everwalden

"This song is called 'Hummingbird,' inspired by a real hummingbird who used to sit next to me every morning as I drank coffee on the porch," Jonathan Le Shana declared before launching into the indie-pop anthem at the crowded, second-wave coffee shop in Long Beach California. The audience bopped their heads to the rhythm of the acoustic guitar, and several stuck around afterward to join the Everwalden mailing list, pick up a homemade/hand-stamped Everwalden CD, and meet the jubilant, caffeinated singer-songwriter.

That was November of 2019 - the very first month that Le Shana began this musical journey called "Everwalden." Since then, Le Shana has spent a year in the Himalayas, and now a year in rural Alaska (going on two!), searching for inspiration and a place quiet enough to consider life's deepest mysteries. He has been turning these adventures into songs - five new ones per month (which can be heard in pieces on social media, and as demos on his patreon page).
  
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 sophomore EP, a Holiday EP, and his debut LP as Everwalden.
  
Influenced by acts such as Sigur Ros, Sufjan Stevens, Switchfoot, and Regina Spektor, Everwalden's self-described "philosophical folk-rock for adventurers" 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 Spruce Moose, a home studio in the forest of rural Alaska. 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