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    For The Record: Andrew Combs’ “Canyons of My Mind”

    New West Records
    Produced by Skylar Wilson & Jordan Lehning

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    “Kristina, my believer…you pinned me down and I carved out your name.”

    The infectious chorus of “Better Way” from Andrew Combs’ third studio album, Canyons in my Mind, has been firmly planted in my brain since I first listened to it about two weeks ago. But I can’t be mad at Combs for knowing how to write a damned good hook, a strength that he readily acknowledges even if it’s not always calculated.

    “There’s no formula for me. I will say with this record I tried to stretch myself, whether it was melody or chord structure or what not. But I don’t know, I like coming up with melodies. It’s one of my favorite things to do. And when you can meld that with good lyrics, I think that’s the key. And I like a soaring chorus, you know, the sort of thing that’s sing-a-long-able. That was one easy to write. It’s about my wife.”

    Combs and I sat on the back patio at Ace of Cups in Old North Columbus last week, just shortly before he went on stage to perform the last show of his US tour. Unassuming and soft-spoken, he sips coffee as we discuss the new album, which had just been released the previous Friday. So far, he’s pleased with the response.

    “It seems overwhelmingly positive, so that’s been good,” he shares. “I try not to pay too much attention to that, but I am human. The touring stuff is still building for me. That’s still definitely what I need to work on the most in terms of building an audience and what not. But, you know, every year it just gets better when I go places. It’s slower, but, you know, I’ve always played the long game and all my heroes did the same. I’m okay with that.”

    From start to finish, Canyons in my Mind is an excellent record; raw and gritty in certain places, mellifluous in others. Combs’ voice is reminiscent of troubadours like Nick Drake and Harry Nilsson (or Travis’ Fran Healy as a contemporary example), but his pleading warble is distinctively unique next to his current singer-songwriter peers. It’s pungent enough to punch through the fat snare drums and buzzy guitars on the album’s opener “Heart of Wonder,” but can also wax and wane with heartbreaking tenderness as it does on the set’s first single, the dulcet “Dirty Rain.”

    To say that Canyons in my Mind is a throwback does it gross injustice as a well-crafted piece of modern music. But Combs’ commitment to nuance and authenticity is what compels me to listen to classic pop records when what’s currently on the airwaves grows tiresome. It’s the kind of album that requires the listener’s attention to truly soak in each intimation, and certainly after multiple plays. From the haunting heart note “Hazel,” to the slide-guitar-sweetened “Rose Colored Blues,” to the longing melancholy of “Silk Flowers,” Combs proves he can weave poignant lyrical imagery into memorable tunes seamlessly.

    Call it Americana, call it roots, or call it countrypolitan — the fact that the industry can’t seem to fit Combs’ music into a neat and tidy genre doesn’t faze him.

    “I don’t really care. And I don’t really ever want to make the same record twice, so I totally understand why people have a problem with or are confused about what exactly a label would be for me. Yeah, it’s not something — I actually dread that question when people ask me what kind of music I play. I think a lot of artists do.”

    You’ve written some explicitly political songs for this album, and at least some parts of “Bourgeois King” are a rather direct commentary on the state of our current administration. I know you and your wife are expecting a baby, so you’re looking through the lens of bringing them into the world at a time when there’s a lot of uncertainty and conflict, but what else prompted you to write it?

    “With the election in 2016 and 2017 so far, it’s just so in my face, and it’s in everyone’s faces. I feel like people are walking on pins and needles on both sides. It was really just hard for me to not write the ‘Bougeois’ song. I never was one to even really dig into political stuff. I think that probably was just because the good political songs were written in an age when I wasn’t around, you know, so I wasn’t feeling it face to face like other people were. I started that song — it was really about both sides. And then he won. Obviously the wall reference is to him. But just politics in general, the beginning [of the song] was kind of more an observation, like you said. But then, as I was writing it, he was winning (laughs), and I was getting more and more mad. And I think it comes off as a pretty angry song, and I was.”

    And then there’s “Dirty Rain,” which is such a gorgeous song. It reminds me of Simon & Garfunkel’s “My Little Town” — not that they sound alike at all, but the context is similar in that both of them discuss the observation of darkness in your surroundings.

    “That’s a cool reference. I hadn’t thought of that.”

    I’ve read a few other pieces that confirm it’s a song about gentrification in Nashville, but I think you’ve indicated otherwise, that it has a broader message.

    “I mean, I don’t want to call anyone out, but a few people ran with that. It’s not about…gentrification, I guess, falls under the umbrella of what I’m trying to talk about with that song. But no, it goes back to…I’m just appalled at times at how we treat our planet. Bringing a child into that is daunting in some ways.”

    I’m curious: what are the places in which you find yourself getting stuck as an artist? Where might you struggle the most during the creative process?

    “Every time, I think. But that’s why I create. I’m not really big on entertainment. I’ve learned to like being on stage, but what I really like is writing and recording. So yeah, the challenges that come with that in just kind of pushing myself in different directions. I get really bored with art in general, so trying to burst my bubble is always good. I think, musically, I’m not a theory kind of guy or anything, but that’s probably the toughest part. But also the most rewarding when something good happens.”

    I was reading the biography on your website, and it referred to “artistic sustainability.” What does that look like for you?

    “That’s kind of going back to…I’m not sort of the entertainer showman guy. I’m just interested in creating — it’s very clichéd to say, but, creating a career that is sustainable where I can still do what I want. And that’s where the long game comes back into play, just hammering out and working really hard. Yeah, I don’t know…I talked to the guy who wrote that bio about that stuff. I didn’t really realize he was going to put that in there. I like it. It’s fine (laughs). It’s true. It’s pretty self-explanatory. I just want to support my family and keep doing what I love to do and not run myself ragged at the same time. When I was talking to him about that, I was trying to paint…I’ve always read a lot. And I don’t just pick up a book — like, I have to research the author beforehand and get to know him or her in some way, shape, or form. And just kind of studying those cases who’ve made a career not by being famous, but by doing something they love to do.”‘

    And now that you’re finished with the US leg of this tour, you’re off to the UK. Have you been before?

    “Yeah, I go over there. I try and go twice a year. It’s good over there. It’s different, you know? They’re very…the audience is super respectful — a listening audience, which freaks a lot of my friends’ bands out who’re rock bands and whatnot, because no-one’s hootin’ and hollerin’ really. Maybe every once in awhile in between songs, but it’s pretty cordial and contained. Yeah, I like it over there a lot, but I’m excited to go back in the warmer months. That’ll be nice (laughs). We’re doing Scandinavia and the Netherlands, too, so that’ll be good. They just really eat up any sort of group scene music…again putting a label on something (laughs).”

    What I love most about Canyons in my Mind is how honest it is, and I think it’s comforting to know that artists are still out there doing that, because a lot of contemporary music feels prefabricated. 

    “In every avenue of every art form there is. You’ve just got to seek it out sometimes.”

    Andrew Combs’ Canyons in my Mind is now available through his official website.
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    Grant Walters
    Grant Waltershttps://columbusunderground.com
    Grant is a freelance writer for Columbus Underground who primarily focuses on music and comedy. He's a Canadian transplant, born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and schooled in Vancouver, British Columbia. Grant is also the co-author of two internationally acclaimed books: "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1960s" and "Decades: The Bee Gees in the 1970s." He has also penned numerous articles and artist interviews for the nationally recognized site, Albumism.
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