Singer/songwriter Evan Honer takes us track-by-track through his beautifully breathtaking sophomore album ‘Fighting For,’ a soul-stirring coming-of-age folk record dwelling in life’s gut-wrenching depths.
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Stream: “Fighting For” – Evan Honer
And if I slip up, will the world come on crashing down, or will my momma’s friends gossip to everyone in town?
Turns out, the boy from Surprise is still full of surprises.
Evan Honer’s sophomore album is as raw and honest as they get. The Arizona-born singer/songwriter mourns openly, bleeds freely, and cries whole-heartedly, leaving no stone unturned nor story untold as he captures the weight of his early twenties while they happen to him in real time. It’s not often an artist offers his full self in song – or makes it feel like we’re getting his full self, for that matter – but Honer shares widely and willingly, pouring everything he’s got into sixteen unabridged songs that ache with a tender kind of turbulence rarely seen in the mainstream.
But that’s what happens when songwriting is your safe space; your therapy; your escape: You don’t hold back. An unfiltered musical diary reckoning with life’s highs and lows, ebbs and flows, Fighting For is a soul-stirring coming-of-age folk record dwelling in life’s gut-wrenching depths. Honer holds nothing back in painting vivid, visceral, and vulnerable portraits of a young man in the metaphorical trenches, and the result is as beautiful as it is breathtaking.
Well the sun starts rising
but it’s not what wakes me
I get up from the sound of her crying
On the bathroom floor but I leave her place
before her tears have a chance to start drying
Then its back to the old me
I’m stuck in this routine
I get lost in the thought of me losing
The one I loved so I’m compromising
and tonight you’re the vice that I’m choosing
But when it’s all over dear
I’ll be staring at the ceiling
too damn scared to share my feelings
but that girl she left me
bleeding on the floor
Released June 7, 2024 via Honer’s own indie label Cloverdale Records, Fighting For is a record navigating growth, change, loss, and the many forms of turmoil that accompany not just life in our twenties, but also life in the 2020s. Arriving just a year and change after Honer’s debut album West on I-10, the singer/songwriter’s sophomore album builds upon the passion and promise of his debut, showcasing just how much he can express of himself with just his voice and an acoustic guitar (and, at times, a backing band or a songwriter friend).
It wasn’t that long ago that Honer was a college student in Southern California, pursuing a degree in business administration and sporadically putting songs out when he found time to write and record them. He was halfway through his final semester at California Baptist University when he uploaded a cover of Tyler Childers’ deep cut “Jersey Giant” – a still-unreleased fan favorite that singer/songwriter Elle King had released her own cover of just one month prior.
Honer’s cover went viral within days, garnering over 50 million streams and leagues of fans eager to hear more from the young artist. His debut LP released on his college graduation day, and received praise wherever it was heard; country music magazine Whiskey Riff included it in their Top 40 Country Albums of 2023 feature, having praised it as a “vulnerable look into Honer’s experiences, relationships, and observations, and one hell of a debut record” earlier that same year.
Fighting For builds upon the foundations of its predecessor as Honer hones his lyrical and literal voice.
It’s an impressively mature sophomore record, given the short span of time between the two releases, and it’s one that, at its core, allows Honer the space he needs to reflect, to grieve, and to process the life happening all around him.
“I think this record feels a bit more developed to me,” he confides in conversation with Atwood Magazine. “Stephen Myers (the main producer) and I had each developed our song and artistry a bit more since my first album, and it felt great to do this album together as well. Since my first album I feel like I’ve become more in-tuned and stronger vocally, and my lyrics definitely feel like they’re still relatable and straightforward, but a bit more complex than in the past.”
For Honer, it was everything that had happened to him over the past year – in the wake of his admittedly unexpected success, and the whirlwind of attention and activity (including sold-out shows across North America and Europe and seven-figure offers from major record labels) that accompanied it; in the wake of his graduation from college and that full-fledged entrance into ‘young adulthood’; and more – that came out of him as he wrote his second album, needing so dearly to be unpacked and analyzed, expressed and understood. The intent wasn’t necessarily to release another LP just one year later, but inspiration had struck him – and struck hard.
“This record was about a lot of relationships, friendships, and family in my life, and a lot of it felt super just raw and like a journal entry,” Honer tells Atwood Magazine. “I think it captured perfectly the time in my life of graduating from college, becoming a full-time musician and in a sense, having to grow up super quick and be thrust into this crazy career and the impact it takes on your life.”
“I think like most of my writing, I just let songs flow as they come to me and as I start getting a group of songs together that I like, the album kinda starts to write itself, piece itself together and take shape in my mind of what I want it to be. It definitely changed since I started writing these songs and a lot has changed in my life since I started recording it – but it all feels cohesive to me and feels like it captured this point in my life perfectly.”
Honer candidly describes Fighting For as a record of truth, resilience, and longing.
The album’s title, he explains, is pulled from the song of the same name, but speaks to grander themes throughout the collection. “I chose the title ‘Fighting For’ after finding one consistent feeling throughout the songs I’d been writing for this record. It’s the feeling of not knowing what I am fighting for but knowing that I want to fight for something.”
Highlights abound on the journey from “Nowhere Fast” to “Take the Sunrise” as Honer spills his guts. The album’s opening track – which also served as its lead single back in January – is itself an autobiographical inner reckoning, with Honer reflecting on experiences he had in his hometown of Surprise, Arizona, and feeling for years as though his family and friends didn’t understand him. “They’re saying, ‘That boy’s going nowhere fast, he can’t get his head out his ass. He’s chasing the devil, he’s too high to realize this pipe dream it ain’t gonna last,’” he sings in the track’s emotionally charged chorus, a sticks-and-stones reminder of just how much words can, in fact, sting. “Well, the voices just get so damn loud, but I’m steady drowning it out. If you’re wondering where I’m at, you’ll be happy to know that I’m going nowhere fast.”
With this humble acknowledgement out of the way, Honer spends the next fifteen tracks singing for himself and for those around him.
The impassioned “Brother” is a deeply intimate and sentimental ode to Honer’s brother, who suffers from schizo-affective disorder; “Oh brother, I don’t see what you see and it kills me not to know,” he sings in the refrain. “Oh brother I don’t feel what you feel, but it’s eating at your bones.” “Mr. Meyers,” meanwhile, is a gut-wrenching song about his grandfather, when his grandmother died.
I’m Mr. Meyers
How are you?
I drive a grey Oldsmobile
They discontinued those in 2002
But I still like the way it feels
I’m Mr. Meyers
What’s your name?
I’ll be 65 next month
I don’t have many friends
Except my buddy James and I
Only met him once
I’m Mr. Meyers
How are things?
I like my coffee just plain
And I’ll eat at our old diner
Every other week but it
Never feels the same
Well, since the world took you away from me
I’ve been countin’ down the days
I think my doctor is a liar
I’ve got something, ’cause
All I ever feel is pain
I couldn’t fathom life without you
Now I’m livin’ it and
It’s worse than I thought
In short, Evan Honer is fighting for a lot of folks, including but not limited to himself.
Standout songs include the record’s two duets – “Take Me As I Come” with Wyatt Flores, and “Someone You Don’t Know” with Julia DiGrazia – as well as songs like “I Figured We’d Go Dancin’” with its hints of Spanish guitar, “idk shit about cars,” “Empty on the Inside,” “A Thousand Times,” and the poignant, spellbinding title track.
“This song was one of the most important ones to me on the record and felt like a good chapter to close on my past life/relationship, thus why I name the record this,” Honer says of “Fighting For.” “It’s about being in a toxic relationship with someone and the thought of them with someone else after you and about losing hope in the relationship after trying to make it work multiple times.”
This is a disaster I’m seeking out closure
But tonight I’ll run past her
And it’s 2 A.M. and the bed gets colder
With the thought of the last guy that had her
And it’s not my place so I bite my tongue
But that smile ain’t the same since that bastard
So I fill her cup just to ease the pain
And she laughs it off says it doesn’t even matter
But when it’s all over dear I’ll be staring at the ceiling
Too damn scared to share my feelings
But that man will leave you bleeding on the floor
And I ain’t one to judge, I just
Hope you know what you’re fighting for
“‘Take the Sunrise’ is my favorite musically because it uses different chords that I usually wouldn’t use and it’s an odd structure,” Honer says.
Meanwhile, he cites his own favorite lyric as the second verse from “Fighting For”: “‘Then it’s back to the old me, I’m stuck in this routine, I get in lost in the thought of me losing the one I loved, so I’m compromising, and tonight you’re the vice that I’m choosing.’ There is a lot of truth to it from getting into a new relationship after being with person I loved for so long.”
Ultimately, Fighting For is a record that comes from, and speaks to the heart. It’s without a doubt Evan Honer’s coming-of-age ascension: A record embroiled in the friction of growing up, and learning that life, while full of joy, can be full of hardship and pain as well. In processing his pain through song, Honer has provided a route for all listeners to process their own grief, heartaches, and changes – whatever they might be going through.
“I hope listeners can take away the feeling of not having everything figured out and not feeling like you have to,” Honer shares.
“I know it’s a very sad album and most songs are self-deprecating and unhopeful, but I want them to realize that they are not alone. I experience these feelings firsthand, and I think it is important to talk about it. I’ve taken away a lot from working album, not only have I grown musically but I also feel like with this new album it can help close off this chapter of my life and enter in to a new era of what I want to write about.”
Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Evan Honer’s Fighting For with Atwood Magazine as he takes us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of his sophomore album!
Fighting For is out now via Cloverdale Records.
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:: stream/purchase Fighting For here ::
:: connect with Evan Honer here ::
Stream: ‘Fighting For’ – Evan Honer
:: Inside Fighting For ::
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Nowhere Fast
This song is a self-reflection on growing up in a small town and pursuing music for years and feeling like your close friends and family don’t truly understand it and questioning if you’re ever going to succeed and prove them wrong. I definitely wrote this when I was super unsure of where I was at and life and comparing it to others around me
Brother
This is without a doubt one of the hardest songs I’ve ever had to write and the one that means the most to me. It’s about my brother who suffers from schizo-affective disorder and the things he has to deal with on a daily basis. Even though I’ll never truly understand what he goes through, this was my attempt at understanding.
I Figured We’d Go Dancin’
This song is one of the more simple and lighthearted songs I’ve written. Most of my songs are a bit more emotional and dark, this one was written more as a daydream with a girl I was falling for.
Mr. Meyers
This song is inspired by my grandpa and what it was like when my grandmother died. It was heartbreaking to me to see how alone he was and it seemed like he didn’t know what to do with himself once she was gone.
Take Me As I Come
I wrote this song with one of my best friends in the world Wyatt Flores – it’s a bit about just us being a bit of a mess sometimes, drinking a bit too much and self-sabotaging and feeling like you’re constantly letting others down.
I Hope That’s All You Need
This song is about loving someone and feeling like you’re not going to be enough or not be able to give them all the things they want/need.
Empty on the Inside
This song is about loving someone but deep inside knowing that it’s not going to work out from the beginning and just knowing you don’t have much left to give to someone anymore
Wake Up, Come Down
One of my more rockin and upbeat songs – it’s kinda meant to just mirror what the lyrics talk about, that feeling when you’re disappointed in yourself for making the same mistakes and angry at yourself.
Greetings From Tulsa, Oklahoma
I wrote this song while I was in Tulsa and reflecting on a past love. The feeling of being out on the road and accomplishing a lot of my hopes and dreams in the music world and knowing your relationship with a past love is over.
Losing Faith
This song is about growing up in a pretty religious family & community and noticing a lot of hypocritical things happening in the church and questioning my faith.
A Thousand Times
Another rare, more positive and upbeat song I wrote about falling in love and what it feels like to be the infatuation period and wondering what the future will look like and if you’ll be able to keep it all together.
Easier
This song is about growing up and wondering if you’ll ever get out of your own way and stop making the same mistakes you’ve made in your life. It’s a lot about feeling like I thought I’d be in a different place at this point in my life or that my internal monologue would be different and I’d feel some sort of other way.
Someone You Don’t Know
This was a song written with my bandmate and friend from back home Julia DiGrazia. We wanted to write a classic love ballad about what it feels like to miss someone and reflect back on your relationship
idk shit about cars
This song is probably one of my most straight-forward songs that I tried not to overthink at all when writing. It’s just about growing up, a journal style-entry lyric about what I was feeling on that day and of course, not knowing shit about cars, haha.
Fighting For
This song was one of the most important ones to me on the record and felt like a good chapter to close on my past life/relationship, thus why I name the record this. It’s about being in a toxic relationship with someone and the thought of them with someone else after you and about losing hope in the relationship after trying to make it work multiple times.
Take The Sunrise
This song was about what it’s like to reflect back on a relationship and what it would be like to have that person back in your life and if they were, what things you wish you could to them
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:: stream/purchase Fighting For here ::
:: connect with Evan Honer here ::
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© Harrison Hargrave
© Harrison HargraveFighting For
an album by Evan Honer
