Andy, Emcee in Shorty

Tell us what you do for a living?

I’m the Emcee in Shorty

Can you describe what that involves?

We write loads of songs to keep kids of the streets, gets their older brothers and sisters dancing and reminds their parents that not all new music is crap.

What do you enjoy about your job?

It’s what I’ve always wanted to do and it’s great to do with friends… sometimes. Live shows are the best though. It’s always good to see what reaction you get from people! You meet some freaks on the road too so that’s always entertaining.

Is there anything you do not enjoy?

Its hard work and it does take over your life after a while. We put in crazy hours sometimes. Late nights then early mornings and seeing the same faces all the time can get weary. I need prettier band mates!

Can you describe what a day in your job might be?

At the moment we are split between the studio where we’re working on our album, and out on the road playing round the country. So far this month we’ve hit London, Brighton, Southampton and Oxford twice and its only the 10th and we’re not even on tour!

What hours do you work?

Shorty’s a fulltime job. I can’t turn it off. I listen to music now and I’m always thinking about what bits I like and don’t like or if I can take tips for something we’re working on at the minute. If we’re not gigging, we’re recording or we’re writing or we’re fighting about what we’re writing…

How long have you been working in this area?

I started writing songs in school so I should be better at it by now. Shorty have been knocking around for a while now as friends but over the last few years we’re started taking it a bit more seriously.

Can you tell us how you got to where you are?

Just keeping at it. You get a lot of “overnight” successes but they’re pretty rare and normally short-lived. We’ve done it the hard way by taking time out to get to know ourselves better. We’ve worked the gig scene making a name for ourselves there before trying to break the big-time.

Have you learnt any new skills whilst doing this job? If yes, please tell us what they are.

How to survive on 4 hours sleep.

Did you come across any problems getting this job?

I think the biggest difficulty for us was and probably still is the fact that people don’t know where to class us. The industry as a business is made up of little pockets and we just don’t fit into any of them. We’re not strictly rock, hip-hop or funk so people spend forever trying to force us a circle into a square box.
Have we sorted it out? Not really we’re just gonna keep doing what we’re doing and hope the rest of the world catches up. If not I reckon I’d be pretty good in Starbucks.

Looking back, would you choose the same job again? If no, what would you choose if you could start again?

Without a doubt. I think I would’ve pushed harder a lot earlier but hindsight is good thing. We know the industry a bit better now but if knew then what we know now we’d be laughing!

Thinking about your personal experience, what advice would you give to someone hoping to follow a similar career path?

Just be yourself and don’t let what everyone else is doing effect your own stuff. It would’ve been easier to go off and make the music of the current trend but we’d have hated it and probably ended up killing each other… although we still might anyway!
The music industry is great. It’s hard and really competitive but if you surround yourself with the right people it can be really rewarding. I’m having a great time.

Do you have an aspiration/goal for your future career?

To still be doing what I love and that’s making music, even if it’s playing blues in my local pub. I’d still get a buzz out of doing that.

How will you try and get there?

I’m already there in some ways, in a band making music