|
I've known Andy Skib, lead singer of MWK and brain child behind the newer project - To Have Heroes, for 5-6 years. I'm pretty sure that he was still in high school at the time that I originally met him. But that doesn't mean that I didn't recognize the talent in young man that I saw fronting a band comprised of his elders and friends. Andy took the time to respond to some questions regarding both MWK and To Have Heroes.
 Nags: First of all, I want to touch quickly on MWK. You guys just released the EP Luna Despierta and am curious as to where MWK is going in the near future? Or even the distant future?
Andy: As of now, I don't think any of us are really clear on where MWK might fit in to our lives. I know Neal, Dave and myself like the idea of doing something MWK related at some point in the distant future.
Nags: I believe that Luna Despierta roughly translates to "wide-awake moon", how did you come up with that name?
Andy: Neal actually came to me with the name meaning, "the moon awakes". I agreed that it sounded interesting and in someway related to us doing this EP without any outside direction.
Nags: I just have to mention Incoherent With Desire to Move On... It's such an amazing album. Will any of these songs be reappearing on a full length in the near future?
Andy: I am sorry to say that I don't have an answer for that. I think that if we ever did another full length record we would want to start fresh. "Creating" is one of the greatest things about being a musician and that's what I think we would want to do, create music that shows where we are in our lives.
Nags: Okay - You've also just released a somewhat solo project called "To Have Heroes." How did this come about?
Andy: This project "spawned" from me sitting in Tulsa realizing what was going on around me. The music world that I had known was drastically changing, all of my friends were either moving or getting real jobs or becoming TV stars.
Around February 2008, I went into Zac Maloy's studio in Tulsa and played him a song I had written called "Reasons". At that point I was preparing to move to Nashville and star over. On a visit there, shortly after this meeting, Zac called me and we began recording an EP. So here I am now, in Los Angeles doing this interview with Nags!
Nags: What are the other guys from MWK (Josh Center and Neal Tiemann) doing while you're working on the THH project?
Andy: Josh is living in Austin at the moment playing with various bands and working at Yellow Dog Studios.
Neal Is now out here in LA working on David's record. In his spare time he's started a Lounge Act called "The Boston Swingers". He performs in various lounges in the LA area.
Nags: On the song, The Story of Your Life, which is freaking incredible. I've noticed that the co-writing credits go to Ike Hanson, Jason Mraz, and Zac Malloy. How did that writing combination come about?
Andy: That song came from a Hanson writing "camp" you could call it.
Nags: You've spent much of the last month or two living out in LA to play some shows and do some writing. How'd that come about and how'd that go for you?
Andy: The move came about by a high school friend of mine asking me to move to LA with him. It is really as simple as that. I knew that it would be a good place for me to meet some important folks and get my name out there. So far it has shown to be the right move for me. I love Tulsa though. I'm at a place in my life where I can be anywhere I want to be. I have nothing holding me down anywhere. It's a nice place to be but Tulsa will always be "home for me.
Nags: Will you be putting out a full length record at any point in the near future?
Andy: I hope to. I'm trying to use the EP as a tool to get more people involved with the project.
 Nags: You've been getting some support from a group of people. They've started calling themselves "Word Heroes." How did that all come about?
Andy: They created the whole thing! The name derives from Dave's fanbase, the WordNerds, and my project, To Have Heroes. It's amazing how things can change when simply more people know about your music.
Nags: What have you been listening to lately?
Andy: The new Jason Mraz album, "We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things", is a great record. It's very different from his previous releases.
George Stanford - "Big Drop"
Augustana - "Cant Love Can't Hurt"
I just found this band called The Damnwells. They're from Brooklyn, NY. I found them through a movie called "Chaos Theory", which is a great movie by the way. Most of the music in the movie is from the band and singer, Alex Dezen. Good stuff.
Nags: Continuing in the tradition of Music Equals Life, we've started asking the question, "If you are what you eat, you would be a what?"
Andy: Hotdog
Well, i'd like to thank Andy again for taking time out of his schedule to chat w/ us. |
