Here is a kind article/interview/short story - from Performer Magazine
Sometimes Your Best Just Isn’t Good Enough For You
By Michael Aguilar
So, you’re under the age of 25, you are the frontman for one of the most popular up-and-coming indie rock acts of the last couple of years. You are one half of the moving force behind one of the more respected independent labels in the business. You’ve shaken hands with David Letterman and been featured or mentioned in major media outlets like Rolling Stone, Spin, Paste and most major music blogs in the U.S. and U.K.
Are you satisfied? Not if you’re Andy Hull.
If you’re Andy Hull, you spent 300 nights on the road in 2007 with Manchester Orchestra (the aforementioned up and coming indie rock act), shook Letterman’s hand, run a label, got featured in every music media outlet between Atlanta and London, came home and immediately began writing the second installment for your “side-project,” Right Away, Great Captain! If you’re Hull, you began writing in January and you are ready for tracking in June.
“It’s a real writing exercise,” Hull says.That’s like a marathon runner finishing first in the Boston Marathon and taking a “victory lap” in the name of physical fitness. Let’s pause here to define what a “side-project” is in the eyes of Hull. He took on this project directly before writing Manchester Orchestra’s debut album, I’m Like a Virgin Losing a Child. He wanted to write a series of concept albums detailing the saga of a sailor in the 1600s.
“This is a really slow burning project. I want this to be something that I can continue to write records for the next 20 years,” he says. “Who knows if it’ll be under the name Right Away, Great Captain! — that’s primarily about this project, so maybe after the third record we’ll see what happens.”
Your average indie band doesn’t have its next album planned or even sketched halfway through a tour supporting the last album. Hull had three albums about his sailor more or less drawn up before he began writing the first, all while writing a Manchester Orchestra album that garnered more attention than nearly any other debut rock record in 2007.
“It is weird because I’ve never done a three-part, full thing, a 35-song collection,” Hull reflects. “Making sure that I was staying true to the story, but also as you grow, the way I wanted the story to go two years ago is now different than how I want it to go now.” So not only does he have the time and ability to write a 35-song catalogue on one subject, but also he has the time and ability to change it as he goes. Did we mention that he got married in June as well? None of this really comes as a surprise when you hear Hull talk about writing songs.
“I write when I’m happy, sad, angry, depressed or just when I’m normal,” he says. “I get writers block all the time but sometimes I just take my guitar into my bathroom — the acoustics are great in there — and write six songs. Five of them may suck, but I write them anyway.”
So that’s how he does it. Hull may be one of the most prolific songwriter in the music business, especially considering his relative youth. Perhaps that’s why in high school he fronted, sang and wrote for up to four bands at a time. Now we know how he does it — unbelievable talent and dedication — but we still don’t know why he does it.
“With Manchester we’ve really turned from a band that was about trying to be the coolest Death Cab cover band we could be to becoming a full on, really loud, really dynamic rock band,”Hull explains. “The louder and louder we got in Manchester, the quieter I wanted to be on this other record.”
There you have it, dear reader. Andy Hull is writing the story of a sailor in the 1600s. He’s not doing it for money, fame and certainly not for fans. He is making his music because it is flowing out of him and because everything else pales in comparison. Will Hull ever be satisfied with his musical output? Probably not. The music world can count itself blessed for that.
Check Out The Second RAGC installment titled The Eventually Home on November 11th/Favorite Gentlemen Recordings
