the attention of producer Trevor Kustiak (Cool for August) and his partner Mari Dew, of The Pocket Studios. The original lead guitarist, Kevin Smith, left due to personal reasons before the group secured a record label.

They recorded three demo songs, titled "Black Hole", "Saturnalia" and "Starlight", all of which were available on their personal MySpace page. At that time, updates on the bands' progress and prose by Matisyn were periodically given via the MySpace blogs.

The Melody... and tours (2006–2007)[]

Evans Blue completed work on their debut album, The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume, in November 2005. Their first single, "Cold (But I'm Still Here)" hit airwaves in December and was later accompanied by a music video. The album was released February 21, 2006 through The Pocket Recordings/Hollywood Records. It debuted at No. 1 and spent several weeks in the top 10 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart and spawned a second single, "Over".

In late March 2006, Evans Blue embarked upon their first U.S. tour alongside Taproot. They have since played with bands such as Staind, Alice in Chains, 10 Years, Three Days Grace, Flyleaf and former labelmates Breaking Benjamin.

On April 1, 2006, drummer Darryl Brown left due to differences with bandmates' lifestyles. That night in Boston, drummer Danny D (formerly of the band Dogfight) was temporarily brought in. The band played acoustic sets until he was up to speed, and he continued through the rest of the tour, which lasted until late October.

The Pursuit... and member changes (2007–2009)[]

After an eight-month stint touring around the United States, Evans Blue returned home and began work upon their second album, The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends. Danny D left the band and was replaced by Howard Davis.

In March 2007, Evans Blue was nominated for "Best New Band" at the annual Juno Awards.

The first single from their second album, The Pursuit, hit airwaves May 21, 2007 and was accompanied by a music video, directed by Jesse Ewles. The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends was released on July 24, 2007. The bands' website was given an overhaul to portray the sounds, images and themes of the new album. In March 2007, Evans Blue recorded acoustic versions of each song from The Melody to be released on . For a limited time, this was included with each purchase of The Pursuit from Best Buy, and contains commentary from lead singer, Matisyn, as well as a making-of documentary for the second album. The FYE version of the album did not include the Unplugged Melody, but instead had two additional tracks.

On July 10, 2007, Evans Blue kicked off their first head-lining tour, Curbside Confession of a Catastrophe, in Toronto. The rest of the tour stopped across the western United States, with occasional performances in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were accompanied by Framing Hanley, Fair to Midland, and Submersed throughout the summer 2007 tour, which spanned through September. After a one-month break, the tour kicked off again October 27, 2007. Framing Hanley rejoined the band for the tour, with the additions of Saving Abel and Canadian rockers Neurosonic. This tour ended on December 31 in Houston, Texas, where they introduced a new song, "Good Enough," which would have been released on the upcoming third album. However, since Kevin Matisyn was voted out of the band, the song "Good Enough" has been scrapped.

On July 28, 2008 Kevin Matisyn posted on his MySpace page that he is "formerly of Evans Blue." This was confirmed by Evans Blue on their MySpace page. Parker Lauzon of the band stated in a bulletin that "We did not choose anyone over him; he was simply voted out, not only because of musical differences but business differences as well. He simply was not making good decisions for this band anymore, and we as a group have decided to move on."

Since 2009, Kevin Matisyn has started a new band named Parabelle which has released several albums.

Evans Blue (2009–2010)[]

Dan Chandler was announced as the new singer for Evans Blue in February 2009, and the band went into the studio with producer Trevor Kustiak to record their third album. The self-titled album, Evans Blue, was released through Sounds+Sights, exclusively via iTunes, on June 23, 2009.

The first song from the new album "Sick of It" was released on iTunes on March 31 and has since sold over 30,000 copies. The song went to No. 1 in the research at SiriusXM Octane and was No. 2 on the 2009 year-end Octane chart, Top 5 phones on KUPD in Phoenix and featured on 98KUPD's "Top 98 of 2009," and received airplay in several other midwest and southern markets. Based on their success with "Sick of It," SiriusXM Octane added a second track, "Bulletproof," in late October 2009.

In May 2010 Evans Blue and Sounds+Sights teamed up with indie label F.O.F. Entertainment/EMI for a physical release of their 2009 Evans Blue record in stores throughout the US and Canada. The physical, self-titled album was released on July 27, 2010 and included the bonus track "Erase My Scars," which was chosen as the new single.^[2]

"Erase My Scars" hit the US airwaves in May 2010, and the band hit the road in early July 2010 for the first leg of their Erase My Scars 2010 Tour with Kansas City band Red Line Chemistry, covering 10,000 miles in 6 weeks. Evans Blue stopped in LA mid-tour to shoot the video for "Erase My Scars" with Director Adrian Picardi and Producer Eric Ro of Northern Five Entertainment. The video is dedicated to Dan Chandler's nephew Chase Franklin, who died of a rare brain cancer at the age of 8; the Keeping Chase Foundation (www.keepingchase.com) has been established in his name.

Evans Blue hits the road for the second leg of the Erase My Scars 2010 Tour, this time with Oklahoma natives Taddy Porter and EB's Sounds+Sights label mates Rains, in November 2010.

Graveyard of Empires (2011–2012)[]

Evans Blue began pre-production on the fourth studio album. New songs were debuted during the current 2011 tour.^[3][4][5] The band then began recording in September.^[6][7] The upcoming album was slated to be released on December 20, 2011^[8] but was moved to early 2012.^[9] On September 28, "This Time It's Different" made its worldwide debut on Sirius Radio.^[10]

On November 8, 2011 Evans Blue announced that they and Howard "H-Bomb" Davis decided to go separate ways. The band announced to fans via Facebook the following message, "We wanted you to hear it from us first, but we have parted ways with drummer Howard "H-Bomb" Davis. Musically, we were moving in different directions, so this is the best for everyone, and we wish him all the best. No permanent replacement has been chosen yet, but a good friend of Dan Chandler will be playing on the album and the December shows." Current drummer, Mike McClure will make his debut on the new Dan Korneff mix of the first single "This Time It's Different," which became available on November 22, 2011.^[11]

On December 9, 2011 Evans Blue featured a new song titled "Halo" on Revolver Magazine's official website.^[12] On December 13, Evans Blue released "Halo" on iTunes and other sites.^[13]

The new album, Graveyard of Empires, was released on April 17, 2012.^[14]

Evans Blue toured throughout the summer of 2012 in support Graveyard of Empires this time with high energy Columbus, Ohio based band State Your Cause. Evans Blue would play the entire new Graveyard of Empires album and then a couple of the band prior hits songs like "Erase my Scars", "Sick of It", and "Say It" among others. This included a sold-out show at the Houston, Texas House of Blues.

Hiatus and Letters From the Dead (2012–present)[]

Dan Chandler joined a side project supergroup named Fight or Flight with Disturbed members Dan Donegan and Mike Wengren. Their album "A Life by Design?" was released on July 23, 2013.^[15][16] Chandler also started a hip-hop project called A Strange Day of Calm.^[17]

Chandler stated in an interview that Evans Blue would be taking a break, due to the fact that Parker Lauzon and Vlad Tanaskovic were becoming fathers.^[18]

The band announced on their Facebook page on August 14, 2015, that they would be in the studio within a month to begin recording album number five.^[19] The first single ("iGod") from their upcoming 5th album was released January 8, 2016. The new album Letters From The Dead^[20][21][22] was released in 2016.

Band members[]

Current

• Parker Lauzon – rhythm guitar (2005–present)
• Joe Pitter – bass (2005–present)
• Vlad Tanaskovic – lead guitar (2005–present)
• Dan Chandler – vocals (2009–present)

Session

• Danny Desharnais – drums (2006)
• Mike McClure – drums (Graveyard of Empires)^[23]
• Jason Pierce – drums (Graveyard of Empires, Letters from the Dead)^[23]
• Dusty Saxton – drums (2012, 2016)

Former

• Darryl Brown – drums (2005–2006)
• Kevin Matisyn – vocals (2005–2008)
• Howard Davis – drums (2007–2011)

Timeline

Discography[]

Studio albums[]

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
		US [24]	US Heat. [24]	US Ind. [24]	US Alt. [24]	US Hard Rock [24]	US Rock [24]
2006	The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume Released: February 21, 2006 Label: The Pocket, Hollywood Formats: CD, DI	106	1	—	—	—	—
2007	The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends Released: July 24, 2007 Label: The Pocket, Hollywood Formats: CD, DI	44	—	—	12	5	13
2009	Evans Blue Released: June 23, 2009 Label: Sounds+Sights, EMI Formats: CD, DI	—	—	48	—	—	—
2012	Graveyard of Empires Released: April 17, 2012 Label: Sounds+Sights Formats: CD, DI	121	—	19	24	9	40
2016	Letters from the Dead Released: April 15, 2016 Label: Sounds+Sights Formats: CD, DI	—	—	—	—	23	—
"—" denotes a release that did not chart.

Singles[]

Year	Song	Peak chart positions			Album
		US Alt. [24]	US Main. [24]	US Rock [24]
2005	"Cold (But I'm Still Here)"	28	8	×	The Melody and the Energetic Nature of Volume
2006	"Over"	—	28	×
	"Beg"	—	—	×
2007	"The Pursuit"	32	17	×	The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends
	"Shine Your Cadillac"	—	—	×
2009	"Sick of It"	—	—	×	Evans Blue
	"Bulletproof"	—	—	—
2010	"Erase My Scars"	—	27	45
2011	"Say It"	—	—	—
	"This Time It's Different"	—	31	29	Graveyard of Empires
	"Halo"	—	—	—
2012	"Beyond the Stars"	—	—	—
2016	"iGod"	—	—	—	Letters From The Dead
"—" denotes the single failed to chart, or not released. "×" denotes periods where charts did not exist or were not archived.

Music videos[]

Year	Song
2005	"Cold (But I'm Still Here)"
2007	"The Pursuit"
2010	"Bulletproof"
	"Erase My Scars"
2011	"Say It"
2012	"Halo"
2016	"Dead Amen"

DVDs[]

• The Unplugged Melody (2007)

References[]

External links[]

• Official website

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