INTERVIEW: Evanora:Unlimited Finds the Flow State
09/25 @ Basilica Hudson
Photos by Maggie Aulman
“The Sage does not display himself, yet nothing is hidden.”
In May of this year, I watched Orion Ohana, the artist behind Evanora:Unlimited and Marjorie W.C. Sinclair, share his unique mix of yugoslav piano ballads, experimental electro-punk, and Bay Area rap with a crowd of about 50 people at the historic Colony Woodstock. Following this stop as a part of his first US headline tour this spring, Ohana is returning to the area to play Basilica Hudson on September 25, supporting Boy Harsher.
After his set at Colony Woodstock, I caught up with Ohana in a quaint living room of an old colonial farmhouse next to the venue.
Sitting in an eclectically upholstered armchair, wearing pajamas and a pillbox hat with beads hanging down in front of his face, he told me, “It's the first for a lot of things on this tour. I’ve been self-managed and my own booking agent for the past 10 years, with the exception of some trial phases, so this is the first time I’ve done something so strongly with a team to this scale.”
Despite being from the Bay Area originally, Ohana has not toured extensively in the US and broke through while living and touring in Europe. And although he technically has only ever toured as Evanora:Unlimited, he brought out many Marjorie W.C. Sinclair songs that night and had fun taking requests from the audience. He has many released and unreleased songs to choose from and performs a different set every night, something fans can look forward to at Basilica Hudson this Friday.
Ohana’s most recent Evanora:Unlimited record, Portraits from Memory, pushes deeper into collaboration and features songs in English, Polish, Croatian, Spanish, Arabic, and Russian. The choice of lyrics in different languages is a way for him to find the best messenger for the desired meaning.
“There are definitely just things that can only be written in a song with English, and then there are things that could only be sung in another language that could never be in English,” he told me. “A lot of my favorite music is foreign, but also a lot of my music is from home and could never be made in another language.”
When further discussing the multilingual, multicultural elements to this album and his music in general, Ohana explained, “It's not something I'm consciously doing. Something that is important to me and my art is giving voice to myself as well as my friends and communities that have supported or inspired me.”
Outside of his music writing, Ohana has carried this philosophy into his work as a performer, producer and show organizer as well, using music to communicate through cultural divides.
“When I'm in Europe or somewhere outside America, I very much try to represent Oakland. Sometimes I sit people down and give them the whole music history lesson of my city and whatnot,” Ohana said. “But then when I'm in America, I try to represent everything that I've found in other parts of the world.”
Ohana explains that the desire to bridge differences was formed in his early years in music when he used to throw raves in the Bay area.
“I was very immersed in each of the different scenes in the Bay Area: the punk scene, rave scene, Oakland rap scene, the Soundcloud stuff as well. Every single thing! But I also saw that it was weirdly segregated,” Ohana recalled. “Everyone was so talented and so cool, so when I got into throwing shows, I wanted to take my favorite friends in punk bands and throw them together with my favorite friends who were rave DJs and throw them together with my favorite rapper friends, and just have all the genres and underground communities together. It all meshes.”
Ohana has many albums he is working on at once, waiting for each one’s destined time and vision to reveal itself. One project we discussed is an album produced by Evanora:Unlimited but with vocals from Daemon, an Oakland artist and Ohana’s former roommate. Through this he continues to uphold values of integrity and give back to the communities that have supported him.
Another upcoming release is unmixed songs from a corrupted hard drive, revealing the realities and limitations of the technologies many artists rely on while deconstructing the recording process.
“I’m very intentional with everything I do, but at the same time, my work equally is a result of spontaneity and a flow state,” Ohana says. “I just give in to the whole ‘everything-happens-when-it's-meant-to’ mentality which sometimes means I’ll have near finished albums I don't drop for at least 2+ years.”
Evanora:Unlimited will return to the Capital Region on September 25 at Basilica Hudson as a part of Basilica’s Soundscape festival, opening for Boy Harsher with Choir Boy. For tickets and more information, visit https://basilicahudson.org/
