Where Am I Now – Ezra Vancil Interview

I’ve been writing, recording, and performing since I was a young teen. I wrote my first real song to impress a girl, and it worked. She was impressed for about three days until she got to know me. After that, I just kept going… through songs and unimpressed girls.

In a way, music has always been my dream. My parents were musicians. My teenage band attracted some of those important people from L.A. They flew to Dallas, we signed papers with a lawyer, and I was off to the races… or so I thought.

It fell apart a few years later, mainly due to an overdose of the rock ‘n’ roll life.

Still, music felt like destiny to me, like it was leading me somewhere. Like many things in those early days, though; it was a means to an end. What end? I wasn’t sure.

There was more attention as I continued to record and perform in my 20s. High points and low points abounded. Some of the highs were other music deals; some of the lows were broken hearts.

After that time, I pretty much lost my grasp on not only music but everything in my life. I sank to the bottom of a bottle for about a decade in a deadly nightmare.

And then one day, I woke up. That is my occupation now: staying awake to life.

In my current work, I don’t see music as a means to an end or a means to anything else, for that matter. To live is an end in itself. To create is an end. Love is an end. Music is an end. I’m grateful that I still have the breath to sing.

Time has a way of humbling us all (well, most of us). I, for one, am glad life kicked my ass, because now I don’t need a reason to make music; I do it because I love it.

My latest project is about to drop—Morning & Midnight. I call it a project because it’s more than just an album; it’s two albums, a book, and a bunch of artwork I created during the recording sessions. As you dip into this new era, I hope you feel the love I tucked in there.

‘m especially grateful for the people who joined me in the creation of this project. My daughter, Cozi, has a lot of vocals on there, and my son edited my book. Paco Estrada has some features as well, alongside the great legendary guitar tech, Rene Martinez, who joins me with some flamenco guitar. And of course the band.. but check out the credits, I’m taking too long here.

I’ve been asked now and then, “What do you sing about?” I’d answer with a blank face—I didn’t know what they meant. I sing about it all: the whole spectacle of life—marriage, divorce, children, parents, grandparents, sex, heartbreak, disaster, loneliness, drunkenness, butterflies, God, Jesus and the cosmos, old oak trees, oceans and beer cans. I mean, how am I supposed to answer that?

Hope you enjoy the spectacle.

– Ezra

https://ezravancil.com/

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