Interview with a Singer/Songwriter
Andy Allen
Andy Allen is a professional actor and musician. He writes, sings and records his own songs. For more information you can go visit his websites:
The Interview
1. What inspires you to be creative?
Inspiration comes from many different places for me. It can come from something relatively standard, like watching another artist produce great work. For instance, there have been times when I've been deeply inspired while listening to the Everly Brothers on my
Discman at three in the morning in the dark. I'm inspired every time I see "Cool Hand Luke," or a handful of other movies that really electrify my senses. Reading is big for me, too. It really gets my mind working, pushes me mentally. I start looking up new words, and I can feel my imagination crackle to life.
People who are out and about inspire me, too. Kind eyes. Pretty women. Men and women trying to do the right thing.
2. Can you see your finished product before you start?
Sometimes. Sometimes not. I once wrote a song called "Miles On My Mind," and I saw the whole thing out in front of me right away. I had the title, and I knew exactly what I wanted to convey with the melody and the lyrics, as well as with the union of the two. I had to construct the words and the melody around a very precise idea. That's happened just a few times. Usually, I have a couple of ideas for a starting point, but I make up most of it as I go along, granting myself flexibility for change, so that room can be made for new ideas at any moment.
3. Is there anything special that you do to get into a creative mindset?
I usually do one of four things. I read, for aforementioned reasons. I watch my favorite scenes from movies I own. I think about all of the loved ones I left behind when I moved to Los Angeles to be a professional entertainer. And, I think about how hard life is for just about everyone, when you get down to the details, and how we're all in it together, in some way. I feel like it's my duty and honor to make people laugh and FEEL. I want to give them something beautiful, precious, funny, offensive....something to get their blood flowing.
4. What message, if any, do you try to put into your work?
Be yourself. Offer others what makes YOU special. Don't waste your time imitating what makes SOMEONE ELSE special. I despise arrogance and cruelty. Those things confound me. My work stands for humor, kindness, humility, and a healthy sex drive.
5. Do you ever find yourself unable to express your creativity to the fullest? What kinds of things
inhibit you?
Yeah. Laziness. Good songs take a lot of time, thought, and focus to compose. They require rewrites, pondering, frustrating moments, multiple drafts, and faith in self. Not knowing if great amounts of time and work will give birth to anything that anyone will enjoy in the least can easily lead to laziness.
Then sometimes, I'm not lazy, and it's just that I can't think of anything exciting to say or sing.
6. Do you ever find yourself limited by the materials that you have available?
Yeah, sometimes I feel limited by my capacity to hear high frequencies. I damaged it during the course of concert going in the 1990's.
7. Who is your greatest influence?
Bob Dylan. No one opens up the field like him. His songs are the words of famous literature crammed into perfectly crafted folk/rock song structures. How does he do that? His voice is so expressive, his lyrics are canyons deep and wondrous, and his chord changes precisely echo the sentiments of his lyrics. The two are perfectly in step with one another. He is like no one else, because he has the courage to deliver who HE is. He paints a true portrait of the world from HIS perspective. How could anyone, other than him, offer THAT? His songs challenge me to do the same, as well as excite and alert me to the notion that I have the capacity to say or do things that are new, fresh, and incandescent, because they are ME. When I was younger, I wanted to copy him, but now he just makes me want to search for my own voice.
8. Do you feel that you chose your "passion," or did it choose you?
Both, I suppose. I 'chose' to learn how to play guitar and sing without any encouragement from other people to do so. Then again, early on in my experimentation with songwriting, creating music DID become a permanent fixture in my life. I understood that I would, most likely, be writing songs for the rest of my years. I realize, at this point in my life, that the practice hours I devote in order to remain proficient at guitar playing, performance, and songwriting are hours that I could spend bringing home more income. Yet, I continue to play guitar. I can't, and don't want to quit. I love music. Especially certain genres of it. I know that just about everybody loves music, but I loved it so much that I HAD to learn how to make it. I chose music. Music chose me. We love each other. We make sweet midnight love.
9. Is there a particular place where you feel most creative?
No. Most feel fine.
10. If you hadn't chosen your field, what would your alternate field have been?
Teaching. I have wonderful memories of school at all levels, and many of the classrooms that I took part in. I would deeply enjoy recreating the enthusiastic environments I remember experiencing when I was in school, for other people. Schools are special and sacred places to me. It would be a pleasure to spend a career in one.
11. How much emphasis do you place on education? What do you think we should be getting out of a class like
The Psychology of Creativity?
Education is very important to me. I love to learn, when I'm not feeling lazy. I think creating is the most important thing anyone can do. Whether you're recording gold records, or knitting oven mitts for your sister, it's all the same to me. Creating makes you feel alive. It allows you the chance to share who you are with others. A class like this should be looking for ways to afford people the opportunity to create more often and more easily.