Rising Stars: Meet Daniel Andrews

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Andrews. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started music when I was in my teens.  After several different attempts at a music career, I ended up pushing pause for many years to raise my family. Once I lost my son to a rare health condition in 2018, there were multiple things that transpired,  paving the way back to music and giving me that passion to chase my music dreams again. To be honest, for the longest time, I thought I’d never do music again.  With all the ups and downs you go through in life, and the journey that it takes you on, I thought it just wasn’t in the cards for me.  When you lose a child or any loved one for that matter, I think it naturally pushes you to start a few more conversations with God than what you used to have, at least for me it did.   It was the constant questions and trying to find an understanding of why and what the purpose of the pain was.  Ironically enough it brought me back full circle to something I said to my wife when we first heard the news about our son.  The very first thing out of my mouth was “this kind of stuff doesn’t happen to us”.  Fast forward two and a half years later, that same argumentative conversation I had been having with God took a turn in a different direction.  I remember hearing it so clearly when He said, “yes, those kinds of things don’t happen to you…until they do”.  That immediately grabbed my attention and so I immediately asked what that even means for me now.  I remember it so vividly as if it were yesterday when He said “just like reaching your lifelong dreams you had for yourself, those things don’t happen to you either…until they do”.  Oddly enough this is where it gets even more crazy.  I then immediately told my wife that I had something I wanted to talk with her about, because she had no idea what I had been battling this whole time.  So we sat down to talk about what I had experienced and before I could even tell her, she proceeds to tell me that I should seriously consider pursuing music again.  That’s when I knew this was something just a little different.  I started that journey only 8 months ago and now things are moving so quickly that it’s tough to keep up sometimes. In these short few months, I’ve signed a developmental deal with SSM Nashville, as well as taken on a local promotion/management company to help with bookings, etc. Life has been super crazy these last few months, to say the least, but with the support of my family and them continually pushing me to go after this thing, it’s all been worth it.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

To be transparent, there is a little of both, but the struggles are certainly real. Getting the exposure, I feel, is the toughest challenge. There are so many other incredible artists searching for the same thing, so its a constant grind everyday. Social media has been super helpful to make things move a little quicker than normal, but that too requires constant work. So between that, and just putting myself in front of as many people as possible, is the best way that I know to overcome those challenges and reach as many fans as possible.

The biggest struggle by far has been seeing and knowing the sacrifices that my family has had to make even this early on. They don’t complain much, but I know it’s not easy on them. I’m gone from home much more than I used to be and so my time with them has been super limited. And when I am home, it’s rehearsals or songwriting or phone calls, basically something to do with music that takes up so much of my time. Fortunately for me they try to be as understanding as possible but yet still keep me grounded at the same time. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people to have in my corner. At the end of the day I’m blessed to be where I’m at and excited to where we’re headed.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I think for me, I am learning that i’m a little better songwriter than what I had given myself credit for. I’m a storyteller at heart, so I love to write in a way that people can relate to what it is they are listening to. There is nothing like someone coming up to you after they hear one of your songs at a show, and tell you “Wow! man, that song was my life growing up!” After recently signing my developmental deal with SSM, it has allowed me to get here to Nashville more often, to not only further my music career, but drastically improve my writing skills with some of Nashville’s best writers, and that has been the most exciting to me. It’s not everyday that you get to sit in a room with folks that have written with some of my biggest heroes. When you drive down the road and listen to a song come on the radio and think, man, I sat down and wrote music with the same person that wrote that song, it’s pretty surreal. And the people at my label are beyond incredible. Seeing all the platinum records on the walls from all of the biggest names in the business and knowing they work along side the same people that see something in me is just something you can’t explain. It makes you feel like you’re gonna wake up one day and realize it’s all been a dream.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
There are so many things I love about Nashville. One, is that you just never know who you will have the opportunity to meet. There are so many incredible artists and songwriters here. Having the opportunity to meet many singer/songwriters and learn skills from them has been such a blessing. At the end of the day though, I am just a small town country boy that will probably never get used to the big city life, and I’m ok with that. I’m not sure there is anything I don’t like about Nashville yet, if I keep hangin out here long enough maybe I’ll find something, but until then, I’m gonna keep on enjoying all the experiences I have when I’m here.

Contact Info:

• • Email: Thedanielandrewsmusic@gmail.com
  • Instagram: @thedanielandrewsmusic
  • Facebook: @thedanielandrewsmusic
  • Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCySjAp-p8Ya0pYJ82GgYlxQ