ACR: Congratulations on yet another year of getting to perform at the Cavendish Beach Music Festival! Being a man from the East Coast, this festival is obviously very near and dear to you. What does a chance like this mean to you?
AF: Yes this is my 2nd time as you know being part of CBMF, and so much has changed for me since my first time in 2017. In 2018 I released my EP – “Lost In The Right Direction” which produced 4 of my top listened to songs to date. Now with a newly released single and music video, “Heads Up” the timing couldn’t be better to be back performing at Cavendish. The opportunity means so much to any artist, but even more so for an independent artist! From the moment the stages are announced there is social media buzz regarding the festival line-up, the app, the various stages at the festival, and so much more and your face and name get to be part of everything. Then, when you perform, you have such a great, captive, country music audience who many are hearing you for the first time and it really gets your music out to so many new potential fans.. Lastly, you also can’t say enough with respect to the networking, interviews, and collaborations that end up happening with media and other artists.
ACR: Your latest video, “Heads Up” was just released on 06/11. It’s a super catchy track. Do you write all of your own music?
AF: Well thank you very much! Really excited with the release of “Heads Up”…. Not all of my songs have I been involved as a songwriter…including “Live To Love You” from my latest EP, which was written by Trey Matthews, J Michael Harter, and Earl Bud Lee…who wrote Friends In Low Places for Garth Brooks. When I am pitched a song I know almost instantly if its one I will want to record. That said, I do try to write or co-write as often as I can and I have been lucky enough to have some great co-writes that have made their way on all 3 of my EPs. “Heads Up” is one that I co-wrote however, with Doug Folkins from Campbell River B.C, and I’m super happy with all the positive feedback so far.
ACR: Where did you film this? Was this in your native Nova Scotia?
AF: This was filmed at Finbars in Portland Hills, Dartmouth, NS. The management team there was kind enough to host us after hours for our video shoot, as well as just being extremely supportive leading up to the recording.
ACR: There were a few familiar faces in the video (CBMF Alum Amanda Riley & Scott Asprey). How did they come to be involved?
AF: My wife and I are good friends with Amanda & Scott, and I think Amanda is just a phenomenal person, artist & friend. I had the idea that having them be the featured couple in the video would be cool…so I asked them, and to my surprise they didn’t laugh at me (haha!). They did a great job! Scott really got into it, and the scene where he pushes the chair in, was all him…he just did that off the cuff.
ACR: To anyone who follows you on social media, they can see that you spend quite a bit of time down in Nashville, is that where you do a lot of your writing?
AF: Actually most of my writing is done in my home using SKYPE or Facetime. I do write with friends in Nashville over SKYPE however. including my pal and fellow artist Brandon Maddox. He and I co-wrote the title track from my last EP “Lost In The Right Direction”…It was actually our first co-write together.
ACR: What are your plans post-CBMF 2019?
AF: We will first take the rest of the summer to continue performing, and promoting the release of the new single and video for “Heads Up”. Then most likely, it will be back to writing heavily and starting the process of recording all over. “Heads Up” was such a fun project, and I quite like the idea of releasing another single with music video again as we did with it.
If you want to catch Andrew’s performances at this year’s Cavendish Beach Music Festival, he will be performing on the Cavendish Farm’s Kitchen Stage on Friday, July 5th at 1:30pm, and at 6:45pm on the SiriusXM Emerging Artist Stage.