Meet Andrew Griffin

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Griffin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Andrew, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

I suppose I knew almost from birth that I was going to be a performer. From the time I was 3, I was always “putting on shows” in the living room, standing on the fireplace with a plastic guitar, cowboy hat, and a Houston Rockets onesie tucked into my faux snakeskin boots. By the time I was in elementary school I was performing in school plays and playing percussion in band class. It’s also important to note, the apple does not fall far from the tree. My mom and her father were both actors, and my dad is very musically inclined and played the cornet and electric bass growing up in the 70s, so performing and artistry were always in my DNA.

By the time I was in high school, I was heavily involved in the theatre program and had been playing guitar for a few years; though one more thing had to happen that would change my trajectory. As a kid I was obsessed with “Top Gun”, to the point that I wanted to become a Navy pilot myself. That was still my plan until going into my senior year of high school, when I got cast in my first regional show, an angsty punk rock musical called “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”, and from that moment forward, I knew I was going to pursue acting. At suggestion from director George Brock, I attended Texas State University and after 4 years, received a BFA from their acting program. After graduating, I moved to New York with one of my best friends and began to pursue acting professionally.

After acting for pretty much my whole life, having minor successes here and there, I got bit by another bug in 2018. I had played guitar for a long time, but I don’t think I ever would have considered myself a musician back then. But this one night, I got home from work and my buddy & mutual close friend were going to see a record release show of someone they knew. I was really tired and didn’t want to go, but then fomo kicked in and I tagged along. After his show, I met Jared Mancuso, we hit it off, and two weeks later he offered me a gig, touring nationally with his Buddy Holly tribute band. That whole experience was certainly my second artistic awakening.

Touring with “Not Fade Away”, was truly a once in a lifetime experience. I was brought on to fill in for another player when they had scheduling conflicts; and given that I was traveling the country in a van with a bunch of musicians who were several years older than me, I felt like I was caught somewhere in between the movies “Rockstar” and “Almost Famous”. From that point on it was clear; music had won my artistic heart. I wanted to do everything I could to capture the feeling that playing those shows gave me, but on my own terms.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

When the pandemic hit I was still living in New York. This was back when we all thought we might be inside for 2 or 3 years; so I decided to get out of dodge. After my experience touring with the band, I wanted to form my own band and start really creating music; it was all I could think about. I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked by this enlightenment; my dad set the stage for my entire life when he introduced me to rock music when I was 6. I had just gotten a boombox for Christmas, and he came into my room and played me Foreplay/Longtime by Boston, and the moment the guitar solo kicked in, it absolutely floored me. I was a little rock ‘n’ roller, pretty much obsessed with 60s and 70s music from that point on. Cut to 20 years later; I find myself living in Los Angeles, and I meet Nick Donahe, the cofounder of my band. We went on to form “Heavy Penny” in late 2021.

Heavy Penny is what I like to call a retro rock band. We play original music, but it is of the same sound & nature of the heavier stuff from the 70s; think Zeppelin, Hendrix, or Sabbath. Nick (our lead guitarist), Noah Dearborn (our drummer), & I (lead singer/bassist) were all raised on that stuff by our parents; all of whom were young in the 70s and 80s, so we share that bring-up of being steeped in all that old music. I’m from Houston, Nick’s from Seattle, and Noah is from the Bay; so we all have regional backgrounds that influence our sound. I, for example, bring the southern rock thanks to Skynyrd and the Eagles, Nick brings a very Hendrix and Van Halen flavor, and Noah might as well have actually been in Led Zeppelin. You get all those sounds working in the same room, and it makes a really cool thing we call “Hollywood Southern Rock”. It’s heavy, dirty blues that will get your blood pumping; and we aim to really bring that energy to our shows. When you come see Heavy Penny at The Viper Room or Molly Malone’s or wherever we are on a random weeknight, it’s important to us that you feel like you’re coming to see a real show, not just some band playing a dive bar. We’re proud of the music we create; and Nick & Noah are truly some of the best musicians I’ve ever seen. I feel like the luckiest guy to be able to create art and share the stage with them.

At this stage it’s tough; we’re effectively nobody. It’s 2024 and the market is so oversaturated with artists that gaining any traction is a very difficult thing. I wish it was still the era were you play the Troubadour and some exec from Colombia is sitting there with a cigarette & an old fashioned with a contract in their briefcase, ready for you to sign. Sadly, that just doesn’t happen anymore. It takes a lot of time, energy, & effort because, at this level, nobody outside the band helps you do anything. We are responsible for booking our own shows, promoting those shows, recording our music, getting the music out into the world, maintaining social media, etc. But that’s all part of it; and it’s exactly how it should be. Everything in this life that’s worth anything is worth working hard for. I know we have the talent and drive to be successful; it’s just a matter of luck & timing.

Right now, we’re busy working on our first full length record; and that’s been a great, fun, hard, & long process. We’re self-producing it, with some extra help from our friends Jake Williams and Gregg White; Noah is actually personally mixing it, which allows us to have total control of the final product; which will hopefully make for the exact sound we want to show to the world. These things take time, but we are hoping to have it out to the world by the end of 2024!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Collaboration is a necessity:
It’s so important to collaborate with like-minded artists. For me personally, collaboration is the key to making the best art I can. Largely the way we make music as a band is: I come up with lyrics, melody and rough chord progression. Once I get that to a place I feel good about, I bring it to the band and we start to play around with it. Everyone’s word is worth an equal amount, and we try everything that anyone suggests. I’d say about 90% of the time we end up keeping whatever the suggestion was, and by the end of it we’ve hopefully taken that song from “good” to “excellent.” I personally can’t make it any better in a vacuum, but thanks to the group effort, it rises to a new level.

Take calculated risks:
The life of an artist is a tough one, but it’s certainly a rewarding one too. It’s a high-risk lifestyle; you’re not guaranteed any stability. For a lot of my 20s I’ve done the starving artist, paycheck-to-paycheck thing, and that can be rough. But if you love what you do and are doing it for the right reasons, it can make the bad days feel a little brighter. I’ve tried various tactics in my career, both as an actor and a musician, that would poise me for progress and personal growth. The biggest risk I’ve taken is deciding to uproot my life in New York, where I had started to gain traction in the acting scene after years of grinding, and move to LA in the middle of the pandemic; starting over from scratch in a whole new medium. Based off what I feel in my heart and mind; that risk was worth it.

Patience:
Artistry takes time, energy, effort, & persistence; nothing will come to you overnight. There are a lot of moments where you feel like you’re just spinning your wheels and nothing seems to go your way; but all it takes is that one opportunity to get you to the next rung on the ladder of your journey. That’s why I tell people that you have to be in love with the process, otherwise you’ll constantly feel disappointed in how things are going. Learning patience will provide a peace of mind when you go through those, sometimes long, periods of nothing happening.

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Life is hard. They say the only things we’re guaranteed in life are death & taxes; but I think we’re also guaranteed rough times. I’ll stick to how I handle being overwhelmed in my creative endeavors; I think the best thing somebody can do is walk away from it for a second. Like, if I have a song circling in my head and I can’t quite figure it out, I put it down for a week or two, sometimes maybe even months, and come back to it with fresh eyes. That allows me to release the tension and clear the fog from my head, and will usually yield good results. If I’m feeling overwhelmed due to time, I remind myself that often the only deadline I’m on is a self-imposed one, so really there is no use in freaking out about the rate at which something is going. Take a nice deep breath, remind yourself why you’re doing this in the first place, ground yourself in calmness, and you’ll be A-OK!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @griffosek @heavypennyband
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@heavypenny
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6SR3zPXsyfII3Tzv9vuyPn?si=T-GZRmtLTDaDDrn1oavu8Q