(Originally published in the now defunct Full Effect Magazine)

In the music scene of New York, an artist must have some real talent to stick out, but it doesn’t hurt when you’ve also got a unique image.

That’s Andrew Thompson all over, an artist whom, throughout his webpages bio, interlaces comments about how he was ‘born hairy’, and that ‘grows wiser’ and he ‘grows hairier.’  All of this is very true, but that’s just what you’d notice before you even here his music, which is hard to describe, to say the least.

Lory, a member of the Barnyard Animals, who plays alongside Andrew at his performances, believes’ that he’s “like a singer-songwriter who does this kind of pop music, but it’s not really pop, and it’s not really singer-songwriter.”

This is probably what caught the attention of Max Meiners, DJ at Western Kentucky University’s station Revolution 91.7.  The station first picked up his track ‘We’re in Business’ about a year ago, and because of this, ‘We’re in Business’ rose up to be the second most requested song of the year.

“I guess sometime… early September, I got a call from Max Meiners, and I did an interview for the radio over the phone.”  This started the connection between the radio station and Andrew, and lead to Andrew’s performance here in Bowling Green, KY in April, for Revolution 91.7’s concert, Mayhem.

At the time, that’s the farthest Andrew Thompson and his Barnyard Animals had traveled, until a tour of the United Kingdom this past fall.  “We love Bowling Green, we’d love to come back.  Everybody’s been real nice.”

The audience at Mayhem, clearly showed a mutual sentiment, which demonstrates Andrew’s success in Bowling Green.  However, being successful in New York is not as easy, says Andrew.

“In New York, [promoting is] half of what I do.  The hardest part is getting people to come to see you.  What’s that saying 8 millions stories, now 9.5 million stories in the city?  So yeah, they got their own story on any given night and usually that stories not going to be me.  If I get a few hundred stories then I’m thrilled that they came to my show.”

On the other hand, one can meet up with a lot of talent in New York as well.

“A lot of talent gravitates to New York because there is so much going on.  You think about all the people that aspire to do music, and maybe they’re really great at what they do, and they want to stand up there because there are a lot of opportunities, but it’s a double-edged sword.  On one hand you have this incredible community of talent to be surrounded by and play with, but on the other side it also makes it very competitive to try to make your voice heard in the midst of everything that is going on.  The business is hard and it’s hard for everybody who’s trying to do an individual creative kind of thing.”

Thankfully though, Andrew’s not at all alone, as he has both a label, and Sean.  Sean, is one of the, along with Lori, two Barnyard Animals that came to Bowling Green with Andrew.  Sean has a more important role than just accompaniment, since, according to Andrew, “Sean helped put this band together.”

“I’ve known Sean [out] of all the other three guys and ladies in the band the longest.  I moved to New York about [7] years ago, and Sean was one of the first guys I started playing with. Back then I was doing a lot of jazz shows and Sean and I would do little duo, or trio, or quartet gigs.”

Establishing oneself is key, and for Andrew, this was greatly helped since “most of my world is from Sean’s world, as far as New York goes.”

Connections increased greatly, not just due to Sean, but also with Andrew’s promotion of his works online.  “Before the label picked up any of these tunes they were available on-line, and that think that’s how a lot of this stuff circulated.”

This, along with Andrew’s other promotion work, helped Andrew get the notice of the label Lewis Recordings, and was soon-after signed by them.

“They’re not rich, they don’t pay me a lot, but they’re great.  It’s a good relationship in that they provide a particular service, [in] that they promote [my music], they put it out, they press it, they do all the sales.  They do a lot of the leg work, but it’s not as though they’re bank welling some huge project.  I mean, they’re very generous.  They give me everything that I need, but it’s not realistic that they could support me.”

Some artists have gotten in sticky financial issues with their label, but not Andrew. “I like them, they’re great guys, [and] I’d rather not worry about having all this money that I don’t know if I have to pay it back or not; instead, I just get to make the music I like to make and they put it out.”

The question then, is how does Andrew make his songs?

According to Lori, “it’s an interesting process, because Andrew develops these songs largely on his own, and when he makes the recordings, like Egad, it was done completely more or less by himself.  A lot of the recorded material seem’s like it’s formed, and then when we have the band rehearsal it’s more like who well can we work together to translate the general intent of the form”

Specifically in regards to writing, Andrew says that he “often has the melody and part of a lyric of a line, which will probably end up being the chorus.  Then I’ll put some sort of words or nonsense sounds that sort of sound like words together, and then tweek them.”

For many that first discovered Andrew, especially through Revolution, this was due to his song “We’re in Business”, which is oft just referred to as the ‘Robot Song’.

“The truth is I had the melody, ‘da da da da da We’re in Business,’ but I didn’t know what it would be, so I thought maybe it’d be like if you have these certain qualities ‘We’re in Business’ I think it was going to be something abouit ‘if you like inspector Crouseau movies, or something, ‘We’re in Business.’  If you like the things I like we’re cool, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to be about a friend, a girlfriend, about nothing, then a big dramatic moment [was when] I found this robot effect in this thing I have, and I just started talking into it, and I was like oh man this is funny.  So I started talking in that, and lo and behold ‘We’re in Business’ is all about a robot.  Simple as that.”

With a song such as this, so unique, an artist might traditionally worry about being pegged as a one-hit wonder, but Andrew’s not worried.

“I am aware that ‘We’re in Business’ is the popular number.  It doesn’t bother me.  It’s not like the Candyman for Sammy Davis Jr., or Don’t Worry Be Happy for Bobby McFarin, it’s not like the thing that kills me.”

Far from it, as Andrew’s recent tour to the U.K. shows how his popularity has continued to spread.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if my stuff becomes more popular overseas than here, but who knows?  Once the Japanese get a hold of that robot I might be in business,” Andrew laughs.

Even in the time from Mayhem to now, Andrew’s spread has grown substantially, and is continuing to do so.  One item in our interview that Andrew commented about is how Andrew’s been asked to “record theme music for a walking tour of Central Park,” where New York celebrities “like Norah Effrem and Spike Lee, will discuss, over his music, there “secret favorite spots in the park”

So this, with other projects will help keep Andrew busy, and keep him in the ears of New Yorkers and others for some time to come.

“My dream is for us to be sort of like a great Muppet band.  I want to be better than Electric Mayhem.  My goal is getting there.