A strum, a melody, a subtle drum in the background; you cannot help but sway to the melancholy tune that fills the air. Your heart nods to the lyrics, and your soul dances with the thought of it all. Music has its own magical language, bewitching all who come in contact with it.
Born and raised in Centerfield, Ky., Andy Biller, junior and sports editor staff member at The Asbury Collegian, begins his music career right here on Asbury University’s campus. This past week, the band Centerfield, created by Biller and Ben Crowder, released their first-ever single: “Tuesday.”
“Our music is a subtle mix of alternative acoustic melancholy pop music,” said Biller. “With a heavy emphasis on the acoustic guitar as the main instrument, we allow our music to focus on the strip back sound, vocals, and lyrics of each melody.”
Although Centerfield is presented with a unique aesthetic of music, it did not develop overnight.
“It all started when I was seven,” said Biller. “I taught myself how to play the drums, and then I started taking voice lessons my freshman year of high school. I also taught myself the basics of guitar over the COVID quarantine period. And then, this past year, I started teaching myself piano and base guitar. Although I started creating music my sophomore year of high school, after a short break, I came back to a fresh beginning right before I enrolled at Asbury.”
With experience from the past and inspiration for the future, each song is strung together for a reason, expressed by experience, and offered to listeners for inspiration. However, a song that touches many hearts does not simply write itself.
“What inspires my music is my love to write for things that are weighing on my heart and my mind,” explained Biller. “Music is such a valuable tool in understanding myself and how the world works. It is the way I go to process everything going on in my life and around me, especially mental health. That is something I have wrestled with constantly since I started making music, and it has been the best tool I have ever found for exploring and understanding it better.”
In the days to come, Centerfield plans to expand into new bounds.
“Since creating this band, Centerfield, with Ben Crowder, we have been spending the past two-plus years coming up with various songs that we thought were going to fit well into this first project. We just put out our first debut single, called ‘Tuesday,’ which is a part of our new album in the making: ‘When My Sanity is Gone.’ These can now be found on all streaming services. At this point, we have about eight to ten songs for this first project that we are hoping to put out by the end of the semester. We are planning to release one more single on Fri., Feb. 23, 2024.”
Biller and Crowder usher in a new band, a new creation, and a new dream. However, for the reader to know what this magical language of music contains, they are required only to listen. Let the heart bow and the soul dance to these melancholy, sweet tunes.
Featured image by Andy Biller.