Contributor Samantha Skye interviews and trades “kandi” with Evalution behind the scenes at Sunset Music Festival.
Courtesy of Nick Tzavaras | The Crow’s Nest
By Samantha Skye
Local artist Evan Cazes, the multi-talented musician behind Evalution, shared his journey, inspiration and everything that led to his first main stage performance at Sunset Music Festival (SMF).
Born and raised in Tampa, Cazes started playing the piano at age eight. As his infatuation with music grew, he picked up other instruments like the guitar, bass, drums and even started singing.
In 2018, his interest in music production and “DJing” skyrocketed and, while attending Florida State University where he earned an Bachelor in Science degree in Marketing, Cazes secured weekly residencies as Evalution at popular nightclubs in Tallahassee.
This year, Evalution was the only local DJ to play on a main stage, the Eclipse Stage, at SMF — an electronic dance music festival which takes place every year on Memorial Day weekend.
“It’s mind-blowing,” Cazes said when asked about how it felt to perform at one of the city’s biggest music festivals. “This is my first festival that I’m not playing on an art car or a local side stage and playing on an actual stage.”
“Tampa is my home. It feels really surreal.”
SMF was the first festival Cazes ever attended back in 2019.
“Music is technically my only job,” he said. “I do little things on the side that utilize my marketing degree, like I’ll make flyers for venues and stuff like that.”
For the most part, Evalution has put all his marbles in one basket because he is confident in his career as a music producer.
Blunts & Blondes influenced Evalution’s style early on in his career and he has had the opportunity to collaborate with him which, according to Cazes, was “a dream.”
He greatly admires and is inspired by Boogie T and Griz, among others who bring a lot of instruments into the mix.
“They really lay the groundwork for what I want to do. I don’t know if I’d be making funky musical stuff if not for that,” said Cazes.
Evalution draws a lot of inspiration from older songs. Right now, he’s working on a blend between reggae dubstep and hip-hop dubstep.
“I’ll kind of change the chord progression, change the melody, change the lead,” Cazes said.
Reference tracks and sampling songs from other artists can give a little boost in creativity, he explained.
When asked what festival essential he’d bring, Cazes exclaimed his hatred for clacking fans, but added, “probably a really good totem representing my favorite artists, because the feeling of looking out in the crowd and seeing someone who brought a totem for you really lifts you up.”
In terms of dream festivals, Evalution would be ecstatic to perform at Coachella. Talking more underground, he really wants to play Okeechobee Music + Arts Festival and Suwannee Hulaween in Live Oak, FL.
His favorite local venue to DJ at is The Ritz in Ybor.
“[The Ritz] brings in touring artists every single weekend, so it’s unmatchable. Their line-ups are crazy,” Cazes exclaimed.
For someone just starting out as a DJ, Cazes recommends using anything with rekordbox –– software that transfers to CDJs –– because that is the industry standard.
“If you learn on a controller that uses rekordbox – any of the Pioneer like DDJ-1000, DDJ-RR, or whatever it is – they’ll have record box and then when you go to transfer over to that, it’s 10 times easier.”
To keep up with his flourishing career as a music producer, follow @evalution.music on Instagram.
