Andrew Tinker

Three days and four bands after this show, I am still humming the melody of Andrew Tinker's "Nineteen". It just keeps popping into my head, a pure little pentatonic-sounding riff that finds its way as a soundtrack to whatever I'm undertaking. Then this startlingly icy minor third blasts into the chorus, which inevitably adds a touch of teenage angst into my tasks. My dishes don't understand why I'm so erratically emotional all of the sudden. Welcome to the recesses of my subconscious mind, Andrew Tinker, you've composed a fiercely enduring arsenal of tunes that won't lend itself well to the pop standard; it will redefine it. This is what pop should strive to be: Melodically accessible, lyrically compelling, harmonically meaningful works that showcase young talent who charge forward in their own image, with their influences never far behind them. - My Denton Music

"It Takes The World", the debut album from Andrew Tinker, is a dazzling introduction to the man who will soon be known as the next big thing to come from Denton. The self-released album is a sunny glimpse into the life and times of the musician. It starts off with charming love tale in "You Are My Angel," before going into the title track of the CD, and my favorite song, "It Takes The World," a soulful dedication to perseverance and happiness.

The album as a whole is an elegant portrait of Tinker's musical background, a craftily painted picture of how he has grown as a musician and as an individual. The inner alchemist in Tinker is very evident throughout the eleven tracks, as he mixes a multitude of different styles and genres of music with his own flair and outstanding vocals. "It Takes The World" ranges everywhere from the folk pop sounds of Jason Mraz and James Morrison to the immortal sound of Willie Nelson on the album's finale, "Beer Drinkin' Man". But perhaps the most noticeable and surprising element of the album is the unquestionably brilliant lyrical side. It is going to be very exciting to watch Tinker grow and evolve for years to come. But as for now, step one is complete, Tinker has introduced himself as one of the heavy hitters in the Denton music scene. "It Takes The World" is an inspired and moving album that will no doubt take over your iPod after the first listening.

Andrew Tinker will officially release the new album, which is currently available for purchase at CD Baby (http://cdbaby.com/cd/andrewtinker), during the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival this Sunday on the Celebration Stage at 5:00pm. I know I expect to be hearing a lot from Tinker this year. Currently he and his band are booking dates for shows around the Denton/Dallas area before doing a performance in Oklahoma later next month. His live performances are something to behold, and this is the time for Tinker and his band to really establish themselves as future stars. Not a very difficult task, relatively speaking of course. His band is comprised of some of the most talented musicians in DFW including Kelyn Crapp of Fatty Lumpkin on guitar and Tinker himself already carries some musical clout as well. As one of the founding members of the Polyphonic Spree and a graduate of the College of Music at the University of North Texas, Tinker is already regarded and respected as an incredibly talented musician. A trait which is perfectly put on display in "It Takes The World". You should be on the lookout for this artist during the summer months, once the album has had a fair chance to take off. Get ready to hear the name Andrew Tinker a bunch this year.
- My Denton Music

Beat Sheet 2004: Best of Denton Rock
by Amanda Koellman

The Goodnights' members include Andrew Tinker on piano/vocals, Peter Hofstad with synthesizer "and a mean harmonica," George Tinker on drums and Daniel Garcia with the bass guitar. Andrew Tinker mentioned that the group is "kind of between guitar players right now."

"This month we're playing with three different guitarists," Tinker said. "That's the good thing about UNT -- there are a lot of good guitar players running around who can read music easily. Recently we've worked with Chris 'Kerosene' McQueen, the guitarist with the 2 O'Clock Lab Band."

Playing together as the Goodnights for about a year and a half now, the group can be seen around the Metroplex in Dallas at Club Clearview or Liquid Lounge, Fort Worth and Denton at Hailey's and Rubber Gloves. It has been regularly drawing crowds to Andy's as its fan base increases.

"We have a grassroots thing going right now," Tinker said. "That's how we get most exposure -- by getting people to come to shows, just word of mouth campaigning and sending out e-mails. We're off the beaten path a little bit, but we're probably the only band you'll see around Denton with an upright piano. It's a testament to the commitment of the guys to lug it around, and people have said they come to shows just to see it, but hey, any reason is a good reason."

Piano? The Goodnights draw influence from the "pop pianists" Billy Joel and Elton John, Tinker said. "We're basically piano rock in the vein of David Bowie and Elton John," Hofstad agreed.

Although the band members cite John as a major influence, the Goodnights don't wear as outrageous outfits as Sir Elton. However, one of their other notable traits is wearing matching clothes on stage.

"When we look together, we sound together," Tinker said. - North Texas Daily

Snippets of Jazz Fest That Stick Out (May 4, 2008)

by Lucinda Breeding

#1 - The Andrew Tinker Band.

I first got a sample of Tinker's talent when Music Theater of Denton and First United Methodist Church staged Jesus Christ Superstar.

The energetic young singer played Simon Zealotes and was a certified showstopper. Last Sunday, his band took its sun-infused brand of piano rock to the Celebration Stage.

For starters, the band itself was a solid team, with drums, percussion, guitar, and bass holding their own over Tinker's metabolic performance. I don't know if he'd cite them as influences, but if you're a fan of Elton John, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, or Tori Amos - people who know how to take advantage of the piano's power and subtlety - you'd eat up the Andrew Tinker Band with a spoon. If you secretly dig Cole Porter and the Partridge Family, you'll enjoy this young musician's melodies.

Another plus: the band has a sort of humble charisma onstage. Unfortunately, this lad - a student at the University of North Texas College of Music - doesn't have a recording out. Here's hoping the group will.
- Denton Record Chronicle

"One man plays the French horn while performing Pete Townshend-style scissor kicks - a sight that would impress the most jaded crowd."

-Alexis Petridis, UK Guardian 2002

A startling entrance is vital to a good rock concert. Bands have tried everything: pyrotechnics, paragliding, clambering out of giant rotating lemons. At their debut UK concert, however, the Polyphonic Spree, Dallas's self-styled "choral symphonic pop band", create a stir without wires or fireworks. They simply troop through the audience in a line.

What is diverting is the sheer number of people involved - 25 clamber on stage - and the fact that all of them are wearing matching white robes. They look less like a rock band than a religious cult's musical wing; lead vocalist Tim DeLaughter leaps around the stage with his hands outstretched like a gospel preacher, while the rest of the band perform wreathed in blissful smiles. They point at members of the audience and wave cheerily. One man plays the French horn while performing Pete Townshend-style scissor kicks - a sight that would impress the most jaded crowd.

Their antics would be slightly unsettling if their music were not so warm-hearted and uplifting. A band including brass, woodwind, strings, three keyboard players, kettle drums and an 11-piece choir can't help but sound thunderous and anthemic, but the Polyphonic Spree match their epic sound to a richly original vein of songwriting. Their songs lie somewhere between the Beach Boys' abandoned psychedelic epic Smile, the hippy musical Hair and the Muppet Show. Their lyrics have the direct simplicity of children's songs - "Hey! It's the sun!" offers one track, "and it makes me shine!" - while the music swells euphorically. It sounds wonderful.

Midway through their set, the band's power cuts out. After a few moments of embarrassed silence, DeLaughter elects to sing unamplified. Encouraged by the audience, the rest of the band join in. The effect is spellbinding. Suddenly the amplifiers crackle into life again, just in time for the song's immense crescendo. It's an accident that confirms that the Polyphonic Spree are a truly unique band. - The Guardian UK

"Someday soon, someone's bound to write something like, '...Tinker has Jason Mraz's vocal stylings with Death Cab for Cutie-like lyrical sensibility.'"
-Daniel Rodrigue, Dallas Observer

(Full Article)

Andrew Tinker's new album It Takes the World was released a couple weeks back to little hubbub. Blame the fact that it's pop music in an otherwise anti-pop town. Tinker does—especially because this isn't the route he was necessarily trained to take.

At age 15, Tinker was a founding member of The Polyphonic Spree, playing French horn on the group's first two albums before bowing out to earn a degree in music theory from University of North Texas' College of Music. (Yeah, he plays the piano too.)

Nowadays, though, Tinker says, "Music is my day job." Which is to say: It's what he hopes will pay the bills. To a degree, that's the driving force behind his style of music, actually: He and his band play a very catchy brand of non-toxic vintage pop. The stuff sounds so happy and gay that it's close to that secret-Jesus-y stuff but, then again, no more so than The Beach Boys. His Web site's "sounds like" section is a dead-on listing of artists: Ben Folds, Maroon 5, Billy Joel and John Mayer. And then there are the lyrics. "Morning snow/February 14th/We are only 19/There's no time for sleeping," Tinker larks on, of course, a song called "Nineteen." Someday soon, someone's bound to write something like, "...Tinker has Jason Mraz's vocal stylings with Death Cab for Cutie-like lyrical sensibility." But for now, Tinker's just content to get his music out to the people.

"It's a pop record, certainly," Tinker says by phone last week, between gigs in New York. "It's sweet. There's a lot of icing on the album. But I knew I wanted to make a pop record, not an indie record. It's really challenging because you have to make pop music appeal to a much larger audience."

But, when it comes down to it, Tinker's argument about the actual challenge of mass appeal is a tough one to tangle with—especially in Denton. Again, Tinker gets it. He just hopes his music can act as a bridge of sorts: "I'd love to make in-roads with the hipster crowd," he says. "I'd love to get them out to the shows."

For now, though, indie-approved or not, Tinker's just got to be content with the fact that his albums are flying off the local-music shelf at Recycled Books in Denton, where he recently had the top-selling album for a two-week span. It's a far cry from the Best Buys and Targets of the world, where this kind of music really sells, but it's not a bad start, no matter how self-deprecatingly its creator wants to look at it.

"I guess, in my career, I'm in no man's land," he says, laughing. "How do you market yourself as a pop artist or a pop musician? It sounds kinda silly for a Denton guy to be like, 'I'm a pop musician.'"

Yeah, OK. Maybe a little. - Dallas Observer

"Consistently throughout the entire show the energy was absolutely radiating from the stage, seeming to spread through the audience like wildfire with the same tenacity and passion that Andrew Tinker makes clear in his music."
-Lillian Cain, My Denton Music

(Excerpt from full review)

...I was exhausted, hungry, and frankly a little irritable at this point. It was a Thursday and I had class the next day in less than 12 hours, all I could think about was how hard it was going to be to get up for class the next day and honestly it had been a rough past weeks. I really just wanted to be at home in my bed asleep and the only two things that kept me from staying home that night were an obligation and a rumor about Andrew Tinker and his music. And it was a good thing I stayed until the end.

By their first appearance I got that they were organized, Andrew knows what he's doing, why he's doing it, and how to do it and the first indication of that was at a glance. Every band member looked put together and genuinely happy, everyone was often smiling and there seemed to be a great positive connection between them. Something extremely refreshing to see. Before his music even began the audience almost immediately grew in size just in pure anticipation. Already I found myself excited and curious to see what this band had to offer and I hadn't even heard a sound. Once the music began I couldn't help but just smile. Funk style guitar meshing with a driving rhythmic groove, upbeat blues piano and Andrew's smooth Jason Mraz-esque voice made for this music that seemed to lift my spirits, whether I wanted it or not. And it wasn't just a one man show though, throughout the night it was made very evident that not only were these all passionate musicians, but that they were clearly talented. Andrew seemed to have an innate sense of pitch and a voice that sounded both fluid and raw at the appropriate times. The guitarist demonstrated a vast technical and musical facility, instigating frequent cheers and yells from the audience, and even the drummer and bass player had solos that made you want more. Consistently throughout the entire show the energy was absolutely radiating from the stage, seeming to spread through the audience like wildfire with the same tenacity and passion that Andrew Tinker makes clear in his music. I couldn't believe how powerful their positive energy was, even during slower tunes like their cover of Let It Be there still remained a strong presence of hopefulness that I feel so many of us forget exists.

The thing that I liked most about Andrew Tinker though wasn't their obvious talent or their professional yet down to earth appearance though, but the immense passion that was present that night. Not just passion for music, but a spiritual passion that seeped through the music. Whether it be a regimented religion or not I am not one to know or say, but it was very clear that at the least there is a spiritual foundation present. No matter who you are or what religion you do or do not follow, there is a chance that at some point in your life you've experienced something on a spiritual level. And if you have, then you understand passion. Whether it be a passion for music, for God, for love, even for hate, I have found that passion on any level is one of the most important ingredients for just living a fulfilled life. For a successful band, passion is absolutely key. Whether we know it or not we are very good at detecting passion in music because we can hear it. It's a difference that we can't quite articulate and sometimes don't even realize, but yet we know it's there because we can somehow feel the difference. That difference was the most obvious thing I heard when I listed to Andrew Tinker, and maybe its just me, but I think and hope that passion will take them many great places. - My Denton Music