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2025 marked the first time in four years that Evann McIntosh released new music. Fans excitedly received the new singles, and are looking forward to more. But what was McIntosh up to during this time? The rising alt-pop artist took time to chat with us about their time away, their approach to creating music, and book recommendations. 

Ones to Watch: Let’s hop right in! The big thing we’re talking about today is that you took four years off from recording and releasing music. What was it about this time that made it the right moment to record and release music again?

Evann McIntosh: I took all that time because I wanted to grow and learn. I moved out of my parents’ house and moved to a big city and turned 18. I wanted to be a young adult and learn about things and learn about myself and that meant stepping away from music so that I could just be for a second. Listen to more things, watch more things, absorb more things, and have something to give.

What kind of things were you watching, listening to, what inspired you during this time? 

I went through all these classic rock things and tried to listen to genres I wasn’t familiar with or music that pushed me a little bit, get out of the pop realm a little bit, listened to a lot of folk. I got into watching movies and film, and I read a lot. 

Did you have a favorite book you read during this time? 

I had a few favorite books! I read One Hundred Years of Solitude. I really liked that one. More recently I read The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana by Umberto Eco and I liked that one a lot. I read Baudolino by him. Those are a few. 

Love! You mentioned that you were getting to know yourself as a young adult, was there anything that surprised you? Or a part of yourself that you wanted to work on?

I really wanted to open up more. I come from an environment where I had to hide a lot of parts of myself and you would think if you move and you get out of that environment you would open up so fast but I had to take a lot of time to thaw. Unlearn things, different devices that I was using, that no longer served me, to hide myself, make myself smaller. It was learning how to decompress and to take up space. 

So, what was it about 2025 that made it the right moment to release new music?

I think that’s when the music was done. I started working on this stuff that I’m releasing in 2022. That’s how long it took to write things, and re-do things, and get things mixed right.

Has your approach to writing music changed, either during or after this hiatus, or is it pretty similar to before?

It’s similar in some ways and it’s different in some ways. I think intentionally I knew that I come from a background of making music remotely with a lot of synths on the computer. After Covid and being isolated I wanted to step away from machines and be in the room with people. A lot of music that I’ve been listening to is analog and it’s got studio musicians. I had the opportunity to work with a lot of people in the Los Angeles jazz scene and bring that to the pop world. So, it’s different in the sense of I wanted people to hear people but it’s similar in the way that I went about writing and in the fact that it’s me.

What was it like releasing “Blue Movie Magic” after being away? What was the reception like?

I guess I was a little scared about “what’s the expectation with new music?” Or if there were expectations about new music. I think more people liked it than I expected. A lot of people came from MOJO. I don’t think it’s as different as I think it is, production wise it’s a lot different but I was just excited to get back out there and get comfortable releasing things again and being present. 

Your most recent single, “Free Ride,” had a really fun music video. Where did the idea for the video come from and what was it like filming it?

The idea came from my manager, Victoria. There were budget conversations going on back and forth on whether we wanted it to be a big production or not. She was like “Why don’t you go drive around with your friends and film it?” That’s what the song’s about. It was definitely one of the most fun music videos to film and it’s one of my favorite ones. 

Driving around with your friends is a very underrated activity.

Absolutely! Super fun.

Continuing with “Free Ride” you collaborated with Madison Cunningham on that single, how did that come about?

I was super influenced by Madison Cunningham. I had a big phase with her album Revealer. I wrote “Free Ride” and I was worried it sounded too much like a Madison Cunningham song when I brought it to Abe Browns, who produced a lot of the songs I’ve been working on. He was like “Why don’t we just ask if she wants to play on it?” Which blew my mind! I think that’s how it happened we just asked and she did.

That’s really cool to hear that inspiration turned into collaboration! Any other collaborations in the works that you can tease?

Right now, Abe Browns. 

What about new music, anything you can tease there?

There’s definitely stuff! There’s stuff. 

Who are your OnesToWatch?

Geese! Even though they’re huge. Devon Again. And Entifan. 

And you mentioned you were listening to some older music so not OnesToWatch but any older stuff we should be listening to? 

Roy Orbison. I’ve been listening to a lot of Beck. Ton of Radiohead.