Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Jones.
Andrew, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up playing in punk and metal bands in Pueblo, Colorado. My ethos was very DIY, so when bands I knew or that I was in needed to record something, I took that on. I guess that really started when I was a kid, because I recorded my own radio shows on cassette players when I was super young, like, kindergarten. When I taught myself guitar, I recorded myself playing songs off Punk-O-Rama comps on a dictaphone my mom brought home from work. I was really into recording but didn’t really think of it like I do today, like, it wasn’t something I understood as an art form or career or anything like that. I just loved the act of it.
So, I played in bands in my hometown, that got me into touring and that whole thing. I loved performing but even in my early 20s was so not feeling touring. So, by the time, I was in a band in L.A., I was very into staying at the studio and working. While I was there, I developed a relationship with a producer who got me into the early stages of a project for an artist’s comeback, but when that artist died, it all fell apart and I just cooled on everything for a really long time.
I took just enough time away from music that when I got back into it, everything had changed. Like, every aspect of it, even how we consume music, how artists generate revenue, the value most listeners place on music, absolutely everything was totally different. So, I embraced starting over and thought, I’m not going to be the center of it anymore, like, I’m not going to focus on being the guy trying to get you to come to the show. I needed to be an advocate for emerging or underrepresented artists. I made a ton of mistakes and missed opportunities in the past, and if I had a mentor or just someone to honestly talk to about stuff, I could have been in so many different places. I tested the waters with a few releases and learned how hard it was to get anyone to care now.
I thought, if this is so hard for me – with all the people I know, my experience, my straight up privilege – how hard is it for artists of color or LGBTQ+ artists or women to get exposure because of a great song or album or feel comfortable in a studio environment where they get the final word and run the show? But before you get to what you do with your recording, which is such labor, you need to write something you’re proud of and get a recording you’re proud of. Songwriting and engineering are the things I really care about, so that’s where The Nest, my studio, came from. You can lay your weird little egg and it can be a beautiful baby bird or an alien or whatever, but you can take your time, not spend a ton of money, and make something no one can ignore. Something you’re going to be very proud of showing off. It’s all my younger ideals coming together – a sense of DIY, the dream of taking a long time on a recording when budgets were massive for records, and a punk feeling of doing this in a community-based way – at least that’s one aspect of my vision of what’s punk.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It felt like rough going at the start, but I realized it was my approach. I forgot a lot that I was starting from scratch in a lot of ways and was impatient or felt entitled to certain things. When I let go of a lot of things, it felt like less of a path, like, it wasn’t going to be hard or easy, it was just going to be a series of events. So, what did I want those events to be and how often would I try to facilitate them?
But when I was engaging with the struggle, it was booking a venue at the start. I was shocked at how hard that was when my wife and I moved to the area. I mean, just a coffee house, that was like pulling teeth. I finally got a couple of slots at a place in Denton, which isn’t around anymore, and there were the people I invited, and no one else. I thought, how was this such a difficult process? What was the value waiting for me after all that? When I got my second performance there, there were way more people and I thought, oh okay, I get it. But the crowd was for the opener, who brought all her friends and at the end of her set invited everyone to get ice cream with her. The place cleared completely out. I was like, just speechless. There were two more acts left! I tried to keep it positive during the set but was like, I need to just make sure I didn’t enter an alternate reality where that whole scenario is acceptable – that actually happened right? I’d never encountered anything like that in Colorado or Los Angeles. But I had to remind myself, dude, you’re starting way over. You had a community there where you earned trust and put in the time that got you into theaters. I realized I had no patience for that process again, and just needed to focus on what I was passionate about – making art. I focused on building out my studio and learning how to get better at that.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Nest – what should we know?
I maintain my private studio for the right artists to work out of, that’s The Nest. But I ended up becoming more of a freelance engineer too – I record at other studios in Colorado when bands need me there, and I do light tech work and assist at The Echo Lab in Denton. If a session needs to happen there, I can engineer there. I’m doing sound right now for a movie shooting in Dallas, so I tend to get pegged as a “sound guy.” But I mostly call myself a music person. I still make my own art but always ground myself in a studio, whether it’s mine or another space. I engineer records, produce, co-write, most of the musical spectrum of tasks save for stuff like arranging or orchestration. I feel like that’s such a specialized thing that people go to school for, I don’t want to dabble. That’s for specialists, and I want to leave more work for them.
At The Nest, I’m really proud of the records made there. There aren’t many, so I feel safe saying I’m proud of them all. Last year was Budapest’s Throat Shutters and Amari Amore’s “Complications” EP. Right at the end of the year, I recorded the second EP for Spirettes from Colorado Springs and I’m already very proud of that. We’re in mixing now. There’ve been a few writing and mix sessions for NXBDY’s mixtape, which is also going to be really good.
I’ve been told that people feel comfortable experimenting and being open around me, which is something I wanted to accomplish but wasn’t sure how to when I started The Nest. I think that comfort comes from treating artists how I’d want to be treated, providing what I wish I could get in a creative setting, and not trying to prove myself as an expert as anything. I’m another collaborator. And we’re so lucky to be in that setting anyway, aren’t we? It should be a celebration, there should be a lot of fun happening, but we need to be taking that fun seriously. I think that can get confused in a recording session, where there’s more of an emphasis on being serious about everything, worrying what others could think of what’s being made. A lot of criticism and oppressive thinking that kills the real wild stuff that makes for a memorable recording. I hope I can shift focus from self-doubt and self-consciousness to honest self-expression.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
I treat everything as something to learn from. I don’t know everything about music or engineering. I know enough to feel comfortable helping people get to where they want to be, but if someone wanted to write a song and I thought I knew how it all worked, I’d be pretty hard to work with. If anything, there are people who get real technical and try to establish and enforce rules. That probably works well for some people, but it’s not my scene and I don’t want to work with people like that. It’s oil and water with me. No rules, please. Let’s learn something together.
Thinking like this changed my definition of success too, so recording a handful of projects in 2018 is a huge success to me because they were with the right people. They were the right experiences. The sessions always felt like friends getting together, and we never took creation for granted. If I can pull that off, that’s deeply creatively satisfying. If I can satisfy my creativity and keep our house, I’m feeling successful. And I think that can’t happen if I’m being super masculine about everything and not sharing everything I can or being open to learning from other people. It’s sort of a scam sometimes – people think I’m helping them record something and I’m studying their songwriting!
Contact Info:
- Website: hearandrewjones.com
- Email: andyblankjones@gmail.com
- Instagram: @andy_jones
Image Credit:
Press photos – Lauren Carey
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