Speaker 1: That is money can't buy me love. The artist is
Andrew d V and we have him with us via WhatsApp.
We're gonna speak with him in just a moment. Welcome everybody,
if you are listening live on Saturday, we have entered
our number three New Marrow trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed
and we are live from the studios of w m
n H ninety five point three FM and Glorious Manchester,
New Hampshire. And of course you can stream the show
from anywhere. Go to Matt connorton dot com, slash live
for all of your live streaming options, social media links,
contact infos, show archives, et cetera, et cetera. Jenny is
here of course at the news table, and let's bring
Andrew and I think we've got him via WhatsApp.
Speaker 2: Andrew, are you.
Speaker 3: There, Yes, I'm here, loud and Cleia.
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Love that song very very catchy, which I'm sure people
tell you all the time, but it's it's very easy
to sing along to.
Speaker 2: I like it a lot.
Speaker 3: That's good, Thanks very much for liking it. It's it's good.
Speaker 1: So interestingly enough, so it's kind of it's it's a
fun song, but it's kind of a serious uh sub
jacked right, And I'm really curious to know more about
it because obviously you're talking about you know, money, money
only gets you know, not only can money not buy
you love, but sometimes it can't buy you enough to
live on, you know, and and and this is a
problem in many places. You know, in the United States,
of course, you know, we deal with inflation and things
like that, and and where you are in the UK,
obviously you experienced these things as well, and I'd be
curious to know more. There's kind of the story behind
the song money Can't Buy Me Love.
Speaker 3: It's just from from my personal experience, but I think
a lot of other people experience it as well. No
matter how hard you work, there's going to be so
many outgoings that you feel like you're left with nothing. Right,
And the origin the story comes from when it was
in my early band days. I got my first royalty
check through the post and as we're opening up the envelope,
it was a check for hundred and twenty pounds and
I looked out the window and there was a total
truck going past. And then I remember that I left
my car on a yellow line and because it was
broken down, okay, and it got towed away. Oh so
go to the car pound to retrieve it. And the
cost of retrieving it was one hundred and twenty pounds.
So that check, that rualty just disappeared in a matter
of hours. So it's those kinds of experiences where suddenly
you've got money and then then somebody else takes it away.
Speaker 1: You know what's interesting about that too is I think
a lot of people I think this has changed over
the years, but I know that there was a time,
at least in America, and this is probably true other
places as well, where people who don't know better will
assume that if you're a musician and you're making money,
you know that you're probably rich and you live in
a mansion and you've got platinum records on the wall
and all that kind of thing, And that's not how
it works. If you're very, very successful and famous, you.
Speaker 2: Know, that might be how it works.
Speaker 1: But most musicians are working class people, certainly the people
that we have on the show, and have the same
struggles as everyone else, or if not even more so,
because you know, being a full time musician certainly can
be a very challenging financially economically, a very challenging lifestyle,
you know, and in this era too, where we have
streaming services like Spotify for example, who don't pay very much.
You know, it can be very difficult. And your story
is very illustrative of that. You know, you get that,
you get that first royalty check and then it's gone. Immediately,
it's gone because you had to go and retrieve your car.
And are you surprised, like when you tell that story,
do you find that people are surprised to hear that?
Speaker 3: No, because I think the things happen to them, not
that specific example, but sure both other things like if
they're eating, boiler breaks down. You know, something major happens,
it's very costly to get a trade men in to
fix it, and you know, all your hard end money
is going for something that you didn't expect to happen.
You know, the surprises that life throws at you as
sometimes they're very hard to take, especially when there's expensive.
Absolutely back to the thing about being a musician, it
can be very expensive because when people see on stage,
they think that's it. You're performing. It's great. Right behind
the scenes of the cost of rehearsals, the cost of equipment,
having to replace that, pressing records, all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people have no idea what goes into it and
how expensive it is. And you know, I know that
in America, and I'm old enough to remember growing up
and watching you know, MTV and seeing videos of bands
and they're they look like they're living this lush, lavish
lifestyle and they're they're all living in a mansion and
and you know, hanging out with Playboy playmates and you know,
all this stuff and driving these very expensive sports cars.
And then over time that sort of shifted where it
wasn't so much rock bands because it's sort of in
the nineties, it became uncool all of a sudden to
be projecting that that image, and then it that that
kind of all shifted over to hip hop. But it's
always fascinating to me how how different the reality is,
or how different the perception is, and how distorted it
is in contrast with the actual reality and the economics
of the music business. I'm curious too. You mentioned so
you used to how long have you been a solo artist?
Because you mentioned you used to be in bands, I
know that you're a veteran of the UK scene. You've
been around a while, What's what's kind of been been
your experiences? You used to be in bands and now
you're strictly a solo artist.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm strictly a solo artist now. I think I
started that around sort of twenty seventeen when I first
started writing my own songs, and by twenty nineteen I'd
released my first album, Northern Soul, which happened fairly quickly
because what I did was that instead of going into
the studio and recording twelve songs in one go, I
did it in three stages. I did like four songs
at a time, and I started around a few friends
like drummers, bass players, keyboard players if they just wanted
to come in and help out, And surprisingly they did
and I didn't have to pay them either, which was
great sweet.
Speaker 2: But on the.
Speaker 3: Album there's so many different people helping me out and
I thought that was really really kind of them to
do that. Jack Hater from Hefner was on steel guitar.
The drummer from the Bitter Springs helped out in drums.
There was another two other drummers that helped out as well,
a couple of backing singers.
Speaker 1: A.
Speaker 3: Trumpet player. So there's quite a long list of musicians
that were willing to help me out, which that was great.
Speaker 2: That is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So in the grand scheme of things, is that
is that more challenging in a sense when you're recording
a solo album.
Speaker 2: Or whatever it is that you're doing solo When you're.
Speaker 1: Recording, does that become more challenging because you have to
find the right musicians to fit what you're doing, versus
just being in a band where it's static, you know,
you've got the same people on each song, or maybe
it's not. Maybe it's liberating, you know, because you're in
total control and you get to choose. You know, you
can accept or reject the contributions of whomever may be
coming to play on your on your music. I don't know, Like,
how's that experience been, going from playing in bands to
being a solo artist in terms of that.
Speaker 3: Well, we're playing in a band. It was a set thing.
Each person did their own instrument. Yeah, Like somebody else
asked me this question about when you were in a band,
what was the songwriting? Like, Well, with that, all I
did was my young guitar parts, the parts by the
bass player and the singer and the drummer. They did
all their own things, so I didn't, you know, interfere
with that. But being a solo artist, I've played bass, harmonica,
I programmed drums, so it's you know, I now responsible
for everything. So although it does take a little bit longer,
I've got more control over it.
Speaker 1: Right, Is that what precipitated you becoming a solo artist?
Did you want more control?
Speaker 3: Not so much. When I first started off, I did
have a bass player and drummer with me, but then
I just got fed up of it. Was it became
like a revolving door syndrome where somebody did leave and
then you have to get somebody else, and then somebody
leave and then you have to get somebody else. It
was it got bit to moralized, and so I just
thought I'll do this on my own at least. You know,
I was going to say, I can't split up, but
I have done that a couple of times. I've had
a break for a couple of months, and then I'm sort, well,
I've got to get back to it.
Speaker 1: Right When you take a break, like, what causes that?
Do you just need to get away from it for
a while?
Speaker 2: Or or is it.
Speaker 1: I mean, is there something that sort of necessitates that
taking a break from it.
Speaker 3: I think it's healthy to take a break because weren't
going to do this as a solo artist, and I
tend to live it twenty four hours a day, so
just get a bit tiring. You know, you're always thinking
of lines for songs at eleven o'clock at night, you're
relaxing or concentrating on other things, and you know, it's
good to have a break, recharge your batteries and come back.
It's like with the songwriting, I'll write a couple of
songs and then I can't do anything for a couple
of months. Yeah, it looks like absolutely, yeah, I'm gonna
break is good because it rechards your batteries and then
you can get new material a little bit quicker. Like
I've got a new song on the go at the moment,
which is going quite well, and I haven't done anything
for weeks. Yeah, so it's you know, it's always good
to have a break, oh.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and then you can kind of reapproach it
with a fresh perspective. I'm curious too about your live performances,
because again, especially someone being someone who used to be
in bands, And you know, I've played in a lot
of bands. I've never done a solo thing, but I've
played in a lot of bands, and I know that
when you're on stage with a bunch of people, there's
almost a kind of a safety and numbers thing. You know,
you're all in it together. And I've I've never I've
always been curious because I've never experienced kind of that
rawness of being at least that's how I perceive it,
of being a solo artist. I've never experienced that. But
I'm curious what it's like for you in that regard.
Did you feel more vulnerable on stage making that transition,
even though you might have other musicians on stage with you,
it's still you know, you then become really the totally
the focus, And and what was that like for you?
Speaker 3: I did at first, because when I started solo, it
was just me with a guitar acoustically, like a lot
of other people do. But then when I added the
drum machine and the harmonica, things got a little bit
louder and there was more of it. So I sort
of got lost in that and was able to focus
more on doing all of that thing and having a
louder sound. Sort of that set me apart from other
acoustic musicians like I seem to have this problem at
the moment where you get a lot of open mics
where there's people with an acoustic instruments and a voice,
but when I do them, I'm far too loud. So
I don't think they like that kind of thing. But
they won't have me on my bands because I'm not
a band, but I'm as loud as a band.
Speaker 1: Oh that's interesting. So it sort of puts you in
this weird position, right because you're you're you're you're you're,
you're as loud as the bands, but they won't put
you with the band because you're a solo artist. But
you're too loud for the You know, you're too loud
for someone who's just up there with a guitar and
just sing it at the end. That's really interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I did a gig in East London a while back
and I was supporting this other band who were quite loud.
I went went on and opened up for the gig
and everyone really enjoyed it, and this this guy came
up to me, came up at the end and shook
me by the hand and said you were great this
that was fantastic, and I was thinking, wow, what we've done.
And you know, another thing like that happened at a festival.
Some guy been there all day. I came on and played,
and at the end he just came on, came on stage,
and at the end he said, wow, have you fantastic.
I've been here all day and all these other bands
haven't been so great, and you've been fantastic. So you know,
it's a bit refreshing for people.
Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, And to have that validation too, you know,
that's so obviously you're you're onto something that was that
challenging at all, you know, introducing drum programming into your
live set, a drum machine. I mean, that must have
taken some getting used to, right or maybe not. Maybe
it seemed natural from the beginning. I don't know, but again,
that's something I've never experienced, so almost I asked this
question almost selfishly because I'm just very very curious about that,
if that was a natural transition for you or did
you have to kind of work at it?
Speaker 3: Not really, because I been in other bands where we've
had a drum machine movement, like a semi electronic band.
Oh that was the mid nineties. We were called Cloud
Bass and I used to have like an older Tallery
computer with MIDI files and a drum machine and we
had that. We just had guitar bay some vocals and
it was which call. It was quite quite regimented. So
you really have to fit in with the time in
is when you've got a live drummer and everybody's live.
You know, you can be a bit more loose with this,
really good at being your toes because all that the
drum programs and the MIDI files don't wait right, You're
going to be really good with your time in. So
used to do that, but when it reintroduced the drum machine,
I knew how to a new what to expect right,
you know, to be good with the timing of playing.
Speaker 1: Now with your album, so Northern Soul, which that was
twenty nineteen, correct, Was that that your first album as
a solo artist technically?
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't know if you know my history, but
I think it was twenty twelve. Oh, I had this
crazy idea. I was really really into just acoustic guitar instrumentals,
and I thought, I know, I'll just record it a
couple of Beatles instrumentals and see how these sounds. And
I was playing them in the car and the CD
playing I thought, well, this is good driving music. This
is maybe it's maybe it's a good idea to do
it as an album, because I went into a studio
and recorded I think it was fourteen Beatles songs and
I released them put them out in c D, and
it was an album called Well my Acoustic Guitar gently weeps.
Speaker 1: I love it and it's instrumental.
Speaker 3: It is it's it's fourteen Beatles Instrumentals and released that
on CD and it did okay. It's sold in lots
of countries and it seemed to do okay.
Speaker 1: I'm curious as a music industry guy, was it challenging
at all?
Speaker 2: I assume did you have a.
Speaker 1: Label or a distributor that you worked with, because I'm
curious about you know, if you're covering Beatle songs, that's
not always necessarily easy to get all your ducks in
a row, at least certainly not in the United States.
To really make sure you've got everything nailed down legally
so that you can do that without running in any trouble.
Speaker 2: I'm curious about that part of it.
Speaker 3: Okay, I did that. What you have to do is
you have to apply for a license from I think
it's the MCPS Mechanical Copyright Section Society or something, and okay,
you send them a list of songs and they'll send
you a bill for some like four hundred pounds. You
pay the bill and then they send you a license
and that allows you to press things physically in like
a CD factory. Without that license, you can't go ahead.
So once you paid for the license, you can get
them pressed and then they get delivered and then you
can send them off. And I did that again on
my own label. Oh so they do things like bang camp.
Speaker 1: Okay, Oh that sounds relatively Uh, that's that's more straightforward
than I would have expected. That's that's well, that's great, okay,
all right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't have to ask any permission. I think
you just just have to buy the license and that's
the only legal requirement. That'll be limited limited to the
number number that you can press as well.
Speaker 1: Oh they do okay, okay, yeah, no, that's still though.
That's much simpler in streamline than I would have expected.
That's that's fantastic. How was the response to it when
you released it.
Speaker 3: It was good to got good reviews and it sold
I think I remember it was USA, Canada, UK, and Japan.
It seems to sell quite well.
Speaker 2: Outstanding. Oh, very good, very good.
Speaker 3: And you know, just just from an initial tryout of
listening to it in the car.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and this was I'm sorry, there's.
Speaker 3: A really starting about twenty twelve.
Speaker 2: Twenty twelve, okay, that's what I was wondering.
Speaker 3: Yeah, some copies available out there somewhere.
Speaker 2: Oh wow, okay, it's.
Speaker 3: Worth checking out if a beatles fine and you want
to listen to something different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, I'm curious. So then uh okay.
Speaker 1: So then was Northern Saul the next thing that you
released or was there something else between between?
Speaker 3: I think it might have been the Bitter Springs in
between that I got asked by the Bitter Springs to
initially play bass for them. That was quite funny story
because I got a call from the the lead singer,
Simon Rivers. He found me up and said do you
play bass? So I just said yes, and that afternoon
I went out and bought a bass. I played it
much before, so I got one and within a couple
of weeks we were playing gigs in the Spain.
Speaker 2: Oh I'll be damned, but you were already playing guitar.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, so it wasn't wasn't too difficult to learn.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't so.
Speaker 1: I'm a bass player myself, and I know that my
fellow bass players hate when I say this, but yeah,
if you can play guitar, you can play the bass.
I mean, it's just it's just a fact. It's just
a fact. So no, So that's great, and you really
kind of sees that opportunity. Now, when Northern Soul came out,
you got a fair amount of radio support for that
over there, didn't you. Yeah.
Speaker 3: The the lead track off it, I think it was
called I Get the Feeling got played on so many
radio stations, got really good feedback from it because it,
you know, it seems like quite a happy song musically.
It sounds nice and bright on the radio.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1: We might we might play that at the at the
end of the segment, actually, because I think I think
that would be appropriate. Oh yep, I found it. I
found it online. Excellent, excellent. So then how is your
approach change? Because I was twenty nineteen, so Obviously that
was seven years ago as your approach changed in terms
of how you were recording, writing and recording then versus
how you're doing it now with like the new single
money Can't Buy Me Love, for example.
Speaker 3: No, that was just it was a similar approach to
when I recorded Northern Soul and book a studio and
then get some friends to come and help me on
things like bass and guitar and I do all the
other bits that that was the initial recording process. But
now I've got my own home studio where I can
record at home. So I've now got the problem of
what I've recorded at home, I need to take that
to a studio to mix it so we can get
a better sound that can at home. But I'm just
trying to get my head around how to do that
because I'm not very good at this recording technology out
there that can help me.
Speaker 1: So sure, sure absolutely. We live in a time too
where there's so many different ways to do it. There's
so many different ways to record, and nah, yeah, I'm
confident you'll you'll get it all figured out. Is money
Can't Buy Me Love? Is that going to be on
an upcoming EP or album or what's kind of the
your forward trajectory there or is this just going to
be a single.
Speaker 3: It's it's just going to be a single. At the moment,
what I'm going to do. What I'm going to do
is just release singles. At the moment, I was gonna say,
I'm not in the mood to release an album. Yeah,
but I just want to write a good song, record it,
and then release it. And then I was thinking about
this the other day. Once I've done like twelve singles,
I can release it and call it the greatest hit.
Speaker 2: That's a good idea.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, and a lot of artists who now
they kind of do, you know, because when I was
growing up, it was, you know, every everybody released albums,
or you might see an artist occasionally release an EP,
mostly albums, you know, and then you'd have singles from
that album. Usually first single goes to radio six to
eight weeks before the album, and then if the album
comes out it goes well, then you get a second single,
maybe a third. But now a lot of artists are
doing just literally the inverse of that. They release a
series of singles that eventually coalesce into an official album.
And nothing wrong with that, you know, in terms of
I mean, algorithmically, I think it works well with Spotify
and some of these streaming services.
Speaker 2: So yeah, not a bad approach.
Speaker 3: I was thinking about, you know, the singles the albums
thing because with like things that Instagram and Spotify, albums
still valid. People's attention spans are quite short now. You know,
it'll probably only stretch to about thirty seconds to a
minute on Instagram or song on Spotify, So you know,
an album doesn't see it seem valid to me at
the moment, right, I'd rather just like go at the
flow and release something, promote that, hope it sells, and
then move on to the next thing.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 3: But it is good because I'm building up like a
set list for live gigs as well, get it, you know,
to get get it longer and longer, right, so when
I play live, that would be my album.
Speaker 2: Okay, there you go.
Speaker 3: That makes sense.
Speaker 2: That makes sense.
Speaker 3: Just that Instagram thing and people's people's attention to things
seems to be quite small at the moment. They're always
sticking through their phone listening to something for ten seconds
and then they look at something else, and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, Well, Andrew, it's wonderful to have on.
Like I said, we really like the song money Can't
Buy Me Love, and we will certainly spend that again
in the future. And you know the next single when
whenever that is, I mean you know when you're your
next single. Do you have an eta on when the
next one might be out or I know you're focused
on Money Can't Buy Me Love at the moment, So
I don't know if you if you have any idea,
because we'd love to play the next one too when
it's ready, But I don't know if you if you
have kind of an idea of when that might be.
Speaker 3: There will be something out. The Money Can't Buy Me
Love singles done quite well, so that spared me on,
So think about releasing something else. And I've got another
song called Time Waster, which is ready to go, and
I'm just thinking of a time, maybe July or September
to release that, Okay, And it's a similar sort of
format harmonica guitar, drum machine with a strong harmonica hook.
But this song is about it's good, it's about fellow musicians.
Although the musicians who came into the studio were great,
the other musicians you said that you played bass, you
must have been in bands before, and you know, have
musicians act uh, headline slots of festivals, build a build
building up, and there might before musicians just ring me
up and say, oh I can't do the gig tomorrow.
So that that really got me. I just thought, why
are they like this? So I just thought they're old
time wasters. So time Wasted is a song about musicians
wasting your time.
Speaker 2: Oh that is that is perfect.
Speaker 1: And yeah, anyone who's ever anyone who's ever been a musician,
and and you know we all know the pain of that.
Speaker 3: In a band.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely, Andrew. So before we let you go,
where's the best place for people to go to keep
up with everything that you're doing?
Speaker 2: Where should they go? Online?
Speaker 3: It's my main website, which was andrewdv dot com. You'll
find everything you need to know.
Speaker 2: That outstanding outstanding. No, that's easy, that's easy.
Speaker 1: So in a moment, we're gonna play, I'm gonna play.
I get the feeling. I'm really curious to hear that
and to share that with our listeners. But it's been
wonderful to talk with you today and we'll definitely do
this in the future. It sounds like you've got a
lot of a lot of new music coming up in
your future, so we'll absolutely have you back when the
next single is ready, and we will keep in touch.
But I really want to thank you for being with
us today.
Speaker 3: Thanks very much. It's being a pleasure.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: We will do it again in the future, my friend.
I'm going to hit this track and we'll let you
go for now, but we'll.
Speaker 2: Talk to you soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks very much.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 3: Bye bye, hey, bye bye.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: That is the great Andrew Devi and he's got the
new single money Can't Buy Me Love. But right now
we're gonna play This is a previous track that he
mentioned he's had a lot of success with This came
out on Northern Soul back in twenty nineteen, and let's
give this a listen.
Speaker 2: This is called I Get the Feeling.