Heave Media

Seve vs. Evan

Seve vs. Evan is better than Mates of State.

This could be a rather heated argument depending on who you are, but the thing is - I've never liked Mates of State, and I've always liked Seve vs. Evan. This is obviously just my biased opinion that I'm not even going to try and justify through some feigned intelligence or superior knowledge. I just prefer them to Mates of State.

It's kind of like those stupid Apple Jacks commercials where the parental figure asks a bunch of youth enjoying themselves way too much over a box of Apple Jacks why they eat Apple Jacks when, “It doesn't taste like apples.” To which the question is completely disregarded, “We eat what we like!”

Maybe that's a very important question, because when you're eating a bunch of high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavoring coated in sugar and preservatives, with a little bit of grains on the side (so it's part of your daily balanced breakfast), maybe you should think a little more about what you're eating and why you're eating it.

So why do I think Seve vs. Evan is better than Mates of State? Have I given Mates of State a chance? Have I sat down and really given an album a listen or two? Yes, I have actually, and I couldn't get through it because I just didn't enjoy it. But Seve vs. Evan has been listened to over and over again, and I enjoy it every time, quite thoroughly. So will you the reader, like them more than Mates of State? I have no idea. First, I need to provide you with a few reasons for liking Seve vs. Evan, and then after that we will determine the differences and similarities between the two bands.

Things you need to know about Seve vs. Evan:

Seve vs. Evan has two members - Severin Bozung and Evan Sharp. When they first started playing shows, two things would happen by the end of the set. One, Severin would usually end up wearing just his underpants, and two, they would have the audience vote for who played better that night, Severin or Evan. But I can't really remember anyone ever winning to be honest.

It's also important to know that Severin and Evan are both tall and skinny, but not as tall as me. There is a website in Mexico that sells Seve vs. Evan's music for download completely in Spanish. The website is in Spanish, not the song lyrics, though I think I'd like to hear Seve vs. Evan sung in Spanish. That should happen.

They were musically featured in the new Burton snowboard video or something. Severin's brother is Nate Bozung, and he's a professional snowboarder. Three years ago Nate met Nori Watanabe at Mt. Hood in Portland, Oregon and gave him Seve vs. Evan's music and Nori's been doing editing for the Burton Japan stuff, so he put Seve vs. Evan's music on a Japanese release of a snowboard video. (The song used was coincidentally “Destination Tokyo” and not so coincidentally “Wild West”) Every once in a while they sell an album to Itunes Japan.

Seve vs. Evan played the “Good Morning, Utah” show on Fox News during the week of the Sundance Film Festival this year. Right after the reporters talked to Ewan McGregor, they introduced Seve vs. Evan as a local Slammy band (which I'm assuming is a local musical award for being awesome) and let them play for about a minute before they cut them off. They were supposed to play two songs, but they didn't feel bad because they cut off Ewan McGregor as well.

They've probably been one of the bigger local Utah Valley acts for a long time now and have had a chance to play with a lot of bigger bands like the Helio Sequence, Limbeck, Tilly and the Wall, The Sounds, Ozma and the Rentals.

Severin Bozung: And one time with Band of Horses.

Evan Sharp: Yeah, but they suck.

SB: They got paid like 600 dollars and we got paid like 20 bucks.

HEAVE: Are you serious?

ES: No one even knew who they were, we were so mad.

But let's talk about the differences between Seve vs Evan and Mates of State: One, Severin Bozung and Evan Sharp are not married like the ever so aptly named “Mates of State.” That is one main difference between the two bands. Two, only Severin sings in Seve vs. Evan, unlike Mates of State where both people sing and play their instrument simultaneously. Three, it's pretty much guaranteed that Severin and Evan watch more anime, eat more junk food and play way more video games than the couple that make up Mates of State. That's pretty much all they do. When I asked them if they had any plans to tour, or put out any new albums, they responded:

SB: We're not very good at going on tour.

HEAVE: Well its always just about money isn't it? It's always hard to make enough money.

ES: And getting shows, and we don't have a van right now.

HEAVE: How many vans have you guys gone through now?

ES: Two.

SB: The problem is we keep buying video games.

ES: We play too much Halo 3.

When it comes down to it, the structure of the band is the only similarity. Evan plays drums. Severin sings and plays keyboards. Structurally, the music would be straight pop, but there is a unique aspect of their song writing that comes from the two of them collaborating. Evan has spent most of his time drumming in hardcore bands so his style isn't very standard for pop music. Severin studied piano for quite a while before he started writing songs for the Seve vs. Evan project. I think that between the two of them as individuals, they have such different tastes in so many things, that their making a compromise helps to produce some sure fire recipe for song writing alchemy.

Lyrically, Severin mostly meshes his emotional pining about women with his constant focus on video game culture, and with the oftentimes Nintendo sounding music to back it up, his serious lyrics get mistaken for silliness. Especially since many times verses about scarification are mixed with guidelines on how to fight a secret boss on Final Fantasy 7. He also sings about sailors, cowboys and wolves.

Talking with Evan and Severin is always a very enjoyable experience for me, there's something that just can't be lost on someone you've toured with. I suppose I could share stories here, but I won't, because there's just too many of them to choose from. But I will say that between the two of them, there's some form of comical genius that tends to come out when they're around each other. They've spent so much time together that they have a very adept ability to feed off each other's sense of humor and create ridiculous situations in a matter of moments. I don't know if this kind of verbal interplay comes across in the segments of the interview I highlighted, but it's there, oh trust me, it's there.

HEAVE: What you been up to Seve?

SB: Been working a lot. I install satellites.

HEAVE: Do you like it?

SB: No (pause) well (pause) no.

HEAVE: How have the shows evolved that you've noticed through the years?

ES: There's a bunch of little kids that we don't know anymore.

SB: Yeah I think everybody just gets older but the kids stay the same age.

ES: Like the old kids get traded out with younger ones.

SB: And none of our friends or the older kids like to come anymore because they feel really old when they go.

ES: Yeah and it makes me really sad when they don't go.

SB: I don't care. I don't blame them.

ES: I get really sad sometimes, like they say, “I'll be there” but then they don't.

HEAVE: I've actually heard that complaint from friends of ours that the kids are really young and obnoxious.

ES: I don't know, I mean, they were probably the same way when they were...they just didn't realize it.

SB: Drew, we had a house show in Logan (Utah) at the White House where you played and they said that you sold two cases of CDs.

HEAVE: They said that I sold two cases of CDs?

SB: Yeah.

HEAVE: Not really.

SB: Oh?

HEAVE: Not at all, actually.

SB: We only sold one CD.

HEAVE: Huh, well, I think that White House show was probably the craziest show I've ever played in my life, where I honestly feared for my life, because at a certain point everyone was so intense and so energetic and crazy, that I got really nervous. Because there was a point where they were like, “Play ‘I Think We're Alone Now,” and I said, “I don't know how to play that one anymore.'” And they started shouting, “Play it! Play it! Play it!” at me, and there was this entire crowd (or mob) of people screaming at me to play this cover song and I was completely freaked out.

SB: Our show there was really fun, there was this kid there crowd surfing and everyone started smashing him into the ceiling and then the cops came and then we weren't able to play anymore songs.

ES: Yeah that sucked.

SB: And then everybody left...and that might be why we only sold one CD...

HEAVE: That's still crazy...they were crowd surfing him and pushing him up into the ceiling?

SB: Yeah, like at first he was just crowd surfing and pretending he was like crawling on the ceiling and then all of the sudden, like in waves they started pushing him up and he was getting smashed into the ceiling.

ES: There were all these jocks at the show, man. I was laughing, but I thought he was gonna get hurt.

SB: Yeah it was probably one of our coolest shows.

ES: Yeah it was fun.

To conclude and close out the way I began, it could be argued that Mates of State is better for making more technically advanced music. For creating something a bit more artistic and Avant Garde. Obviously, two people both singing, playing and harmonizing over rather technical stops and starts and craftily created changes is a bit more impressive than what Seve vs. Evan is doing.

But, it seems kind of irrelevant to me because no one ever says, “Great lyrics, but I can't stand the song.” It's almost always the other way around, because the chances are no one notices anything about a song unless they like the melody or sound of the song itself. And it's usually really catchy songs with embarrassingly unintelligent lyrics that we find ourselves saying, “Great song, but I can't stand the lyrics.”

I haven't gotten into Mates of State because they're the band that I never liked enough to appreciate. On the other hand, Seve vs. Evan isn't hard to like. And I tend to appreciate them thoroughly. Now it's your turn, why don't you go give them a try?

Posted by Drew Danburry on Feb 25, 2008 @ 12:00 am