This Podcast Is... Uncalled For - Chris Eveland

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

We are joined in today's episode by Canadian guitarist and musician Chris Eveland.

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Just press play. We're on our way. Voice of sharp opinions. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the podcast. another great guests with me today, so go ahead and introduce yourself, please. Well, thanks for having me, Mike. I'm Chris Evelyn. I live in Ontario, Canada, guitar player, traveling, touring, recording musician, and it's great to be here, man.

Yeah, it's great to have you here. So, fourth Canadian by my counts on my podcast, so that's pretty cool. Right on. And probably up there with musicians as well, because I've had a few musicians on. and, um, as well. And, um, always a good time. Always good time. I, I especially like it when musicians can act too. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because I'm a, I could have a filmmaker as well. So. Yeah. So, so, so yeah, let's talk music a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, what, what instruments do you play? How long you've been doing it? And you're, man. Yeah, I, uh, well, I just,

recently turned 50. So I've been playing guitar as my main instrument. It's my passion for probably about 30 36 years now. I started very young. My grandfather was a piano tuner, so I got to grow up kind of seeing him having all these pianos torn apart

and tinkering on it. And as a very young, you know, four or five year old hearing all these notes coming out of it. It was very magical at the time. And it got me interested in music and then just progressed into the guitar and then I haven't put it down.

I haven't stopped since. It's just been live shows and a lot of recording. I teach guitar as well. Yeah, it's just a passion that I have. And I love talking about it, love sharing about it, love meeting people all over the place with the touring and different musicians. And it's always a great time.

Excellent, excellent. So with the guitar, who are your influences, should I say? What guitarists have you looked up to? Sure, yeah. It changes now at this stage of the game, but in the beginning it was Eddie Van Halen was the guy

for a lot of us, right? For so many of us. But the main thing, I had one cassette, and that's the first cassette I had, my grandfather bought me. He went in in 1986 and asked for the number one selling album, and thank goodness it was 5150 that year,

because that's what I got for my for my birthday, and that's the only tape I had, so I would flip it back and forth. And every time in the middle of a song, there would be this high squealing. I didn't know what it was at the time. I didn't even know it was a guitar. I was only 11, I think, or 12. But I heard it, and I got all emotional. I reacted to his playing in a very, very cool way.

So when I asked Granddad about it, he goes, oh, that's a guitar. And then I got into it, and then I started learning their stuff. And so Eddie was definitely the guy that made me want to go grab a guitar, maybe want to learn. And then obviously that's creeping into 88, 89. So Steve I, Joe Satriani, Eric Johnson, all those monster players were in that time frame as well. No, Betancourt, John Petruci from Dream Theater. Those are like my main, you know, four or five. Pete Les Pras from Haram, Scaram.

He's a Canadian guy. Incredible player. All of those guys mixed in a, well, it was just in my constant rotation, for sure. Cool. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like heavy rock influence and yeah definitely started heavy rock I didn't get into the the really really heavy stuff like I think Van Halen was a party kind of melodic rock

I didn't even get into the to the really heavy stuff until later on I definitely dove into it because there's some incredible players there but also it was a wide spectrum of playing that I enjoyed but definitely the the high energy rock and roll for sure was the most energy that I felt in the playing good deal good deal yeah so so you mentioned touring and performing live uh who are some of the musicians you've had the opportunity to perform with yeah yeah so um like the the tribute acts are kind of where it's at right now for like playing and performing um i i wish i was hooked up with an original act you know doing those tours still I lucked out a few years ago with a guy from my hometown Aaron Walpole he went on the Canadian Idol show so it was the same year the American Idol if you

remember Chris Dottery Chris Dottery got third place well up here in Canada Aaron Walpole got third place in Canada awesome so things got busy with him and we did some touring under some of the songs that he wrote and some other things too that that was that was always fun traveling to different places but But I've been a guitar player in an Elvis tribute, a Roy Orbison tribute. And I'm currently involved in a 10-piece Abba tribute, which has been going for about five or six years. And it's been absolutely incredible. Like, it's the widest age spectrum we've ever played for.

Like, you see five-year-olds there. They know the words to Mamma Mia Dance Queen. And then there's the 85-95-year-olds there, too. So it's a wide age spectrum. The theaters are full. They're great gigs. We've toured the West Coast, East Coast, Canada, upstate New York. We're starting getting in the States now.

We've got our P2 visas, so we're starting to travel down there and get some shows in. Hopefully we'll get to Kansas City where you're right there. Yeah, yeah. But it's a lot of fun, man. Excellent. Excellent. So, yeah, Abba. Yeah, that's interesting.

I would assume a lot of kids today wouldn't know who Abba is, but apparently they do. Fair enough. And you know what it is? It's those, it's a mama. movies so they're making the third one now aba just released if you can believe this a brand new album like two or three years ago it was the first album in like 30 years or something crazy there's a lot of it just keeps cycling right and there's a few abate tributes out there but they all seem to do well like they people show up they have a good time but it's a pretty

pretty fun show yeah one my favorites one of my favorite songs is one of one night in Bangkok from the chess musical and learning that's part of Abba were responsible for writing that was interesting. Okay. Yeah. Barso temples, but the Pearl St. Free.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I hear stuff like Wolfgang Van Halen. He just recorded, released his new album called The End. And I was just watching an interview with him and he was saying like he picked up one of those massive boards and it was commissioned to ABA back in the 70s.

It was one of the boards they recorded on now. He's got that. He brought it into 5150 studios. So you keep hearing them coming up here and there or whatever, but it's a great show. It's still going strong. So I'm happy to be part of it. Yeah.

Yeah, good deal. Good deal. Any thoughts on the current acts, like the current stars that we all hear about. So, of course, being in Kansas City, one name that will come up quite a bit is Taylor Swift. yeah yeah you can't watch a chiefs game anymore

without seeing her yeah yeah I don't know but like current acts as far as I go like I listen to I love like dirty honey as far as like bands go I don't know if you've heard of those guys

they're absolutely incredible I'm more into like still like it's been a lifelong thing but instrumental guitarists so guys like Andy Wood got through Govan Mattias Asado all these guys that are just kind of

out there doing their own thing instrumentally as far as the pop goes I do hear a lot of the new stuff because a lot of the students are you know, Swifty fans and they want to learn the stuff and you know what? Like I don't knock it man like a lot of that they're world class musicians that are recording

those songs in the studio so when you hear it it's really well written it's really well produced. The playing is incredible you know but I don't drive around listening to a lot of the They're not pop stuff at all, right? And specific to Taylor, that is something I've heard about her, is that she is an incredible songwriter.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Nothing negative to say for sure. The fact that she and Travis are just a couple miles from me that just blows my mind sometimes, too. Yeah. Are you a Chiefs fan out there, too? I am not a Chiefs fan, but I do listen to Travis' podcast.

My team was St. Louis. Okay. And then they got a light out of town that 10 years ago. Back in the Kurt Warner days in the Marshall Falls. I actually got a chance to meet Kurt Warner once right after that. Oh, sick. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there was a sports cultural show out south here.

And he and a couple of other Rams players from that year were signing autographs. And while he was signing my autographs, the guy in front of me was struggling with his stuff so Kurt's signing my signing the autograph for me and I get up doggers up hey thanks Kurtz got to shake the man's hand and

yeah that's it so that was pretty cool that's pretty cool yeah I'm a diehard saints fan man New Orleans one of my favorite cities and I just love that team and grew up loving them since high school so not the best year this year

no no yeah speaking of the Saints since you mentioned them Are you familiar with the name Henry Childs at all? Oh. Yeah, he was a tight end for the Saints. Well, he's since passed, of course, but he was a tight end for the Saints during Archie's time there. Oh, back in the 70s, yeah, yeah.

Okay. Henry Child, his son, Henri and I were actually high school teammates playing football. Oh, that's cool, man. Yeah. Yeah. Henri is the only one from our team that went pro and it didn't last June long because of pros. Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, wicked. Yeah, he actually played in Canada for, for a bit, I think, with Saskatchewan. Oh, and the CFL, right on. Yeah. Oh, that's cool, man. So, so that's a pretty cool. But, yeah, Travis, yeah, that's a great podcast to listen to the New Heights. I'll check it out.

I didn't know he had. Is it with his brother too? Because those guys got a great, yeah, they've got a great energy together with his brother. Yeah, cool. I'll check it out. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Yeah. So, yeah, try to think some other bands, some of the musicians I've had on. Yeah. There was a band when I was in high school. And shortly after in college, it was called the initial name was Thulium. They later became anything but Joey. They were locally famous, and they're all friends of mine.

One of whom I've had on the podcast. Anything but Joey, that's a cool name. I like that. Yeah. And they started as a cover band as well. They did a lot of Weezer covers. Okay. And then started doing their own music.

I think Girl Roommates is probably one of their better-known songs. I think Marcy II is actually their signature song. And where do they go by now? I'll check them out. So you can still check them anything but Joey. Okay. But they disbanded quite a while ago and leaving the normal lives. It happens.

Yeah. It happens. Yeah, their drummer has been on my podcast. is a guy of known since I was eight. You know, that's a long time. And they're a guitarist, a guy by the name of Brian Chesson, a couple years ago, my day job is I teach chess to kids. And this one particular club, I happened to have Brian's son as one of my students.

Yeah. Yeah, so that was pretty cool. And to his credit, the kids does play pretty decent chess. My son's pretty, he kills me on it, man. Years ago, we got one of those apps that you can play back and forth them out of where you are, right? So we were a couple hours away. And man, like at a young age, he would just, he would just wipe the, like, he just clean the board on me, man. It's like in six moves, he just have it done.

And I'm good for him. But he just, he has that vision, right? Like, I guess the. Well, you got to know, well, to avoid that in six moves, you got to know what to look for. Yeah. Yeah. And that's one of the things I do teach is how to prevent a four move or six move at checkmating. Yeah.

Yeah, as a dad with kids, right? Like you want to early on in life, like you let them win a lot of things. right because they feel so good about it but i'm telling you i would put everything into it and he's still to this day he just turned 24 last week and he man not saying i'm not a great chess player at all but he just he gets done quickly yeah cool good deal yeah yeah and uh because of my chess work i've had the opportunity to meet and be in the same room as a few grandmasters so cool very cool like uh yeah a couple years ago, Gary Kasparov.

Story, man, I'm not well-versed in the chess, but I imagine it's... He's the one that... Yeah, yeah, Casparov was the one that played Deep Blue back in the 80s. Okay. Yeah. So he's one of the first to play a computer. And nowadays, chess computers are a pretty prevalent thing. We call them chess engines now.

And, yeah. Yeah, we have to have special rules to make sure they people aren't using them to cheat. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. So back to music for a second.

Do you have a website that people can check out your music? Yeah, I mean, just the Facebook, it's Chris Evelyn music on Facebook or if they want to, you know, all the streaming platforms. I have some original music out there to Spotify, Apple, all that stuff. Just under Chris Evelyn. I'm also in an acoustic writing partnership with one of my best friends John Millis. It's called Rail City Route. We've got a couple songs that we've put up there as well.

But as long as you go to Christy and you'll start there and then you'll see you a bunch of the albums that I've recorded on and some of the things I've got to do. Yeah, it's all there. Cool, cool. Yeah, everyone check that out. That's cool. Yeah. I don't know.

I've got plenty time left. Is there anything else we wanted to discuss today? Man, you know what? Just wrapping up. Today's our last show with the Abbott Tribute. We're playing in Ottawa at Algonquin Commons. It's a sold-out show. It's a beautiful little.

I shouldn't say little. It's an 800-seat theater. But it's a beautiful venue. The band's put a lot of work putting the stage together for the, you know, the Christmas, the decorations and Santa's coming out and everything. So tonight's the last gig of the year. And then we're taking a little. January is always a little bit slower for live music, right?

As you know. So we get a little of a break and everyone's looking forward to that. We've had a great year. But there's lots of music coming out as well. As far as the original stuff goes, there's some new songs coming out with Rail City Route. There's new songs of mine coming out as well. So just loving life and following the passion and enjoying stuff, man. All right.

Sounds good. And with that, Chris, thanks for coming on the podcast. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah. And everyone, check out Chris's work, chrisaveland.com, right? Chris Evelyn Music on Facebook, yeah. Chris Evelyn Music on Facebook. All right.

All right. Well, thank you all for a listen, and we will talk again soon. This podcast is Uncalled for. It's hosted, produced and edited by myself, Mike. Chernevsky. Our opening music is the, this podcast is uncalled for a theme created at sueno.com. SUNO.com. And our outro music for this episode is Farrell Angel Waltz by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetec.com. Licensed under Creative Commons by attribution 4.0 license. Please support the podcast and purchase our exclusive uncalled for merchandise, t-shirts,

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