Andrew Castro

Andrew Castro is a numbers guy. He won’t hesitate to tell you he’s performed more than 450 times since he first walked onto a stage two years ago.

And that his first EP release show in Sacramento—a joint gig with fellow singer-songwriter Xochitl in February at Shine—completely sold out. And that he had only been living in Sacramento for six months at the time. And that another six months later, it would only make sense to up the ante with an EP release show at Harlow’s Restaurant & Nightclub.

OK, Castro admits he’s obsessed with numbers.

“You can just see your work,” he says. “If you don’t set goals, you don’t know where you’re trying to go.”

His goals for the rest of the year include releasing two more EPs, going on a second tour and bringing at least 200 people out to Harlow’s this Saturday, July 11, for the release of Live.

Castro can also tell you all about Sacramento’s open-mics—he goes to two or three every night, Monday through Thursday. Or his recent West Coast tour. Over the course of nine weeks, he handed out hundreds of CDs for an average donation of $5 apiece. He also lost eight pounds that trip, due to a strict budget of “don’t spend shit.”

One thing Castro can’t tell you, though, is how many songs he’s written.

“I write so many little pop songs but usually just toss them immediately,” he says, estimating that he’s written approximately 200 full songs but only plays 20 on a regular basis.

All right, enough with the numbers. Castro ain’t a mathematician—he’s an artist. He typically performs solo with a loop pedal, weaving together a mix of folk-pop and rhythmic pop.

His last EP, Inside Out, heavily channels Jason Mraz with six fully-produced, pop songs about love. His new EP Live delves into decidedly new territory.

“They’re darker, edgier songs,” he says.

With Live, Castro shows influences of hip-hop, R&B and Justin Timberlake. It’s also his first-ever live record.

“There’s no added stuff to it—it’s just me, my voice, my guitar, my loop pedal,” he says. “I wanted to do that because I play live so much. I wanted to give people the sound—the flavor—that I bring live.”

He wrote the three songs while on his recent tour— in whatever room he was crashing in for the night, very quietly.

“I didn’t anticipate writing this EP entirely on tour,” he says. “It just sorta clicked.”

Besides, he needed to get that second EP out quickly if he’s going to complete his quota of four in one year.

For his third and fourth EPs, Castro wants to collaborate with local hip-hop artists and female singer-songwriters, respectively. Each album will wind up presenting a very different Castro—and eventually get stripped, merged and reproduced for a debut full-length next year—which is just as he intends.

“As an artist, you want to change, but stay the same,” he says. “You want to change a little bit but still sound like you. I don’t think it matters what genre you go to.” - Sacramento News and Review

Local singer/songwriter Andrew Castro only started playing live shows in the summer of 2013 and has already logged nearly 300 performances. He plays a lot here in town at coffee shops, open mics and things of that sort, but he’s also gigged in San Francisco, Los Angeles and even New York. His acoustic-based sound is pop-y and upbeat with heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics about falling in and out of love.

“Most of my songs are about relationships,” Castro recently told Submerge. “Not necessarily all love songs, but just analyzing certain aspects of failed relationships and long-distance relationships.”

His newest six-track EP out now on iTunes titled Inside/Out follows this subject matter.

“‘Fall’ is my favorite song,” he said of the new EP. “It’s about seeing the person you are in love with fall in love with someone else and you know the relationship is finally over and can never be anything romantic ever again.”

Castro recorded the songs on the new EP with Casey Groat of Groatesque Studios in Sacramento over a period of three months from October to early January, where they created all their own beats from scratch and worked on a full production including strings, piano, harmonies, the whole nine. Castro is celebrating with fellow Sacramento singer/songwriter Xochitl (featured in our last issue of Submerge) at a dual EP release show at Shine on Saturday, Feb. 28. The all-ages show starts at 8 p.m., is only $5 and will also feature openings sets by Ruby J and Meghan Bone. Shine is located at 1400 E Street. Learn more about Castro at Andrewcastromusic.com and for more on the venue, visit Shinesac.com. - Submerge Magazine

This year’s Sacramento Pride Festival will feature more and
bigger name live entertainment than any time in the event’s
26-year history, with top stars Belinda Carlisle and Cazwell
heating up the main stage.

Sacramento’s own singer-songwriter
Andrew Castro will offer the Pride Festival
audience a change of pace with an acoustic
upbeat pop sound. Castro, who has played
more than 350 venues since he began
touring nationally in 2013, recently released
his new EP album Inside/Out. - Outword Magazine

Live performance
http://fox40.com/2015/06/05/sacramento-pride-festival-coming-this-weekend/ - Fox 40 News

Two-for-one: Expect Shine Cafe to sell out on Saturday, February 28, over double the excitement over a double album release show.

Singer-songwriters Xochitl and Andrew Castro will both celebrate the releases of their second EPs, titled Lion Heart and Inside/Out, respectively.

The pair met last summer at an open-mic at the now-shuttered Marilyn’s on K. Soon, they started hopping from open-mic to open-mic together—sometimes hitting ones in Folsom, Elk Grove and downtown Sacramento all in one night.

“It was nice to find a partner in crime,” Xochitl said.

Xochitl quickly gathered fans in Sacramento for her light, entertaining yet clever lyrics. What can fans expect from Lion Heart? Xochitl calls it her “most thought-out, professional, best work yet.” No big stylistic departures here, but she is singing deeper these days.

“I figured out I’m Amy Winehouse, not Taylor Swift,” she said.

Castro, meanwhile, is newer to the scene, having relocated here from the Bay Area last year. He agreed that his songwriting has improved, matured, but sticks to that familiar acoustic pop style. Live, he’ll utilize loops as well as collaborations with Xochitl and a couple of hip-hop artists. For her set, Xochitl will front a full band—a rarity. - SN&R (Sacramento News & Review)

When your influences are Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, it’s pretty safe to say you’ve got good taste in music. Fortunately, Andrew Castro has more than just great taste in the music he listens to, he also has great taste in the music he creates. His recent EP, “Leaving Unknown,” was released just a couple months back and Progressive Man has had the great pleasure of listening to it all the way through. Andrew takes the time to talk to us about the lead single, “Round Here,” his experience writing the soundtrack to a novel, and how a California native found himself rooting for the Miami Heat.
Andrew, thank you for taking the time to chat with us! For those who are just discovering you, fill us in on how you first got your start as a musician.
I initially wanted to be an actor. When I was in elementary school my cousins and I would make Star Trek movies with the most absurd story lines and “special effects.” When I realized that I was pretty terrible at acting, I picked up a guitar because one of my older cousins was in a band and I wanted to try that out.
The first song I learned was ‘When I Come Around’ by Green Day. From then on I loved playing guitar and I joined a band called the Childhood Heroes in high school and we played our talent show and killed it. But I never wrote my own songs. I would just fool around on the guitar. It wasn’t until college that I discovered the music of Tom Petty and Bob Dylan. There were also some changes happening in my life at that time in college.
All that kind of stirred the pot and I just popped a song out of nowhere and it was awful but it was a song and I was in love and knew what I wanted to be for the rest of my life.
progressive man (1)Now, I know you’ve cited Bob Dylan and Tom Petty as 2 of your primary influences. When you were first starting out, did you find yourself trying to emulate their playing styles and approach to music?
Oh without a doubt. I think any songwriter starting out is always emulating those that came before them, that they look up to, and then from there you forge your own path. But they were huge influences on just how to structure a song lyrically and melodically.
Back in 2011 you actually took part in a very interesting project which essentially amounted to writing the soundtrack to the novel, “The Lost Saints of Tennessee.” How did you first stumble upon the opportunity to take part in this project?
Well it really starts back a couple months before the project. I was playing in a basketball game and I got a shoulder to the throat and literally lost my voice for about four to five months and didn’t know if would be able to sing again. It was right when my voice started to heal that my neighbor across the street came to me with an idea to write a theme song to her novel that would go on her web site.
I hadn’t written a song in five months because of the injury so I was excited. She gave me the manuscript and I read it in like a week and wrote an entire album. She loved it and we went on a tour of California and some southern and east coast states. It was great.
What was the writing process like? Would you just take certain passages from the novel and write songs about them or did you work with the author, Amy Franklin Willis, to pick the subject matter of the music?
Yeah she just gave me the book I would just sit down and read and then a certain part of the book would trigger something and I’d pick up the guitar and boom a song came out. The whole album was done within a week. It was so easy because the book was excellent and there was so much detail and emotion that everything just came out real fast.
The songs you wrote for the novel have a distinct country-folk sound to them, whereas your latest music, from your EP “Leaving Unknown,” has more of a pop feel. Which genre are you more comfortable in and which one would you say is more of who you are as an artist?
I am much more comfortable with the pop feel. I am more of a happy, fun person so even if the lyrics of my new songs are sad they are still surrounded by upbeat rhythms and melodies.
Plus the Leaving Unknown stuff is personal and for me that makes the experience of playing live much more emotional when I know exactly where the songs came from because I have lived those moments.
Speaking of “Leaving Unknown,” you just recently released the music video for your single, “‘Round Here.” What made you decide on that song as your lead single?
I was in the studio recording the tracks at Fault Line Studios in San Francisco and the producer heard me recording the song and by the time I was done with the first verse he said that’s the single.
Now I couldn’t hear him because I was in an isolation booth with headphones on but he said it to everyone else in the room. When I came out they told me what he said and they all agreed and I hopped on board.
I think it has the most pleasing sound. It’s mellow but has a nice beat to it and it’s not such a sad song it’s more about confusion than anything else. To me it sounds almost like a lullaby and I really loved that about it.
What was it like making the music video for “‘Round Here?” Were you solely responsible for the creative vision behind the song or did you collaborate with others on the concept?
It was really cool. I came up with the whole concept. I filmed it by myself at a friends apartment in San Francisco with a Gopro camera. I wanted to make something that was constantly moving and pleasing to the eye. I came up with the idea of doing a point of view video after watching skateboard videos that used the Gopro from the skateboarder’s point of view. I thought to myself, “That would be pretty cool to do a video from the point of view of the character writing the song.”
So I wrote out a little story about a distraught songwriter waking up, hungover, with a messy apartment and old milk left out that he drinks and an old bruised banana that he eats all while trying to get this song out of his head. It turned out better than I thought. It’s on YouTube under Andrew Castro Round Here so check it out.

What projects do you currently have lined up? Are you lining up show dates in support of “Leaving Unknown” or recording any new material?
I just finished writing my second EP which is tentatively titled “Junk.” All the songs are specific memories of mine that I guess you could say I don’t really need anymore. Like when you are cleaning out a closet and you find good things and bad things that evoke certain emotions but in the end its all junk and it all just needs to be thrown out to make room for the new things to come in your life.
As for shows, I am trying to play every single night of the week whether it’s open mics or shows. I mainly play around San Francisco and Oakland and up in Sacramento right now. You can find where I am playing on my Facebook page.
I’ve never really put myself out there until maybe like two months ago I told myself that I am going to dedicate every last bit of effort into playing live because I used to get real bad stage fright which held me back. But I have gotten over that and now I love it and can’t get enough and its all I want to do.
One of my new favorite songwriters is a British kid named Ed Sheeran and back in 2009 he played 312 open mics and shows in one year. I looked at that and said, “OK, that’s what needs to be done. You have to put yourself out there and give it a shot.” I don’t know if I will get to 312 but I set a goal for 120 and I am well on my way to beating that.
Alright, here’s the tough question that you can’t avoid. You happen to be a California native, which hosts not one, not two, not three, but FOUR NBA teams. Despite this, you’re a proud Miami Heat fan. What gives?
Haha. I am actually a die-hard Warriors fan all the way. I have loved them since birth. Having said that the Warriors were out in the second round of the playoffs, sadly, and I like Lebron and Wade so I went with them. My friend thinks I am an immoral person for cheering on the Heat. But Warriors all the way.
Thanks for the interview Andrew! Where can people go to find your music?
Thanks for this opportunity. Please check out my Facebook and give me a Like. And you can download my album or any single song on bandcamp. Also watch my music video and let me know what you think on YouTube. Here are the links: - Progressive Man

Local singer-songwriter Andrew Castro is still on track to release four EPs within 12 months. His third, Red Hearts, quietly dropped earlier this month—and the barely promoted record-release show at Old Ironsides was his third consecutive sell-out. The people love him.

Whereas Inside Out channeled Jason Mraz and John Mayer, Castro honed a much more Justin Timberlake-esque sound with Red Hearts. It suits him well: his deeper, smokier style contrasts nicely against his falsetto and sparse instrumentation. What really sets Red Hearts apart, however, from other local singer-songwriter releases is Castro’s hip-hop influence, which comes through and shines thanks to guest spots by rappers Ky Romias and Kintessa Quintanar.

—Janelle Bitker - SNR&R Article by Janelle Bitker

Live TV Broadcast - FOX 40 News