Biography
There is magic on "Only Mirrors" - the atmospheric and absorbing debut solo album by Drew Andrews, guitarist from The Album Leaf - a rich, unfolding dream-state beyond gently intricate guitars and Drew's feathery soft vocals.
While better known for his active, and current, touring involvement for the last five years with the internationally acclaimed Sub Pop Records band, The Album Leaf, his band Via Satellite, the San Diego-based electronica/rock trio, has also won numerous awards for their music.
The roots of Drew's debut solo album lay in the fall of 2005, while on a tour with Via Satellite, when the band's van was busted into late one night in Lower East Side Manhattan, resulting in thousands of dollars of equipment being stolen. Finishing out the tour by contacting friends in various cities to borrow/advance gear, Drew returned home with little more than an old nylon stringed guitar to compose with. Forced to sneak off and play in quiet places in corners of apartments to not wake up nasty roommates after 2 a.m., Drew began to craft a new sound, incorporating his shoegaze, pop and post-rock influences into contemplative, finger-picked tunes with hushed and plaintive vocals. As time went by, and more equipment was acquired again, the songs took on a more pronounced and live sound, always still rooted in those first early frantic days returning home from a tour that could have easily been the last for many sane musicians!
All Music Guide gave Only Mirrors 4 out of 5 stars saying, "Only Mirrors is a hauntingly reflective and guttingly bittersweet album. Acoustic at the core…layered with strings, xylophone, vocal harmonies, and various electric instruments." Alternative Press says, "Andrews' airy croon floats on shimmering keyboard washes, squiggly ambient electronics and delicate finger-picked strumming…..at times, the arrangements tastefully build to become quite elegant in their listing, slow-motion grace, while the music's downcast lyrical filling suggests a dreamier Pernice Brothers." Drew's hometown San Diego press has given Drew Andrews love as well, with Head Music Critic George Varga of the San Diego Union-Tribune an "atmospheric" and "absorbing debut…" and the San Diego Citybeat giving it 8 out of 10 stars, saying, "(Drew) walks the same Clinton Street on "Angeli" that Leonard Cohen did on "Famous Blue Raincoat" and searches for love and light in the desert on "I Will, You Won't." It all adds up to a local album that doesn't feel at home at all."
An outing in March/April 2008 sent him on a successful European tour, performing his own music overseas for the first time, as well as a West Coast US tour in Fall 2008 supporting Magnetic Morning (members of Swervedriver/Interpol/The Album Leaf) with Drew's live backing band, Spectral Cities.
Drew is currently preparing 2009 shows and tours in correlation with the album's release on Minty Fresh.
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