Melodic Machinations -Lyrically Speaking : Evidence of a Struggle

Multi-instrumentalist William PC Simmons V a.k.a Rev. Billy Simmons started Evidence of a Struggle in 2020 during Covid lockdowns. Evidence of a Struggle revolves around an evolving group of artists. The current line-up is Rev. Billy who plays all the instruments and John Airo who is in charge of visuals. The band name came from something a professor said to Rev. Billy which he explains “I think it's always resonated with me because I can still see, hear and feel that statement in anything that stands out as something extraordinary. I have learned that it can be extraordinarily good or bad, but there is always some evidence of a struggle in anything above or below average”.

Rev. Billy’s passion for music started young, “I got interested in music was by playing piano at my aunt's house when I was 3 or 4, and the sound was just captivating to me. We got a piano at our house not long after that. I would play for hours and put my forehead on the piano, and I could feel the music. I thought it was the coolest thing.” With parents and siblings who were music listeners, FM and AM radio in the car, at the pool and even a radio he fastened to his bike with twisted metal, Rev. Billy was immersed in a wealth of musical inspiration.

Unclear what specific genre his music belongs to Rev. Billy says that he has never been into labels. He explains “people keep saying different things, like Rock, Progressive Rock, Post Rock, Neo Jazz, and fusion, so I'm leaving it up to the listeners to label my music”. Rev. Billy gets lost in his music “I don’t want to sound cliche, but it’s my drug. It calms me, and then it wakes me up. It gets me excited, and it gives me an escape that makes the world a safer place”.

Not hearing any music that he felt was engaging or excited him Rev. Billy decided to make his own. “As I get older, I'm getting better at making the process of writing and playing more of a daily part of my routine. It also really helps me clear my head. It's therapeutic for me to write. It's a necessary part of my day. If I don't play or write, my day doesn't go as well as when I do play and write”.

Evidence of a Struggle creates music that Rev. Billy describes as having “themes and messages. Open your eyes. I mean, there's no proper, polite way to say that currently, from the time we wake up till we go to sleep, we're being bombarded with advertisements for things that are good and bad for us. Mostly bad. We see and hear about war, disease, and catastrophe, and It's shaking our mental health, causing depression, suicide, and homicide. It's making us withdraw while we're actually actively participating in the degradation of the planet we live on and passively watching as we're killing countless species of flora and fauna, including our fellow human beings, in a myriad of interesting and different ways as we run mindlessly through our lives, posting about our ignorance on social media. That's our new normal, and it isn't reassuring. We're all a part of it. We might want to attempt to change a couple of things. Maybe open our eyes and ears. Those are some of the messages I'm trying to convey through my art and music”.

Fully involved in the aesthetic of Evidence of a Struggle, Rev. Billy clarifies that this means that the band doesn’t need to operate under any asserted paradigms. He says, “when I was under contract on larger labels, I think the suits usually tried to focus and define the aesthetic in order to monetize the artist to the more lucrative demographic”.

Over the last three decades Rev. Billy has surrounded himself with people and been involved in things that foster creativity. When the pandemic started, Rev. Billy says “I made a routine out of writing. It was my job again, like it was when I was on more prominent labels. For four months during the pandemic, that's all I did. Now that the pandemic is over, I've built what I was doing into my daily routine. I wake up early. I have a studio called the glue factory in Chicago. I get up around 5:30-6:00 am. I go down to the glue factory, and I work on whatever I feel like I need to work on that day for the music part of my life. Then I usually go upstairs, get a shower and then head to our other job. My wife Amanda and I own a hair salon in Chicago called Rev. Billy's Chop Shop, where I also get to stay creative and motivated doing hair colors and haircuts, and then we come home. Relax, read, and watch movies, I might work on stuff at The Glue Factory a little bit before we go to bed, and then I wake up and do it all over again. It’s become my zen. I think it’s just how my days go now, and it keeps me engaged and focused on really getting things out of my head and starting my day off right. The music has become a daily affirmation for me like it always should've been. I just needed a reset. That and some fantastic inspirational people in my life are what keep me creative, focused, and growing as an artist”.

Loving live performances Rev. Billy enjoys seeing how the audience is engaged and how attached to the songs they become. He believes “Now it’s not just the music. It’s the music and the visuals. They go hand in hand. It’s fantastic to see how people react to what we’re doing. It’s so encouraging to see it immediately when we’re on the stage, and everything changes for the audience. It’s therapeutic. It’s healing, purging, and cathartic on stage and off. I can’t wait to get back to them. I think right now, playing is more challenging because of the pandemic pause. The market is saturated. Festivals and venues are booked with bands for a long time with so many amazing artists, which is good. I think it gives us a lot of time to work on new music and a new show that will be amazing”.

Using social media as a way in which their fans can engage with the band Rev. Billy elaborates that “we have an Evidence of a Struggle page on Facebook and Instagram and my Rev. Billy page on Instagram and Facebook, and John Airo‘s page on Facebook. Until we get finished with the albums we're working on right now, and we're out touring and playing live again, we’re letting our fans and audience engage with us on social platforms or through interviews like this”. Evidence of a Struggle are spending time creating new music and new animations to enable people to discover them and engage in the ways that they want to.

Currently working on three albums Evidence of a Struggle is refining their sound. Being the primary writer and composer for Evidence of a Struggle the band has a sound unique to Rev. Billy. With the new albums new musicians will bring their individual sounds which will add to the evolution of the band. Rev. Billy believes “for the upcoming stuff and the people we have the opportunity to collaborate with. It’s pretty exciting. I can hear the music evolving as new people add what they add to it while it keeps its central core sound”. After the first album people began asking if Evidence of a Struggle would add vocals to the music. “With the first record, I wanted the music to speak. It's that simple. And it did. Whether you could hear it or not, it told a story just like that story needed to be said. The new stuff has some vocals because something in my head wanted to go in that direction, so I wrote it down and sang it. Still, we’re also figuring out ways to retain the instrumental aspect we started with because the music and vocals speak the same truths differently, and we want them both to be heard. We're fortunate to have some fantastic musicians and artists around us to collaborate with. The new stuff sounds pretty fucking cool” Rev. Billy explains. He goes on to say that his wish for the future is “we could all try to be a little less selfish and make this world a better place for everyone and everything, seen and unseen, above and below, within and without”.

For those new to the music of Evidence of a Struggle, Rev. Billy recommends “Evidence of a Struggle is as good as a date with a dealer can go”.