Georgia : - Now that you have made the transition from MIC to the music industry , if it wasn ’ t for your success on MIC would you have taken the X Factor route ? Andy : - I dunno if I would have taken the X Factor route because X Factor doesn ’ t allow you to perform your own music and a lot of my music is quiet personal so I write it all and wanna play on my guitar and such . I would of probably gone eventually down the the gigging route bit like what I ’ m doing now . Play in as many live places as possible .
G : - That ’ s where I have seen you going around gigging at the O2 Academy in Islington , it ’ s quite intimate . A : - Yeah well the O2 is quiet big it fits like 1,000 people , but outside that most over venues are a little smaller than that actually , so yeah so I ’ m quiet excited about playing in small venues .
G : - With shows like the Xactor , where anyone can become a music artist , what do you think it takes to become a successful artist in the industry ? A : - ( Exhale ) It ’ s quiet hard to comment on because I just got here but I think that a lot of what separates perhaps mass stars today to people who grew up wanting to play is personality and I think you have to show personality in a live show and able to respond to the audience and have to basically embrace the audience and fan base really well and if you cant do that it ’ s a massive challenge . Because there are hundreds and thousands of brilliant singers , it ’ s usually personality that separates people . And when you meet people , like for me personally I have the opportunity to meet a lot of big stars and it ’ s people I have met who are that next level successful and you are like Jesus , the gravity task of when you walk in the room it ’ s just amazing too so yeah its just amazing .
G : - So , describe your taste in music ? A : - Eclectic ( haha )
G : - I knew you where gonna say that ! I ’ m pretty much the same , haha A : - Yeah well I listen to everything literally R ’ n ’ B , Soul , Hip Hop . I was loving Drake ’ s album when that came out and I listen to a lot of what I listen to now so easy listen stuff like Passenger , James Vincent , James Bay . But my all time favourite is John Butler trio . But at the same time I absolutely love Reggae , you can hear it in some of my music . Theres two tracks that are influenced by Reggae . That was quiet fun .
G : - Tell us about your debut EP ‘ Geography ’, why not write about Math ? A : - HAHA , To be honest , I thought it was just quite funny the title and then obviously hindsight realised it isn ’ t that funny .. actually quite weird . A lot of the EP is about all the stuff I write and is the kinda stuff I have been through in life . The song ‘ Geography ’ is about a girl that I had subtle flings with on and off since I was like 15 for 10 years or so . - And she ’ s actually in New York but I wrote the song about a Cali girl .
And the other stuff is about getting out there and creating your own path and things like that .
G : - Has there been a past love in your life which has end only because of ‘ Geography ’? A : - Yeah , I mean there ’ s three songs on the EP about girls . Well you know everyone can relate to it and I find easier to write a song if you have a genuine feeling about it .
G : - Who or what inspires you to write ? A : - It ’ s usually an event or something that happens or a break up . On my own I wrote about life choices . I wanted to be an inspiration to people and things like that and just getting people to do their own thing and exactly what they want .
G : - Has singing and songwriting always been a thing or just came from one-man-shows in the shower ? A : - Singing in the shower . So yeah its all bedroom singing . Some of my best mates take the piss out off me because when we first went uni I didn ’ t even play the guitar , I just had one lying in my room because the guy who I travelled with just gave it to me said learn how to play it and then I just sat in my room and practiced . I mean like all I really did was strum notes and then slowly but surely I kinda progressed . So I kinda read music because I played the bagpipes at school so I understand that but generally don ’ t know what notes I ’ m playing when I ’ m playing them . Like there ’ s a bit in geography where I don ’ t know what I ’ m really playing , but play a lot of passing chords and such . Again , cool thing about the guitar is you can just muck around and your find stuff that sounds cool and it just works .
G : - If you could play in any venue worldwide , where would it be ? A : - Radio City in New York ! I just love it but at the same time it ’ d be an absolute dream to be playing at Glastonbury . That would be the next level .
G : - So how do you feel when you play an amazing show ? A : - Amazing ! I struggle to go sleep 2 / 3 hours afterwards because your still buzzing , absolutely love playing live . I ’ m a bit of an adrenaline junkie so I love the idea that anything could go wrong . You can go on stage and anyone could throw something at you , shout something and how do you respond to that . When I ’ m performing and someone shouts something ridiculous I just sort say ‘ Are you okay ? We can talk about this afterwards if you want to ?’ But I think its funny and one of those things I love about it the most ( laughs )
G : - What current tunes are the sound track of you life ? A : - The new John Butler album is something that I listen to on repeat . Yesterday I listened to it three times back to back . HAHA