Interview: Andy Frasco

A former wild child of the music scene, Andy Frasco has gradually upped the professionalism of his live shows and recorded work — while still maintaining his energetic style.

Prior to returning to town with his band The U.N. for their Salvage Station debut on Thursday, Nov. 18, Frasco spoke with Asheville Stages about navigating the pandemic, headlining Red Rocks, and using his podcast as a force for healing.

Edwin Arnaudin: So, big night in New Orleans?

Andy Frasco: Jesus Christ, this town could kill somebody. It probably has! [laughs] This is not good for anyone who doesn’t like their livers.

EA: [laughs] Well, double thanks for taking time out to speak with me. What’s it like being back on the road?

AF: Man, when you miss something, it's crazy. We were all burnt out before this quarantine — I think a lot of musicians were just playing every day and not knowing when there's going to be a stop, and all of a sudden you wake up one day and you’ve spent a year and a half in your house.

Now, being back on the road, I'm not taking anything for granted and I'm having a great time trying to give the best performances I can and trying to reunite people. It's hard! When you get stuck in your house for that long, you feel like you're alone, and when people finally get back out of their houses, it's our job to get those smiles back on their faces.

EA: It’s working! We need that energy.

AF: Yeah, man! When you do something too much, sometimes you take it for granted. And when you finally get it back to you...there's been heavy, emotional shows that we've done where people were singing the lyrics and fucking crying with us. Like, “Geez, this is heavy! This is not just music anymore. This is spiritual.” We don't realize how much people needed music and missed music. And I'm just thankful that I'm fortunate enough to be one of the bands that could bring it back when it first comes out.

EA: So, how have you spend your pandemic time?

AF: Man, I stayed busy. I started a talk show on Twitch called "The Shit Show.” And then I started this livestream dance party where we had, like, 300,000 people in a Zoom and I would just be dancing with all these Zoomers, and we'd have a DJ and we'd play like, you know, cliché, ’80s music and dress up in costumes in our living room. [laughs] That was the freak show. And that was called the "I Wanna Dance with Somebody Dance Party.”

And then [with “Andy Frasco's World Saving Podcast”], I got to interview all these people who I've never thought I can interview because everyone has such busy schedules. But I got to interview Tony Hawk and all these musicians and comedians — Bert Kreischer and Melissa Etheridge — and talk about mental health. I was trying to build community through this whole quarantine because that's what people look for me for is to keep them going through tough times. So, whatever I could do to get people happy, that’s what I was doing.

EA: How did interactions between you and your bandmates shift during quarantine?

AF: It was a little tough, but it was also needed because we were all probably fucking sick of each other [laughs] before the quarantine. So, we all needed a break, but now the brothership is back and we're playing great music. Like I said before, we take for granted things when you do them every day, and, you know, we missed each other. So, now we're playing good music.

EA: Did any of them get up to any exciting side projects?

AF: Maybe like they fell in love with their girlfriends. [laughs] That's a side project in itself. [laughs] But nah, they took a break. A lot of the musicians who've been doing this — we do 150-200 shows a year. All my friends, they finally get to put their feet up and sit on a couch and binge Netflix and write new music. I wrote a whole new record, too, in the quarantine. So we've been slowly releasing those songs as well.

EA: Oh nice!

AF: Yeah! I traveled the country and wrote with all these songwriters that I've always wanted to write with. So, I went to Charleston and wrote with Susto and Umphrey's McGee. Then I went to Nashville and wrote with like 20 songwriters. I had a one and a half month gap, because I knew I had this four month tour that's going down right now. And I'm like, "Oh shit! I thought about everything else — dance parties, podcast, and not my music.” [laughs] So it's like, "Oh fuck!" I went into like panic mode. I'm like, "I'm just going to travel to all these different cities and play with these songwriters and get my chops up again and get ready for the tour." And it was an amazing experience. I wrote, like, 20 songs in two weeks.

EA: Dang!

AF: Not on drugs, too! I was amazed, dude. No Adderall. I don't do any speed anymore, but... some mushrooms. But it was just amazing to not feel like…sometimes, when you write on the road, when you're always playing, you're always thinking about, "Oh, will this work on stage?" or something. And to take a step back and just say, "Oh, do you just like what you're talking about? And do you like what you're writing?" I came first this time and it was nice to. And I'm really proud of these songs, and I’ll play a bunch in Asheville.

EA: Was the last time you were here at Asheville Music Hall in 2019?

AF: Yeah! Oh shit…

EA: [laughs]

AF: Yeah, man. I love Asheville. How's Asheville doing?

EA: We’re hanging in there. You know, we’re in a conservative county but it’s a progressive city, so that’s been interesting.

AF: A fuckin’ roller coaster! [laughs]

EA: And the flood of tourists never really stopped. [laughs]

AF: Oh, Jesus…

EA: But we’re still here. We lost a couple music venues on the west side — The Mothlight and Ambrose West.

AF: Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that, bud.

EA: Thanks. But yeah, what about Asheville stands out to you? Why do you like coming back here?

AF: I just think the community is pretty amazing. I love North Carolina. Like you said, it's got two sides of the coin. [laughs] You've got these hippies and you got these conservatives and everyone minds their business, but they're also just in this thing together — which I love about the Southern states. No one's giving each other shit. It's like, “All right, you believe that, I believe this. Let's just try to be happy together.”

EA: And yeah, glad to see you landed at Salvage Station. They’ve had a good run of shows this fall, including Wilco and Sleater-Kinney on the same bill.

AF: Oh sick!

EA: And it’s right by the river — a really nice, spread out place.

AF: I never played Salvage Station, but I’ve heard it's cool.

EA: Yeah! And it’s a pretty significant step up size-wise from the Music Hall. What advances have y’all made as a band to merit these bigger venues?

AF: I think we just stopped making it about the party and making it about the music. We used to take nitrous on stage [laughs] and just throw a party. I refocused my energy on the songs, so instead of me crowd surfing every other song, I'm actually playing more songs and playing more music. And I think people are really responding to them — that I'm not just a party boy. I actually have something to say and I have songs to play.

EA: And what approaches have you taken as a group to get the most out of the larger stages and spaces?

AF: Yeah! We got bunch of sit-ins. We hired a sound man. Hell yeah! [laughs] We're a pro band now. I couldn't believe it: We played the Ogden [Theatre in Denver] —that's like 1600 cap — and we had a plan of how we're going to walk on stage and shit. And I'm like, “We never used to do that!” We used to slam a beer and get on the fuckin’ stage, and now we have, like, lights that dim down. It's like a show! I'm pretty amazed with us. [laughs] It's like were growing up or something. [laughs]

EA: Speaking of shows, I’ve been listening to your Red Rocks recording and it’s so joyful. What was that like?

AF: Man, it was heavy. It was our first show back from quarantine. I moved to Denver right before quarantine and all of a sudden we got asked to headline Red Rocks. And my mom was there and my mom hasn't been out of the house in a year and a half because she has leukemia. And seeing her front row just fucking crying...I'm crying. [laughs] It's just heavy, dude! Red Rocks is such a magical venue in itself and I never thought our band would get that big to do that. And just people reacting, too, you know? Optimism — we're an optimistic band. I think the world needs optimism right now.

EA: And you mentioned your podcast — how do you feel it’s evolved in those two-plus years since it started?

AF: I started the podcast because I got off of cocaine and I had all this free time and I was too cheap to get a therapist. So, I'm like, “I'm just going to interview all these musicians who've had addiction problems and guys who've lived crazy lives and let's just get together on a public platform.”

So from that…I mean, a lot of musicians were having a hard time during quarantine because they've never been home that long. They'd never been with their wives or their kids [laughs] this long in their life. And for us all to heal, that was the most important thing. So we were just talking, we were just building conversations instead of like, “So, tell me about the cocaine years." [laughs] We were like, "Let's talk about your mental health and let's talk about how we can work on just trying to be optimistic every day." And I think it really resonated during the time when people are, you know…we're exploring ourselves. It's hard to be alone, so we have to accept who we are and hear other people's stories so we aren’t afraid to be who we want to be, too.

IF YOU GO

Who: Andy Frasco & The U.N. with Nick Gerlach’s Cult Conference
When: Thursday, Nov. 18, 8 p.m.
Where: Salvage Station, 468 Riverside Drive, salvagestation.com
Tickets: $18 advance/$20 day of show

(Photo by Andrew Hutchins)