Fredericton’s Andy Brown said he’s proud to be from the east coast, and a part of such a supportive community has helped him grow as an artist and “I think we have tremendous singer songwriters around here and incredible bands. The east coast community is so tight knit and supportive that I’m incredibly proud to be from here.”
Brown’s just returned from Halifax, performing in a songwriters circle with Halifax’s Mo Kenney and David Guthro as part of a benefit concert for the family of Jay Smith.
Brown’s good friend and guitar player for indie-rocker Matt Mays’ backing back El Torpedo died March 27 in Edmonton.
“From what I’ve seen them do for Jay over the last little while has been nothing short of amazing.”
Brown’s newest album, Tinman, is set for its official release this month with a string of shows around the east coast.
Brown will make a stop at Fredericton’s Capital Complex April 19th and his gearing up for an Australian tour mid-May.
Brown is nominated for the third year in a row in the International Songwriting Competition’s ‘people’s voice’ category for the title track off his new album.
“[Tinman explores] reaching your breaking point and digging your way back,” said Brown. “As someone trying to find his place in the music industry, I was trying to reinvent the way I looked at songwriting.”
Brown’s newest album features more co-writes with east coast artists like Jon-Angus MacDonald from the Trews, PEI’s Tim Chaisson and Fredericton’s David Myles. Select songs on Tinman also feature back-up vocals by Halifax’s Jenn Grant and Newfoundland’s Damhniat Doyle.
“That kind of opened up a lot of new possibilities of songwriting because I could take in their songwriting styles and try different approaches.”
Tinman is Brown’s follow up to his 2009 release of False Alarm which he recorded independently in his living room. With his new album, Brown decided to record at Sonic Studios in Halifax using a bigger budget.
Brown has produced False Alarm and co-produced Tinman. Brown admits to always being a perfectionist and said he had trouble letting go of his latest album.
“I will always want input but I feel like this is the last album I will ever produce on my own,” said Brown. “The struggles of being my own producer was the fact that I was overly critical and it was a really a personal battle to let things go and to admit that things sounded good.”
Brown said his new album underwent more changes beyond moving the recording out of his living room.
“The last album came out 3 years ago, so a lot in my life has changed since then. I’ve tried to mature the way in which I write songs and what I write about. I focused a lot on making every lyric count and something that people really can connect with on a personal level.”
Despite his new approach at songwriting, Brown said there are a few songs he’ll never stop playing live, one being “Ashes” which was played on ABC’s cop drama Rookie Blue in 2011.
Brown said seeing Dave Matthews live in concert when he was 17 made him pursue music as a career. Now the two share the same sponsorship from Taylor Guitars.
“There was 60,000 people there watching him sing songs he had written. I went home and bought a guitar and haven’t stopped since.”
Tickets to Andy Brown at the Capital April 19th are available now for pre sale at Cedar Tree Cafe and online for $10. Brown is donating all proceeds from Tinman pre sales at andybrown.ca until April 16th to the Jay Smith family trust.
