Exclusive: Andy Grammer Says ‘Monster’ Is Inspired By Anger, He Had To Record It For Himself

Pop singer Andy Grammer has built his enviable career on a catalog of songs about positivity that has accumulated 3 billion global streams and amassed a social media footprint of over 4 million followers. His multi-platinum hits include “Honey, I’m Good,” “Keep Your Head Up,” “Fine By Me,” “Don’t Give Up On Me,” and “Fresh Eyes.”

So, when anger and a mandolin inspired Grammer to write his new album Monster, he was trepidatious. The mandolin, a new instrument for the singer, lightened Grammer’s melodies, providing a balance for lyrics that might be dark under a different production.

The result is an album of vulnerable, relatable lyrics that are so personal to Grammer that he says Monster is the album he had to make. Monster is available now.

“You get to a place, which is really special as an artist, where you actually don’t care,” Grammer told American Songwriter. “That’s really, really great. I want everyone to like this so much. It would mean so much to me if everybody loves this album, but I needed this for me.”

Andy Grammer called American Songwriter to talk about Monster.

American Songwriter: Monster is your first new album in five years. How are you feeling now that it’s (out)?

Andy Grammer: It’s a different flavor for me, and so I’m really excited. I think that there are a lot of people who can relate to what this album is about. I envision people in their cars letting go of stuff to this album. That’s what I hope.

American Songwriter: I think what makes Monster so unique is that when you’re grappling with trauma, and then you put on an album that tackles those topics. Most of the time, the music is down, and you don’t feel better. Monster combines these super vulnerable, sensitive, and personal topics with upbeat music that lets listeners connect with the lyrics. The up-tempo music takes their hearts and minds to a place of openness.

Andy Grammer: It’s the first album where anger showed up, and I didn’t totally know how to write about that before this moment. I don’t like to take up space in anger. I’m down to take up space to cheer everybody up, but I found that authenticity taking up space is cool. If you’re dealing with some of the stuff I’m dealing with, you can’t be authentic without being angry. There is something about the mandolin. It let me go there, and I’m grateful for that instrument. I did not see it coming. I didn’t see the mandolin as the key that opened this door, but I’m so grateful for that instrument.

American Songwriter: What was it for you about the mandolin that unlocked this part of your brain or this part of your storytelling mechanism that lets you address all these things?

Andy Grammer: It’s like you have a box of crayons, and I’ve never used purple. I picked it up, and there was just enough of a different twang to it that was like, ‘Oh, this is different. It still sounds like me, but it’s a different color.’ I think it lent itself to lead lines, which I don’t have a ton of in my previous albums. And there’s something about lead lines that just let you kind of release.

American Songwriter: Are you talking about the source of your anger, or are you just owning that it’s there?

Andy Grammer: Even just acknowledging it, I think that the Monster is that there’s misunderstood anger. I think inside of me is saying, ‘Oh, there’s some stuff you’re keeping the peace about that you shouldn’t be keeping the peace about.’ There’s fear of letting that out that might cause destruction or turn me into someone that I don’t want to be. But I actually found that it was just really freeing and some of my favorite music. I love these songs. I was going through a really hard time, and I was writing this album in the middle of that. It’s one of the things that kept me sane through that process.

Andy Grammer Says Acknowledging His Anger is a Victory

American Songwriter: To me, and it’s probably just my point of reference, but mandolin is a higher-pitched, happy-sounding instrument. It’s almost like the counterbalance to anger.

Andy Grammer: That’s really interesting. That’s very possible. I also know where my hands go if I pick up a guitar at this point. I just went and bought a mandolin from Guitar Center. Then I was in my house, and the first thing that came out was the line for that song “Bigger Man.” And I was like, ‘What the hell is that? That is a completely different vibe than anything I’ve ever done.’ It made me want to sing about what you’re saying, grittier, sadder, deeper topics, but it still felt up, and I was very, very excited to chase that. This is the first one that has all come out as fast as this one did. Most of these songs came out real quick.

American Songwriter: What does fast look like for you?

Andy Grammer: Fast means that sometimes you really have to tease out songs and spend a lot of energy getting them. For my first four albums, I think I wrote over a hundred songs for each album.

You’re just writing a ton to find out what you’re trying to say. Then, once you’ve thrown all the paint up against the wall, you can see, ‘Oh, the theme here is this, actually.’ And then you choose based on that, and then you start really refining to make sure they’re all as good as they can possibly be. This one was like my salvation in a tornado of emotion. I just had to write for my safety, for my mental health.

It was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s coming out.’ Me and my wife, she’s an incredible songwriter, too. My mouth was opening, and it was like vomiting out. I couldn’t stop it.

American Songwriter: Given your propensity for positive songs, you said that even you are surprised that you have a song, and an album called “Monster.” Can you talk about writing it?

Andy Grammer:

I would assume that everybody has moments in their life where you wake up and you go, ‘There’s got to be a better way to do this than the way that I’m doing it right now. I don’t think I’m supposed to feel this way.’

When you can own that with yourself, then you can start to make some hard decisions that would change why you feel that way, whether it’s relationships, whether it’s habits, whether it’s anything. And so, it’s kind of like a battle cry for the better version of myself. Using the anger to get motivated to do that because underneath, because for me as a people pleaser, I am very capable of suppressing lots of emotions. I’ll go out and sing a lot of stuff, but internally, there was a good amount of suppression of my truth at this moment in my life. So, opening it up and kind of giving a Braveheart scream and going, ‘Whether this works or not, this is where I’m headed.’ That was a lot of this feeling, and it was a little bit scary because playing with anger and songwriting was scary. I didn’t know how I was going to come across.

Andy Grammer Says Maddie & Tae are “Fireballs”

American Songwriter: You recorded “I Do” with Maddie & Tae. Tell me about that song and collaboration.

Andy Grammer: As a pop songwriter, I always try to make the biggest impact with the smallest amount of syllables or the slightest change. So, the phrase, ‘Even when I don’t love you, I do,’ says so much with so few syllables that I love that idea. Then everybody can hopefully sing it, and there’s low resistance to the big idea that’s coming at your chest. I think that anyone that’s been married for over 10 years understands this song.

With Maddie & Tae, it felt like it was time to reach out a little bit. I just met and loved them; it has been a great collaboration. They’re just such a blast. We went and shot this video together. There’s a young, fun energy around them that lightens it up a little bit.

American Songwriter: “Not The End” feels a little bit different to me. I love the concept as a writer. Can you tell me about that song?

Andy Grammer: My dear friend from elementary school is still one of my closest friends. His son is my godson. He called and told me that his sister had tried to commit suicide the night before. My wife is a great songwriter, too. I told her that’s what had happened, and we rushed into the studio to write her a song as fast as we could. That’s why it says Lisa’s song on there.

It’s just real. We’re all trying to keep up our appearances, but many people around us are really, really going through it, including me, but at differing levels. And we were just trying to think of, ‘What do you want to hear at that exact moment?’ It had just happened the night before, and she got through it. Someone came in and stopped her, and she was all right. But yeah, two phrases we thought you’d want to hear. ‘It’s just a chapter in your story. This is just a bump in the road.’ And then, ‘If it’s not all right, then it’s not the end.’ Both of those, we wanted to get in there.

Andy Grammer Lost His Mom To Understand Empathy

American Songwriter: Who did you make this album for? Who will love this album?

Andy Grammer: I lost my mom when I was 25, and I’m a pretty upbeat person. I think it’s in my DNA.  At 25, I had no success. I got rocked to the point where I was walking around Santa Monica, just destroyed. And it really opened me up to the idea that, ‘Whoa, I bet a lot of other people are feeling like this.’ Before, I couldn’t even comprehend it. Life was good. I was the homecoming king. I’m pretty good at sports. I kept saying, ‘Everything’s good. What is there to be sad about?’  I didn’t really have any compassion for the low valleys that people would go through. And then, when my mom passed, I got a good dose of that. For two whole years, I took a journey through like, ‘Whoa, there’s a lot of pain in this world.’ And if you can be someone that can sing even to yourself in this moment, and then maybe use it to lift other people up, that would be really cool. The fact that that’s what people come to me for, they’re my favorite people at my shows. It’s people that are really sincere, will wear shirts that have joy or peace on them, and have also been through some horrendous shit. And those are my people.