Andrew Levin Talks Exploring Authenticity and Eclecticism on His New EP 'Alone, In a Room, With Hope'

Photo Credit: Dan Moore

We recently caught up with Bay Area artist Andrew Levin to dive into his latest EP, Alone, In a Room, With Hope. In this conversation, we explore the EPs many themes, including why dark music is a healthy way to process complex emotions, and the state of the world’s impact on music. We also get into the personal and societal reflections embedded in tracks like “Faster to Your Grave” and “Our World is Choking.”

Your new EP, Alone, In a Room, With Hope, is described as an explorative and eclectic collection of songs influenced by a variety of themes—which we’ll get to! For someone who is just discovering your music, what would you tell them to go in expecting?

That’s a great question. I kind of threw the kitchen sink at these 5 songs as far as sounds and influences go. The EP is definitely rooted in rock n roll sonically, and I layered a bunch of guitars/synthesizers on most of the songs- but it ranges quite a bit beyond that from very chill to pretty heavy. My goal as far as songwriting and production goes is always to find a good mix of melodicism and experimentation, so if I’ll have done my job right the EP will be catchy and throw you off a little at the same time.

The single “Faster to Your Grave” addresses themes of authenticity and societal pressures. Can you tell me a little more about the inspiration behind this track, and what message you hope listeners take away from it?

It’s always interesting to me how people wear different personalities at different times. This particular song was inspired by watching some people who I know torch their old personalities when they decided they wanted to make some money. They’re trying to be someone they’re not to reach a certain goal, and I can’t fault them for that. That said, for many people I know I feel I can see through the veneer and that same old person will be is in there somewhere.

One personality trait that people often assign to themselves in our society is that of someone who loves to work- all the time. People end up living to work, and as a result never really live. Their whole lives are one meeting to another cup of coffee to another meeting. I’ve been that person for a lot of my life without a doubt, and I still live that way a lot of the time, but I’ve been trying to find more balance the last few years or so. That’s where the title “Faster to Your Grave” comes from- those of us who live faster end up dying faster too.

As a DIY artist, you mentioned wanting the album to sound a bit rougher to maintain authenticity; that instruments shouldn’t sound like what they aren’t. Can you elaborate on your approach to achieving this sound, especially on a budget?

I’ve always felt that things sound best when they’re not trying to be something they aren’t. For example, in my opinion a string synthesizer that sounds obviously like a synthesizer is going to usually sound much more expressive and interesting than an violin sampler instrument that is attempting to sound like a violin. No matter how hard that VST tries, it’ll never be a real violin just like a violin will never be a string patch on an old Juno.

In the case of this EP, I didn’t have a million dollar studio, so I figured why try to make it sound like a million dollar recording? It’ll always be something that I recorded in my apartment, why not lean into some of the not so desirable qualities and make them cool? For example, my old apartment (where I recorded most of these tracks) was built in 1908, and I don’t think the wiring has been changed much since then. This oftentimes introduced noise into the electrical signal, which isn’t great. Luckily where I live now doesn’t do that, but rather than re-recording everything or trying to de-noise parts that ended up kind of noisey, I would just add some effects to make it sound more off the wall. I knew the album wouldn’t sound clean, so I leaned into some of the garage rock elements like lots of fuzz and that sort of thing as well.

What advice would you give artists looking to do a similar approach of creating an authentic album on a budget?

It really depends on your goals. My main pieces of advice would be to first spend a lot of time working on music with other people who have different approaches, and secondly to not be afraid of imperfection. If you’ve never produced your own music, it’s a long road and the most important thing is to be humble. Just try everything and realize not everything is going to sound good, especially for the first few years. In my career, at this point I’ve mixed and/or produced hundreds of pieces of music and played thousands of shows with different bands. Spending that much time working on other people’s music and projects really helped me nail down a workflow and fluency with production that I didn’t have when I was younger. There’s no substitute for that other than time. I’ve always been interested in the idea of being a DIY musician, but only now after being serious about music for over a couple of decades do I really feel like I want to release this kind of thing.

Your background is incredibly diverse, ranging from working with GRAMMY® winners to composing for video games. How have these experiences influenced your work on this EP?

I’ve always been of the mind that every style of music has at least some artists who are interesting and do something worth learning from. As a result of that, there are artists from most styles of music that I really dig, and I think that’s influenced me to seek out work with a lot of different people from different musical backgrounds. That range of influences definitely makes it to the EP. Pray for San Francisco for example is very influenced by Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, where Our World is Choking was kind of a weird mash of Bjork and Deftones to my ears, You’re an Artist is kind of a mash of Talking Heads and Mars Volta… you get the picture. Ive been lucky to enough through my career to work and learn from some amazing artists in all of those genres. I think I’ve found a way to mix these influences in a way that isn’t terrible, but then again I’m sure there are people that will find it terrible (I hope at least someone does)!

Talk me through some of the themes in this album and the decision to focus on some heavier topics. For instance, “Our World is Choking,” is inspired by the wildfires and personal struggles you faced during the early days of the pandemic. How did those experiences shape the overall sound and mood of the album?

I really believe heavy/dark music is a healthy way to process difficult emotions, and given how f*ked up the world is these days I think we need more music that isn’t afraid to go there. Our World is Choking was written shortly after the day turned Orange way back in 2020, although I didn’t write the lyrics or finish the song for it until two years or so later. It was a dark time. I was locked in like everyone else. I was in an unhealthy relationship and I think we stayed in something that obviously wasn’t right to distract ourselves from the harsh reality around us. It made everything worse. That’s where the line “they met outside in summer, under the hazy orange skies, laughed it off as fine” comes from.

The pandemic is over but we are still killing the planet and people are still bombing each other. While we’re not currently locked away in the pandemic looking at an orange sky, I think there’s still a lot to reflect on there.

Looking back on your journey and all the different parts of the creative industries you’ve touched, what advice would you give to aspiring musicians and producers who are just starting out?

I think the main thing is just to approach things with an open mind and humility at all times, no matter where you’re at in your career. If you’re trying to make it your full-time career, I think it’s extra important to be versatile. If you can play Jazz proficiently, produce a pop record, write a film score, and mix a rock record- and people know it- you’ll always be busy. Some people are able to make it work specializing in one or two things which is awesome, but I still think that the more you can learn about different types of music/musicians the easier time you’ll have defining your own sound. The longer you stay humble, the more receptive you’ll be to learning more things and the longer you’ll evolve as an artist.

With the release of Alone, In a Room, With Hope, are there any particular themes or messages you hope will stand out for listeners?

That’s a great question- really all I can hope for is that people will listen to it and feel something strongly. I hope people can read the lyrics, feel the music, and relate to what I’m writing about- or that they hear it, go “what the hell is this,” and find some enjoyment out of it. I also hope that some of the songs get people thinking about something differently, even if their interpretation of the song has nothing to do with how I intended it. If I can brighten someone’s day up a little bit with some dark, cynical music, I’ll be real happy about that.

Lastly, the album title suggests a sense of solitude paired with optimism. What does Alone, In a Room, With Hope mean to you personally?

Even though the world is a rough place, I’m optimistic because I have to be. Humans are stubborn survivors, and I think for the human species to survive climate change and nuclear bombs, we’re going to have to make things much better than they are now. To me it’s not a question of if, but when- and how bad will we let things get before we come together and turn things around?

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