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It can be hard to “keep your head up” in today’s world, but Andy Grammer continues to spread positive vibes through his music and hopes to bring that energy to his appearance at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Friday, June 29.
Speaking to The Press, the singer-songwriter recalled the days before he was producing hits like “Keep Your Head Up” and “Fine By Me.”
Music wasn’t always his passion, he said. In high school he played varsity basketball and dreamed of playing in the NBA.
“[Basketball] was like my main reason for living,” he said. “But it started to shift in my junior year.”
It was then that he began to invest himself in music—specifically mastering the guitar.
“I realized I wasn’t going to be in the NBA so my mind started opening up to songwriting,” he explained.
Following his high school graduation he went on to study at Binghamton University, but eventually decided to return to California, where he was born, to pursue a degree in music industry studies at California State University, Northridge.
Living in Los Angeles, he shared his music with the public by performing on street corners. Those performances, he said, helped him develop a level of showmanship needed to build a crowd. One particular performance introduced him to his now-manager, Ben Singer. From there, he began writing songs non-stop, including “Keep Your Head Up,” and eventually signed with S-Curve Records.
Eight years later, he has recorded and produced multiple hit singles and continues to tour worldwide.
“There’s a lot of [songs] people love,” he said. “It’s always amazing when people show up with tattoos of lyrics—that it meant that much to them to have it on them forever. I’m just always humbled.”
For his performance at Westhampton Beach, Mr. Grammer said he and his band plan to play a lot off his new album, “The Good Parts,” as well as other popular tunes from his previous two albums.
Reflecting on the evolution of the latest album, he said it’s based on “the idea that we all have our own stories that are really interesting that we don’t share very much.”
“That’s my favorite part of life,” he expanded. “Even on social media it’s called your ‘story,’ but a lot of times you don’t share the most interesting parts of your personal story. ‘The Good Parts’ is like, ‘Tell me your story, but don’t leave the good parts out.’ That’s what I tried to do with the whole album—to be as vulnerable as possible.”
The album also allowed him to tell a personal part of his story—the presence of his newborn daughter, Louisiana.
“There’s a couple of songs on the album about her,” he said. “She’s 9 months old and she’s awesome.”
In terms of preparing for writing an album like “The Good Parts,” Mr. Grammer said he absorbs art in every form for inspiration.
“I spend a lot of time traveling. One of the things that makes my job fun is that, sure, it takes a while to get somewhere, but if you use [that time] to ingest art, it can be really fun. That kind of gets me going to create my own stuff.”
Most recently he has been binging HBO’s “Westworld,” which he says is amazing. He said he has also been “going down a rabbit hole” listening to a lot of poetry on YouTube, which features myriad channels devoted to spoken word performances.
Moving forward, Mr. Grammer said his goal is to “write as many songs as possible that bring people massive joy and make them want to keep singing.”
“That’s the goal—continually write incredible classic music that will have everyone freaking out when you play the first chord.”
Andy Grammar will play at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Friday, June 29, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $116, $141 and $166. Call 631-288-1500 or visit whbpac.org.
on Jun 15, 2018