By Nancy Correro
The Times of SWLA
Fresh Nectar playing at Luna
Dave Evans and Ryan Bunch are the founding members of Fresh Nectar. I was invited to Stellar Beans, Dave’s new coffee house that Ryan runs for him, to chat with the guys about their band. I found them closing up shop for the day and we sat down on Stellar’s comfortable furniture to chat.Fresh Nectar got started serendipitously. “Back in ‘99 I owned Dave’s Pub. It was a music venue here in town. I closed it up and started playing acoustic shows over at Pepe’s Place which was University Pub and Deli. I was playing over there and that’s where I met Ryan,” Evans said.
“We used to do four hour cover shows of Dave Mathews. He [Evans] would do a solo song while I ran to the bathroom and visa versa. The first time we started playing was when Dave asked me to sit in with him and John Guidroz. I showed up and John didn’t make it there that night and it was just Dave. So I sat in with him that night and ever since then we’ve been playing,” said Bunch.
Fresh Nectar has a unique blend of sounds. If you could think of the essence of the vocals in Pearl Jam, the guitars of Wilco, Blind Melon, Dave Matthews Band, and then throw in some Radiohead and a pinch of Tool—you’ll find Fresh Nectar.
“It’s really hard when people ask you, ‘hey, what type or style of music do you guys play?’ For me it’s real difficult to facilitate it into a category because we as a band like really heavy music and really light music. We like classical music, this kind, this kind, this kind, so it’s difficult to label it. Mostly it’s closely related to alternative— kind of an acoustic alternative. I guess you could say sort of like Dave Mathews band but it’s not as busy as the Dave Mathews Band. It’s a little bit more Pearl Jamish with acoustic,” Evans said.
When asked what inspired them to write their ballads The Gift and Rescue Dave said, “Love. Love and passion and real life. Usually, what will happen is I’ll have a basic idea for a song. I try to match the sound of the music to the subject matter. Matters of the heart are somewhat easy to write about. It’s the stuff you feel, see and have been through.”
“It’s totally identifiable,” Bunch said.
On the bands myspace page, they have two instrumentals. I asked them what made them choose to make Build and Bluehill Billygrass into instrumentals.
“There is a recorded version of Bluehill Billygrass that has lyrics. We recorded it without words because the words were not in place yet. Build was written that way with the intention of it having words but the line in it is so fast moving that nothing has really come to me,” Evans said.
“To me it [Build] stood on its own,” said Bunch.
“It’s pretty much taken on its own life. Build is usually the last song we play either that or it’s always connected to Bull. Bull was our first tune that I wrote that I asked Ryan to check out. And playing the acoustic guitar in drop D is really cool. It’s a very warm, comfortable sounding tone,” Evans said.
When talking with Evans and Bunch you begin to see how they are able to work with each other so well. Their respect for each other shows when talking about their song Chief. In the song Chief, there is a call and response between the lead guitar (Ryan) and the lead vocal (Dave).
“We’ve developed a kinship between us where our communication lines are completely and totally open. The boundary is I am a self taught guitar player. I enjoy writing stories and putting lines together and figuring out harmonies. I got with the right guy because he likes writing melodies and he has such an extensive knowledge. He’s kind of like my dictionary where as I’m kind of like his work horse. I’m a basic chord structure guy and he’s the virtuoso.”
“Whatever,” says Bunch.
“And he’s extremely humble,” says Evans.
Dave Evans of Fresh Nectar
Dave Evans is the owner and operator of Luna Bar & Grill. He has just opened Stellar Beans Coffee House. He had a band before he and Bunch started playing together.Ryan Bunch had his own band as well before the two guys met and started playing together. He has a degree in classical performance.
“In classical music you don’t have lyrics that drive the music like pop music you have melody. So I like music with a defined melody—something that can stand on its own” Bunch said.
The band practices weekly and they play once a month at Luna Bar & Grill.
“I do it so I don’t go insane, really for me it’s the break from all the other things I have going on and I can just get things out. It’s therapeutic. Makes me feel better. It’s like medicine,” Evans said.
They recently added two members—keyboard player, Scotty Doland. “We added him back in June. He’s one of our dual purpose guys. He’s playing keyboard and percussion, and back-up vocals,” Evans said.
Debo, the saxophone player for Ashes of Babylon has joined up with them whenever he’s available. “He’s an unofficial member I guess you would call him,” Evans said.
This year they are going to try and get on with Contraband days and a couple other festivals where they are able to spread their wings a little bit more.
As a band they all have the same goal and it’s not to get signed and it’s not to go on tour. It’s so they can write songs.
“However, it would be great,” says Bunch.
“Oh, sure, oh if somebody got our album and was like God I’ve got to put this out, here’s a million, we would be like I need you to run the restaurant, I’m out. That’s how it would be don’t get me wrong, but that is not what we are after,” Evans says.
Right now, they are trying to accumulate their music. They are close to having 20 songs. Once they get to 25, they’ll probably stop and record all 25.
“We will have enough for two albums. For us it’s the product that we put out,” Evans said.
Fresh Nectar has one of those names that could mean so many things. So, I had to ask. Dave said he came up with the name.
He has an old friend that he first started playing music with. He was very enlightened and read a lot and always talked about “the Nectar of Ambrosia—the fruit of the gods.” Dave did some catering and called his catering service Nectar of Ambrosia Catering.
“Well, nobody knew what I was talking about. They would always ask, ‘what is ambrosia,’ and I would think to myself, I am not going to explain this to everybody... Mainly it’s fresh goodness. It has many meanings on many levels,” Evans said.
Fresh Nectar is Dave Evans, lead vocals and guitar, Ryan Bunch lead guitar and vocals, Edward LeBlanc, bass and vocals, Scotty Doland keyboard, percussion, and vocals. Fresh Nectar will be losing John Floyd on drums because he is moving to California. “We already have two or three people interested,” said Evans.
I asked both guys what their favorite Fresh Nectar song was. After considering for several moments Ryan Bunch said, “It would probably be a toss up between The Gift and Build.”
“The Gift and C-4,” Evans said. “I love C-4. I wrote C-4 at a point where I was about to break.
My levee had a crack in it. It’s basically about primal scream therapy. When I came up with it I saw myself running out into a field and just screaming, just letting it all out.”
Evans' father passed away October 11, 1997 and his daughter was born October 10, 1997. His mother took Polaroid’s of his daughter in one hospital and took them to show Evans' father in another hospital.
“Dad looked at them and he put them on his chest and it was all good. And a couple hours later he passed away. So that has always been with me. You can have your greatest moments and your lowest moments at basically the same time,” Evans said. He realized he needed to let some of this out and it came out in the song C-4.
“The C-4 thing is we wrote it with a capo on the 5th fret. The first chord of the song is C. So, C-4, but it came out as explosions or dynamite—C-4. It made this huge circle.
I love writing conceptual things like that,” Evans said.
One of the passions of the band is in keeping the Art and Culture of downtown Lake Charles alive. Part of that is Dave Evans hanging local art up in his Luna Restaurant and Stellar Beans and supporting local bands. You can see the art all over the walls when you enter and you can hear the bands when you go to Luna and eat or hang out. But more than that, the band wants it to be community and city driven. They want everyone to come out and enjoy the rich talent this city has.
“Arts and Culture falls by the wayside here. When people come into my place and wonder who created the art on the walls and I tell them its local art. They can’t believe it. Or when they hear a song by a local band and they can’t believe they’re from here—I think, what are we idiots? Are we cavemen? We have talented enough people here. There should be just as many people in the community to recognize it,” Evans said.
“Seventy-five percent of the people here don’t get out to support local bands,” Bunch said.
“I wouldn’t be doing the whole Luna thing over there if I wasn’t trying to stimulate the music scene. But I’ll bring in these totally great bands from all over the place and people will listen and say, oh, they’re okay. And I’ll think, are you out of your mind? Do you hear what those guys are up there doing? Then you find out they weren’t even paying attention,” Evans said.
Bunch and Evans joked around with each other at the end of the interview and they explained how important the band was as an outlet for them.
“Well, we do a whole lot of discussing things, drawing pictures while we are playing trying to come up with different ideas, fresh and Nectar-like as possible.”
Fresh Nectar can be heard at Luna Bar & Grill (337) 494-5862, 719 Ryan St., and also on their myspace page: www.myspace.com/lunabarandgrill. Don’t forget to check out Stellar Beans, 319 Broad St., (337) 564-5739.
