Music is a tie that binds us. In these trying modern times, real, honest music and art can draw people of vast backgrounds and cultures together for understanding and empathy. Singer-songwriter Andrew Weiss clings to and cherishes moments of intimacy, hard conversations, emotional currency, and even his engagement to his high school sweetheart through his new record, The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry. A classic glow silhouettes Weiss’s storytelling. He fuses such a throwback warmth and charm right into the work, while offering new perspectives on tried and true subjects. His influences run the gamut – from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to Cheap Trick to Buffalo Springfield to The Byrds.
Across the 12 songs on this new album, all recorded live in the studio to analog tape, Weiss’s introspective ruminations on the human condition are packaged neatly into a timeless warmth garnered by vintage production flourishes. This is music made by real musicians playing together, singing about real life — a value Weiss holds highest in his songcraft. “A Monday Night, Anywhere” is a groovy, guitar-laced social commentary on “the disconnect between people these days and how some people aren’t always forthcoming with their intentions,” he says. He continues the conversation with the follow-up, the sensitive stunner “We’ve Got Good on Our Side.” He observes, “I wish I was back in a time / Where the girl in my daydream was my biggest problem / When the cost of love was my biggest expense.”
Self-taught on the many instruments he knows how to play, Weiss’s journey sprouted from early exposure to The Beatles, which recently came full circle after a spontaneous run-in and 20-minute conversation with Paul McCartney. He began picking guitar and writing songs at only seven years old, and he would later play in various bands throughout his youth. In 2009, he formed a solo endeavor called High Fascination and wrote, recorded and mixed three pop/rock-leaning albums alone in his bedroom.
A Long Island native, Weiss later earned his undergraduate degree in Music Theory and Composition at New York University. During his studies, he wrote music for films and various ensembles. Weiss’s High Fascination work also continued there, and he eventually discovered a group of musicians to join him. Four more albums were released during Weiss’s time at NYU, before the musical style soon shifted to a more Americana-driven approach, or “power pop-icana” as Weiss calls it. High Fascination ultimately folded to make way for a new project, as a brand new circle of friends and musicians emerged. Weiss was on a quest to offer a fresh take on the sound of early 1970s Laurel Canyon folk rock, blended with the sound of late 70s power pop. Soon enough, Andrew Weiss and Friends was born.
The band, whose moniker honors music’s essential pairing with camaraderie, played countless gigs in the coming years – most notably the 2016 Outlaw Roadshow, which also featured Rob Thomas and Counting Crows on the bill. Their first record The Honeymoon Suite arrived in late 2018, and to celebrate, they performed an album release show (opening for the Spin Doctors) at the legendary venue My Father’s Place – old stomping grounds for such music icons as Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and The Police when their respective careers were only just beginning to take shape.
This particular album release show was a turning point for the group. “One of the head investors was in the audience, and while we were playing, he looked at the owner and said, ‘Why are these guys the opening act? They’re amazing. They should be headlining,’” Weiss recalls. “So, right after that, the owner booked us for a headline show.”
Andrew Weiss and Friends headlined My Father’s Place in July 2019 to a sold-out crowd. It seems an appropriate lead-in to what is, perhaps, Weiss’s most important and adventurous record to date. Rhythmic in its poetic nature and always intimate in texture, The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry was recorded at Long Island’s Sabella Studios, using a console on which John Lennon mixed his final album, a favorite of Weiss’s, 1980’s Double Fantasy. The final touches on the album came from mastering engineer Howie Weinberg (Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers).
Glide is proud to premiere “All The News Fit To Print” a contagious late 70’s/early 80’s styled jukebox rocker in the mold of Tom Petty, Dylan LeBlanc and Andrew Combs. A supercharged rock statement indeed here, biting guitars, swirling organ and a radio-friendly voice, make for one of 2020’s most promising artists.
Weiss describes the influence of Petty on “All the News To Print”
“The death of Tom Petty hit me very hard. He was one of those songwriters who made the listener feel like they were his friend, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who felt a strong connection to him through his music. During the next few months, I drowned myself in Tom Petty records, listening to not much else, and I wrote around 20 songs in two months. “All The News Fit To Print” was one of these songs.”
“During the first round of sessions for The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry, we recorded ten songs in two days. Eight of those songs were finished on the first day. None of us had worked 100% to analog tape before, and the process was going better than any of us thought it could. Our playing was more “together,” and we really felt we were doing the songs justice. “All The News Fit To Print” was the last song we tracked on the second day. Each time we played it, everyone became more excited about the song, and I am really pleased that the feeling made its way onto the recording.”
Photo by Ellen Weiss
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