Interview with Singer-Songwriter Cassidy Andrews

AHC: What has this journey, this life in music been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way?

Cassidy: It has certainly been a journey. I picked up a guitar ten years ago, and wrote a song shortly after with some chords that really just happened to be easy enough to find. Then there was a huge high when a local booker started having me open a bunch of small shows. I was nudged firmly on stage, and the excitement of the oppurtunity outweighed the daunting challenge. Through looking out in the crowd, I always found at least one person who connected to whatever sounds I was putting out there. That became an incentive to keep writing and playing out, besides the satisfaction I got from it personally. Those connections were high points.

Then the industry leered in. There was a bad experience with a label when I was sixteen. When I moved to NYC at eighteen, I took a year off of music. I even told people I'd put it behind me. For my career, I suppose this was a low. Though that year was full of a shallow happiness and safety that I don't regret. Creatively, you're vulnerable and working hard as an artist to create songs and put on shows. There's danger in people who'd take advantage not only of that, but of the eagerness of an artist to share what they're doing. It's a low to have to take time to be wary and mindful of this reality.

As far as life lessons, I don't know much. Making music for the love of it is the only way I know how. Musicians are compelled to create even when it doesn't make sense. We're slaving for this labor because we believe in the value and essentiality of a connection between people through waves of reflecting sound.


AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them?

Cassidy: The draw to music was the freedom of expression it gave and the stories it could tell. My musical environment growing up varied, in part because I moved a few times, and in part because I had teachers with different levels of interest in me. There was a piano or two around, but neither of my parents were musicians. In fact, the only two CDs I remember my father having in his truck were Shania Twain's Greatest Hits, and the Black Eyed Peas "Monkey Business", the latter which I remember brought my mother to tears with its vulgarity.

I spent a lot of time alone as a young person. Some of this was spent teaching myself to play music- and some was just lying on the floor listening. I can remember Queen's "Killer Queen" flooring me the first time I relished in the lyrics. What a story! And the hidden track "Wild Horses" off a Natasha Bedingfield album. It's just piano and her voice with urgent verses paired with a loose, free chorus that told as much with melody as it did with words. Also, the fact it was a hidden track made it inherently special.

AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote?

Cassidy: I do! And it's awful, awful title: You Broke My Heart.

AHC: Who are some of your musical inspirations? Are there certain albums or songs you couldn't live without?

Cassidy: I'm inspired by the musicians who devoted their lives to the craft: Michael Jackson, Nina Simone, Neil Young. There's so many I could name who are famous. But maybe even more importantly, I'm inspired by those working relentlessly around me to create- people I work with or am friends with or am just plain lucky enough to get to hear. Jared Saltiel, who is all of those things, would be one of those people. His genius continues to beautify and reveal my world.

The first album I could not live without would be "For Emma, Forever Ago" by Bon Iver. It came out as I was experiencing heartbreak, and when I owned a Jeep. Driving in dark Wisconsin while letting the ambience of those bare guitars and his muttered, moaned melodies fill that car was the only medicine for my unlucky heart. And the horns! Don't let me get started on that record. Worth mentioning too, that it struck me that some melancholy dude in a cabin just upstate from me could make music so obviously worthwhile.

AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, that perfect angle of light, so to speak?

Cassidy: A good question, but I'm not sure I have a good answer. I compose and write quickly, almost at the same time. It's a bit like vomiting, to be frank. It strikes, and usually upon playback or sharing I'll be able to discern if it's worth keeping.

AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture, hope lost and regained? As a listener of music I have this impression, I wonder, as the artist, the creator, do you have this feeling about the transformative power of song? Does the writing and creating of the song save you in the kinds of ways that it saves us, the listener?

Cassidy: Lots to consider here. Firstly, I'd have to say the perfection of the vehicle is quite subjective. For one person, my song might sound like mediocre vocals on boring guitar arrangement. For someone else, it might transform their long-held pain into meaning of some kind. So perhaps music is an imperfect vehicle that translates emotion differently for everyone. The imperfection then being the very salt of the thing. We're all tasting songs with our own palates. Some songs might be devoured and transform a person, like a good meal, whereas some may just nourish minimally.

In a long post I wrote when I first received the CDs for my EP, I did say that I could never pretend I wrote the songs on it for any reason other than to save myself. They were essential to me. It's a great gift then, if any listener ever feels similarly.

AHC: Do you have any words of advice or encouragement for other musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are trying to find their voice and their way in this world?

Cassidy: I would encourage anyone who creates to continue. Continue making things or sounds because we all need that work. The proof is in our undying love of books, movies, songs, great salads, fancy cocktails, etc. We all needed someone to make our favorites things.

AHC: Do you have any new projects in motion you'd like to tell people about?

Cassidy: Yes! I just released an EP called "Through the Dark". It's on iTunes, Amazon, a bunch of other sellers and streaming things. My personal favorite way for you to buy it would be at cassidyandrews.bandcamp.com because Bandcamp people are lovely. But if you'd take a listen at all, I'd be very thankful.


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