ANDREW AUSTIN - Starts and Fits (LP)
(2019)
Label : Independent
Credits : Produced, Engineered, Mixed, Drummed, Synthed.
Info :
If fans of Toronto singer/songwriter Andrew Austin were surprised by his 2018 smash hit pop single “Everything And More” (featuring Willa) and his new seasonal anthem “Christmas Is Coming Soon” (which hit the Top 10 on Canada’s national holiday music chart), any questions about his musical evolution are fully answered on his second full-length album Starts And Fits.
Created in the wake of his work as musical director on the Disney/Family Channel show Backstage, Starts And Fits found Andrew collaborating with award-winning producer James Bunton (Donovan Woods, Vivek Shraya) who also mixed the album for maximum earworm-inducing effect.
“Coming out of two years of [Backstage], I was suddenly faced with the challenge of writing for myself again,” Andrew says. “One thing I knew was that I didn’t want to play guitar at that moment, I just wanted to go into a room with a piano or a synthesizer and make sounds that way. That became the foundation for this record, trying to step away from doing things like I’d always done them with a traditional singer/songwriter mindset.”
Andrew also revelled in the ability to write from an adult perspective again, and as evidenced by standout tracks such as “Make My Head Go” and “Carried Away,” Starts And Fits is the sexiest collection he’s offered thus far. Moreover, as the process unfolded and Andrew felt like he was finding a new voice, he had to keep some of his best ideas for himself while continuing to co-write with other artists like Donovan Woods, Emm Gryner, and Bobby Bazini, as evidenced by another of the album’s highlights, “Church Music.”
What it all adds up to, ultimately, is Andrew Austin’s emergence as one of Canada’s most dynamic singer/songwriters. While chances are that up until now you’ve heard his music in one form or another, with Starts And Fits he is ready to join the ranks of contemporary pop’s biggest names.