Andie Mechanic
I fell in love with this song as soon as I heard these chords, but when you hear Andie Mechanic’s voice, you quickly understand that this song is going to be incredible. “call it even” is a storytelling. You can’t listen to this song without paying attention to the lyrics. Andie Mechanic perfectly made sure that the production matches the lyrics. It’s like watching a movie. “call it even” is stunning.
“call it even” is now available worldwide !
Introduce yourself - what's your story?
Hey hey! My name is Andie Mechanic and I’m a songwriter, artist, and producer at Berklee College of Music. My life is a revolving door of experiencing, processing, and expressing myself through song. I have a passion for exploring the most deep-seated/uncomfortable of human emotions and then neatly packaging them into three minute cathartic, listening experiences. My career is heavily focused around writing for other artists and helping them express themselves, but I decided to share my own music as a way of testing just how honest and vulnerable I can get in a song.
When did you know you could sing?
I was about eight years old when I asked my mom for voice lessons. It was one of those gut instincts that you can’t really explain. I loved musical theatre and singing in the car and harmonizing over the radio, so it was a really natural next step. That voice teacher ended up being the catalyst for a short stint as a child actor where I got to perform on Broadway, in a national tour, and sing in television/film. It was just another way I could express myself musically, something that, even at that age, felt like less of a want and more of a need.
When did you start writing songs? What was the biggest challenge when you first started?
I truly feel as if I was born with the songwriter gene. It’s the first thing I tried to do once I developed a voice box and a vocabulary. I spent so many hours at the piano throughout my childhood just experimenting with sounds, harmonies, and words that felt nice to my own ears and writing without any agenda. I think though, as I got older, I became much more self-conscious about my songs and went through a period of time when I barely showed them to anyone. I was still writing freely and honestly, but I was seemingly content to keep them to myself forever. Thank goodness that changed!
At what point did you know you had to become an artist and release your original music?
This is a great question. There is a really important distinction in the music industry between being an Artist and being a Songwriter. My career has mostly been focused on the latter, which involves co-writing sessions with artists and being their sounding board and confidant in the writing process. It’s a much more service-based role where you’re really there to support the artist in their own journey. That’s still my biggest goal and something I’m working towards every day; but I realized within the past year that some of my best work was coming from the songs I wrote when I needed to process my own experiences. There was an honesty and a grit to my own music that I couldn’t seem to pull from anyone else. That’s when I knew I needed to create my own artist project!
"call it even" is your new single - what's the inspiration behind this song?
call it even is one of my more “on-the-nose” songs. It was born about four months after I ended a relationship, the only significant relationship I’ve ever had. That was important because this was the first time I was experiencing the aftermath of a break-up and all the feelings that go along with being the one to end something. I had never gone so long without talking to someone that I was once romantically involved with and I really missed him a lot. So call it even became my way of “calling” out to him and imagining a world in which we could be in each other’s lives again.
When did you start working on "call it even"? Could you describe the songwriting/production process? Who helped you create it?
I have a voice memo from May 9th, 2022 that was the start of the song. I was noodling around with the chorus idea and the lyric “can we call it even? What do you say”? A few weeks later I decided to post a snippet of the song on tiktok. I got a comment on the video from a fellow Berklee student named Henry Patterson saying how much he loved it! We got together a few days later (that was actually the first time we ever met!) and finished the entire song. It was one of those sessions that felt so seamless and easy because we both loved the song a lot and were bouncing ideas off of each other until we got to the end! Henry’s one of my favorite artists and writers at Berklee and I seriously could not have finished this song without him. I started to tackle the production one night at my parent’s house and the track really quickly took shape. I’m really proud of this one because it’s my first solo-produced release :)
What's your favorite lyric on "call it even"?
“And we both fucked up, I’m bored enough right now to be honest”.
What made you want to release "call it even" as a single?
This song feels very much in its own world to me. It’s a snapshot of how I felt at a very particular moment in time. When I’m working on a project or a body of work, it’s important to me that every song feels timeless and connected. To me, this song wanted its own individual release with its own story to tell, so I gave it exactly that.
What can you tell us about the artwork?
I had the idea to rip up a deck of cards and piece them back together out of order for the album art. To me, that was a really good way of explaining this relationship I had- it wanted to work so badly, and it looked like it could for a while, but ultimately there was something fundamentally mis-matched about it. Kimmy Curry, a student at Northeastern and a music photographer, took me to a building at Northeastern and shot all the pictures and poses. I’m a sucker for anything distorted or weird, so I put some filters over Kimmy’s wonderful pictures and settled on the final album art!
As an artist, what is the hardest part? And what is best part?
I think the hardest part for me is how individual it can all feel. When you’re writing with and for another artist, you’re sharing an experience with them and it feels like a community. Being the artist, writing my own songs, promoting my own shows and releases, it can feel very isolating to do it all on my own and all under my own name. But the best part, which highly outweighs any hard parts, is that I get to write from a place of complete and utter honesty. I don’t have to get an artist’s approval for a line or what the production should sound like, because it’s all up to me. So I really get to dig deep into what I personally want to say and what’s going to be the most emotionally resonant decision.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
Oh man, another great question. I think what’s great about the industry right now is that there are SO many ways to break into it, specifically by reaching out over social media and connecting with people virtually. That kind of rapid-fire connection making has never been possible before! If I could change one thing, it would be making the emphasis way less about content creation and attention-grabbing marketing techniques. I just want people to listen to my music and feel something- resentment, sadness, catharsis, relief. I’m less interested in creating a brand around myself as a person and much more interested in how deeply I can make someone feel their own emotional baggage.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
“Just write as much as possible right now. Keep your head down and do the work.” - Michael Pollack
What does singing make you feel?
Like there might just be a reason for all the weird fucking shit we go through every day.
Who's helping you shape your career/artistry?
Artist wise, I look at Holly Humberstone, Carol Ades, Alix Page, and Charli Adams as humongous inspirations. Their vulnerability and sonic choices have helped shape the artist I want to be. Here at Berklee, I have a really wonderful circle of songwriters that I write with every day who inspire me to keep going in my career and push myself even further.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
If everyone was honest literally all the fucking time. I think about this so often- if we all just said how we truly felt about everything, there would be so much more empathy and social awareness.
What biggest life lessons have you learned so far?
- 1) Every mistake is a step closer to success
- 2) Nothing is more important than the people you choose to spend your time with
- 3) If you don’t ask, you don’t get!
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