We were lucky to catch up with Andy Toy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Andy, we are so appreciative of you taking the time to open up about the extremely important, albeit personal, topic of mental health. Can you talk to us about your journey and how you were able to overcome the challenges related to mental issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
Like many during the pandemic, I dealt with stress & anxiety which eventually led to depression so bad I could barely get out of bed. As an independent contractor, unemployment wasn’t going to cover my bills & I didn’t qualify for a lot of the small business loans, so I ran myself ragged doing anything and everything I could to hustle around for work. I think this led to not only work burnout, but a creative rut that ended with me not trusting my intuition or artistic taste. I finally sought professional help in the winter of 2021 & met with an amazing therapist who treated me with a modality called EMDR. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) stimulates both the left and right sides of the body using sound or physical stimulus in conjunction with talk therapy. EMDR helped me a ton and I highly recommend it, especially to people who feel nervous about traditional talk therapy. My relationship with my mental help is constantly evolving, but I am happy to say I feel consistently present for the first time in my adult life & I’m learning to trust the inner voices that I dismissed for so long.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I worked as a professionally session & touring musician for 10 years before the pandemic hit. I toured with artists such as Miguel, Sabrina Carpenter, Tori Kelly, etc… but post-pandemic I’ve found I enjoy being home more consistently, so I’ve transitioned into a job in the music industry on the creative side: I help bands & artists put on their live shows. I do a little bit of everything, from hiring bands & singers to writing new musical arrangements to setting up live tracks & vocal effects. This past year I’ve worked on quite a few shows including Olivia Rodrigo, Joji, & Jackson Wang.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Forging a path in the music industry can be extremely frustrating, exhausting & lonely. I’m not an expert by any means, but if I had to pick three qualities to focus on they’d be humility, resilience, & being present. The number one thing I look for in the hiring process are character qualities. I don’t want to work with someone who acts too good for a job or like they should have special treatment because they have a certain number of instagram followers. I’ve found it’s always better to be humble & grateful for every opportunity & treat people with kindness & respect.
Resilience is another key for the music industry. I’ve lost count of the amount of auditions I’ve done in my life where I didn’t get the part & have found that you can’t take it personally. I’ve gotten gigs, lost them, been hired, fired for so many different reasons. Work will come & go, that’s just the nature of our jobs, & getting used to that feeling will be invaluable.
Being present is probably the hardest one on this list. I think back to my first few jobs in the industry & I was always trying thinking about my next gig, or how to leverage what I was doing into more work. There’s probably some value to skills like those, but lately, I’ve tried my hardest to be present in whatever I’m doing rather than constantly looking to the next job or gig. It can feel like a grind at times & sometimes I reflect on a show or tour where I missed out on something special because I was too worried about something else in the future or how the show was going to look on social media.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
Man, this is such a good question. OK I have 2 answers here, the first being that I think you should absolutely always work on your weaknesses. For me personally I don’t like being bad at anything so anything I do I dive headfirst into and immerse myself in for hours at a time. However, I live by a certain idea that has been true for me throughout my career: find out what you’re best at & figure out how to maximize your value in whatever that is. For me, I’ve studied music since I was 6 & had all the skills to be a touring keyboard & guitar player for the rest of my life probably, however I figured out that there’s a much larger need in the current industry when it comes people who are knowledgeable about computers & technology & how to create live shows. I’ve always been interested in technology and music so it was an easy jump to make & now I have way more work than I ever had as a freelance musician!
That being said, it’s different for everybody. The best advice I can give is try everything, see what you like & what you don’t & be kind & humble to everyone you meet along the way. Try to develop a self-awareness to know when there’s energy in your body when you’re doing something & use that to understand what you bring to the table that has value. Be kind to everyone, be humble, stay present & enjoy the moment.
Contact Info:
- Website: andytoymusic.com
- Instagram: @andytoymusic
