Evan Marien is a composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist born and raised in Decatur, Illinois who now lives in Brooklyn, NY. Although Evan grew up playing trombone, piano, guitar, and drums, he is primarily known for his performances and recordings on the electric bass. Most recently he has been playing bass, keys and singing background vocals for electronic songwriter Elliot Moss, playing bass with Thundercat drummer Justin Brown's NYEUSI, and the last bassist to play in guitar legend Allan Holdsworth's band.
Evan attended MacArthur High School, where he played in the Downbeat award-winning MacArthur Jazz Band. This band brought him many awards and opportunities, winning Best Soloist at multiple competitions, a full scholarship to study at Birch Creek in Wisconsin's beautiful Door County, sharing the stage with Maria Schneider's Orchestra/Big Band and Maynard Ferguson's band. Evan was also a part of the MacArthur Jazz Combo, which in his junior year won Best High School Combo in the nation by Downbeat Magazine.
Evan attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. During his time at Berklee, Marien studied under Matthew Garrison, David "Fuze" Fiuczynski, Joe Lovano, Kenwood Dennard and Lincoln Goines to name a few. In 2009, Marien graduated Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music and the same year was voted in the Bass Player Magazine Reader’s Choice Awards, one of the top three "Most Exciting New Players".
Besides leading his project with drummer Dana Hawkins, He has recorded or performed with Virgil Donati, Wayne Krantz, Cory Wong (Vulfpeck), Zach Danziger, Nate Wood, Louis Cole, Fredrik Thordendal (Meshuggah), Mark Guiliana, Victor Wooten, Ian Chang (Son Lux), Mike Slott, Mitski, A$AP Ferg producer Frankie P and many other incredible music makers and instrumentalists.
Evan is a bass faculty member at The Collective and The New School in NYC, teaching modern music to all instrumentalists.
Evan stopped by with Brian to talk growing up with music, jazz to funk, Herbie Hancock to video game soundtracks and a lot more.