We recently connected with Andrew Brantley and have shared our conversation below.
Andrew , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
Although I had been playing guitar, singing, and writing songs for a few of my high-school years, inspiration for music really took hold of me around the age of 18. I was gearing up to leave for college, and I found myself in a profound stage of spiritual and mental growth. The passion I was feeling for music funneled into real goals. It dawned upon me that my purpose, at least for the foreseeable future, would be the pursuit of a musical career. Feeling confident in my songwriting abilities and with determination to become proficient on the guitar, I entered into college well focused. My intention was to use all the resources at my disposal to help me become a well rounded musician that could lead me to the professional level.
Andrew , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Andrew Brantley and I’m co-founder and frontman of jam/rock band The Orange Constant. The band is based out of Athens, GA, and we established ourselves in 2012. Over the last 10 ten years, we have released 3 full length albums, 1 EP, 1 live album, and several singles. Our touring has expanded into 17 states (with more on the horizon), along with major festival appearances and opening for national acts. Our performances not only include theaters and festival stages, but private parties, dive-bars, weddings… you name it. The mission for this band since day one has been to create an original sound without confining ourselves too much into any genre. Although we embrace the categorization of jam-band, we feel our “song-first” mentality towards the music keeps us a little more unpredictable than the rest.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
For me, it’s not so much one story in particular that can illustrate my resilience, but the story as a whole. I co-founded this band just over 10 years ago, and my co-founder (Nickalous Benson) and I have seen 5 different member changes during that time. That’s 5 different times we’ve had to re-sculpt our image as a band, our approach to songwriting, and our chemistry on and off stage. We’ve had to sacrifice full-time job financial stability and a heck of a lot of weekends to pursue this dream. There have been countless flat tires, sleepless nights, and next-to-nothing paychecks. But in the end, we know we have something special to our music, and our passion keeps driving us through.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
There are many goals associated with my creative journey, but I can say there is one that occurs to me quite often. This sort-of specific goal is a vision of me with the band on a main outdoor stage at a national festival at night. It isn’t any particular festival that I’m thinking of, but a large festival nonetheless. Playing a summer night with stars in the backdrop and a fantastic light-show, what a dream! I think visions are important, not only for careers but for lives as well. We have played at larger music festivals, but to be a headliner at one is on the bucket list.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theorangeconstant.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/orangeconstant
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/theorangeconstant
- Twitter: @orangeconstant
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/theorangeconstant
Image Credits
Alex Culbreth