Evan Stephens Hall

Evan Stephens Hall (born May 6, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter and musician.

Hall is best known as the lead singer & guitarist of indie rock band Pinegrove.

Born in New York City, Hall grew up the son of a musician father, and took instrument lessons locally.

During his time at Ohio's Kenyon College, Hall co-founded Pinegrove with drummer and childhood friend Zack Levine.

Evan Stephens Hall was born on May 6, 1989, in New York, New York, to Tracey Stephens and Doug Hall.

In June 1992 the family moved to Montclair, New Jersey.

Hall's mother briefly operated a women's shelter and was involved in social work, but now works as an interior designer.

Hall's father works in commercial music; he is best known for composing the jingle for financial company J.G. Wentworth.

Hall's interests growing up included skateboarding—he aspired to be a professional skateboarder as an adult, but suffered a concussion in his teens that sidelined his interest.

Hall spent several years camping at Geneva Glen co-educational summer camp located in Indian Hills, Colorado; he was later hired as a counselor in the years before founding Pinegrove.

Hall was friends with Pinegrove drummer Zack Levine growing up, and the two attended the local public schools together through Montclair High School.

Both boys’ fathers are in a cover band together—Julie's Party, a roots rock outfit covering acts like Bonnie Raitt and Little Feat.

Hall grew up taking lessons at Montclair Music Studio, first learning the drums, then bass, and lastly the guitar.

He and Levine began playing music together at seven years old, forming their first band, the Pug Fuglies, in the sixth grade.

The next year, the duo began playing together in Dogwater, a grunge band, which they focused on throughout high school.

During that time, the duo played many shows at Montclair's Serendipity Cafe, and have expressed the positive impact playing their music in a welcoming and encouraging space has had on them.

After graduating high school in 2007, Hall attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, from which he graduated in 2011, majoring in creative writing with an emphasis in poetry.

During his tenure there, he also developed a love of semiotics and modernist literature.

He worked at a recycling plant through college, which became the namesake of the Pinegrove song "Recycling".

During his time at university, Hall co-founded Pinegrove with Levine.

Pinegrove rose to fame in the mid-2010s with its breakthrough album, Cardinal (2016), which attracted broad critical acclaim.

The band has released five studio albums so far; its most recent, 11:11, was released in January 2022.

The group built a grassroots following in the early 2010s with a stream of extended plays and do-it-yourself house concerts.

They issued their debut album, Meridian, in 2012 via online music platform Bandcamp.

Viewing a move necessary to gain notoriety, the band relocated to Brooklyn, New York.

Hall had a difficult experience in New York; in an interview, he remarked that during that period, "everything in my life was falling apart."

He found the frenetic nature of the city unenjoyable, and worked excessively to make ends meet.

After nine months, Hall returned to his parents' home.

For the next several years, he lived at home in Montclair, working part-time at a bookstore and focusing on songwriting.

He distilled this productive period of writing into Cardinal, Pinegrove's 2016 breakthrough album.

During this era, the band signed to Run for Cover Records, an independent record label from Boston known for its association with fourth-wave emo acts.

Cardinal was widely successful, acclaimed by critics for its tone and sincerity.

Pinegrove quickly developed a large following of fans and played over 200 shows that year.

The band headlined several nationwide tours, consistently selling out mid-sized venues.

The band "seemed poised to enlarge its audience significantly," at this moment.

In November 2017, Hall posted a lengthy statement to the band's Facebook regarding an accusation of "sexual coercion" against him.

Further reports revealed that Hall had a brief relationship with a member of the band's touring team who accused him of using "verbal and contextual pressure" sexually.

Philadelphia-based mental health nonprofit Punk Talks was involved in facilitating Hall's statement, had done so "without [the accuser's] knowledge, support or permission".

The situation—resolved via a private mediator between the two—resulted in Pinegrove taking a year-long hiatus at the accuser's request.

Skylight—the band's third full-length—saw release in 2018, and received a muted but positive reaction from fans.