By Mike Henken, Sports Editor
In life, most people have a passion whether they know it or not. It might be something that drives them and motivates them to wake up early and to stay up late.
For Andy Jones, a Susquehanna senior, that passion is music, specifically, rapping and producing beats.
Born on Long Island in New York, Jones bounced around from location to location before eventually settling down with his family in Shamokin, Pa, not too far from Susquehanna. It was at home that Jones’ love and passion for music began to take shape, as he was influenced by his mother as well as his brothers.
“My brothers both rapped and my mom even made music back in the day”, he said. “The technology and all of the equipment was there at all times, always at my disposal.”
“My family was probably the biggest influence on getting me to make music. My mom always wanted me to get on the mic, my brothers were always around it and the technology was always there. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t actually be making the music.”
Early on, Jones wasn’t making the type of music he is today. He wasn’t rapping or creating beats. Instead, he got his start in a more traditional way, learning how to play the saxophone and the viola and performing in his school’s band and orchestra from elementary school through high school.
It was playing the saxophone as opposed to the viola that gave Jones enjoyment early on though.
“I never practiced it,” Jones said of playing the viola. “I loved playing the saxophone, so I didn’t have to practice it because when I was there, I was paying attention. With the viola, I was bad at it because even when I was there, I didn’t like it, so I wasn’t even paying attention. I dreaded going, so I wasn’t even that good at it.”
Jones has continued to expand the amount of instruments he plays, learning to play the bass guitar and teaching himself how to play the drums, while just recently taking piano lessons.
By playing these instruments and by learning about music in more of a classroom setting, Jones said that he was able to develop his rhythm and his ear, while also gaining knowledge in music theory, all skills he still uses today.
Eventually, his interests began to lead him down a different path as he began to experiment with the computer software that he saw his brothers use to make beats.
In fact, it was his brother that gave him a quick tutorial on how to use Logic Pro, a digital audio workstation. Jones’ knowledge and experience with the software soon began to grow and as he began to receive compliments on the beats he was creating, he admits that he became addicted.
As the years went on, Jones’ passion for music never waned , but he wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do after high school, electing not to take his SATs at first and originally, not even planning to attend college.
After influence from his friends, however, Jones decided to attend Susquehanna, the closest university to his house. Here, he’s created his own major, which wasn’t the easiest process either, as he didn’t declare a major until his junior year.
Ultimately, he’s now begun his path towards a degree in audio media studies, which allows him to take courses in both the communications and music departments such as video and audio production in addition to music theory type classes.
It was also at Susquehanna that Jones began to transform into the artist he is today.
“I started really making beats when I was a sophomore,” he said. “But then I’m a junior and I didn’t have anyone to work with because I didn’t have anyone good enough to give my beats to. I had these beats and I had a lot of them, but I didn’t have anything to do with them. And I didn’t want to sell them.”
To come up with a solution for his problem, Jones decided to start rapping. Taking on the name “Andy the Chef”, Jones has hit the ground running, writing and producing his first song known as “The City”, which was released in January 2019.
Following the release of his first single, Jones continued to hone his craft and create new music, as he then released his first full album.
“Then I put out ‘The Chef’, which is only a half hour long and a 10 song album just to prove that I could make songs for real,” he said. “Every single beat and every single sound on that album was produced by me, mixed and mastered from the first sound that you hear until the last sound that you hear. I recorded it in my own space, mixed it on my own laptop, made the beats from scratch.”
Since then, Jones has refused to take his foot off the gas, releasing more singles such as “The Hills” and “Need it” in addition to another album known as “Of Course. No Question.”. In total, he said that he’s released 28 songs this year.
“I’m most proud of just every single song that I’ve put out,” he said. “Even if a song isn’t released, I’m just like ‘yes, let’s go’. Because it’s just growth. Because the more you do anything, the better you’re going to get at it.”
Through this growth, Jones has also stayed true to himself.
While others who gain a bit of success and some sort of fame may change or conform to the needs and wants of their audience and of society, Jones remains focused on what he wants to do, making the type of music that fulfills his passion and his drive.
“Usually, I make music for myself,” he said. “So when I make a song, I’m not thinking about what anybody else is going to like, what anybody else is going to get out of this. I’m not thinking about what anybody else is going to listen, or hear, or imagine. I’m thinking about myself and what did I go through, what do I like to listen to, what sounds that I like.”
At the same time, however, Jones realizes that there’s “currents” and “trends” in music as he called them and there’s a reason why certain styles of music become popular at a certain time. So while he takes notice of these trends and is influenced by the endless amounts of music that he listens to, Jones is more so trying to be a trend rather than follow a trend.
This idea of becoming a trend is one of Jones’ goals and it’s this topic that truly brings the emotion, passion and excitement out of the young rapper.
“The plan is to start doing shows,” he said. “Get more and more people at the shows and that’ll gauge my audience and then I’m trying to just have as many people listening to my music as I can. A talent that’s not shared isn’t a talent.”
“Me, I just love when other people are sharing my experience,” he added. “So if I could have that feeling with so many people, like hundreds and thousands of people in a crowd. I just want a sold out crowd like at MSG, just all singing the words to my song in unison. That’s my goal.”
To achieve such lofty goals, hard work and dedication will need to remain constants for Jones. It’s not uncommon to find Jones working late into the night at the recording studio at Susquehanna or even falling asleep in the studio.
It’s this type of drive and hunger that has led Jones to where he is now and there’s no reason to believe that he’ll slow down anytime soon. Not only is it not in his nature, but it’s essentially what his stage name represents. It’s who he is. It’s all he knows.
“I contemplated [using the name “Andy the Chef”] and went back-and-forth, but then I started feeling like I was outworking people,” he said. “So I came up with this slogan that says that everybody’s trying to eat, but not everyone’s going to cook. Everyone’s trying to eat, everyone wants the food on their plate, but not everyone’s going to cook for it. You have to be a chef.”
