With a little help from some friends

COSTA MESA — Yan Agaev spends four or five nights a week sleeping in a loft on the Westside with a blanket, a pillow and no railing on the side. Still, the view below is a gorgeous one.

The Torrance-based singer-songwriter, whose first album is scheduled for release this fall, wakes up in the morning surrounded by sights that would stimulate any artist: guitars, drums, oil paintings, touched-up surfboards and a rack of silk-screen prints. Below his sleeping quarters are a cramped recording booth that opens to a kitchen in back. On the other side of the bright, cluttered 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 Agaev’s music career 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 album; a few yards away, Agaev and his band lay down tracks with a producer. The expected album, “The Story of the Revolution,” was released on Election Day. The artist, who trumpets left-wing views throughout his work, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The people I work for know who the target audience is for the music,” said Agaev, 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.”

Agaev, whose parents fled 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 Agaev’s record comes out in November, 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,” Agaev said.

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

The South African native had a vision of gathering a collective of artists in the Costa Mesa 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, never knowing whom he’s going to run into, 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.

Right now, one store carries Macy’s CD — the eVocal boutique on 19th Street, where several copies line the rack by the cash register. To Macy, it’s enough for the moment.

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