I got to meet A.N.D.Y. on several occasions in Brussels, mostly at parties. Yeah Brussels is a big village. And just like a village you’ll find some people gossiping, some people hating and there is usually always a kid who wants to run away from the village to reach the big cities. I had the opportunity to meet this kid , well, he invited me to his studio. We talked about his projects, Vicente while drinking a Super Bock. Cheerz!
GS: Where does your passion for music come from?
A.N.D.Y. Since I’m a kid, I’ve always been surrounded by music, my dad was a musician with a strong musical background. We were always listening to a lot of music at home and quickly, I started playing instruments. I really thank him for sharing his passion for music with us!
GS: And how did you get into music?
A.N.D.Y. As a kid I watched my dad playing guitar, so my brother and I wanted to play guitar as well. I remember we received a little guitar. I think that the guitar ended up smashed on one of our heads (laughter)… That day, we realize that my brother was a drummer !
Close to when I was 7, I wanted to learn Piano. It was not in our education to take piano lessons, as the others kids. First off, my father wanted us to practice our instrument with him, for him the most important thing was to develop our musical ears. The rule was, “if you want to have some lessons, you have to work until you reach a right level ! ”
The day I started lessons I got fed up with music because of my piano teacher so I stopped playing piano for 2 years.
As a teenager, I started playing bass-guitar which is my favorite instrument. I learned bass-guitar in my room by playing non-stop on all the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s album. Full of memories !
GS: What kind of music did you use to listen to as a teenager?
A.N.D.Y. I used to have goose bumps while listening to Michael Jackson. I still do. For example, this morning I even listened to “Bad”’s album 
. I’m also a huge fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. As a kid, I was sitting in front of the TV and watched all their videos. Santana and Lucio Battisti are part of my main influences too. That comes from my latino side 
GS: Any contemporary groups?
A.N.D.Y. Not really. The last album that blew my mind was Metronomy. But I must admit that I don’t really listen to what’s being released nowadays. I know I should but whenever I want to listen to something, I just go back to my influences.
I think that everything in music has been done. We are just reincarnating what’s been done 30 years ago but with new equipment, new technology, new sound !
GS: How did you hook up with Vicente?
A.N.D.Y. Through mutual friends (The Fouck Brothers). Vicente used to come a lot to the Libertine Supersport parties (Parties in Brussels). We used to talk about music and I was surprised with his musical knowledge. Step by step, he told
me that he was making music too. He sent me two unfinished tracks to get some feedbacks on his production. One of them was “Traffic”. I gave him some guidelines and we finally ended up collaborating. What’s cool with Vicente is that we are friends before being business partners. Working with him is always a pleasure because it’s about 80% of fun and 20% of work. He usually comes to my place with a bag full of beer in the hands… The day can start !
GS: Do you have anything else planned together?
A.N.D.Y. Well, when we started we didn’t have anything else planned. We didn’t expect such positive responses towards the EP. We’ve decided to release 2 EP’s a year as Vicente & A.N.D.Y. Vicente is actually working on his first solo EP.
GS: Speaking of releases, how did you get the deal on D.I.S.C.O.texas ?
A.N.D.Y. We first have sent the unfinished tracks to another label but they responded negatively. We then sent it to D.I.S.C.O.texas which wasn’t 100% sure about it. I’m honest, the drafts were not good enough but Discotexas team believed in them ! We worked them and sent final version 2 weeks later. The day after, we signed. (smile)
GS: What are your next projects coming up?
A.N.D.Y. I’m going to focus on my production, I want to get out of that Disco tag that I’ve been labeled to.Of course, people know me as one of the guy from the very disco band Mustang and it is still one of my main influences but before all, I make music ! So if I can work with other artists in other genre, I will! I like experimenting new things. I love to feel lost at trying to produce a genre of music that is unknown to me, just so I can challenge myself to make something out of it. Like the release of my next EP in September, it’s gonna be more club and a little bit dark. Then the following one is a collaboration with Dominique Young Unique, from Tampa (Miami), and it’s going to be a Hiphop track . She’s been newly signed to Sony. Even if people will be surprised, they will still be able to recognize my sound, I think.
GS: What have been your best tour memories?
A.N.D.Y. There have been two of them. The first one was in Beirut, last summer. I played on top of a rock, with the sea smashing its waves onto the rock. That looked nice during daytime but nothing extraordinary. Then at night time, there were spotlights onto the rocks and the sea and a lightening floor like the one in “Saturday Night Fever”.
People were so nice. It was amazing playing under 30 degrees, in open air with the sea on my left, on my right and in the back. That’s one of my best memories. The second one was in Athens: I ended up playing in a gay party. The crowd
was super excited and the boss was pouring champagne into my glass allnight long. My glass has never been empty and I played all night long !
As you’ve noticed the kid is ready to leave the town and become a man in other horizons. And from all the material I listened to while drinking the Super Bock, A.N.D.Y. has plenty of tracks ready to make us dance, shake our booty or make us cry. The soundtrack of our life in a way …
Vicente & A.N.D.Y “Traffic” EP out on D.I.S.C.O.texas on the 11th of may on Beatport and on the 18th of May on iTunes, Juno, etc.
Useful Information:
Website: http://www.andy-music.net/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ANDY
Twitter: http://twitter.com/A_N_D_Y_music
Soundcloud: http://soundcloud.com/a-n-d-y-music
