Brother Andrew is one of those projects that found me through a total cosmic alignment. Immensely grateful for this piece coming into my life, and to Jason, Neal, and AD players for having me on board. What a treat to track an original cast album. Gonna be thinking about this one for a while. 🩶🩶🩶🩶
STRAIGHT OUTTA STOCKHOLM PT 2
this one is love love love. songs like this make me grateful beyond words to be able to express myself, my life, through music. if I dive in too deep here it’ll just defeat the song. but I remember being on a train to Copenhagen, and a plane to Stockholm, and a kayak in the Baltic, and this song was pouring out of me, like every tear I’d shed in the year prior. Recording this was spiritual. I had visions tracking vocals. the upright Steinway piano spoke to me like it knew me in ways I couldn’t articulate then. dammit I’m gonna cry. Hey, enjoy this song. I love it so much. ❤️JA
Music, Lyrics, Production, Artwork: John Amar
Engineered by Christopher Göthberg
Recorded at @sonika.studio Stockholm, Sweden
Mixed, Mastered by @dordorothyc at @thebarronstudios
hey! fun stuff alert 🚨Brother Andrew opens tonight at AD Players. This one’s been really fun. It’s a new musical and all the songs are stuck in my head and I get to play synthesizers and organs and fun stuff like that. big thank you to creative team for having me onboard 🙌🙌 come see our show! We run all month. Dm me for more deets or just to say hi 🖤JA
STRAIGHT OUTTA STOCKHOLM (PT 1)
when I made the pilgrimage to Sweden, it was to make music at the Mecca of pop music. I wanted to breathe the air and drink the water that fueled Max Martin. I needed to visit the old Cheiron studios and walk the same sidewalks that Britney, NSYNC, and Backstreet Boys walked. I had to get as far away from home and my comfort zone as possible to write and produce new music.
“How Far Will You Go” is one of two songs I recorded in Stockholm. I produced this in ableton on trains in Paris,Brussels, Amsterdam, and Hamburg. (Hearing the track puts me on the move across Europe all over again.) The night before the session in Sweden, I had been working so hard on the other song I made (!! which I’ll share soon) that I realized I forgot to write how far will you go. So I wrote the song and tracked a scratch vocal half asleep, hoping for the best the next day.
Huge thank you to Christopher Göthberg and Sonika Studio for having me. One day I hope to record an entire album here.
Music, Lyrics, Production, Artwork: John Amar
Engineered by Christopher Göthberg
Recorded at @sonika.studio Stockholm, Sweden
Mixed, Mastered by @dordorothyc at @thebarronstudios
If you’ve made it this far: how far have you been from home?? Drop a pin in the comments
More Stockholm stories soon 🖤JA
so before it freezes..
summer 2022. California started recurring in my writing. Freebie was on the hard drive, on the heart. I was about to hit London for the first time. @_rickyjay_ hopped on the track right before the trip. (@cameracult remains one of my fav bands out of Houston, or anywhere, so I was honored and starstruck by the collaboration.)
it’s a song about rearranging your priorities + relationships in grief. the impending events it brings, the plans you already had; the sweet spot of a childish longing to dismiss it all. convinced that after the funeral it’ll work itself out in Cali. And yet I’ve lived most of my life in Texas-
Music, Lyrics, Production, Artwork: John Amar
Guitar: Ricky J Vasquez
Mixed, Mastered, Engineered: @dordorothyc
Additional engineering: @babyfajitas
Recorded at: @thebarronstudios
Aight, cover your plants, wrap your pipes, and drip your faucets - cuz they freezing everybody out here.
🖤JA
yo im filled with gratitude rn, so many of yall reached out with the kindest things to say about California Fires - thank u thank u thank u ❤️🔥💪❤️🔥💪
it’s been a long time coming. it feels great releasing it. if anyone here knows Brandon Flowers personally please pass the message along that I name dropped him in my song.
California Fires is about following your destiny, and knowing that no matter how u might try to fight it or turn away from it, it’s only an inevitability that it’ll call u to actualize it. At least that’s what it means to me.
Engineered, Mixed, Mastered by Dorothy Chan @dordorothyc
Music, Lyrics, Production, Album Art: John Amar
Recorded at Barron Studios @thebarronstudios
love love love and more music where it came from.
✌️🖤JA
ps i might make some sillies with the song or post about it every now and then just ignore me thx
march 2008, day after seeing it on broadway, processing a seismic shift. time traveling back to this kid right now with a spoiler alert: in 16 years, @recroomarts will ask you to music direct this, and it will hit closer to home than you could possibly comprehend right now. it’s gonna bring you into a circle of incredible human beings. there will be a beautiful boxer in your life who will wiggle his butt at every step of the process. and, if I may, you’re gonna age really well. oh and opening night is TONIGHT. love you spring family 🌼
to that angel who heard me through the wall
🖤JA
