Andrew Kneeland tells stories with his music and has a way with pauses that make the songs sound more expectant and sweeter. His first full album, Red-eyed Vireo, is releasing December 20, 2024. You can hear him play live at the release on December 30 at the White Squirrel.
Please tell us more about you and your musical journey.
I grew up in St. Paul with dreams of becoming a writer-director in Hollywood and a poet in San Francisco. I moved to Northern California in my early twenties with a couple of buddies who were musicians. I had just started to learn guitar. Watching them and trying to keep up with them – strumming out our favorite songs in the living room – was great inspiration. I ended up moving to Southern California for film school. That was a special time for me. I moved to LA and started to build that life, but circumstances led me back to the Twin Cities. As I got further away from a career in film, I was working those poetry muscles and getting better at guitar. Writing my own songs was the natural next step. I began to collaborate with drummer and recording engineer, Paul Nevins in 2015. We released the EP’s Grand Designs in 2016, and Love Has Sent Me in 2018. After that, my band fully came together with the addition of Anthony Newes playing bass. He is one of the aforementioned musician friends that inspired me. He continues to do so with his projects like Villa, Bones & Beeker, and his eponymous records. Between all of our jobs, gigs and obligations, the three of us managed to make a full-length album which comes out December 20th, 2024. It’s called Red-eyed Vireo, after one of the tracks, which itself is named for the bird. I’m into birds.
Looks like it’s been a minute since your last album, Love Has Sent Me, what inspired the new album, Red-eyed Vireo?
After the last EP I was writing some new songs and thinking of some others I had written that seemed to fit together. I’m not adept at recording myself, so the pandemic put a long hold on getting the album going. I had chosen a collection of songs that represent a variety of styles, but I still felt like they belonged together and created a whole picture. I know the album format isn’t the way most people are consuming music these days, but I’m a little old-fashioned in many regards. I hope there’s something for everyone on this record, even if it’s just a single line or moment. I like to let the work speak for itself, but I don’t think it is too much to say that the theme of the album is broadly about the importance of love in our lives.
I love the storytelling and folklore approach in The Edge of Ends, can you tell us more about the song? It seems like it’s a cornerstone in an album-long tale.
Thank you for saying so. I dig folk music, and allusion and myth. This is one of those songs that kind of came out whole. I’m hesitant to explain it much. I had to process the loss of a loved one and didn’t know that’s what I was doing until I finished writing it. So, it’s a personal thing, slightly disguised in something kind of archetypal.
You have a background in film, how does that impact or inform your songwriting?
The desire to express myself artistically, and a penchant for storytelling would be the common denominators. Otherwise, that’s a tough one. I’ve come to appreciate what makes them different. A screenplay is a long way from being a finished movie that anyone sees. Even getting them read is not easy. Whereas a song can be self-produced, and when performed or put out into the world can be digested by someone in minutes. Maybe giving them something to connect with or making their day better. That’s a very attractive notion to me. I will say that film school taught me something that I try to remember as I share my music: that consuming art is a very personal and subjective experience. Be able to take and use criticism and know that it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
Please tell us about the upcoming release and show.
The album comes out December 20th. You can find it on the streaming services and download it from Bandcamp. My band will be celebrating the release with a show on December 30th at 9pm at White Squirrel Bar in St. Paul. Hopefully the CD’s I ordered will be here by then. The terrific band, Little Fevers plays after us, followed by the amazing ambient artist, Sun Patches. We don’t play very often, so it’s always a lot of fun when we do. So far, we’ve mostly played the 331 Club, so that’s come to feel kind of like our home stage. But we’re happy to be branching out a bit. We love what White Squirrel and 331 Club do for the Twin Cities music scene.
Speaking of the 331, I should mention I have a new project. It’s a duo with singer-songwriter, Marti Moreno. We are playing at 331 on January 9th. It’s all original songs we wrote together. It’s my first writing collaboration and I’m really pleased with how it’s going. We’re planning a record as well. I look forward to sharing that and some new Andrew Kneeland singles in the future.
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