A slight and humbled smile accompanied Andrew Belle onto the Schuba’s stage along with five other musical talents. With a clear, crisp striking of chords Belle started his headlining set with the title track from his recently released full-length, The Ladder, to a venue packed all the way to the bar at the back of the room.
As impressed as we were when The Ladder appeared in our inbox a few months ago, it couldn’t prepare us for the live set the Midwestern native delivered this past Sunday. On stage it was obvious that Andrew is someone who has truly grown comfortable in his own musical skin over the years. Coming off as controlled and confident, knowing just when to back away from or belt into the microphone, the singer/songwriter’s skills were enough to calm the chatty crowd multiple times in the night- no easy feat in a room full of friends and booze.
With a full band playing behind him, songs from The Ladder took on a more broad, spacey indie vibe, which we found to be a pleasant and smooth transition from the acoustic based songs that started out his musical career. The talents backing Belle allowed him to rock out a little, and as much as we enjoy the more subdued feel of his records, we have to say we loved this even more.
The night was not entirely without flaw, but even those hiccups weren’t anything worth picking on too much. A dropped, then apologetically restarted song, as well as a late return from the band after a duet between Andrew Belle and Allen Stone, were over shadowed by the quiet confidence and clean sound we heard the rest of the night. In fact the latter slip up turned out to be a bit of a blessing, because it extended the earlier duet between Andrew and Allen by a song and honestly, who can complain about something as beautiful as that?
Though Belle himself has been blowing up more recently, gaining popularity through a few of his tracks being featured on a number of television shows, he remains level headed about his new found fame. In our time spent with the 23 year-old we found him to be nothing but hospitable and totally grounded in spite of the currently glaring limelight that surrounds him.
With that said, it seemed all too suiting to be sitting with the up and coming musician amid the posters of great Schuba’s shows past that wall paper its greenroom walls, as we talked to Belle about things such as his musical growth, favorite albums, and best moments thus far in his career.
Reviewsic: How did you get your start in music?
Andrew Belle: Well, in high school I played in bands. That’s kind of where I learned to appreciate and love music, then in college I started a band and became the primary songwriter for that, and that’s how I fell into song writing. My senior year of college as Taylor University I was debating whether or not I should pursue business and get a marketing degree, or if I wanted to pursue song writing- because I always felt like I had a little bit of a niche for it.
So I just kind of took a gamble. I thought “Well, I’m 21, I can do other things later and give this a shot now.” So after I graduated college I moved home to Chicago and started playing in bars, bookstores and coffee houses- you know, just…wherever. I recorded an EP and that sort of got the ball rolling, then did the album last year and just put it out now. That brings us up to speed with everything.
Reviewsic: What were some of the venues you tended to frequent starting out in Chicago?
Andrew Belle: Well my first gig was at a Border’s bookstore open mic, in the Seattle’s Best Coffee area of Borders. I played Potbelly’s Sandwich shop very regularly, and there’s a bar here in the city called Rock it Bar & Grill, and they’re the ones that kind of really gave me my start because they gave me a regular Sunday gig and that’s where I really started to get in a repetition of performing every week, and kind of figuring out what I was doing.
Reviewsic: How would you say you’ve changed since you first started out?
Andrew Belle: I’ve evolved in the last four years vocally a lot. It took me a while to find my sound as far as my vocals go. I used to idolize Chris Carraba of Dashboard Confessional and Ben Gibbard, you know, people that can sing really high, and I used to try that, but it just wasn’t working. Then I started to cover bands like Dave Matthews, Coldplay, and John Mayer, those guys that have a throatier, lower tone, and that’s where I found my niche vocally. I also used to only write for solo acoustic, and over the years my music has evolved into this full-blown pop-rock type music.
Reviewsic: What are some of your biggest musical influences?
Andrew Belle: Coldplay, Greg Laswell, Damien Rice, Landon Pigg, and Lovedrug. Oh, and Death Cab For Cutie, course.
Reviewsic: What are the last three albums you listened to?
Andrew Belle: The Paper Route, Absence- they’re a band from Nashville and they’ve got kind of a Radio Head-ish thing going on, but a little more poppy. Radio Head, I listened to In Rainbows the other night on our way home from Kansas City. And the third record I believe was Bright Eyes, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning.
Reviewsic: If you could collaborate with anyone in the music business, who would it be and why?
Andrew Belle: I really want to work with Greg Laswell because he produces and engineers his own stuff, and I’m a really big fan of his music. When I was making my last record I had all my demos and asked him to produce it but he was too busy with his own stuff and had just started touring. But somewhere down the line I would really like to work with Greg. He influences me a lot and I think he could really help me bring out a lot of those things I’m looking to do.
Reviewsic: If you were to book your “dream tour”,who would you want on the bill?
Andrew Belle: Off the top of my head…I would love to do an Andrew Belle, Death Cab for Cutie, and Lovedrug tour…but they’re only allowed to play Pretend You’re Alive. Every once in a while Coldplay could make a surprise appearance if they wanted to.
Reviewsic: Any festivals you’re hoping to get too in the future?
Andrew Belle: Well there’s that really cool tour in L.A. called the Café Hotel Tour, and they had to shut down because I think they went bankrupt…but if they ever get that thing going again, I’d love to be part of that. I would love to do Bonaroo, or Lollapalooza here in Chicago. I don’t think I’m quite indie enough to do Pitchfork haha Coachella, you know, I wouldn’t turn them down. I’d also love to tour over seas at some point.
Reviewsic: Any particular cities or venues you look forward to playing when on tour?
Andrew Belle: Well definitely, here at Schuba’s. It’s kind of a home venue for me in Chicago- in the last fourteen months or so I’ve played here I think seven times, so we’re here a lot. I really like the Hotel Café in Los Angeles, and we’re just starting to build somewhat of a fan base in New York City so we played the Living Room there, and it was a lot of fun. Nashville…I like because a lot of my friends are and it’s such a great place to be for music, but I honestly don’t really like to perform in Nashville just because it’s so much of an industry town. Shows there are difficult as far as the audience goes because it’s usually a bunch of cross-armed musicians eyeing your chord changes, it can be a little snooty.
Reviewsic: What would you say the best and worst music moments so far in career are?
Andrew Belle: It’s a toss up for me. We played my CD release here at Schuba’s two months ago and it sold out, that was just a really cool moment because I love this venue and it was the first time I ever sold it out. It was the first time I ever headlined here too, so it was really special. But I don’t know if it beats our final Ten Out of Tenn Tour show that we did for Christmas this past December in Nashville. It was 600 people crammed into this venue and I love that tour so much, and always wanted to be part of it. So to be part of it with all of these artists that I idolized and to play this giant sold out homecoming show, there were justseveral moments that night where I was so happy that this was my life. So that might be the best show I’ve ever played, at the Exit Inn in Nashville.
The worst…might be this past summer, when we hadn’t really gotten things going the way we have them now. I played a show here in Chicago at the Beat Kitchen, which went great, and then my manager booked me a second show the next night, and I remember thinking “We probably shouldn’t play back to back shows…” and then we get to the venue, set up, and literally one person came. We ended up calling off the show and just had dinner with that person. Which proved to be really pleasant, but it would have been nice if people came.
Reviewsic: How would you compare the EP to the new full-length?
Andrew Belle: I’ve gotten a lot more confident and grown to understand my vocals a lot more, like what I’m capable of. I think my writing has gotten a tad better. I’ve never really looked back on any of my writing and bad mouthed it, I know there are some musicians that hate anything they’ve done in the past. Whatever they’re currently working on is always the best thing they’ve ever done haha. But I’ve never been that way, I’ve always been pretty proud of what I do. I will say that I’ve grown though. On this record we captured a lot more of what my sound really is- it’s a pop rock kind of sound, and I wanted the production to be done intelligently, with maybe a few things just a little left of center. I wanted there to be elements that came from a more organic sound, rather than just completely pop produced- which is how it is on the EP, everything on that record is super clean, super produced.
Reviewsic: Is there anything you don’t play that you wish you could pick up?
Andrew Belle: Well drums- I can play drums, but I’m not good. I would love to buy a drum kit and actually get good. That’s one instrument that I think I could put on headphones and just be happy to play all day. Guitar, I’ve been playing for a while and I think I might just want a break from it sometimes. I’m just starting to learn piano a little bit more, and I’m loving that but drums is one that I think I could be happy just sitting at all day playing along with all my favorite records.
Reviewsic: If you had to listen to five records for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Andrew Belle: Radio Head- Kid A, Coldplay-A Rush of Blood to the Head, Lovedrug-Pretend You’re Alive, Deathcab for Cutie- Transatlanticism, and…. number five, I’d say Deja Entendu by Brand New.
Reviewsic: Where would you like to see yourself in the next year musically?
Andrew Belle: Well pretty soon we’ll be releasing a music video Katie Herzig and I did for ‘Static Waves’, we’ll be doing some college touring in the spring and heading out some more over the summer. So in a year I would like to have a lot of touring under my belt and hopefully continue all the momentum we have now as far as album sales and fan base growth. It’d be great to get to the point where I could tour nationally and expect people to be there.
Be sure to cast your vote for Andrew Belle in The John Lennon Songwriting Contest
