Evie Gilson
“It’s mostly about telling a story…”
Amelia Smith
Singer-songwriter Evie Gilson is based in Norwich and recently started performing at venues across the city.
Country-inspired, she’s building a name for herself online, posting an array of covers and originals on social media.
Outline caught up with Evie to chat about her story, music and ambitions.
“I got my first guitar aged six, so I’ve been playing for a very long time and it’s something I enjoy.”
Eve has a hearing impairment, which she uses as further motivation to succeed.
“I haven’t got long till my hearing loss gets worse, so I will always punch myself a little bit if I never try. I’m completely deaf without my hearing aids in, but with them there’s a delay. With music, everything has to be about 2 seconds before. It makes it very difficult.”
American rock band Whiskey Myers and country singer Waylon Wyatt are major influences on Evie’s style, alongside the variety of Norwich’s live music scene.
“If there’s a local musician playing, I’ll go to their gig, get to know them and then I can network that way.”
So, what message does she hope to convey through her music?
“It’s something I enjoy sharing with people. I would say I’m quite an authentic person as well, so I like to share that with my music. I like lyricism, so it’s mostly about telling a story behind the lyrics.”
“With hearing aids, if you see a bird flying by, because it’s electronic, you can’t sense where it’s coming from. It’s the same with my music and a lot of the time with pitch and stuff.”
Evie has low frequency hearing loss and had to learn to sing at a higher pitch to adapt.
“When I hear it through my hearing aids, it’s all scratchy. So, I can never actually properly hear my music and how it sounds. Hopefully to other people, it’s great.”
She hopes that building her profile as a musician can lead to more conversations around disability awareness.
“Invisible disabilities are very important, representation-wise. I do experience ableism, quite frequently.”
Evie has a few plans to continue her musical pursuit.
“I have a few gigs coming up. I’d say getting my original music on streaming platforms. The main thing is having a portfolio or something to show people to ask people to play places, support local bands, stuff like that. I’d say that’s the next step. Also, to keep playing in Norwich and other places as well.”
Voodoo Daddys Showroom, Norwich, is the venue of Evie’s next performance, supporting Nick Mobin on 17 July from 7pm.
