Idol Chatter & Voice Views

 

He competed on The Voice and American Idol, just missing the Season 14 finals on the latter show.

Now Mark Andrew has released his first new music as the Mark Andrew Band, and his first album that wasn’t a do-it-yourself effort.

“The Eclectic Electric” hit iTunes late has month and features 10 songs Mark wrote and one (“Last Chance”) that he co-wrote with producer Kevin Bowe. A Pledge Music campaign helped fund the project.

“This album is my first experience working with a full band and also working with a producer,” Mark told Voice Views. “Previously, I had just produced myself and didn’t really have anyone else’s input on the songs. Kevin did a great job of guiding me towards the sounds I ultimately wanted.”

The album includes two versions of a fun song called “Stopping for Green Lights,” and a reworking of the “Not Cold But Broken,” one of the best songs Mark released during his pre-singing show, singer-songwriter days.

There’s a wide range of music on the album. For instance, another top track is a ballad called “Murphy’s Harp.”

That versatility explains the album’s title, one Mark says was suggested by bass player Chris Hunnicutt.

Mark was 29 when he competed on Idol and made it to the Top 16. He says he returned to Minneapolis and started gigging with some of the best musicians in the area.

The band he eventually formed also includes Jimmy Bayard on electric guitar, Clay Whitney on drums and Andrew Frederick on keys.

That said,some songs on “The Eclectic Electric” pre-date the band. Heck, some pre-date Mark’s appearance on either singing show; he made it to the battle round on Season 4 of The Voice.

think the coolest thing is that some of these songs I have been playing since I was in high school,” Mark says. “I wrote ‘Stop” when I was 16 and ‘Everybody Falls’ I wrote while driving back from California after finishing music school at 20.

“I think my favorite song I made on this record though has to be ‘Enemy Victory.’ I wrote the guitar riff when I was 16 in my first band and have been adding to it for years.

“I finally was able to sit down with my producer and make a structure for it. I passed the rhythm parts to my band and they added their solos and we ended up with a kick-ass, rocking rock opera song. The songs have evolved, but it feels good to finally have these songs on an album now.”

The song getting the most attention? That would probably be “Stopping for Green Lights.” Mark says the original version of the song features Tommy Barbarella — best known for his work with Prince — on keys and features an “upbeat and bright” sound inspired by Paul Simon’s “Graceland.”

The second version is a remix done by a hip-hop DJ known as Lazerbreak.

“He remixed a few songs from a friend’s band called Trampled By Turtles and I was blown away,” Mark recalls. “I literally listened to the remixes he did for Trampled and contacted him about working with me right after. He killed it.”

That remix wound up being selected for Relix Magazine’s June CD sampler, Mark says. More than 100,000 copies of the CD will be made and distributed across the world.

You can keep up with the Mark Andrew Band on Facebook. On Twitter, it’s @markandrewsings.

Now here are a couple of other tracks from the new album.