ANDY has released his debut EP, &e, today (October 23), following the “Can’t Wait” video that cast Ian Roberts and Mitch Brown in a queer reimagining of Australian football.
Released last month, the clip was directed by Harry Welsh and produced by DIVISION, with former West Coast Eagles player Brown as ANDY’s love interest. The clip drew on ANDY’s memories of growing up gay around rugby, turning the game’s physical closeness into a story about queer desire and belonging.
The video has since won silver in New Talent in Music Videos at this year’s CICLOPE awards and is nominated for Best Low Budget Video or Visualiser at the UK Music Video Awards.
In Rolling Stone AU/NZ’s original feature, ANDY explained the world he wanted to put on screen: “What if it was safe? What if being gay or queer was just fucking normal?”
Across nine tracks, &e explores what ANDY calls the “uniforms” people inherit: the identities, expectations and rules that come with being a man, and what happens when they stop fitting.
The EP’s three chapters, Liberation, Combustion and Acceptance, take in sex and falling in love, the pressure to succeed and the demands of school, religion and work.
The project began as home demos, recorded while ANDY taught himself Ableton during his recovery from double spinal surgery. He says he had to learn to speak, sing and move his body again.
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“You literally are listening to me find my voice again,” he says in the EP’s release notes.
Producer Jackson Barclay then helped develop those demos into the record. The pair worked with recordings from ANDY’s life, including intimate sounds on “Can’t Wait” and messages from loved ones reassuring him on “Lady”.
“It was love at first song,” ANDY says of working with Barclay.
The EP closes with “Her Living Room”, a tribute to the grandmother who gave him the freedom to discover himself.
“She knew who I was before I had discovered it, but let me have the choice and autonomy to find it,” he says.
ANDY’s &e is out now. See the full tracklist below.
&e Tracklist
- “Can’t Wait”
- “Regret It”
- “LYBM”
- “Lettuce”
- “AAAH!”
- “Move”
- “Lady”
- “Beautiful Boy”
- “Her Living Room”
