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Hey Friends,
I decided to start a music page to showcase some of the projects I've been lucky enough to be involved with over the years. I'm changing the song list from time to time but it's a mix of bands I've played drums with or music I've written or both. Here's the official bio: Hailing from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Evan Bivins has been a performer from an early age. His mother, acclaimed actress, Mary Lucy Bivins, raised he and his brother, Matthew, on the stage. Coming from an artistic family, Evan tried on many mediums (acting, visual arts, performance art) before settling on music at the age of 17. When he heard his brother, Matthew, playing traditional Irish folk music he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. The first instrument he learned to play was an Irish frame drum called the bodhràn. Together with Matt and North Carolina School of the Arts classmates Jay Clifford, and Ward Williams they formed the band, Jump, Little Children. Soon after relocating to Boston the band turned away from Irish folk to explore more modern territory and out of necessity for a proper drummer Evan went in search of his first drum set. He found a 1963 Rogers Holiday that he cherishes to this day. Almost immediately the band started touring and Evan cut his drumming teeth on stage. He attributes his unique sound and approach to the fact that he is entirely self-taught and found himself in an environment where he had to learn quickly. In 1994 Jump, Little Children relocated once again, this time to Charleston, SC where the line up was completed when the band found Jonathan Gray. Over their 12-year career the band toured non-stop, nationally and internationally gaining legions of die-hard fans and released four albums, two EP’s, a live double album and DVD. Their first recordings ‘The Licorice Tea Demos’ and ‘Buzz’ caught the attention of Atlantic Records and in 1998 they released their first proper studio recording, ‘Magazine’. They returned to their indie roots with their second studio recording ‘Vertigo’ and then signed to Brash Records to release ‘Between the Dim and the Dark’. Jump was well known for their trademark eclectic songwriting and high-energy live performances as well as their extensive touring and dedication to their fans. In 2005, after 12 long years on the road, Jump, Little Children called it a day with all the members wanting to follow other pursuits. Evan immediately set to work on the smash hit musical theater project, ‘Cabaret Kiki’.
‘Cabaret Kiki’ is, in essence, a rock and roll variety show. Incorporating original music, dance and satire, it pays homage to both Weimar-era cabaret and modern day ‘cabaret’ (Saturday Night Live, David Letterman, etc.) while firmly planting it’s own unique stamp on a time honored tradition. ‘Kiki’ marks a new era for Evan creatively and from a production standpoint. As well as writing music and satire for the show, Evan acts as artistic director and manages virtually every aspect of the multi-discipline/ multi-media project. In starting out, ‘Kiki’s’ mission was to bring together local artists to create an environment for cross-disciplinary collaboration as well as put on high quality theater with basically no budget. It quickly grew to encompass the elite of Charleston’s artistic community with musicians like Cary Ann Hearst, Bill Carson, Matthew Bivins and Nathan Koci lending their talents and names to the project as well as Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance artistic director Heather Maloy and Charleston Ballet Theatre dancers Stephanie Bussell, Danielle Forrestal and Chaz Glunk providing movement and choreography. It’s grown to include actors and comedians Reneé Fincke, Dana Mitchell, and Henry Riggs as well as the production wizardry of Adrian Wieland, Greg Tavares, Sean Sullivan and Alex Rosen and the photography and artistry of Molly Hayes, Lindsay Windham and Nathan Durfee. For Evan, the greatest joy of working on this project comes from working with writers Joe Halberda, Summer Mauldin and his brother. After playing to sold out houses since 2006, the writers turned their focus to another facet of ‘Kiki’: the story. Work is currently underway on ‘Cabaret Kiki’ as a plot-driven musical.
In addition to his work on ‘Kiki’ Evan has continued to record and perform with many artists including: Duncan Sheik, Bill Carson and His Checkered Past, Cary Ann Hearst, and Danielle Howle. He has also performed and written music for Asheville, North Carolina’s Terpsicorps Theatre of Dance and acted as musical director for the performance, ‘The Many Deaths of Edward Gorey’.
In 2008 the Bivins brothers uprooted, once again, this time to Chicago where they are excited to expand their theatrical horizons.
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