The combination of a bad year and burnout from playing the church circuit pushed indie folk singer-songwriter Andrew Avent to take another shot at music with his self-released album Remember.
“2015 was a really shitty year. The songs all come from processing through my experiences over the past few years,” says 29-year-old Avent.
He fostered the melody for title track for years before the lyrics came, and he wrote the EP’s first song, “Red Hair,” in a single sitting three years ago.
“The words are the hardest part,” Avent said. “I hear melodies a lot. You could call it music schizophrenia. The words will come, but usually I have to wait.”
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Avent’s ambient, layered folk holds true in each track, with a slightly Southern rock-driven focus in “My Father’s Father.” The drums, bass, and piano build texture atop Avent’s acoustic guitar.
Avent recorded the songs last fall in a private studio space thanks to local producer Jordan Summers, and he put out the tracks on Feb. 22 through DistroKid, a DIY platform for musicians to release on major streaming services like iTunes and Spotify.
Most of the music Avent has played in Charleston has been in churches or at weddings, but for the past seven months he’s been part of local three-piece St. Jermaine, playing each other’s original songs as they work their way up to booking shows more regularly.
Avent has a handful of his own original songs. “When I write I like to tap into sources of struggle and pain that are universal, these themes that all people deal with,” he said. “It’s all storytelling, but how do you find the right story that the melody has?”
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