We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrew Hibbard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Learning guitar is not a hard endeavor. Learning to play guitar good is a different story. I first picked up a guitar at the age of 6. They were laying round my house and some were my grandfather’s, and some were my dad’s. They always seemed to be looking at me and I finally was inspired to pick one up because I always heard my dad play, and I heard Chuck Berry’s “Nadine”. I was already writing little poems and stuff because Bob Dylan opened my 6 year old mind. But I played the guitar fir the first time and became infatuated. Obsessed is a better word. I began playing CD’s of Chet Atkins, Jimi Hendrix, Elmore James, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Neil Young, The Stones, the 50’s Rock N’ Rollers, and so on. I dove to the bottom and to swim my way up to today. The most important thing to playing guitar for me was that I learned from teaching myself. My dad of course showed me the 12 bar, the chords and things. But from then on, I taught myself. The most important things for me are understanding where the music is going in the song, you don’t have to know how to read music. Improvisation is far more fun. It is what music is about to me. Not reading notes. To me it’s, “Okay here is a minute for you to put your feeling in real time with no fences or chains, good luck” and if you mess up you need to Improvise more. Obstacles will come your way. Fingerpicking has techniques that take you a while. So does flat picking. I recently have been flat picking bluegrass music, and it’s an animal in itself. You have to love the guitar enough to not push it away. You learn to out it down for a while and pick it up with a fresh mind. At least I do.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began playing live music when I was 17. I began sneaking in the bars to play at 18. You have to sneak at first because you gotta play somehow. I’m not one to ask about discipline. I think I have a different view on creative discipline. To create work I’m proud of, I don’t have to have discipline. I have to have passion, and in order for that passion to flow, it has to dry sometimes. I don’t push myself if I don’t feel like it. I only write songs, or play guitar when I feel like it. Because if I don’t feel like it, I usually write and play like shit because I don’t care enough. That’s the honesty a lot of people won’t tell you. Maybe they don’t feel the same but to me that is the only way I won’t write and play songs I end up hating or thinking is filler or pointless songs. A lot of pointless songs are being written today, and the funny thing is some people love them. I don’t Take away anything from people, but my goal is to not write pointless songs. They are intended to be listened to. Maybe I’ll write some pointless ones soon and move to Nashville.

I’m most proud of my guitar work and my songwriting. I think that is what has kept me from not completely sinking but it’s hard to stay afloat playing music. It’s a hard road. The people who have no talent, make all the rules for the people who actually have talent. I know a lot of talented people and they have been beat up and burned and buried in this life because of the music world. In my eyes all of them should be kings. But unfortunately, the music world doesn’t really care about talent anymore. It cares more about money. I just try and write songs that would make me proud, and other musicians would listen to and think “that’s a good tune”.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I asked to open a show for someone pretty popular down in Atlanta Georgia one time, and I was very jittery and ready to play so I took the gig and got a yes. I was driving from my hometown of Hamilton, Ohio to Atlanta and got a flat tire in Kentucky. Once I fixed my flat tire, I headed down the road and got another flat in Tennessee. I fixed that one and continued down the road and finally made it 10 minutes before I was supposed to play. After I played the show and made my $100 or whatever I made, my car wouldn’t start. So some guys who also opened the show up, helped me start my car and I had to drive back home after that. No hotel, no nothing. That’s the hunger that comes over you. I wish that hunger would stay with me, but for me, it comes in waves.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think the best musicians need people to come to their shows. If you know someone talented, come see them play. The artists need a foundation. They need the backing to rise above their area and successfully venture to the next state or big venue closest to them. The most important thing though, is other artists. A lot of artists I know, are selfish and form cliques. They don’t like to let new people in no matter how talented they are. Artists in fortunate spots should reach down and pull up new artists out of the quicksand where everyone else sits. If they are talented and good people, help them climb up. For the artists, they shouldnt give up. Know it in your mind even if you play once a year. That you’re gonna be a musician. That’s what I think are the most important things for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: andrewhibbardmusic.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/_andrewhibbard
• Facebook: Facebook.com/andrewhibbardmusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewhibbard

Image Credits
Robert Paul Simpson