The Yum Yum Tree – "Slouch" (2007)

What am I waiting for?

Why am I still here?

The Yum Yum Tree's Paint by Numbers is strong from start to finish – there's not a bad song on the album:

But the Paint by Numbers track I'd pick if I had to pick just one is "Slouch."  It grew on me quickly, and for awhile, I'd repeat it over and over.  In fact, if you knew just how many times in a row I would play it on my iPod, you'd think I was weird.  (You may think that already.)

This third installment of my four-part series on Andy Gish and her music focuses on "Slouch."  (You can click here to read the previous part of the interview if you missed it.)

2or3lines:  "Slouch" is the Paint By Numbers song that first got my attention. There's a lot going on in "Slouch," both musically and lyrically -- I think it's a very skillfully constructed song.

Andy:  Wow.  Thank you.  I’ve never thought of it as that.  I mean, I like the song, but I think it was something I just kind of hammered out when I wrote it.  I write on guitar but in my heart I am a bass player. So the backbone of “Slouch” was actually a bass-like part I wrote on guitar.  I’ve never thought about it before but this is probably why the song starts off with that part and then breaks into bar-chords when it gets more angsty and loud.

Andy Gish performing live with
Alex Pilson and John McNicolas

2or3lines:  The lyrics to “Slouch” tell a story – perhaps a story based on real-life events?

Andy:  I took a frustrating situation and processed it through the song’s lyrics.  I will admit that most of my songs are about people in my life.  Probably only my best friend knows who “Slouch” is about.  Let’s just say it’s about someone who placed themselves very much in the center of my life -- both musically and personally – without an invitation to do so.  All of a sudden I had someone in my life -- although not actually in my band – who was supporting me and admiring me, but also trying to control me.  This was very strange to me and I really didn’t understand what was happening. He wasn’t a bad person by any means, but I just didn’t know what to do with the situation. My writing this song was me trying to work through it . . . as most of my songs are.  

2or3lines: So would you say “Slouch” is typical of your songs, or is it an atypical song?

Andy:  I guess something unique about this song is that it is much more intimate than the rest of the songs I was writing back then.  My songs tended to be bathed in lots of metaphors, but this song was a lot more vulnerable.  

2or3lines:  “Slouch” begins with these lines:

What’s going on here?

I thought you were coming over to hang on the couch

What’s going wrong here?

I can see the regression in your impotent slouch

Andy, I have to admit something -- I thought for a long time that you were saying “impudent,” not “impotent.”

Andy:  Scott Lewis and I once discussed the use of the word “impotent” in the song.  For me, at that time, it was a very ballsy word for me to sing . . . much more than any actual swear words.  Although in this context it is really just a metaphor to someone kind of shrugging their shoulders or not showing up to a situation or conversation.  Still, for a women to stand on a stage and sing the word “impotent” seemed daring to me.  It may not sound like much, but I remember being very uncomfortable with that line when we first started playing the song live, but I was resolved that it was the perfect word.

Andy Gish and Michelle Friedman

2or3lines: The next lines of the song seem to indicate that the male character has surprised the singer with some kind of request or proposal -- she wants to say "yes" to him, but she's afraid to:

I’m afraid to take that jump

I’ve seen you let 'em fall.

But I’m afraid to leave right now

What if this is worth waiting for?

What's going on between these two people?

Andy:  This line was literally from me sitting on a couch with someone and debating if I was going to leave or not.  They didn’t want me to leave but also this relationship was not moving forward.  I guess it’s about this person’s inaction.  And inaction is a frustrating as hell to me! I admit it’s something I struggle with myself.  Don’t they say that the things we don’t like in other people are also the things we don’t like in ourselves?  Well, there you go.

2or3lines: I get the feeling from the following lines that the singer has been burned before – she's suspicious of the guy's sincerity. Or perhaps she's more concerned that the guy doesn't really know what he wants – he may think he wants her today, but may change his mind tomorrow:

I can’t stand the way you play me

Or the way you make me doubt

And I don’t have the time right now

To help you figure you out

Tell us about those lines.

Andy:  Those lines were in reference to the power play situation I found myself in.  I am very independent and can be quite rebellious if someone tries to control me.  I think that is where I was coming from.  There is definitely a lot of angst in the line “I don’t have the time right now to help you figure you out.”  I hope this doesn’t make me sound arrogant, but I’ve always been a person who had no problem expressing my identity.  Good or bad, I’ve always owned who I am.  This may be going into too much detail but I think that owning your character appears to others as confidence.  I don’t think that actually equates to confidence, sometimes it’s actually just resolve in accepting who you with all the glory of your faults.  But what I experienced was that I was attracting people in my life who didn’t know their own character.  I think I was attracting them because they also wanted to know who they were.  Figuring out “who you are” can be grueling and uncomfortable. It’s like standing naked in front of a mirror going “OK, I guess this is what I got to work with.”  I know for certain the angst from this line came from someone who seemed to want me to do that work for them.  But it’s a task that no one can do for you.  I surely don’t want to sound heartless, but I remember just being frustrated with the entire situation.  It was intense but not very functional.  And I guess I would (one day) like to be a person who jumps in seeing failure as a successful outcome.  I’m still working on that.

Version one of The Yum Yum Tree: Matt Harr,
 Scott Lewis, Andy Gish, and Kent Honea

2or3lines:  The choruses repeat the following lines, which seem indicative of the singer's ambivalence and uncertainty about the relationship:

What am I waiting for?

Why am I still here?

Earlier the singer said she didn’t have the time “to help you figure you out,” but it seems that she is still waiting around for the guy to make up his mind about what he wants from her – and the fact that she is still waiting makes her a little frustrated with herself. 

Andy: Yeah, that’s true.  I’m a Scorpio, we hate waiting, yet we are very patient.  Ambivalence is also very frustrating to me.  I’d rather know how someone feels about me -- good or bad – then move on from there.  I also will completely admit that defaulting to ambivalence it one of my own personal flaws when I feel insecure.  I’ve recently been trying to practice what Brené Brown writes about vulnerability. It’s one of the hardest things I have ever done.  (By the way, confidence has never been sexy to me, but vulnerability is.)  One of her points that I love is that what we want people to share with us is their own vulnerability because they are sharing a true part of themselves.  We want to feel like they are sharing their heart . . . their true self.  Yet, this vulnerability is often the hardest thing for us to share with them.  Seems unfair -- right?  I suppose most of my music is me attempting to explore and share my own vulnerability. So perhaps what I found most frustrating about the situation that inspired “Slouch” was also something I suffered from. 

Brené Brown on vulnerability

2or3lines: I really like the way the choruses build as the song progresses.  You go from singing the chorus solo to having a number of other singers echo your lines.

Andy:  The chorus of people singing at the end was probably the very last thing we added to the album before we released it.  I decided I wanted a group of people singing the chorus sort of at the last minute -- as we were mixing the album.  So in the dead of winter, I invited a bunch of friends to come to the studio and we all sang together.  

2or3lines:  There's what I would call a coda at the end of "Slouch," and I have to admit I'm confused by the lyrics that conclude the song:

We all know you like it this way

Now you got him lying on the floor

But Alpha never dressed up this way

And I don’t think he likes it anymore

We all know you like it this way

Now you got her lying on the floor

Omega never dressed up this way

And I don’t think she likes it anymore

Help me out here, Andy -- who are Alpha and Omega, and what is going on here?

Andy:  The alpha/omega references relate to shifting powers and roles that were happening at that time and that I just didn’t understand.  This is a reference to the power play situation mentioned before. It’s also kind of references how different people play different roles in different situations or with different people. You may be confident around some people and then play the role of being subordinate around others.

2or3lines:  What did the critics and reviewers say about Paint by Numbers?  How did the public respond to the album?

Andy:  The album got good reviews. I remember Flagpole saying that our songs sounded too happy to come from a Georgia group . . . that they sounded more like sunny California pop.  [NOTE: Flagpole is an alternative newspaper that focuses on the cultural scene in Athens, Georgia, which is the home of the University of Georgia.]  I took no offense to that!  The album got a decent amount of play on college radio, especially on the University of Georgia and Georgia State stations, and every so often I get little royalty checks and I buy the band drinks with them.

We'll stop there and pick things up in the next 2 or 3 lines, where you'll learn what Andy Gish is doing now.

Click here to listen to "Slouch."

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

The Yum Yum Tree – "Paint by Numbers" (2007)

Meet me halfway up the stairway

I'll be waiting for you

In the last 2 or 3 lines, you were introduced to Andy Gish, who moved from Houston to Atlanta in 1998 to attend graduate school, but who ended up dropping out and founding The Yum Yum Tree.

Andy wrote and sang the songs on that group's 2007 album, Paint by Numbers, and both her songwriting and her singing are excellent.  (Her bass playing is very good as well.)

Today's 2 or 3 lines presents the second installment of my four-part conversation with Andy.  (You can click here to read the first installment.)  We'll pick things up where we left off and learn about how she put together The Yum Yum Tree and who her favorite songwriters and singers are.

2or3lines: You mentioned grad school – is that why you moved to Atlanta?  Since you still live in Atlanta, I assume you are happy that you moved.

Andy:  In 1998, I moved to Atlanta for a graduate fellowship in primatology . . . 

2or3lines: Which is the study of apes and monkeys and other primates -- correct?

Andy:  Yes.  That worked out horribly and after a year I quit school.  But there was so much amazing music going on in Atlanta I decided to stay here. I knew ONE person in Atlanta when I moved here. When I left Texas I thought I was leaving music behind.  I never thought I would play in Atlanta, but surprisingly music is why I stayed here and why I ADORE this city.  

2or3lines: How did you get acquainted with other Atlanta musicians?

Andy:  I think that all of my friends in Atlanta can somehow be linked back to the ads that I placed or they placed in the “Musician Wanted” section of the Creative Loafing classifieds. [NOTE: Creative Loafing is an Atlanta alternative weekly newspaper.]  I met two of my dearest friends – who became members of The Yum Yum Tree – through one ad that mentioned the Jesus and Mary Chain.  I remember one ad I placed said something like “Searching for my Joey Santiago!”  [NOTE:  Santiago was the lead guitarist for the Pixies.]  Someone should do a study of those ads.  Figuring out which bands came from what ads would look like the world’s most complicated epidemiology chart!

Atlanta's Creative Loafing

2or3lines:  Tell me more about The Yum Yum Tree.  How did that band get started? 

Andy:  After Hannibal told me “You are the band,” he offered to help me get things off the ground by playing guitar for a while.  He had other commitments but he wanted to help.  So I had a temporary guitarist and I was a bass player – that left me needing a drummer.  A few months before I had played a bit with a guitarist named Scott Lewis who I met through the classified ad that mentioned the Jesus and Mary Chain.  Scott actually kicked me out of his band after a few weeks.  But his roommate, Matt Harr, was a drummer that I really liked. 

2or3lines:  How did you talk Matt into coming aboard?

Andy:  Drummers were in really high demand, but I was determined.  So I met Matt at a movie and tried to put on my charm.  I think he knew a little about the music I was writing but I don’t think I told him that I was going to ask him to play with me.  I showed up with my demo and told him, “So, I we’re recording in six weeks and have a show booked in eight weeks.  We’re called The Yum Yum Tree.  Do you want to be our drummer?”  I think I took him by surprise, but he said yes.  Scott was mad that I stole Matt as apparently he wanted to use him in the project I had been kicked out of, but I moved in quicker.  What’s funny is that a year or so later Scott joined The Yum Yum Tree and is still a very close friend.

2or3lines: You guys didn’t leave yourself a lot of time to come together as a group before that first recording session.

Andy:  What’s really magical is that Matt, Hannibal and I did record an EP six weeks after we got together, and played a live show two weeks after that.  Our song “Bad Idea” was immediately picked up by WRAS, which was the Georgia State University radio station. They played that song almost every single day for a year!  It was awesome.  And we didn’t even have a permanent guitarist.

2or3lines: It appears from the credits for your two albums – Reverse Engines and Paint by Numbers -- that The Yum Yum Tree has had quite a few personnel changes over the years. 

Andy: There were a myriad of people who played with The Yum Yum Tree over the years.  I had a lot of guitarists.  We replaced Hannibal with Kent Honea on guitar.  Kent finished our first album with us and became the key guitarist in the Yum Yum Tree.  Trey Tidwell and Scott Lewis traded spots as second guitarist for a couple of years.  Then about ten years ago, I took a break from the group. 

Andy Gish with Kent Honea,
Scott Lewis, and Matt Harr

2or3lines:  Were the members of the group not getting along?

Andy:  Honestly, I think none of us were having much fun and I had no idea what the next step was.  I’m not sure I was the best leader back then.  I was great at getting stuff done, shows booked, etc.  But I think because I never saw myself as a front person I was always really uncomfortable as a leader.  I remember being in practice one day and looking over at Matt and thinking to myself, “He’s really not happy and I have no idea what to do.”  We talked and decided that eventually we would part ways – not immediately, but in a few months.  I’ve never really admitted this even to myself, but I wasn’t planning on replacing Matt. I was just going to silently break up the band.  I just knew it wouldn’t be the same without him and I needed to pause and regroup.

2or3lines: So what happened next?

Andy: I spent the next year or so writing alone in my bedroom and going to friends’ shows.  The Yum Yum Tree had been so busy playing around the Southeast that I felt like I was never home.  I never saw my dog, I was always sick, and I never got to see my friend’s bands play unless we were playing a show together.  I knew I needed to experience life to write better songs again.  After I had gathered a fresh handful of songs with a new approach on angst, I started looking for people to play with.  I think I found Alex Pilson first.  We had played once together back around 2000, before I officially formed The Yum Yum Tree, and he was a great drummer.  Then I found myself in the predicament of not having a guitarist.  It seems unbelievable to most musicians that in the great void of drummers and bass players that I was always searching for a guitarist! 

2or3lines: That’s very interesting.  I didn’t realize that good drummers and bass players were so hard to find compared to guitarists.  So how did you find your new guitarist?

Andy:  I placed a classified ad in Creative Loafing again and Tim Hill responded.  We then met at a Starbucks.  I can’t explain this but before we even played together I somehow knew that Tim was my guitarist.  I went ahead and got a new practice space and that day because I knew I had a new version of Yum Yum Tree.

Andy with Alex Pilson and Tim Hill

2or3lines: You released Paint by Numbers – the title track is our featured song today – in 2007.  I assume you recorded Paint by Numbers with the new Yum Yum Tree lineup?

Andy:  I basically think of our first album as representing version one of Yum Yum Tree and the second album as representing version two – but actually there was a lot of overlap.  Some of the songs on Paint by Numbers were actually recorded by Matt Harr, Kent Honea, Scott Lewis and myself – version one of the band.  But I recorded most of the songs on Paint by Numbers with Alex Pilson and Tim Hill.  Before we finished the album, I decided to go to nursing school.  Somehow I thought being back in school would allow me for more time for the band.  Sadly, it did not.  Because of school, I kind of sat on Paint by Numbers for a while, and by the time it was mixed and ready to go Tim had other commitments.  So when Alex and I released Paint by Numbers we added friends Michelle Friedman and John McNicolas to support the album.  Tim actually did come back for a show in 2008.  So The Yum Yum Tree played its official last show with Tim Hill, Alex Pilson and Michelle Friedman.

2or3lines: You wrote all the songs on Paint by Numbers, and I have to say that I was very impressed by the quality of the songwriting on that album.  Were there any particular songwriters who inspired you, or whose songs were your models when you started writing your own songs?

Andy:  Gosh, it’s hard to say.  I listened to so much music that I think it just festered into something completely different.  We were always compared to Throwing Muses, MagnaPop, and Mazzy Star, but honestly the only one of those groups that I ever listened to before Yum Yum Tree  was Mazzy Star.  My songs have lyrical references to Ultra Vivid Scene, The Weakerthans, Jeff Buckley and Syd Barrett.  But I’d say my biggest influence was the Pixies.  I loved how bass played such an important role in their songs.  I loved how Joey [Santiago] just made up atypical guitar parts up that seemed unrelated to the rest of the song but fit so well.  

Andy Gish at a Weakerthans show

2or3lines:  That’s a pretty diverse list of musicians.  Maybe that’s why your songs don’t really sound like anyone else’s music.

Andy:  I guess the thing that influenced me the most was not really knowing what the hell I was doing.  Not really knowing what a C chord was.  Not knowing what I was supposed to do.  I guess that is how growing up in Texas influenced me.  In Texas you come up with your own way of doing things, you make your own rules.  You know, doing this interview has made me realize that my approach to songwriting is really quite haphazard.

2or3lines: Tell me a little about your songwriting process.

Andy:  I usually write an outline of the song on guitar and then give it to the guitarist to flesh out.  Only then do I write a bass part.  I used to think this was because I was lazy but I guess it makes for unique songwriting.  Because the original part is played on guitar, I’m forced to come up with something completely different for the bass part.  I’ve never really thought about it much.  With so much of my music, I kind of just do it without any plan and see what happens.  I guess for me that’s what makes it art.

2or3lines: One of the musicians I've shared your album with was very impressed by your bass playing. What kind of bass do you play?

Andy: That’s awesome.  I get a lot of compliments about my bass playing and it still makes me blush.  I will say I do play differently than most.  I think this is because I am actually left-handed but I play right-handed.  No one told me there were left-handed instruments until I was 22.  I had no idea there was another option.  I think this is why I can sing and play at the same time without effort – I use different parts of my brain.  I don’t think of myself as particularly skilled, I just do it my own way.  I have a handful of guitars, but I only have one bass – a seventies-vintage Aria-type violin bass -- which I play through a Fender Bassman 135 tube amplifier.  It basically a knockoff of the first Gibson bass, the EB1.  For me, the magic seems to come from the fact that it has a semi-hollow body without f-holes.  It’s warm and roars a little without being overly dramatic.  I love Fender tube amps and I think these two pieces together are just awesome.  They are all I will ever need.

Aria violin-style bass guitar

2or3lines: Do you have any favorite bass players?

Andy:  What’s funny is I pay no attention to bass players when I listen to recorded music!  That sounds horrible but I always listen to the guitarist.  I hate to say this.  It’s going to make me sound like a horrible person but it’s really easy to fake bass playing.  I really shouldn’t be saying this.

2or3lines:  You’re going to get kicked out of the bass players’ fraternity!

Andy:  [Laughter.]  I really think Kim Deal is a great bass player.  If anyone influenced me I would say it was her and the Pixies wouldn’t be the Pixies without her style of playing.  I also really love Hank Sullivant, who was the first bass player in the Whigs, and Dave Chase, a local Atlanta bass player who is just amazing.

2or3lines: What about your favorite female singers -- past or present?

Andy:  I adore PJ Harvey.  I love how she breaks rules and doesn’t seem to filter herself.  She’s really unique.  She’s not a “female” singer -- she’s just a singer.  

2or3lines:  One review I read compared your singing to Courtney Love of Hole.  I think your voice sounds a lot like Gwen Stefani at times, although your singing style may be closer to Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders.  Who do you think you sound like?

Andy:  Oh goodness -- it’s hard for me to say.  I wouldn’t have guessed any of those.  I think my singing style has mellowed and matured through the years.  I have a lower singing range, which I like.  So I understand the Chrissie Hynde reference and I’ll take that!  She’s awesome.   I was always really grateful for the comparisons I got to Hope Sandavol from Mazzy Star.  Her voice is so warm and velvety.  I love that my voice has a warmth to it.  I get that from my mother.  It’s haunting when we sing together.

2or3lines:  What about female songwriters?  Any particular favorites?

Andy:  I think that the female songwriters that I liked the most in the years before I started writing myself were Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses.  I love their approach to writing a catchy rock song.  They are great with atypical hooks.  Lately, I can’t stop listening to Jessica Lea Mayfield’s album Tell Me.

"Paint by Numbers" is the last track on the Paint by Numbers album, and it's a winner.  Andy shows off her bass guitar skills during the extended instrumental introduction, and then shows off her vocal talents during the rest of the song.  Everything else about "Paint by Numbers" – the guitar work, the drumming, and the production – is first-rate as well.

Click here to go to the next 2 or 3 lines, where we'll focus on my favorite song from the Paint by Numbers album.

Click here to listen to "Paint by Numbers."

Click below to buy the song from Amazon:

The Yum Yum Tree – "Februaries" (2007)

Take your longest sleep tonight

I’ll catch you where bluebirds fly

(Where do bluebirds fly?  Somewhere over the rainbow, of course.)

Last year, I stumbled across a compilation album titled Workers Comp, which was released by Recess Records (an independent label located in southern California) in 2001.

The first song on the album was "Calvary," by a group called Yum Yum Tree.  I loved the song immediately, and it's featured in the previous 2 or 3 lines.

I Googled the Yum Yum Tree to find out more about the group and found a number of references to a 2007 album titled Paint by Numbers, which I downloaded.  It was a very good album, but the songs on it sounded nothing like "Calvary":

It turns out there were two different bands who called themselves Yum Yum Tree.  The group that recorded "Calvary" was from New York City.  The group that released Paint by Numbers (and who called themselves The Yum Yum Tree) was from Atlanta.

I tracked down the Atlanta group's singer-songwriter-bass player, Andy Gish, and asked her if I could interview her for 2 or 3 lines.  Andy agreed, and provided detailed answers to my very long list of questions.  (When I get going with a musician whose music I admire, I don't know when to stop.)

Andy Gish

I've broken Andy's interview into four parts.  In part one – which you are reading now – we'll learn about Andy's childhood in Houston and her move as a young adult to Atlanta.

20r3lines: Andy, where did you grow up? Tell me a little about your childhood.

Andy Gish: I was born in Wadsworth, Ohio, which is a beautiful little town near Akron.  My family moved to Houston when I was seven.  Looking back, I think that move was actually pretty traumatic and probably changed me as a person.  

2or3lines: In what way?

Andy: Growing up as an only child in suburban Houston, I felt really isolated.  I don’t want this to sound overly dramatic but I really think that in that isolation music became my closest friend.  To this day it is the place I go when I need to talk something out.  It’s actually pretty damn therapeutic and still remains such a gift in my life.

2or3lines: I understand that both of your parents were musicians.  

Andy: Yes, my parents are both musicians and they both write music.  Neither of them were classically trained.  My mother plays bass and piano and my dad can play anything that makes a noise.  I once found him in the music room playing drums with his feet with a guitar in his lap and singing. I thought he had a whole band in there playing with him.  I remember one Christmas I was watching my dad play the keyboard part of “California Girls” by the Beach Boys.  He had never played this before and was just playing it by ear.  I once said to him “Dad, where’s middle C on the piano?”  He said, “Um, I’m not sure.”  He is completely unaware of how naturally gifted he is.  

2or3lines: How did you learn to play?

Andy: Our family way of learning was one person showing another person how to play a song they wrote and then just letting you go from there. The instruments were always there.  I love that they never gave me any lessons.  Instead, they played with their ears and their hearts.  I learned from them that if music feels right, it’s right.  Years later while recording with The Yum Yum Tree, the engineer asked me to show him a chord I was playing on guitar.  I showed him, and his eyes got huge and he said, “You know, that’s totally not a chord. It’s completely wrong, but it sounds so right!"

2or3lines: What musicians did you listen to when you were growing up?

Andy: When I was five, Sean Cassidy was my favorite musician and was my first concert – I rushed the stage! Blondie’s “Call Me” was the first 45 I bought with my own money. When I was seven, I thought Cheap Trick was the best band in the whole world.  I went through a brief period of listening to some hair bands with my friends and then when I was 12 I discovered The Cure and everything changed. I still remember hearing the beginning of “Killing an Arab” and saying to myself, “This is MY music!”  From then on I mostly listened to British music -- My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Chapterhouse, The Wonder Stuff -- and actually went to the UK as an exchange student just because of my love of the music they produced.  The Pixies and the Stone Roses were also favorites of mine.

The Cure (circa 1987)

2or3lines: Were most of your friends into music as much as you were?  

Andy:  My high-school friends and I planned our schedules around upcoming concerts, and we all stayed up late on Sunday nights to watch 120 Minutes. [NOTE: 120 Minutes was an MTV show dedicated to alternative music videos that aired from 1986 to 2003.]  Some of those friends were musicians, but I never really played with anyone from high school like most people do.  

2or3lines: Tell us about your first band.

Andy: When I was 15 I went to a street festival in Montrose -- which was the hip, artsy area of Houston -- and saw a band I really liked called The Devil’s Workshop.  They reminded me of Ultra Vivid Scene. About five months later I joined that band as the bass player.  I had to commute to downtown Houston by bus to practice!  All the other members were in their twenties and thirties -- I was literally half the age of the frontman/guitarist – and I played my first show at a bar a week before my 16th birthday. It was actually perfect.  I got to skip the awkward part of starting a band with your high school mates and I got to join a real band that played gigs downtown.  It was pretty awesome.  From that point on I really looked at high school as just a means to an end.  I had good friends there, but my real life was downtown practicing and playing shows.

Young Houstonians dancing at a Montrose club

2or3lines: When did you start writing songs?

Andy:  I think I wrote my first song when I was about ten,  but I did not write a song that I really liked until I was 24.  From playing in The Devil’s Workshop, I learned how to play in a rock band and how to record before I left high school.  However, it wasn’t until I moved to Atlanta, away from everything that I knew, that I wrote a song I actually liked.  I assumed that I was a performer and not a songwriter until then -- which didn’t make sense, because both my parents wrote music.  But in the quiet of Atlanta – when I was alone for the first time in my life -- I picked up my Hofner Galaxie 175 guitar, and I wrote a song I loved!  I literally couldn’t believe it.  Writing songs became addictive. I would stay up till 4 AM while in grad school and write song after song.  Somehow after playing and writing for all those years, I had finally tapped into something that had been festering under the surface.  It was an amazing feeling.

Hofner Galaxie 175 guitar

2or3lines:  Did you perform these songs in Atlanta?  Were you in a band at this time?

Andy:  No, not at first.  I started looking for bands to play with in Atlanta and I just couldn’t find what I wanted. In the meantime, I recorded a four-track demo of my songs and passed it around to Atlanta musicians to get their opinions. 

2or3lines:  What was the reaction to the demo?

Andy:  A local guitarist named Hannibal Heredia -- who would later become The Yum Yum Tree’s first official guitarist -- pulled me aside and said “Andy, stop looking for a band to join. YOU are the band.  These songs are good enough.  You just need some players.  Be the band!”  I will always be grateful that Hannibal gave me permission to be the band, because without that encouragement I really don’t know if I ever would have had the guts to start The Yum Yum Tree.  I would have played music, sure, but I don’t think I ever would have embraced being the front person.  In fact, I still find it hard to believe that I am the front person.

2or3lines:  Andy, I understand that you wrote today's featured song, "Februaries," as a tribute to your closest childhood friend, who tragically died when she was still in her twenties.

Andy: It’s hard to write a song about a person whom you loved and who has died.  It is surely hard to write a good one.  You end up being overly melodramatic and sad. . . . But I did not want the song to be sad. . . . I wanted to write a fun song for Michelle to celebrate all she loved and all we shared.  So I started off with a funky beat hoping for the best.  The rest of the song kind of wrote itself.  The end of the song kind of seems like a lullaby . . . not sad but just peaceful.  More about life than death.  Michelle was born in February – that is why the song is called "Februaries."

We'll pick up Andy's story where we left off in the next 2 or 3 lines. 

Click here to listen to "Februaries."

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: