The Evening Guests

“The Evening Guests” is an indie/folk band formed in Los Angeles by Icelandic singer/songwriter Jokull Jonsson and drummer Tom Mcrae in early 2012.

In 2011 Jokull took the risky step of moving from his small homeland of Iceland to Los Angeles to become a session guitar player. While studying guitar at The Musicians Institute, he found himself writing more songs than practicing scales. Eventually, he started doing gigs as a solo folk musician. A few months went by and he was starting to feel like his sound needed to expanded so he put together a band with fellow student Tom Mcrae, whom he met at an audition for Disneyland. He made the last minute decision to name the band after his late grandfather’s radio show after being booked for a last minute gig. Deciding to keep going with the band, they added trumpet player Ken Hirako, whom they found on Craigslist.

After 6 months of doing shows around the Los Angeles area and band members coming and going, Jokull graduated from the guitar program and decided to continue his studies in The Independent Artist program where The Evening Guests would be his primary focus for his final project. Later joined by keyboardist Gerard Uht and bass player John Lin, they spent six months of sleepless nights and ended up winning an award for “Most outstanding project”.

After graduating, the boys decided that it was time to release their first EP. Not 100% satisfied with what they recorded at MI, they decided that they needed help from a professional. Being broke students, they made a Kickstarter campaign and managed to raise enough money to re-track and polish what would later become their first debut EP “Not in Kansas anymore”

At the end of the year, drummer Tom McRae got offered the opportunity to move to Asia and work as a professional drummer. As tough as the decision was, Tom accepted the offer with full support from his bandmates. After his departure, they welcomed a new drummer Mike Sassano whom Jokull met playing in different band. They also added a new guitar player, The Hive Minds’s Alec De Kervor.

In May 2013, Not in Kansas anymore was released under “Summerland Productions” formed by Jokull and Gerard. Following their release, the band spent a year touring around the east and west coast as well as Iceland until drummer Mike Sassano departed from the band, wanting to focus on his career in audio engineering. After auditioning a variety of drummers, they finally found a suitable one, New Jersey born Julian Ho. With the new line up, The Evening Guests are ready to prepare for their next release and start touring again.

Find out more at their website here.

You can also watch an excellent video of the band unplugged here playing “Not in Kansas Anymore”: