With a little help from some friends

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part five in a six-part series that takes a look at the local music scene.

COSTA MESA — Yanski spends three or four nights a week sleeping in a loft on the Westside with a blanket, a pillow and a railing on the side. The view below is gorgeous.

The Torrance-based singer-songwriter — who performs under his first name and won’t give his last — wakes up in the morning surrounded by guitars, drums, oil paintings, touched-up surfboards and a rack of silk-screen prints. Below his sleeping quarters is a cramped recording booth that opens to a kitchen in back. On the other side of the bright room, dozens of caps and T-shirts hang on racks while a group of dyeing machines awaits the next batch of material.

During the day, the eVocal studio on Brioso Drive comes alive with people dedicated to getting Yanski’s music career, and others, off the ground. Some of the staffers at eVocal, which operates a boutique a few minutes away on the Westside, set to work creating clothes to promote the company’s artists; a few yards away, Yanski and his band lay down tracks with a producer. The expected album, “The Story of the Revolution,” was set for release on Election Day, but has been pushed back to January. Still, the artist, who trumpets left-wing views throughout his work, said the disc will be political enough.

“The people I work for know who the target audience is for the music,” said Yanski, who works as a web consultant and helps plan events for eVocal. “It’s edgy in the sense that it makes you think. There’s views I express that not everyone will agree with, but if you’re willing to think and be inspired to think about how your life is part of a society and a community, and that you have a role to play, you’re the person I relate to.”

Yanski, whose parents were exiled from the Soviet Union, believes in art as a political device; he credits music and poetry for having helped bring down communism. eVocal, which owner Brett Walker founded seven years ago, has a similar communal ethic. When Yanski’s record comes out, he doesn’t plan to distribute it on iTunes or any of the typical venues for independent artists — instead, he plans to turn promotion over to eVocal’s “street team,” an unofficial group of artists, family members and supporters who pass CDs on to friends and do their best to spread the word.

“We want to prove the eVocal community is strong enough to support an album,” Yanski said.

When Walker, a former designer for a surf apparel company, began laying out plans for eVocal, support was the main concept.

The South African native had a vision of gathering a collective of artists in the area and, in turn, having them promote and distribute other artists. He also hoped to benefit the community at large. The eVocal boutique at 814 W. 19th St. has hosted a number of benefit shows over the years, including one this August for Save Banning Ranch. Earlier this year, the staff enlisted painters to design brightly colored trash cans to post around Newport-Mesa high schools.

The company deals heavily in visual art, but with Walker’s musical background, running a recording studio came naturally. In between the organic T-shirts and paintings, the boutique features a rack of CDs by Parker Macy Blues, Marc B and other local artists whose names haven’t broken yet into Virgin Megastore.

“There’s like a founding group of artists who are our core artists, and we all play music,” Walker said. “It’s always been a part of what we do.”

Walker noted that eVocal makes more money off apparel than music, but since the music promotes the clothing, and vice versa, the company aims to bring different audiences together. When setting up shows, Walker and his staff often put new artists alongside established ones who are guaranteed to draw a crowd.

“We’re making an exchange, which ultimately works for everybody,” he said.

Walker himself is part of the street team, which he says has grown in membership over the years. When he leaves the home, he often carries a musician’s fliers in one pocket and business cards in the other.

For Parker Macy Blues — or Parker Davis Macy, as his birth certificate reads — eVocal’s support network provided a welcome relief. The Tustin resident, who teaches guitar at Pepperland Music in Orange, had taken it upon himself to promote his debut album, and he had buttons and window decals made with his name on them. He also acted as his own street team for a while; after printing 2,000 copies of his self-titled CD, he ended up giving hundreds away just to incite word of mouth.

When a pair of friends took Macy to an art show at eVocal, though, he found a team eager to support him. The staff threw a CD release party and offered its studio for Macy’s sophomore effort. The artist, whose first album consisted of old-style acoustic blues, plans to take advantage of the studio’s versatility; his next effort will include touches of psychedelic rock.

Macy has gotten his CD on the racks of several independent record stores, but eVocal, which keeps a small bin of copies by its cash register, was the first to stock it.

“I don’t even know how much I can talk [eVocal] up,” Macy said. “They are such an inspiration to independent musicians.”

EVOCAL

FOUNDER: Brett Walker

SPECIALTY: Fashion, art and independent music

ADDRESS: 814 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa

HOURS: Noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday

CONTACT: (949) 642-4548

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].