Draft:Andrew Weiss and Friends

Andrew Weiss and Friends
Andrew Weiss and Friends is a rock band formed in Long Island, New York in 2016. The project's output includes five studio albums, three EPs, and seven standalone singles. The sound of their music has come to be known as Power Pop-icana™ (a blend of Power Pop and Americana).

History
Andrew Weiss grew up in the Jericho neighborhood of Long Island, New York. He began drum lessons when he was only four years old and is self taught on guitar, bass, and piano. Weiss began picking guitar and writing songs at seven years old, and he would later play in various bands throughout his youth, including The Strat. In 2009, once The Strat became inactive, he formed a solo endeavor called High Fascination. Influenced at the time by his favorite multi-instrumentalists Paul McCartney, Mike Viola, Lenny Kravitz, and Dave Grohl, Weiss wrote, recorded, and mixed three pop/rock leaning albums alone in his bedroom.

Weiss attended New York University, studying Music Theory & Composition. During his time there, he wrote music for films and various ensembles. His 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 approached, later given the name Power Pop-icana™. High Fascination ultimately folded to make way for a new project, Andrew Weiss and Friends.

2016-2020
As the transition was made from High Fascination to Andrew Weiss and Friends, the project performed alongside Counting Crows and Rob Thomas at The Outlaw Roadshow in 2016, a festival curated by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows. Andrew Weiss and Friends' debut album The Honeymoon Suite was released in 2018 and was celebrated with a sold out show at famed Long Island venue My Father's Place. During the making of the album, which was largely recorded in Mount Kisco, NY, Weiss recorded vocals and piano at Long Island recording studio Sabella Studios. Inspired by the plethora of vintage analog equipment, Weiss decided get the full band into Sabella Studios in 2019 to record the follow up album to The Honeymoon Suite live to analog tape. These sessions formed the project's second album The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry set for release on March 27th, 2020. The album's singles received traction amongst top music review sites, such as American Songwriter, and the band received an invitation to SXSW in Austin, Texas. However, by the release date of The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry, the world was only just beginning to realize the long-term effects that COVID-19 would wreak.

2020-2022
Distraught by the consistent flow of bad news, and knowing that it could be months, at the very least, before returning to a recording studio again, Weiss decided to start recording music at home, inspired to create something positive amidst this swarm of bad news. The sessions were conducted at Weiss' home studio, as well as the home studios of the other musicians. Two tracks from these sessions "Before The World Broke" and "The Other Side of the Rock" were released as singles, and the rest of the songs from these sessions made up the EP Lookout Mountain. Keeping up with the momentum from these sessions, Weiss ended up writing 93 songs in 2020 and recording a few batches of them.

As the world began to open up again, Andrew Weiss and Friends returned to the stage in late 2021, headlining the Mondo Festival in New York City. Weiss finished off 2021 by releasing the album Highly Fascinated, a collection of 15 songs from the High Fascination days, newly reworked and recorded by Weiss alone at home during Summer 2021.

By the end of 2021, Weiss also had another finished album in the can, which he started back in early 2020. This album became Sunglass & Ash, a double album released in Summer 2022 containing 24 songs. The album contains some of the band's best known songs, including "Tommy's Teardrops," "What've We Learned To Live With?" and "Love By Numbers". The title of the album was taken from a poem Weiss wrote during his senior year at NYU. "Tommy's Teardrops" was a radio favorite on New York's WFUV upon release. Acclaimed UK magazine Shindig! said of the album, "It's clear that Weiss doesn't do anything by halves. Big, clever tunes. There's poetic tilted Americana, booming pop and anthemic road rock. Sometimes it tilts towards the psychedelic. It's all rather impressive." Andrew Weiss and Friends closed out 2022 with a New York City performance at Underwater Sunshine Festival, a festival curated by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows.

2022-2024
Towards the end of 2022, in the midst of promoting Sunglass & Ash, Weiss felt the urge to get back into the studio, this time with a challenge set for himself. After a steady diet of Jeff Lynne productions such as Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, George Harrison's Cloud 9, Paul McCartney's Flaming Pie, and the Traveling Wilburys' debut album, Weiss recorded what became "Hello Loneliness" in the style of those albums. This lead to the recording of ten songs in this style, released in 2023 as the album Beverly Hills, Thanksgiving Day. The album release show was held at Stephen Talkhouse in East Hampton, New York.

2024 began with Andrew Weiss and Friends opening for Weiss' songwriting hero Mike Viola on their home turf at My Father's Place in Long Island, New York. In 2023 and 2024, Andrew Weiss and Friends headlined the MLB Washington Nationals Grateful Dead Night to sold out crowds of thousands. Their 2024 performance won them a feature on The Tony Kornheiser Show.

Weiss has teased a new album to be released in 2024.

Discography

 * 2018 The Honeymoon Suite
 * 2020 The Golden Age of Love & Chemistry
 * 2021 Highly Fascinated
 * 2022 Sunglass & Ash
 * 2023 Beverly Hills, Thanksgiving Day

EPs

 * 2020 Lookout Mountain
 * 2023 Songs Live From The Second Bedroom, Vol. 1
 * 2023 Songs Live From The Second Bedroom, Vol. 3

Singles

 * 2020 "This Might Hurt a Little"
 * 2020 "All The News Fit To Print"
 * 2020 "Everybody Loves a Comeback"
 * 2020 "Before The World Broke" b/w "The Other Side of The Rock"
 * 2020 "Lookout Mountain"
 * 2021 "Spare Me" b/w "Blue Mind"
 * 2022 "What've We Learned To Live With?"
 * 2022 "A Beginner's Guide To Being Famous"
 * 2022 "Hollywood Is Real (Forever)"
 * 2022 "Tommy's Teardrops"
 * 2022 "When It Rains, It Really F***s Up My Mood"
 * 2023 "Love The One You're With"
 * 2023 "We Can't Smoke Around Brian"
 * 2023 "Hello Loneliness"
 * 2023 "Fear of Dying In Las Vegas"
 * 2023 "Mid Century Lullaby"