eVocal to go silent

After a three-year run, eVocal is shutting down its Westside art gallery, music venue and store.

The small shop front on West 19th Street and Placentia Avenue was known for its spontaneity and versatility — one day hosting an indie rock concert, and the next showcasing the work of a local painter — but in the last six months, art and merchandise sales have slowed to a crawl.

“It’s been a struggle since day one, but the last six months have been extreme,” said Brett Walker, the owner and founder.

Walker opened up the shop to supplement his primary business: designing logos, merchandise, apparel and other items to help market small businesses.

Six years after setting up his design studio he decided to add a recording studio on the premises and rent the building on 19th Street to use as a store, both methods of showcasing the work of some of the artists and musicians he had started promoting.

The studio and performance space were designed to cater to musicians who wanted to break onto the scene by making a first demo or playing a concert.

“I’m heartbroken. It’s the end of an era,” said Parker Macy, a musician who has performed at the store 60 or 70 times.

The space was unusual in that it would feature bands that might have a difficult time finding an audience elsewhere, and it was open to all ages. It soon developed a list of regular performers and a cult following.

But with retail sales down (band T-shirts, etc.) and art sales virtually nonexistent, the venue has had to rely on cover charges for concerts just to keep the doors open.

That pressure has sapped the venue’s core mission by “pigeonholing” it into only hosting indie rock shows and other more popular art forms instead of branching out into more eclectic offerings, Walker said.

EVocal was part of a larger independent art scene that has grown up on the Westside in the past few years.

Bars and galleries are scattered among produce markets, barber shops and other merchants in the primarily Latino neighborhood.

The owner plans on using the extra time and energy made available by the closure to refocus on his original business of marketing and designing merchandise.

He says that emerging artists need to learn to treat themselves like small businesses and develop a brand to succeed.

A farewell blowout concert is scheduled to take place at eVocal all day Saturday.

Although Walker is giving up the lease, he hasn’t given up on the premise behind it.

Right now, he is trying to apply for nonprofit status to see if he can fund the venture through grants and donations in the future, but says that that process is a difficult one.

“It needs to be there for the community. The past three years have been proof in and of itself that it’s necessary, so it’s been really difficult to let it go,” Walker said.