Photograph by Thom Vollenweider

Eve Selis and Marc Intravaia put in the work and found the magic.

Since 1991, Kearny High grad Marc Intravaia has been collaborating musically with Eve Selis, who won Best Americana or Country at the 2008 San Diego Music Awards. “The best thing about maintaining a musical collaboration with someone for so long,” says Intravaia, “is that you and your collaborator can work and create pretty seamlessly, because there is an innate connection built on trust and honesty. The hardest thing about collaborating for so long is that each partner can grow in different directions, as we have.”

Intravaia’s resume dates back to the late ‘60s, with Kearny Mesa-based Marshmallow Highway, followed by stints with Head County and then Listen, which landed songs on the KGB Homegrown albums. He went on to play with Kenny Loggins, Kim Carnes, America, Suzy Bogguss, and B.J. Thomas, as well as locally with Back To The Garden (recreating the sounds of ‘60s-’70s Laurel Canyon) and his longtime stint with the Eve Selis Band. Both Selis and Intravaia teamed up with Jeff Berkley and Calman Hart (of Berkley Hart), to record a CSNY-style album billed as Berkley Hart Selis Twang.

Regarding his collaborations with Selis, he says,, “My most memorable moment was opening for Crosby Stills and Nash in 1996, and playing a long Guitar Hero-type solo at the end of our set with a very enthusiastic response from the crowd. When we walked off stage, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash were waiting for us, and they patted me on the back and shook my hand.”

Intravaia also mentions the time he and Selis randomly ran into Talking Heads frontman David Byrne. “We actually had no idea he was going to be there at the Mike Post studio. We had been invited by a music industry guy who really loved our band [Rick Elias Band] and wanted to talk business with us and said to meet him there after our set. We were buzzed into the studio. We all sat down while they were editing a scene from Stop Making Sense, although we had no idea that that was even a movie at that time. We just knew it was David Byrne up on this video screen in the studio...no iPhones back then to document the moment, but it did happen. We invited David to breakfast at Denny’s, but he declined, which was probably a good thing because we would have been very starstruck and just stared at him the whole time.”

Eve Selis has performed on CNBC, ESPN, and the BBC, as well as opening for Travis Tritt, the Doobie Brothers, Joan Osborne, Heart, Dwight Yoakam, and Hootie & the Blowfish. She’s been living in Nashville, but recently returned to San Diego long enough for the pair to stage a 30-year celebration concert. “Playing music with Marc Intravaia has always been a joy for me,” she says. “That doesn’t mean that every gig was great or fun. Sometimes, music can be work, and not so much fun. But mostly, it’s just an incredible, spiritual experience. When you get to share the stage with someone as talented and kind and musically connected to your soul, then it’s magic. That’s what it’s like to be on stage with Marc Intravaia. Plus he’s a badass world-class guitar player. Having my daughter join us onstage was the icing on top of the cake.”

Even so, Selis did once post online that the two would no longer record together. “We did not have a fight or a blowout or anything of that nature,” says Intravaia. “The fact is, we just drifted apart musically. It’s been happening for the last couple years and now she is on a much different path than me.”

At present, the duo has no plans for upcoming live shows, although Intravaia says, “I’m sure we will be working together a few times this year [2022]. We still really enjoy performing live together. She is a world-class singer and an absolute powerhouse. The most important thing to be said about our 30 years of working together is that we are still the best of friends.”