Paul Andrews is a bear of a man -muscular and physically imposing. You’d guess him to be a bass vocalist. But, no. When he sings, a surprisingly sweet, sometimes soothing, sometimes soaring, voice makes your ears happy.
Now, two years after his debut, Andrews is back with a follow up album that was worth the wait. In those two years, he moved from his longtime home of New York to Pennsylvania. It would have been a radical change of pace in any case, but then that pesky pandemic locked him (and the rest of us) away indoors. He could have been anywhere. He got busy.
“At one point during the initial quarantine, I realized that we weren’t headed back to any form of normal for a while, so I made the decision to start my second album,” Paul explains. “I didn’t want to come out of this experience without having constructively used the time I was given at home.”
What emerged was From the Distance, an album of songs that worked together, enjoined by a vibe that, to me, is more joyful and warmer than you would have expected from such a fraught period during these past couple of years.
“The deeper we went into the pandemic, the more I didn’t want to remember the sad aspects of it,” Paul recalls. “I decided to save the slower songs for a different project—and concentrated on songs that had a beat that kept me moving, moving forward”
The song Reach The Stars has a silky smooth R&B vibe that reminds me of the sounds I loved so much in the late 70s- many of those songs are now classified as “Yacht Rock.” Whatever. Listen to the whole song and you’ll be rewarded with prime examples of his layered vocal harmonies, all sung by Paul. He also produced, arranged and played all instruments. The way it ends is pretty awesome. Check it out:
When it came time to mix and master the11 tunes, Paul tapped the talented Andy Bradfield (The xx, Everything but the Girl, Rufus Wainwright) and Simon Francis (Charlie Puth, Craig Armstrong, Kylie Minogue), respectively. Apple Music enthusiasts can also experience the full album in Dolby Atmos.
For Paul, the album’s title is a multi-pronged reference: an indirect way of referring to social distancing; making an album away from other people; and collaborating with his mixer, mastering engineer, and art director, who all live in Europe.
The title’s three words are taken from the album’s opening track, “Into Existence,” which Vero’s Head of Music Larry Flick spotlighted in his weekly New Music Moves column, enthusing, “His talent is extraordinary and his song writing instincts are spot-on. ‘Into Existence’ is sweeping pop with an ’80s flair that occasionally reminds of the Style Council. Gorgeous stuff that starts the week properly.”
BACKSTAGE WITH JEFFREY OSBORNE
A nostalgic musical sensibility can be heard throughout the multi-layered From the Distance, encompassing 1960s R&B, 1970s pop, 1980s new wave/dance, and 1990s dance—with musical flourishes that recall recordings by Tears for Fears, Burt Bacharach, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Swing Out Sister, Steely Dan, Sade, Men Without Hats, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and Basia/Matt Bianco.
Still, the songs of From the Distance are firmly rooted in the here and now. Call it retro futurism. “Even though I have my influences, I feel like I have my own take on them,” Paul notes. “I wanted every song to sound different, to have its own identity, yet still go together. I like variety on an album—I always have.”
Indeed, there are shades of many different styles and decades and even genres that you’ll pick up on as you go through the songs.
With “To Belong,” Paul created a gay anthem around the words “longing” and “belong.” With the chorus, Paul says he created a viewpoint where it wasn’t about one person changing for the world, but about the world changing for one person. Consider it a modern day version of the New Seekers’s “Free to Be… You and Me.” The older Paul gets, the more he cares about simply being himself. “I embrace what’s different about me,” he says. “I love that we’re seeing more of this in our culture, in our entertainment, and in the work place. I love that my husband and I can just be ourselves.”
According to Paul, “To Belong” was partly inspired by a 2020 Tweet by London-based LGBTQ+ activist Alexander Leon, which said, “Queer people don’t grow up as ourselves, we grow up playing a version of ourselves that sacrifices authenticity to minimize humiliation & prejudice.
The massive task of our adult lives is to unpick which parts of ourselves are truly us & which parts we’ve created to protect us.” Reflecting on Leon’s words, Paul says, “Someone finally put into words what I had been thinking and feeling all along about growing up gay.”
Paul was born and raised in Maryland and, in the 1990s, moved to New York City, where he became a card-carrying member of the dance music community, remixing and re-producing songs for many artists, including Robyn, Kristine W, Gloria Estefan, and Dolly Parton. In recent years, his remix/production work for Phil Ramone, Basia, Wang Chung, and Madonna helped Paul realize that he needed to take the next step and make his own music.
Light and Dust was the result. Between his debut album and From the Distance, Paul recorded a faithful cover version of Toto’s “Georgy Porgy” for the multi-artist collection, Cruise Control: A Yacht Rock Cover Compilation- it was never my favorite Toto song back in the day, but Paul made me re-evaluate and I realize now just how funky it is. Groove for miles.
The new album From the Distance is now available on virtually all the major streaming platforms – take your pick. Here are the links to the album on all services: https://paulandrews.org/from-the-distance/
