Meet Andy Spedick | Songwriter & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andy Spedick and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andy, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
The short answer? Gotta risk it for the biscuit.

Thats a very privileged response and I fully concede that. Not everyone has the means or the ability to take huge risks and in more instances than not, it’s due to circumstances entirely outside of their control. Maybe they have a family to take care of, or are saddled with debt that makes risk taking irresponsible.

But there is a reason so much wisdom has been distilled down to “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”

I graduated with a degree in Statistics in 2012 from The College of New Jersey and had already passed the first actuary exam when I got a job working at an education company as a Stat Analyst. Great work, great benefits, great teammates and an awesome dollar-match 401k plan. Pretty much what any recent-graduate would be looking for when you’re starting out your career. I had barely started a savings account by the time the feeling settled into my gut that I just simply wasn’t meant to sit behind a desk. After two years of fighting that feeling, I couldn’t bear it anymore. I left my career in Statistics behind to take an enormous risk; pursuing music as a full-time project.

Over the course of the next 9 years, I pull this same routine 2 more times. No matter how comfortable I was, and no matter how ostensibly “successful” I had set myself up to be, I was just inherently miserable bc I wasn’t pursuing my dreams of being a songwriter and performer. I don’t know a lot of people who have that insistent draw to their passion, but anyone that I do is also very familiar with the concept of taking risks.

My entire career path up to this point is an amazingly eclectic selection, and I owe this bounty of life experience in such a short period of time almost entirely to my adventurous risk-taking. Each leap of faith brought me closer and closer to the people who I am working with now, and the circumstances I truly needed to finally pursue music as I’ve intended.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My primary art form is songwriting and performing – I’m the lead singer in the funk/rock/hiphop band MOTHATUNG and the lead producer in two EDM projects called Slick Portal and VILLIN.

MOTHATUNG is truly unlike any project I’ve ever been in and its all thanks to the incredible people who I get to write with. We’ve been writing and performing for just over 2 years now and it all began when we got together for a “jam session” and ended up writing song after song after song. They just fell out of us, and it became really clear to any of us who had been in projects where that process was like pulling teeth that we were in the presence of something special. With 7 studio recordings and 50+ tracks written to date, its easily the most prolific group I’ve had the privilege of working with and certainly the most earnestly dedicated to the process. We’re working hard on a full-length studio album to follow up our debut EP release, EPisode 1, and in the mean-time are performing our newest music all over the Greater Denver area as well as up and down the Front Range.

I’ve always been drawn to music since I was incredibly young. My parents enrolled my siblings and I in a summer theatre program and after feeling the thrill of nailing a performance after weeks of practice, it was difficult to shake. A few years later, they started me on piano lessons and despite a less-than-stellar work ethic for practicing, I also picked up the guitar in 7th grade and stuck with lessons for both until I graduated high school.

My childhood friend, Peter Egan, and I started writing songs together when we were in 6th grade and he could probably be considered my first and my most consistent guitar teacher. Over the years, we also learned the intricacies of songwriting and arrangement together, writing and releasing a self-produced, 4-track recorded album for our friends and family. It was called Welcome to the Woodlands (my neighborhood) and it featured some pretty delightful emo acoustic songs.

We called ourselves Room 501 and we performed for a few years as the permanent members with other friends joining us along the way for various stints. I learned a lot about the challenges of recording, the nuances of songwriting, the frustration of clashing ideas, and the absolute thrill of making new fans. The skills and perspective I gained from those years are still foundational to the musician I am today, and I owe no small part of it to Pete Egan.

When we moved away to college, I couldn’t quite find another Pete. I wrote and recorded a handful of solo acoustic demos that I released on Pure Volume and occasionally would perform at the local coffee house with my good friend Joey Jarroush. Songwriting remained a deeply therapeutic way of journaling my frustrations with romance and my fallout with religion, but I still found it challenging to find the motivation to go through the motions of recording everything on my own. I knew I was a ways away from studio time if I couldn’t even find the discipline to record some demos, and I was starting to feel lost in all of the uncertainty. This all changed on a sunny, spring afternoon.

I was enjoying a nice shandy when a friend of mine who was deeply into dance music sat me down and showed me “Strobe” by Deadmau5. One of the comments on the youtube video said “I want this song played at my funeral” and this friend, Dan Ragan, asked me, “Try to listen to this and understand how it could mean something so special to someone.” Until this point, I had largely dismissed dance music as “pressing buttons” and had an incredibly narrow view of what actually went into dance music production.

As I sat there, sun streaming into this covered porch as the 10 minute epic unfolded, my ears and mind were painted with a brand new fascination for synthesizers, kicks and snares. My deep naivete about how incredibly difficult it is to produce such a masterpiece ended up being a blessing in disguise, because I became CONVINCED that I could do it too. So, I immediately went out, bought a MOOG synthesizer, a MIDI controller, and downloaded Ableton Live.

That was 11 years ago, and I am still producing dance music to this day, and the skills I have learned along the way have enriched every single other area of my musical career. In fact, despite being a vocalist and a guitarist for nearly twice as long, I identify as a producer more than almost anything else. The ability to do everything myself was thrillingly liberating, especially after years of searching for other musicians to help. My fears of recording washed away as I learned how simple it was to track something like a guitar-lick. My acoustic demos benefitted from every piece of knowledge, though they would soon take a back burner as I pursued this career as an EDM producer. Joey and I shifted gears, and started listening to as much emerging dance music as we could find. It wasn’t long before our friend Paul joined us and we started a project called OllyOllyOxenFree (3OF) and began writing and releasing music.

Around 2016, my mentor suggested that instead of releasing each incremental improvement along the way, to hold off on releases and re-emerge with a transformed and obviously-improved sound quality. Its been 6 years and I am standing on the precipice of this long-awaited return with the creation of the project Slick Portal. My electro basslines lay the landscape for the encyclopedic lyricism of my brother MozesThePoet, and the product is something I am extremely proud to share with the world. Its an elegant combination of hip hop and heavier dance music, and it expands on much of what the G-House movement has been building since the 90’s.

The other re-emergent brand I am super excited to release content under is VILLIN with Joey Jarroush – its where I have incubated 90% of my work-in-progress over the past half decade and we have some amazing electro house dance tracks that we just cannot wait to share. (Literally, we show it to people all the time because we’re so hyped)

MOTHATUNG, Slick Portal, and VILLIN wouldn’t be possible without the support I’ve received and the commitment I’ve made to making music a career for myself. If my music inspires even one person to pursue their passion, or end up being meaningful to anyone else in the way that so much music has been to me, I’ll feel extremely validated. But truly, at the end of the day, I write music because I love it and it brings me more satisfaction than anything else I could be doing in my life.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My non-negotiable is New Terrain Brewing Co out in Golden. That places is the gem of this fine metropolitan area. The beers are all incredible and the location is about as much of an oasis as you can ask for from a watering hole. They have live music, food trucks, and the staff are all absolutely lovely.

For night life – Beacon on Larimer and Zodiac Hause for the after-party.

If they want some amazing whiskey, we can go to Bear Creek Distillery or Seven Grand Denver for a whiskey flight and we also have Laws and Leopold Brothers.

For hiking – I’m a sucker for the Flatirons in Boulder and you can hit up Avery Brewing Co while you’re up there for some amazing food to pair with their now nationally famous beers. If you wanna stay a little more local and don’t mind some more metro-hiking, I love the Sloan’s Lake area and you can find so many amazing restaurants right there on Sheridan and up on Tennyson. Some key mentions: US Thai, Mazevo (mediterranean), Machete (tacos), and if you can find an authentic birria taco spot, stop and get one (or four) immediately.

Top pizza spot (since I’m a jersey boy) is still undetermined but I’ve narrowed a few amazing spots down

1) Hops N Pie on Tennyson (pan pizza is absolutely great)

2) Rocky Mountain Slices Foodtruck – killer NY style pizza, usually parked outside Finn’s Manor on Larimer most weekends

3) Brooklyn Pizza – Boulder spot that really impressed me and the gent who runs it is the real deal

If you’re not planning to come back to CO soon and you didn’t plan a Red Rocks show while you’re here, idk what to tell you, you messed up. Honorable mention to Mission Ballroom as well. Any show at these spots will be absolutely fantastic, but Red Rocks is life-changing.

You should also try to see MOTHATUNG while you’re in town, just saying 😛

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to recognize the support my parents gave me and that I am standing on their shoulders to be where I am today. They blessed me with opportunity and I am living my life in a way that I hope inspires others. My siblings for their support and encouragement. And I really need to recognize my brother MozesThePoet for bringing me into his home and providing a space for me to flourish. I would still be floundering around if it weren’t for his generosity and hospitality. Last but not least, my mentor Rico Caruso for showing me the musical ropes and selflessly helping me out for over a decade. These people make what I do possible.

Website: www.mothatung.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/anderado_

Twitter: www.twitter.com/mothatung

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mothatung

Image Credits
Andy Spedick