BeatRoute Magazine BC Print Edition May 2018

BPM
NIGHTMARES ON WAX
OWN YOUR REALITY WITH SHAPE THE FUTURE
HOLLIE MCGOWAN
George Evelyn is owning his reality and imagination as Nightmares On Wax.
In a chaotic and complex world, how do we as
individuals take responsibility for the roles we play
in our own communities, societies, and on this great
sphere circling the sun we call Planet Earth? This is
the question that George Evelyn, a.k.a. Nightmares on
Wax, is asking all of us, including himself, with his latest
album, Shape The Future.
“I just started to question reality and what that was
about,” explains Evelyn over Skype from his home in
Ibiza. “[I questioned] how everybody has their own free
will of their perception, [and questioned] what is their
relationship to that? Do we even recognize that it’s us
relating to it? If I can at least be responsible to how I’m
relating to my reality, I can make the adjustments that
make things a lot smoother and a lot more pleasant in
the reality that I live in.”
The last 30 years has certainly brought Evelyn into
a wide array of diverse realities from which to build
his theories on the subject. Being one of the most
influential artists in downtempo and hip-hop, one
of the first acts ever signed to Warp Records, Evelyn
has touched just about every continent in his travels
throughout the course of his notable career.
In order to change the world, the people to make
actual change in their own lives.
“The system is so corrupt and broken that nothing’s
going to come from there,” declares Evelyn. “It’s down to
us as individuals to make the change and the shift. We
can talk about marching, we can talk about protesting,
but what are we doing in our own lives? What are we
doing in our own reality to change things? That’s really
where my inspiration came from on this album and
what Shape the Future is about.”
Evelyn believe that global awareness is not just
about social responsibility. It’s also about sharing a
responsibility to the planet itself. If our desire is to heal
the world, then it follows that we must remember that
we are a part of a wider organism, the planet.
“I was thinking about the human race and how we
behave, and what state consciousness is in,” reflects
Evelyn. “I started thinking that, somehow, we’ve gone
into this amnesia state where we think that there’s
nature and then there’s us, like nature is something that
happens in the background. And then I’m thinking, well,
that’s just ridiculous. Everything in this organism [called]
Mother Earth, everything provided like oxygen for us to
be here, how can we even think that we’re separate?”
Ultimately, Evelyn hopes everyone will receive this
message from both Shape the Future and its North
American tour:
“Own your reality. Own your imagination. It belongs
to you. It’s your sovereign right to feel good.”
Nightmares on Wax owns the Imperial on June 6th.
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