Andreas Owens
some thoughts on ‘almost everything i’ve ever wanted to say’
‘almost everything i’ve ever wanted to say’ is truly, in every way, nearly everything I’ve ever wanted to say musically, conceptually, and emotionally. I’ve always wanted to create a body of work that had no specific objective or goal in mind. Rather, I’ve tried to focus more on making a record that felt like an honest depiction of my thoughts; each song is a small piece of the collective bigger picture. At the end of the day, this EP is still just a glimpse into the vast array of experiences I’ve had over the past few years. While it can be easy to hide behind the songwriting, I’ve done my best to remain honest with myself and, to the best of my ability, convey the reality of my inner world.
While the music released under andreas owens is indeed sonically different from The Millennial Club, I think the bigger difference is reflected more so within the creative process. Being the only person responsible for contributing to the creative and sonic direction has refreshed the process of writing, producing, and recording; it has also allowed me to feel recklessly myself in a different way. The safe, familiar space when working on the solo project facilitates something rather visceral and unapologetically my own; I don’t feel the pressure of having to fit into any particular mold or genre and unsurprisingly, it’s been extremely freeing. I’m able to create music with an understanding that I realized when I first started the andreas owens project: Mistakes are inevitable, and that, in itself, is a beautiful part of the process that makes it my own.
Of the five songs on this record, “speaking with my chest” is my personal favorite. On the surface, it may seem like the least produced or perhaps somewhat uninteresting to some people, but for me there is a certain depth that I’d never really discovered before. Probably not unlike many other artists, my over-analytical and often-to-a-fault-perfectionist mindset has inevitably always chimed in and forced me to re-record, alter, or otherwise change lots of good recordings. For some reason, that changed with “speaking with my chest”. Though I’m still not entirely sure why, I couldn’t find it in myself to try and re-record the original take. I think you’ll hear it in my voice that the song really carries a lot of weight for me; the song is an honest and intimate moment for me that really opened my eyes to the meaning of working on myself.
It feels incredibly rewarding to release this EP into the world. Now that it’s finally out, I plan on taking a step back from the solo project and letting this record breathe and grow in a natural way; something I feel is necessary for this collection of songs. While I have a lot of other songs in the works that I plan on releasing under andreas owens – features and collaborations included – I’m really excited to work on the next TMC record and continue working on my lofi project, clay house, which is a collaboration with pecna (Jared, who is the bassist and keyboardist in The Millennial Club). I’ve also been working really closely with my girlfriend, Maddy Brown, to produce her debut project, which will launch later this fall as well. Needless to say, there is much more to come soon! ◡̈