Jim Andralis & the Syntonics
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Jim Andralis & the Syntonics

New York, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2016

New York, New York, United States
Established on Jan, 2016
Band Pop Singer/Songwriter

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"Premiere: Jim Andralis & the Syntonics – “Go To Sleep”"

New Noise Magazine is pleased to be bringing forth the premiere of “Go To Sleep” by singer/songwriter Jim Andralis & The Syntonics. The song features a ballad style approach, starting off slow with harmonized vocals, growing the soundscape while maintaining the delicacy of the emotion laced into the lyrics. The bridge of the song escalates with soaring melodies but levels back into a peaceful end. The song features Susan Hwang and is off of the Jim Andralis’ upcoming record, Shut Up Shut Up, out January 26th of 2018. An album release show is being held the same day at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

“I have a real love/hate relationship to advice songs. I also seem to keep writing them. ‘Go to Sleep’ came out of me at a moment when I actually believed I knew the best advice to give an old friend of mine. Basically, “If only you would just stop trying and ride this shit out, you’ll be okay. Because everything you’re doing is fucking it up worse.” I am a really compassionate friend, as you can plainly read.

The big spoiler is that this song turned out to actually be about my futile attempts to temper my own rage and aggression. The drums, guitar and Susan Hwang’s vocals during the instrumental are a counterbalance to the lyrics. It turned out to be a really noisy lullaby, which is fine by me.

Also, we recorded this before George Michael died. ‘Waiting”'(Reprise) is my favorite song of his, and the Syntonics’ backups in ‘Go to Sleep’ are simultaneously a love letter to that song and all of my 21-year-old gay dreams come true.” – Jim Andralis

The Miami Herald called singer-songwriter Jim Andralis’ Your Dying Wish Come True “one of the best solo debut discs of the year.” Since its release in March of 2016, Julie DeLano, Leslie Graves, Susan Hwang and Jessie Kilguss have been adding their lush harmonies to his NYC performances. Each is a songwriter and performer in her own right. Together they are Syntonics.

Jim wrote, sang and played the accordion in the early-to-mid aughts downtown NYC band The Isotoners, a gay post-punk cult sensation. He later established himself as a featured player among a dazzling roster of performers at the acclaimed Joe’s Pub monthly variety show Our Hit Parade from 2008 through 2012. He is joined regularly by his favorite singer, artist and hunk, husband Larry Krone.

Jim works in New York City as a trauma-focused psychotherapist in private practice. He also released a duet with his buddy Bridget Everett (Love You More, Patti Cake$) called “Hit the Ground Fuckin’.” Like many New Yorkers, he believes in maintaining a balance. - New Noise Magazine


"Just a little bit gay?"

Your Dying Wish Come True (jimandralis.bandcamp.com), the solo debut by Jim Andralis of "gay post-punk sensations" The Isotoners fame, is one of the best solo discs of the year by any musician gay or straight. The song "For a Minute or Two" alone is enough to justify that statement. Also notable are astonishing numbers "Just Driving," "Good News" (feat. Larry Krone), "It's Not Love" and bonus track "Someday I Will Lead the Parade." - The Bay Area Reporter


"PREMIERE: JIM ANDRALIS & THE SYNTONICS BRING HOPE TO THE HOPELESS ON “DON’T BLAME NEW YORK”"

Every now and then New York is lonely. It’s a grid of routine. The summers are sweaty and disgusting; the winters are cold and miserable. Sometimes, it seems as if you’re suffering from Cotard Syndrome on a hungover walk to work. In those moments, you may refer to this godforsaken city with scorn. But, damn it, if this town isn’t great. Often these resentful feelings come from whatever is eating at your psyche, and “Don’t Blame New York” by New York singer-songwriter Jim Andralis & The Syntonics truly captures these feelings, while still speaking in favor of the Big Apple, which Atwood are excited to premiere to you today.

“Don’t Blame New York” – Jim Andralis & The Syntonics


What Andralis captures best is how New York City is really whatever you bring to it. It can be a beautiful hub to chase dreams or it can be one of the most miserable dumps in the Northeast. Sometimes the skyscrapers of Manhattan seem sinister in darker moments, but Andralis rails against this in the bridge:

Don't Blame New York - Jim Andralis
Don’t Blame New York – Jim Andralis

Don’t blame New York for your dreams that died
Don’t blame New York when you’re too tired to try
Don’t blame New York for how much you eat
Don’t blame New York when you cry in the street
Don’t blame New York for the places you grieve
Don’t blame New York if you need to leave

With sweet harmonies from the Syntonics in the background, Andralis sings sweetly, almost like a parent or sibling, telling the listener to get their chin-up and quit hating something so apathetic. It’s a cynical sense of comfort when he sings, “This town has a million things to do, and 8,550,404 other motherfucking people to think about.” It’s one of those things that makes you realize how beautifully small you are.

“Don’t Blame New York” is like a cousin to LCD Soundsystem’s “New York, I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down” in simultaneously showing the greatness of the city and the difficulty that its residents often face. Andralis just seems to have a little bit more of a sense of humor about it than James Murphy. Andralis says this of the track:

“I wanted the lyrics of this song to speak to what a fucking slog it is to live here a lot of the time while hopefully simultaneously conveying through the music and harmonies that there’s both beauty and nobility to being here and trying. I tended bar at a gay dive in the East Village for many years, and imagine that sometimes New York City must feel like I used to on Dollar Bud Wednesday, trying to get a never-ending torrent of thirsty mouths their goddamn Budweisers.”

The Syntonics help really bring this instrumental to life. Their background harmonies coupled with some electric guitar give this otherwise simple song to a much larger space than Andralis’ previous LP Your Dying Wish Come True. They never distract, but it seems like the track would be truly lacking without them.

“Don’t Blame New York” is off of Jim Andralis & The Syntonics’ upcoming album Shut Up Shut Up. - Atwood Magazine


"In Tune: The best LGBTQ books and music of 2016"

With Your Dying Wish Come True (jimandralis.bandcamp.com/releases), Jim Andralis, of gay post-punk sensations The Isotoners fame, released one of the best solo debut discs of the year. The track “For a Minute or Two,” alone, is enough to justify that statement.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/gay-south-florida/palette-magazine/article119122918.html#storylink=cpy - Miami Herald


"Jim Andralis"

I heard something a little different from singer, songwriter, and therapist, Jim Andralis, in his debut album, entitled “Your Dying Wish Come True”.

Originally a member of NYC’s gay post punk sensations, “The Isotoners”, Jim has gone solo, creating a release that “explores the fragile beauty of human connection and stubborn hope in the face of its loss”.

Louder Than War spoke with Jim about his music, his history and his future intentions.

Louder Than War: How long have you been writing and singing?

In 2002 I was a bartender in this gay bar called “Phoenix”. I had just started taking accordion lesson. Two of my favorite bar customers, used to come in and sing me ridiculous songs like “Dollar Store Douche”, was one of them, they would come in and sing into my face as I was working. They took me into their group, ” The Isotoners”, to be a part of it. At first I was just the accordion player, then I became one of the songwriters. That’s when I really first started.

Do you play any other instruments?

I play accordion and guitar.

So tell me about your new release.

It’s called, ” Your Dying Wish Come True”. I spent the last two years writing and recording it. I’m really super, super proud of it.

Your husband is also an artist?

He’s an artist and performer too. His name is Larry Krone. He is a visual artist and a really wonderful singer and songwriter. He also makes all the costumes for Bridget Everett, singer, songwriter and comedian. I recorded a song with her called ” Hit The Ground Fucking”.

Where will you be performing next?

I’m doing a show with my husband at Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 on May 23rd.

You are a new addition to a crayon box, what color are you?

Iridescent orange. Do you know that I’m a therapist?

What kind?

I’m a trauma focused psychotherapist.

And you’re telling me this after speaking with me because? Do you think I need therapy?

I think we all need therapy. The music career is the thing I really wanna do. I love doing both of them, but I’m totally established as a therapist. I’m totally an open book.

Anything else that you wish to say?

I’m in a songwriter’s group along with my husband Larry, and the songs that I wrote for this album, all were during a period of several losses. Writing the songs about the losses was a way that I sort of got through it. Also I think the music that’s on this record is really specific. I also think that there is something universal there that people connect with about loss, grief, connection and revolving relationships and all that stuff.

~

For more information about Jim, check his Facebook, Bandcamp and Instagram.

All words by Eileen Shapiro. More of Eileen’s writing can be found in her author’s archive. - Louder Than War


"Growing Pains"

“My friends and I meet once a month and we each show up with a song we’ve written,” says Jim Andralis, best known for singing in New York’s gay post-punk quartet The Isotoners. “Around 2012, 2013, I found myself writing songs to help myself process losses that seemed to just keep coming.”

The result is Your Dying Wish Come True, Andralis’s poignant, country-tinged debut solo album, out March 25. Over the course of ten stripped-down tracks, Andralis grapples with the gradual death of his pit-bull Niko, the sudden death of his childhood friend Anastasia, and the end of a toxic friendship. The album was named after a song that Andralis wrote for his friend Jim Bentley, a studio engineer in Bushwick who committed suicide in 2013.

Needless to say the record is a far cry from the playfully anarchist tone of The Isotoners—whose discography includes cuts like “Leather Daddy” and “Manboobs”—though Andralis says sensitivity has always brewed beneath his humor. “What blossomed over time was the courage to not be funny all the time,” he says. Another influence was starting his own psychotherapy practice (he bartended at Phoenix, the gay East Village dive, to pay for graduate school), which opened Andralis up as a songwriter. “With both [psychotherapy and songwriting], there’s a serious commitment to turning toward the stuff we usually try to exile from ourselves,” he says. “I have an innate appreciation for the darker shit that I believe exists within us all… and I believe it can be what connects us. So I hope with both my therapy practice and my songwriting there’s connection, beauty, and compassion, even when there’s pain, and even when you’re being an asshole.”

Andralis will celebrate the release of Your Dying Wish Come True with a performance at Joe’s Pub March 30. Despite the record’s heavy subject matter, he promises there will still be moments of humor and levity at the show. “People cry at my shows now, and that somehow weirdly validates whatever feeling was there when I wrote them in my room,” he says. “And then, you know, I give the children ‘Hit the Ground Fuckin’’ as an encore. It’s basically a joyful version of my life where I fuck everything and everyone from the cradle to the grave and beyond.” - Next Magazine


"Jim Andralis: Your Dying Wish Come True"

The brilliant, funny, and sometimes utterly heartbreaking songs of Jim Andralis explore the fragile beauty of human connection and stubborn hope in the face of its loss. Andralis wrote Dying Wish during a period of several sudden and not-so-sudden personal tragedies. The album’s nine original compositions and one cover grapple with the fears and uncertainties that everybody faces—the absence of loved ones, the absurdity of daily existence, the search for meaning—and make a case for the solace to be found in songwriting.

Andralis wrote, sang, and played the accordion in the early- to mid- aughts downtown NYC band The Isotones, a gay post-punk cult sensation.

Dying Wish maintains the collaborative spirit of Andralis’ earlier work in New York, while defining him for the first time as a solo songwriter and singer. Twinkledots Music (jimandralis.bandcamp.com). —Troy Carrington - Outsmart


"Jim Andralis: Your Dying Wish Come True"

A veteran of the jocular queer cabaret-punk band the Isotoners and the legendary Joe's Pub series Our Hit Parade, Andralis is now releasing his first solo album, Your Dying Wish Come True. At his release concert, he shares his insightful original pop songs—he's a psychothrapist by day—joined by cool folks including Erin Markey, Clint Asay and Larry Krone. - Time Out New York


"Goodbye, yellow brick road"

Gay singer-songwriter Jim Andralis released his solo debut in 2016. Lucky for us, we didn't have to wait long for the follow-up. Available on CD and gorgeous pink vinyl, Shut Up Shut Up (jimandralismusic.com) exceeds expectations. With stunning girl-group harmonies provided by The Syntonics (Julie Delano, Leslie Graves, Susan Hwang and Jessie Kilguss), Andralis has a way of saying in song the things many of us think: "My Therapist Says," "Don't Blame New York," "I'm a Monster," and the server anthem "Cover My Section." - Bay Area Reporter


"Jim Andralis & The Syntonics Announce ‘My Beautiful Enemy’ with Exclusive Premiere of Title Track"

New York City-based singer-songwriter, Jim Andralis announces the release of his third album, ‘My Beautiful Enemy,’ today with the exclusive premiere of the title-track on American Songwriter.

The inspiration for “My Beautiful Enemy” came from the song Andralis wrote before this title track. The subject of the original song was the same, but he found the tone was “just mean.” This rough draft allowed for a release of built-up toxicity and cleared space in Andralis’ heart for what would come next.

“Whatever the reason, the clouds parted for a few minutes, and I allowed myself to wonder about her with an open heart. I was able to honor her humanity and mine too.”

Andralis started out in the early 2000’s writing, singing, and playing the accordion for The Isotoners, “a gay post-punk cult sensation” in downtown NYC. He then moved over to Joe’s Pub, where he performed in a monthly variety show until 2012 and currently co-hosts a country-themed variety show, The Grande Ole Pubry.

After releasing his debut album in 2016, Andralis made the decision to build-on is sound with the harmonies of Julie DeLano, Leslie Graves, Susan Hwang, Jessie Kilguss, and husband Larry Krone to his performances. The addition of The Syntonics propelled his career as a musician with the release of his second album, ‘Shut Up Shut Up,’ in 2018.

Andralis expressed gratitude for the support of The Syntonics musically, but also emotionally. The upcoming album explores personal, poignant places, especially the title track.

“When we’re all singing together, it’s like all the parts of me usually so engaged with fighting her in my head get a few minutes to just grieve. In harmony even.”

‘My Beautiful Enemy’ is composed of eleven tracks. Ten of them are original songs that expand beyond Andralis’ love life and into darker corners of humanity. “Oh My God” is a non-traditional breakup song that describes one’s separation from their religion. “New Man” takes the perspective of the 2016 Las Vegas shooter in the aftermath of the catastrophe he created.

While pursuing his musical endeavors, Andralis also serves as a trauma-focused psychotherapist in private practice. He is also an Internal Family Systems Therapy assistant trainer.

Here is an exclusive listen to “My Beautiful Enemy.” Look out for the album release on March 27th. - American Songwriter


"Jim Andralis & the Syntonics"

Jim Andralis &The Syntonics - My Beautiful Enemy
Jim Andralis &The Syntonics - My Beautiful Enemy

Sly irony hides behind upfront hungers, exposing emotional strangleholds in well-composed odes as home-grown straight-shooters Andralis and company introduce natural narratives to casual analogies for root-cellar novellas ripe with redemption. Traveling country-folk balladry cast in novel plots exacting tragic costs, “Enemy,” cements spent identities to scrappy tabernacles and spirited fierceness for punches to the gut in the kindest way possible. - Maximum Ink


Discography

Jim Andralis - Your Dying Wish Come True 2016
Jim Andralis & the Syntonics - Shut Up Shut Up 2018

Photos

Bio

Those neon-clad kids of early MTV days may have had 30 years’ worth of real life heaped on them, but they still want to come to your party.  You’ll probably want Jim Andralis & the Syntonics’ Shut Up Shut Up playing when they get there.  If Jim Andralis’ solo debut, Your Dying Wish Come True was a meditation on grief, Shut Up Shut Up’s eleven songs focus on the occasionally beautiful act of sticking around and slugging it out. The Syntonics’ (Julie DeLano, Leslie Graves, Susan Hwang and Jessie Kilguss) celestial yet profoundly human harmonies simultaneously recall the Roches, B52’s, the Carter Family and the Chiffons.

Band Members