Tuesday
Oct102006
allow myself to introduce... myself
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 at 04:24PM
So the good news is that a lot more people read this blog than when I started it last June. I've been realizing, though, that I'm getting more and more e-mails saying "huh? what do you mean back in Normal? Do you really have nine toes?" and things like that. So I thought I'd do a quick sort of Lifetime movie called My Story to tug on the heartstrings of all the underinformed AndyLanders out there. Ok, the two of you who might be interested. Anyway, here we go...
I was born in Normal, IL ("no puns allowed" - town motto) in 1979 to Dave and Donna Osenga. They lived in a yellow house on Green street. Or it could have been a green house on Yellow street. That was always a toughie for me. They grew up in Kankakee, IL, on the banks of the Kankakee river, just south of Chicago. I have a younger brother named Rob who still lives in Normal and is married to a sweet girl named Candice.
Anyway, I lived in Normal, attended Normal Community High School, worked at the Normal Public Library all through the high school years. Mark Lockett and I became best friends when we were in jr. high, he lived about four blocks from me. He learned to play guitar about a year before me and taught me how to play. In high school we played for our local YoungLife club every week and learned a LOT of Tom Petty and U2 songs. This was a good thing.
Along with a couple of friends we started a band in high school as well. We were terrible, but we tried very hard. I remember the first time I played electric guitar live, I had no tuner or amp and only a truly horrible death metal pedal that somebody found. I played it straight into a DI. It was awesome.
So our band played at a couple local festivals and got heard by a pseudo "talent scout" for a Nashville publishing company. These are the guys that own the copyrights on songs and try to get artists to record their writers' tunes. Somehow I ended up with a publishing contract during my senior year of high school. Because of that I came to Nashville for college.
I went to Belmont University, because somebody said it was good. I was one of six English majors in the whole school. I had an American Lit. professor who had never read Hemingway. I decided maybe college wasn't for me. I met a couple great people there, though: a cute girl named Alison and a recording student named Cason.
The publishing deal led to making some decent-sounding demos which led to Mark and I getting a record contract with Forefront Records. Our friend Clayton was a part of that original group as well. I was in the middle of my freshman year at this point. Had yet to take "Music Business Law" class, which would have been handy.
We finished the school year, picked a name that begged for no shortage of bad jokes (We were called The Normals), we released a record and went on the road. We drove a Ford 15 passenger van, pulled a trailer and our first single went to #1. All our hard work had paid off.
That was a joke.
Subsequent singles didn't do quite as well, but we toured our butts off and had a good time. After a year Clayton left and our friend B.J. Aberle started playing bass. Mike, our drummer, had been with us since the second round of demos we did. Cason was initially our road manager, then he started running sound, then he joined the band as a keyboard player, although we had rarely heard him play.
We ended up getting to make two more records which we really loved. They were called Coming to Life and A Place Where You Belong. A hero of ours, Malcolm Burn, produced them. We toured a ton more, got to know folks like Waterdeep and Caedmon's Call and became a pretty good band. There was a period of about two years there where were jealous of ourselves, we just loved being in that band and being a part of eachother's lives. It was a great time.
The music business was getting pretty weird, though. Napster was freaking people out and people had just finished rebuying their vinyl collection on CD and the labels were running out of money. The first place to cut costs was to get rid of the bands who were still developing but weren't on the heels of a huge hit. We were one of those. As was just about everybody else on the label over the next year or two. Now it's an imprint with two artists and I'm glad we weren't around any longer.
It was a hard time for me, personally, then. I had fallen in love with that cute girl Alison and had asked her to marry me. My band had to break up because we couldn't afford to tour while starting families and having no label support. MySpace and the blogosphere weren't around to let us realize people actually cared about what we were doing. I was still trapped in my contract and was still a college freshman. Kroger was my best option job-wise.
I should tell you here about Alison. She's great. Not only is she really hot, which she is, but she's hilarious and inspiring. She cracks me up all the time. We were good friends for years before we ever dated, and I'm glad, because we hang out very well. For most of our dating she was on staff at the Nashville Rescue Mission, doing PR and running their volunteer program. Although often the "volunteers" were there on "community service" and it was truly terrifying to watch her put them in their place. Go get 'em, girl. Anyway, she's a voracious reader, quietly creative, and is a wonderful writer. She's also a great mom. But not at this point.
At this point in our story, Alison nannied for a while and I decided to finish work on a project I had started the year before. I had a bunch of songs that didn't work for The Normals. They were too personal and quiet for a rock band. So I learned ProTools and asked friends to come over and play for free and ended up with a record I released that December, two weeks after finally getting out of my old record contract. It was called Photographs. I really like it a lot.
Alison and I had gotten engaged in March, right after the band's last tour, and got married in August. In November my friend Derek told me had just quit his band, Caedmon's Call, and had told them to call me to fill in, since he knew I really needed a job. I ended up playing my first with Caedmon's, with Derek in the audience, here in Nashville that December.
The following year Caedmon's and Jars of Clay went on two big tours and I spent the bulk of that year in a bus. Alison came on the first tour, which was great, but had to stay home for the second, so I recorded my EP Souvenirs and Postcards. The first tour with Caedmon's I played on a riser on the back of the stage. After that I told them that I loved them and would love to keep playing with them, and I don't care where you stick me, but you have to get me off of that riser. I felt like a nerd.
I should add here that when I started with Caedmon's I had played about three guitar solos in my life and really should not have been playing lead guitar in front of 4000 people I night. I'm glad they didn't know that, though. I was the rhythm player in The Normals, since I was always about a year behind Mark throughout. He's a guitar ninja. I play electric guitar for a living now, and there are still some things he did that I don't understand.
So I got off the riser, recorded an EP, did a couple tours with Caedmon's and they asked me to officially join. They were very encouraging of me doing my solo stuff and said they didn't expect me to stop and that they'd try and help me keep doing it. And they have. A ton. And I said yes.
About a year after we got married, in between the two big CC/Jars tours, Alison and I bought a house. It's in Nashville in a neighborhood of 60's ranch homes, owned mostly by people who bought them new and are now very old. We love it. The house has a basement and for a couple years I ran a studio in it, called The Velvet Eagle. I got to work on a number of amazing records down there, by Andrew Peterson, Eric Peters, Chris Mason, Greg Adkins, some Caedmon's stuff and a slew of other stuff. It was a blast.
After a couple years, though, the finances of keeping it up-to-date and booked and the toll it was taking on our family, with having people in and out all the time and the noise, I decided to let go of the studio, sell off the gear and focus on writing, performing and playing. It's been a good decision. I still have a setup down there, but it's just enough for me to sing and play and mainly write.
Sorry, I jumped ahead a bit there. In 2004, after I officially joined, Caedmon's went to India and Ecuador to write and record the Share the Well album. It was an amazing time and a great record. It was also my first record with them as a band member.
Before the record came out, though, Alison and I found out we were pregnant. The record came out, we did a few tours, but had to cut the second one short, because last March our daughter Ella was born. Her full name is Elizabeth Claire. She's awesome. She's a little over a year and a half old and she runs around with her CareBear all day, sings, dances, babbles incessantly, loves to be outside and in her swing and really, really loves her Mommy and Daddy. And we really, really love her.
So Ells was born, I was off the road for a little while and still had a recording studio. I also was/am in the midst of a fairly intense period of healing and recovery, mostly from those hard times at the end of the Normals and the beginning of our marriage. I decided to write and record another solo album that would be very different from my previous work. I wanted something big and sonically great and upbeat and fun to play live. I worked on the album The Morning for over a year and a half and I'm really pleased with the final result. Cason helped me with the production and we recorded it all over here at The Velvet Eagle. Independent records are a slow burn, especially when you don't get to tour very much on your own. The album has been steadily picking up speed, though, gotten a ton of wonderful reviews (the best of my career, honestly), and is slowly becoming a great success, I think. Or at least hope. And pray. Every day.
During the making of that album, Caedmon's did a record-contract-fulfilling worship album that was better than it should have been but still bombed, probably because no one really cared about, from the label or the band. That really is unfortunate. The band is in a very excited state right now, though, as we're planning and writing and gearing up for a new chapter, free from our old contract and other junk. I'm pretty jazzed about where it's going, to tell you the truth. And I told you I wasn't jazzed about that worship record, so you can trust me. Anyway...
That brings us to now. Alison is pregnant again with another little girl. We're due Dec. 9 and we're really excited to have two little girls. Sisters. It's going to be very cute around here. I believe we're registering at Target.
Besides that the Lord has been faithful to us, though it's often been suspect on our end. The finances of a freelance musician are always terrifying, but He continues to provide. Outside, in glorious Nashville, TN, it's just becoming Fall, my favorite season, and Ella and Alison are both taking naps. The house is quiet. I've had a nice time to remember all this and write it down for you. Sorry it's not as short as I hoped. There's 27 years jammed in here, though!
Oh, and the toe. Forgot about the toe. How can I forget about the toe? Last year, May 5, to be exact, I was mowing my yard and slipped and ended up losing the middle toe on my right foot. Now it sort of looks like a Simpsons foot. And it's kind of hilarious. You can laugh, it's all right. It ain't coming back.
I was born in Normal, IL ("no puns allowed" - town motto) in 1979 to Dave and Donna Osenga. They lived in a yellow house on Green street. Or it could have been a green house on Yellow street. That was always a toughie for me. They grew up in Kankakee, IL, on the banks of the Kankakee river, just south of Chicago. I have a younger brother named Rob who still lives in Normal and is married to a sweet girl named Candice.
Anyway, I lived in Normal, attended Normal Community High School, worked at the Normal Public Library all through the high school years. Mark Lockett and I became best friends when we were in jr. high, he lived about four blocks from me. He learned to play guitar about a year before me and taught me how to play. In high school we played for our local YoungLife club every week and learned a LOT of Tom Petty and U2 songs. This was a good thing.
Along with a couple of friends we started a band in high school as well. We were terrible, but we tried very hard. I remember the first time I played electric guitar live, I had no tuner or amp and only a truly horrible death metal pedal that somebody found. I played it straight into a DI. It was awesome.
So our band played at a couple local festivals and got heard by a pseudo "talent scout" for a Nashville publishing company. These are the guys that own the copyrights on songs and try to get artists to record their writers' tunes. Somehow I ended up with a publishing contract during my senior year of high school. Because of that I came to Nashville for college.
I went to Belmont University, because somebody said it was good. I was one of six English majors in the whole school. I had an American Lit. professor who had never read Hemingway. I decided maybe college wasn't for me. I met a couple great people there, though: a cute girl named Alison and a recording student named Cason.
The publishing deal led to making some decent-sounding demos which led to Mark and I getting a record contract with Forefront Records. Our friend Clayton was a part of that original group as well. I was in the middle of my freshman year at this point. Had yet to take "Music Business Law" class, which would have been handy.
We finished the school year, picked a name that begged for no shortage of bad jokes (We were called The Normals), we released a record and went on the road. We drove a Ford 15 passenger van, pulled a trailer and our first single went to #1. All our hard work had paid off.
That was a joke.
Subsequent singles didn't do quite as well, but we toured our butts off and had a good time. After a year Clayton left and our friend B.J. Aberle started playing bass. Mike, our drummer, had been with us since the second round of demos we did. Cason was initially our road manager, then he started running sound, then he joined the band as a keyboard player, although we had rarely heard him play.
We ended up getting to make two more records which we really loved. They were called Coming to Life and A Place Where You Belong. A hero of ours, Malcolm Burn, produced them. We toured a ton more, got to know folks like Waterdeep and Caedmon's Call and became a pretty good band. There was a period of about two years there where were jealous of ourselves, we just loved being in that band and being a part of eachother's lives. It was a great time.
The music business was getting pretty weird, though. Napster was freaking people out and people had just finished rebuying their vinyl collection on CD and the labels were running out of money. The first place to cut costs was to get rid of the bands who were still developing but weren't on the heels of a huge hit. We were one of those. As was just about everybody else on the label over the next year or two. Now it's an imprint with two artists and I'm glad we weren't around any longer.
It was a hard time for me, personally, then. I had fallen in love with that cute girl Alison and had asked her to marry me. My band had to break up because we couldn't afford to tour while starting families and having no label support. MySpace and the blogosphere weren't around to let us realize people actually cared about what we were doing. I was still trapped in my contract and was still a college freshman. Kroger was my best option job-wise.
I should tell you here about Alison. She's great. Not only is she really hot, which she is, but she's hilarious and inspiring. She cracks me up all the time. We were good friends for years before we ever dated, and I'm glad, because we hang out very well. For most of our dating she was on staff at the Nashville Rescue Mission, doing PR and running their volunteer program. Although often the "volunteers" were there on "community service" and it was truly terrifying to watch her put them in their place. Go get 'em, girl. Anyway, she's a voracious reader, quietly creative, and is a wonderful writer. She's also a great mom. But not at this point.
At this point in our story, Alison nannied for a while and I decided to finish work on a project I had started the year before. I had a bunch of songs that didn't work for The Normals. They were too personal and quiet for a rock band. So I learned ProTools and asked friends to come over and play for free and ended up with a record I released that December, two weeks after finally getting out of my old record contract. It was called Photographs. I really like it a lot.
Alison and I had gotten engaged in March, right after the band's last tour, and got married in August. In November my friend Derek told me had just quit his band, Caedmon's Call, and had told them to call me to fill in, since he knew I really needed a job. I ended up playing my first with Caedmon's, with Derek in the audience, here in Nashville that December.
The following year Caedmon's and Jars of Clay went on two big tours and I spent the bulk of that year in a bus. Alison came on the first tour, which was great, but had to stay home for the second, so I recorded my EP Souvenirs and Postcards. The first tour with Caedmon's I played on a riser on the back of the stage. After that I told them that I loved them and would love to keep playing with them, and I don't care where you stick me, but you have to get me off of that riser. I felt like a nerd.
I should add here that when I started with Caedmon's I had played about three guitar solos in my life and really should not have been playing lead guitar in front of 4000 people I night. I'm glad they didn't know that, though. I was the rhythm player in The Normals, since I was always about a year behind Mark throughout. He's a guitar ninja. I play electric guitar for a living now, and there are still some things he did that I don't understand.
So I got off the riser, recorded an EP, did a couple tours with Caedmon's and they asked me to officially join. They were very encouraging of me doing my solo stuff and said they didn't expect me to stop and that they'd try and help me keep doing it. And they have. A ton. And I said yes.
About a year after we got married, in between the two big CC/Jars tours, Alison and I bought a house. It's in Nashville in a neighborhood of 60's ranch homes, owned mostly by people who bought them new and are now very old. We love it. The house has a basement and for a couple years I ran a studio in it, called The Velvet Eagle. I got to work on a number of amazing records down there, by Andrew Peterson, Eric Peters, Chris Mason, Greg Adkins, some Caedmon's stuff and a slew of other stuff. It was a blast.
After a couple years, though, the finances of keeping it up-to-date and booked and the toll it was taking on our family, with having people in and out all the time and the noise, I decided to let go of the studio, sell off the gear and focus on writing, performing and playing. It's been a good decision. I still have a setup down there, but it's just enough for me to sing and play and mainly write.
Sorry, I jumped ahead a bit there. In 2004, after I officially joined, Caedmon's went to India and Ecuador to write and record the Share the Well album. It was an amazing time and a great record. It was also my first record with them as a band member.
Before the record came out, though, Alison and I found out we were pregnant. The record came out, we did a few tours, but had to cut the second one short, because last March our daughter Ella was born. Her full name is Elizabeth Claire. She's awesome. She's a little over a year and a half old and she runs around with her CareBear all day, sings, dances, babbles incessantly, loves to be outside and in her swing and really, really loves her Mommy and Daddy. And we really, really love her.
So Ells was born, I was off the road for a little while and still had a recording studio. I also was/am in the midst of a fairly intense period of healing and recovery, mostly from those hard times at the end of the Normals and the beginning of our marriage. I decided to write and record another solo album that would be very different from my previous work. I wanted something big and sonically great and upbeat and fun to play live. I worked on the album The Morning for over a year and a half and I'm really pleased with the final result. Cason helped me with the production and we recorded it all over here at The Velvet Eagle. Independent records are a slow burn, especially when you don't get to tour very much on your own. The album has been steadily picking up speed, though, gotten a ton of wonderful reviews (the best of my career, honestly), and is slowly becoming a great success, I think. Or at least hope. And pray. Every day.
During the making of that album, Caedmon's did a record-contract-fulfilling worship album that was better than it should have been but still bombed, probably because no one really cared about, from the label or the band. That really is unfortunate. The band is in a very excited state right now, though, as we're planning and writing and gearing up for a new chapter, free from our old contract and other junk. I'm pretty jazzed about where it's going, to tell you the truth. And I told you I wasn't jazzed about that worship record, so you can trust me. Anyway...
That brings us to now. Alison is pregnant again with another little girl. We're due Dec. 9 and we're really excited to have two little girls. Sisters. It's going to be very cute around here. I believe we're registering at Target.
Besides that the Lord has been faithful to us, though it's often been suspect on our end. The finances of a freelance musician are always terrifying, but He continues to provide. Outside, in glorious Nashville, TN, it's just becoming Fall, my favorite season, and Ella and Alison are both taking naps. The house is quiet. I've had a nice time to remember all this and write it down for you. Sorry it's not as short as I hoped. There's 27 years jammed in here, though!
Oh, and the toe. Forgot about the toe. How can I forget about the toe? Last year, May 5, to be exact, I was mowing my yard and slipped and ended up losing the middle toe on my right foot. Now it sort of looks like a Simpsons foot. And it's kind of hilarious. You can laugh, it's all right. It ain't coming back.
Reader Comments (16)
That was great, Andy, even for those of us who knew (most of) all of that.
Hey Andy, cool history. The story behind the nine-toed man. Keep up the good work!
Hi Andy-
I interviewed you for the radio station I (still) work at here in WI right after that last Normals CD came out. I had high hopes for that one, but, well, us radio people can be real losers sometimes. Anyway, I stumbled across your site after reading an article about the Square Peg Alliance. Good to see you're still doing the solo stuff in addition to your CC work. You guys actually worked with my sister when you were in India. It's a small world after all.
Keep up the good work!
Matt
I elect to replace the title of this blog to"I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal."
Besides, people really do know you, and I'd be willing to bet you do have a fair share of leather bound books.
Rob
Bravo! You never went back to college. Don't it's evil---they won't let you leave. Anyway, I must go study for a essay exam.
I can't wait for them to hand me my general study degree. I think I will be a general. I mean that piece of paper should be good for one army star.
Andy. Awesome story. Now I am able to really explain all about you to the folks in Washington... I'm spreadin the "AndyO Word" as best as I can. So far, we're all siked (and I feel honored) to see you next saturday here in little Marysville, WA!
1. Fall is my favorite season too
2. How do you just slip up and lose a toe? and the middle one at that!
3. You've done well for yourself, Andy...Keep it up!
My wife and I are naming our son Cason after the line "Cason's always talkin' 'bout the sky that covers Kansas." He'll be born in a couple of weeks. OK, it's his middle name, but a name nonetheless.
Andy, I will never take for granted my 10 toes again! Still can't figure how you did it, and I'm laughing at you as I write! God bless you and your beautiful girls!
Look on the bright side - anytime you feel like giving someone the middle finger, you can give them the middle toe instead!
Thanks for the story. Nice to meet you again for the first time...
This was a blast to read and see how we followed along in your Andy O story. We saw you tour with the Normals, we have all your Normals and solo CD's, we met you for the first time backstage during that Jars tour and we were with you the day your car decided to quit on the Nashville freeway. Fun times. Incredibly honored to call you friend.
Thanks for sharing, Andrew. I have always been a big fan of your music. I actually really enjoyed the Normals. I have the last two albums and really like them, although I always liked your first album best. I saw you in Chico, CA years back when you played with Derek Webb and he ranted about the Prayer of Jabez. Thanks for sharing again.
Nice stuff Andy.
I am still a big fan. I actually became a fan about 4 years ago and then bought some of the Normals stuff recently(on-Sale), it's good stuff. God has given yourself a gift.
Mark
Who are you again?
Why am I here?
Why am I posting this?
[Andy, you're now officially a Weblogger, with an about-me and everything.]
I kinda lost track of you after The Normals split. I'm glad to get a bio. Your songwriting continues to amaze me.
Dude, your self-deprecating remarks about your lead guitar skills astounded me (though I understand this was written several years ago). Since I started playing guitar about sixteen yrs ago I have worked at being a lead player and there are only two players whose soloing style I've actively tried to emulate: Billy Corgan and you.
I think you're great