everwalden

"One hundred years from now, we'll all BE DEAD. IT'S STATISTICALLY TRUE!" Jonathan Le Shana (multi-instrumentalist and sole member of Everwalden) half sang and half shouted to a crowd of Icelandic bar customers in August of 2018. The audience laughed and cheered in a way uncharacteristic of bar gigs, wherein a unified response typically requires too much from a crowd that did not buy any concert tickets. By the end of the set, Le Shana had turned joy into a call to social action on behalf of worldwide migrants and impromptu speech led to applause and a tear-jerking performance of an original song entitled "Breathe it All in." 
  
As a teenager, Jonathan Le Shana picked up an acoustic guitar and began writing songs to cope with the emotional absurdities of existence. This passion for music and meaning has grown into a habit, and Le Shana is in process of writing, recording, and releasing both his debut EP and a follow up LP as Everwalden.
  
Influenced by acts such as Jonsi, Sufjan Stevens, Jon Foreman, and Phoenix, Everwalden's self-described "Whimsical, philosophical folk-rock for daydreamers" contains elements of alternative indie-rock, inspirational mountain folk, and ambient post-rock, with a knack for infectious melodic hooks. 
  
Everwalden's songs are layered with piano hooks, energetic ukulele, and glossy yet raw electronic programming. Lyrically, Everwalden is influenced by mythologies, the work of the 19th century transcendentalists, the romanticists, and the medieval mystics. His songs invoke deep existential questions, with underlying themes of finding love and beauty in the midst of chaotic and wild places, both fiction and non-fiction. 
  
Everwalden's live show is raw and vulnerable, with spells of humor, sobering thoughts, and spacious yet detailed acoustic instrumentation work that challenges and charms audiences of diverse backgrounds. 

Jonathan Le Shana writes and records for Everwalden at the Curious Cormorant, a home studio on the southern shores of the Los Angeles basin in California. When not creating music, Le Shana enjoys teaching history at the high school level, eating good food, and exploring both wilderness and human habitats. He has recently become obsessed with extinct megafauna.

-Jonathan Le Shana (Everwalden), writing about himself in the third person