BY MEGHAN SLUSARSKI — JUNE 18, 2021

Will Evankovich has had so many experiences and amazing opportunities in his career as a professional musician. For him, it’s a journey — and, as he told me during a recent, exclusive interview we conducted via Zoom, “The whole journey is awesome!”  

Will grew up playing in a band in his hometown of Santa Rosa, California, and loved it. He went to music school to study theory and learn to read and write music. Today, Will is currently working with the classic rock band Styx, and he helped write and record their new album Crash of the Crown, which is out today, June 18, 2021, on all major streaming platforms, in addition to being available on vinyl and CD. “We’re really proud of it. It’s been about a three-year-in-the-making record, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into making it,” Will says of Crown. “It’s pretty, and it goes all over the place. It starts from heavy prog into disco, then Latin disco — and not in the dance sort of way, but just more of a classic rock sort of way. It’s got many moods in it, and it gets very ‘Queen-ish’ by the end.”  

Styx was formed in 1972, and has existed for close to 50 years now. There have been many different people they have worked and collaborated with throughout the years. Will, along with Styx guitarist/vocalist Tommy Shaw, worked with conductor Liza Grossman and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (CYO) in 2017, when Tommy was CYO’s guest artist. They played and recorded at Waetjen Auditorium on the Cleveland State University campus, performing a variety of Shaw compositionssuch as “Blue Collar Man” and “Renegade” by Styx, as well as some of his solo material like “I’ll Be Coming Home.” Says Will about the CYO experience, “That was awesome. It was so incredible that it still probably single-handedly was one of the things in my career people stop me on the street and say, ‘I saw that thing.’” Will says he continues to marvel at how magical that night was and how everyone, including the audience, felt it.

Music is something Will has always loved and has been inspired by (something I relate to as an orchestral musician myself). “I still wake up in the morning and love it just as much as I did when I was six,” he admits. “I mean, it’s the same feeling. It’s incredible. I don’t know how many of your friends you’ve met that are just like, ‘I don’t have anything. I wish I had something like you have,’ because you hear that a lot. It is a gift, and I’m very grateful for it every day. I’m so happy you are enjoying the journey in playing music.”

Will has worked with some other artists throughout his career. He was a guitarist/vocalist with The Guess Who and co-wrote, co-produced, and performed on their 2018 album, The Future Is What It Used to Be. When I asked Will what his favorite part of that band experience was, he told me he liked performing and writing the best, and that producing was something he fell into. “I think if I had to just be a producer, I’d be kind of sad,” he noted, adding that when he was at Santa Rosa Junior College, he wanted to learn to play mandolin, bass, and keyboards so it could help him on his journey “in order to be useful for other people, but also be happy for myself.”

His final words of wisdom? “My advice to guys who are coming up is, just don’t stick with one thing — try out some other new things too.” Will suggests. “The whole journey is awesome!”

The SoundBard notes: As a student, Meghan Slusarski attended a seven-week online course I taught on the art of writing about music and pop culture for kaboomcollective.org. This is her first article.