Evan Johns says the last two and a half years have been a long journey for his band, Hurt. “There was a lot of not eating, yelling, and screaming, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do, man,’” Johns reports. “We just kept moving forward, though, believing in the music and passing out different demos. All of a sudden Capital was interested.” Johns adds that even while they were recording demos and sending them out, he and the lead singer were still putting together the band.

Capital came on board in July of 2005, although Hurt had recorded their debut on their own. “You can call it a demo,” Johns says. “But the record company loved it. They said, ‘Let’s just get it mixed and mastered and put it out there.’”

Among Evan’s favorite tracks are “Danse Russe.” “I love how melodic it is,” he admits. “It was really fun doing the drum tracks on that one. I got to mess around with all sorts of recording techniques. I’m a big fan of mallets on toms. I was also using brushes, samples–all sorts of stuff. I did a lot of that on ‘House Carpenter’ and ‘Forever,’ too. The whole recording process of the drums was trial and error, with no preconceived ideas. I got a lot of that from watching my dad [famed producer Andy Johns]. He would try all sorts of things while recording drums.” Advertisement

Twenty-five-year-old Evan began playing drums at four, and whenever he visited his father at “the office,” he was drawn to the drums. “Back in the ’80s, drummers were really into big drumkits, and there were a lot of things to hit. It was the most fun time of my life.”

Johns says he enjoyed watching such drummers as Gregg Bissonette with Joe Satriani, Fred Coury from Cinderella, and Alex Van Halen. “I would just sit and stare at Alex’s drumkit and watch all the different miking techniques. I can remember when Alex was using ride cymbals for top hi-hats. I was always going into my ‘study,’ as we called it, and practicing drums so I could become one of the club and hang out with the adults.”

Robyn Flans