With his debut EP Half The Man, Northwest Washington based singer/songwriter Van Andrew introduces the most honest version of himself – exploring the trials and tribulations of personal growth as his next chapter as an artist begins to unfold.
The 5-song EP is laced with a powerful blend of lyrical and instrumental elements that paint an idyllic narrative of earnest feelings, past afflictions, and a candid glimpse of love – all coming together as a brilliant and positively dynamic debut.
“The EP is my first attempt at giving myself permission to put music out there,” he explains to heirwaves, “It’s a lot of my past history, and it’s not necessarily 100% me now, but it’s kind of my story in getting to there.”
Andrew shares that the EP captures his personal journey of navigating music on his own, and exploring his past pain and disappointments, while delving into the bigger questions of his life. The titled, derived from a lyric his leading song, “Outlaw” { ‘I’m only half the man I thought I’d be in my dreams as a boy’ }, is an ode to who he was growing up, in comparison to who he has become – and who he is still becoming.
“‘Outlaw’ is a story of redemption in a way,” he says, “and exploring that theme of being half the person you thought you’d be.” He adds that the song touches on rewriting what your path in life is supposed to look like in the absence of childhood dreams and expectations.
From diving into his past, there is an evident air of vulnerability in his music, and putting that out into the world has proven to be entirely cathartic for Andrew. “I think at the end of the day, as humans, we want to be heard, and we want to be known,” he says, “and you have these thoughts and feelings internally that even if you can’t resolve them, you at least want other people to know it. And for me, music is that outlet to do that.”
And in doing that, he has ultimately learned a lot more about himself as an artist. “I’ve always be victim to caring too much about what people think, I think as a musician that’s not always a great thing to have,” he says with a laugh, “I’m learning how to navigate what I like, and what I love, and what I want to say, and what I feel is important.”
By igniting a dreamlike feeling of nostalgia – a feeling that encompasses everything from wrestling with past decisions to the simple recollection of a beautiful moment framed in a memory – the complex and compelling collection of stories on the EP have the ability to strike any and every nerve. As a songwriter, he recognizes the temptation to strive for a hit song, but igniting those genuine feelings is his ultimate priority.
“At the end of the day, not everyone is going to resonate with your music, not everybody’s going to resonate with you… but the right people will,” he says, “so making sure that you’re doing that in an honest way, and in a way that’s true to yourself and what you’re trying to say, I think is important.”
Serving as the foreword to Andrew’s upcoming body of music, Half the Man has already deeply resonated with listeners – sparking an excitement of the possibilities to come. “I’m sitting on a lot of music right now that I’ve written, and I’m sitting on even more right now that I know that I can write, but the fraction of that compared to what I’ve put out there is very small,” he says, “I feel like I have so much more to give.”
“It’s very therapeutic for me to be able to put music, and to put words to the thoughts and feelings and insecurities I have,” Andrew concludes, “and if I can stay true to that, then I think that’s success for me.”
Half the Man – EP is available for streaming and download on all platforms now.
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