Paul Evers

Started (classical) guitar lessons at the age of 13. Was a part of many local bands, such as Wishing Well and Dogmen, which was a King’s X cover band. In most of those bands I was the guitarist, bassist or did backing vocals. For the last band, Dogmen, I was the lead singer.

Eventually I was done with being in these local bands: it became more about ego’s and other funny business than the music. We mostly did covers instead of our own work! I took singing lessons from an opera singer, who taught me many breathing and singing techniques which improved my singing.

I worked as a sound technician for several bands and eventually wound up at Venemaximaal, Aeilko’s PA and Mobile Recording company. This led to us doing a few big jobs together. During one of the recording sessions we came up with the idea to write a song: The Only Answer. A classical theme that I had lying around, enriched with great vocal harmonies styled by Aeilko.

This all led to a musical collaboration in which the music not the people became the focus. In the beginning, HARDLAND felt like a quest to challenge our vocal abilities and find out what worked best; how to use and blend our voices in the best way. Eventually we found our groove and the parts were divided in a way that felt natural, a similar thing happened with the guitar as the different techniques fit different players.

Most common comments on HARDLAND: “Awesome, you should release that! It’s too good for just an attic studio!” Having our first album in our cd-players….It’s still a weird experience, but it fills me with pride! Ready for more!