Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Andrea living American dream
journey Andrea and Ben, who is from Kent, found themselves in Texas where things started to take off.
She said: “We absolutely fell in love with Austin and through that we spent lots of time in Nashville and New Orleans and from there got ourselves a little independent record deal which allowed us to stay on for the next couple of years with a visa.
“Last year I went to visit my best friend from Belfast in San Diego.
“They were making dinner one night and they had a guitar and said to me,
‘Go on Andrea, sing for your supper’.
“So I sang a couple of songs and my friend’s father-in-law asked if I would go with him the next morning, there was someone he wanted me to meet.
“From that we developed a relationship and they decided they would take a risk and put us on tour with Brian Setzer from the Stray Cats, so we ended up doing his tour which was from coast to coast, the best shows ever. And after that they decided to sign us up along with CO5 management, Brian Wilson’s managers.
“So after three years of working hard it’s all paid off and we wanted to make sure we did it the right way, coming from a live music perspective. It’s wonderful.”
Beat Root Revival will play two shows as part of Wilson’s Pet Sounds tour in Galway and Dublin on Sunday and Tuesday.
Andrea said: “When
YESTERDAY
they called us to tell us about the gigs here, I thought I was going to burst. “We’ve been touring America and I love it but this is still home for me and I’ll always come home two or three times a year.
“My family have seen us play in dribs and drabs but they haven’t really seen what we’ve become since we left so it’s really important to me.
“Our sound is very acoustic and pop but we use bodhrans and whistles as well, so we come from a traditional background and kind of made it current. I’m very proud to be from Belfast, so I’ve kind of taken that with me everywhere I’ve gone.
“As well as Glengormley I spent a lot of my years growing up in Donegal too, we would have spent our summers down there so that’s where I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from as well for my music.”
For more details on Beat Root Revival visit their Facebook page.