Fans of ROAR may know Owen Evans as the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist behind his solo-project moniker. But Owen is also a self-taught artist. In honor of the new Matchbook X Public Record sketchbook collection, we asked Owen about his own sketchbooks and drawings.
Here's what he had to say.
PUBLIC RECORD:How long have you been keeping sketchbooks? How often do you draw in them?
Is it hard to always carry them with you?
OWEN EVANS: I love drawing and making visual art, but like all habits it’s easy to fall out of it. It did predate music for me as a practice.
I’ve never really improved much, but I’m generally fine with that. I’m mostly concerned with how infrequently I make visual art.
I gotta step it up, cause this is ridiculous.
I usually have half a dozen sketchbooks or loose papers with lyrics or drawings. I
get really hung up on dedicating a singular sketchbook to drawings,
because I become paralyzingly precious about only putting the best
possible work into it.
PR: So many of your sketches have been turned into band merch, album covers, and stuff. Do you start drawing with the end 'product' in mind? Or do you select drawings afterward to turn into t-shirts and albums and all?
OWEN EVANS: Whenever
there is a need for a shirt, flyer, album cover, etc., that’s really
the only time I’m motivated to push the pencil around.
I’m not particularly concerned with producing something amazing, but I want to keep trying to make stuff.
I
was doing a lot of painting on cardboard when I was playing drums with
AJJ cause there was idle time quite often on tour, and we would have
basically a whole band Etsy store at the merch table, so I could earn a
little something on the side.
PR: How do you know when one of your sketches is destined to move beyond the sketchbook and into some other form?
OWEN EVANS: I think I’m usually thinking of a use for what I’m drawing, so it’s rare that I just have extra pieces laying around.
Sometimes I show my friends my sketchbooks, and they'll say 'Wow, that should be a shirt!'.
I also draw things I want as tattoos as well.
PR: Any advice for people who never seem to get around to drawing in their own sketchbooks?
OWEN EVANS: I don’t feel qualified to give advice on much of anything tbh.
I think it's the same for meditation, and exercise, as “uncool” as that may sound: Build up routine that incorporates your creative habits into your life in such a way that it would feel awkward not to do them.
