July 1, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of Sounds From The Dockside, we sit down with rising UK music star Andrew Cushin – the working-class songwriter from Newcastle who's been hailed by Noel Gallagher as “the real f**ing deal.”Andrew opens up about growing up in the North East, mental health, grief, sobriety, and the pressure of staying grounded while chasing success. We talk about the realities of the music industry, his love for his hometown, and how honesty and struggle have shaped his songwriting.🎧 Topics covered in this episode:- Growing up in Newcastle and working-class roots- The road to getting signed and working with Noel Gallagher- Songwriting as therapy and self-expression- What it means to be a voice for your city- Advice for new artists navigating life and the industry
🔥 Whether you're a fan of British indie rock, a music lover, or someone on their own recovery or creative journey — this is one to watch.🛠️ About Sounds From The DocksideSFTD is more than a podcast — it’s creative platform rooted in Grimsby, giving a voice to musicians, artists, and everyday people doing extraordinary things.Through in-depth interviews and intimate live events (Sober Sessions), we’re building a space where music and recovery meet — without judgement, and with full heart.🎧 Subscribe, comment, and share to help us grow this movement.🔗 Follow Andrew Cushin:Instagram: @andrewcushinSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0mUufv9jrIi9BPpN9VHduc?si=rBsOHCATQ4Gk4dgYlaIQfgYouTube: @andrewcushin7251
📺 Subscribe to Sounds From The Dockside:www.linktree.com/soundsfromthedockside
#AndrewCushin #SoundsFromTheDockside #NewcastleMusic #NoelGallagher #UKIndie #MusicPodcast #CreativeStartCIC #SoberSessions #MentalHealthInMusic #BritishSongwriter #AuthenticVoices #MusicRecovery #GrimsbyToTheWorld
🔥 Whether you're a fan of British indie rock, a music lover, or someone on their own recovery or creative journey — this is one to watch.🛠️ About Sounds From The DocksideSFTD is more than a podcast — it’s creative platform rooted in Grimsby, giving a voice to musicians, artists, and everyday people doing extraordinary things.Through in-depth interviews and intimate live events (Sober Sessions), we’re building a space where music and recovery meet — without judgement, and with full heart.🎧 Subscribe, comment, and share to help us grow this movement.🔗 Follow Andrew Cushin:Instagram: @andrewcushinSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0mUufv9jrIi9BPpN9VHduc?si=rBsOHCATQ4Gk4dgYlaIQfgYouTube: @andrewcushin7251
📺 Subscribe to Sounds From The Dockside:www.linktree.com/soundsfromthedockside
#AndrewCushin #SoundsFromTheDockside #NewcastleMusic #NoelGallagher #UKIndie #MusicPodcast #CreativeStartCIC #SoberSessions #MentalHealthInMusic #BritishSongwriter #AuthenticVoices #MusicRecovery #GrimsbyToTheWorld
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
My dad played the guitar when he was in the
army and we always had one line around the house.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My way out was the guitar.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And it was either the guitar or it was getting
into some heavy drugs, or it was it was probably
gonna end in that downward spiral.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
People are still thinking it's a bit of a myth.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
A lot of the industries in London, man, a lot
of the industries down south. Things don't kind of stretch
us for there's a lot of these artists now that
are out there and they might be in the chart today,
but you know we'll be back at the car form
my house tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Well there's a new voice out the northeast of England
and now Gallagh I said, it's a real deal. And
usually when no talks everyone since so Andrew, alright, too bad,
how are you buddy?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thanks coming down all problem.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Thank you very much for having us so strap for time, mate,
so straight into it. Yeah, why not when you were
when you first picked up a guitar, was it was
it for an escape? Was it was she trying to
express yourself or was it something completely different?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
When I first picked up the guitar, it was bored
and it was only sixteen and we were, you know,
we lived the estate where I lived, it was one
of those leave your front doors open and you know,
knock at the neighbors for a cup of sugar and
all that kind of stuff. So Nat, you were out
playing football till the early hours of the morning, all
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We moved out of there when I was about fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I want to see in the area that we moved to,
it was a lot quieter and I didn't know anybody
around there. So my dad played the guitar when he
was in the army, and we always had one line
around the house. And yeah, I picked it up, but
I purely picked it up out border me. It was
it was a case to I don't know who my
fucking neighbors are, so I'm going to get familiar with
this guitar. When I first started writing that, that was
(02:01):
when it was for Yeah, it almost terrapizing myself, I think,
is the right way to go with that one.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
For a lot of people that.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, of course it is, man And it's like, you know,
it's such a cliche thing to say now, especially in
the world that we're living now, where a lot of
musicians tend to get on my nerves because they just
say the things that the thing everybody else wants to hear.
It wasn't a case of me sitting there going I
want to write something that's going to change the world,
and I want to write something because I feel a
(02:30):
little bit down, because I'm going to feel me exams.
It was like I was dealing with quite a nasty
environment at home that naturally needed written about. Yeah, then
my dad died, and it was like, I ain't tell
(02:51):
you this now, because this is what everybody wants to hear,
and I want people to feel sorry for me if
I didn't write songs like four and off percent and
where's my family gone? You know, I in the kind
of us and that can go to a therapist. A
lot of my family did. And I always commend people,
and I know I'm big, a big, big advocate for
men's mental health and all that kind of stuff, but
I'm not that person I can sit down and have
(03:13):
that conversation until now.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So naturally, my way out was the guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And it was either the guitar, or it was getting
into some fucking heavy drugs, or it was it was
probably gonna end in that downward spiral.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So was there anyone? Was anyone around your playing guitar
when he was young growing up? Or was it something
that just you had a curiosity towards in yourself.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Weren't we weren't that Well? No, you said you said
your dad played when it didn't guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, yeah, he played a bit, but it was never
you know, he wasn't Bob Dylan, and I was in
his fucking son prodigy, hanging off his ankles.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Go and teach me and he you know what I mean,
teach me that g minor chord? Please.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
It was not that going about in the friendship group
that I was in. It wasn't that kind of friendship.
Everyone was just getting stunned all the time, forever getting
stormed and stealing in peoples.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I was just standing up bringing Yeah, so it was
like I loved it.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I loved going to school and selling me tabs. Yeah
you know what I mean, going out on afraid of
with the lads and making the backpack with a couple
of cans. How which was a fag at school when
he was at school. It depends on when you had left.
Normally fifty pence tab. Yeah, fifty pence was when I
was younger, when.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I went.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
When I got to the last box, I used to
open to a quid, just trying to bring the money
in a bit more.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Because you have a do deal was like free for
a quid. And of course I think I used to
make more money than than I do. Know. Yeah there
you get. I can't remember. We get like ten ten
mayfair for two quid.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Then you'd sell five get two pounds fifty right.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
My Nanomi, dad's ma'am and hermie grandad used to.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Go on where where they used to go on holiday.
It was all there, the tax free sort of thing.
So it was a lot of two keys and all that. Yeah,
so she should come back with like two hundreds you know,
fucking Leonardo and Butler's do you know what I mean,
that's the one that's yeah, proper legal regals and all
(05:10):
that kind of stuff. So I'd be flogging the worst
possible cigarettes in school.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I wonder how much ill healthy of carse around Newcastle
chest and you got you got the gig tonight. I
feel rounds come rounds and all that. So obviously being
from Newcastle, it kind of runs right. Your story do
you think that shakes your song righting anyway, either consciously
or subconsciously.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I don't think it's shipped that we are right. I
think it shaped me work ethic in the sense that
probably similar to Grimsby in the sense of very working
class people in Newcastle, you know, the work for what
they've got, and you know, I'm fortunate enough that I
do this for a living. I travel around the UK
and around the world. But there is a lot and
(05:59):
there is that people are still thinking it's a bit
of a myth. A lot of the industries in London man,
a lot of the industries down south, things don't kind
of stretch as far up to the northeast. In your
castle in particular, we've got a beautiful sea and we've
got amazing people and beautiful bridges and on the cay.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Sear in the night. Don't believes the most friendliest people
in the world are Jordy's, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
But they're all really really hard working people and all
they want is they one a football team that tries
and succeeds, not not even necessarily succeeds, just tries.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
They want food on the table for their family, and
they want to have a drink. The other might want to,
you know, they might not want to have a drink.
They might want to, you know, go to a gig,
or they might want to sit in on fucking you know,
that normal kind of living stuff. But they tend to
work harder. So in my opinion, you work really hard
to get what you're given in your in the Northeast.
So yeah, so I think it changed my work ethic
of that. We were very lucky and when I first
(06:56):
started getting that leg up by nor Gallagher, it would
be very very easy for me.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
At that point, I just go, well, I must be
fucking great.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
If he's saying I'm great, and if that record label
wants me to sign with him, I must be great.
But what I wasn't And I kind of knew that
in my head as well, and it was like, right, well,
you've you've put faith in me.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I want to go back and prove to you. And
I've wrote.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Really odd and I played you know, We've been doing
about one hundred and seventy gigs a year.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Continuously for the last four or five years. I've been
smashing it, mate.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
But it's just working hard. It's just working on and
it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It's not like we've we've got this opportunity because we've
got to I want to keep on grafting.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I'm obsessed with it, man, Yeah, you've got to be
on here. But makes a lot easier when you love it.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Though, Yeah, of course, of course when I'm still I'm
still as obsessed with music and we're writing and we're
playing as I was when I first picked up the guitar,
which is a rare thing.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I think, yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
So I said in my op monologue about Nor Gallagher
calling yeah the real fucking Dale, which is quite quite
a common in it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know. I bet that goes on every press relates.
I'll give you an exclusive.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Man his first ever email that he sent, So I
got a phone call off him when we first started
off a no caller ID, which is.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Mad in itself. It was Andrew Cushion. This is no
totally not believing it at all.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
But we got an email as well, and it was
it was an email to me manager and it read
he can he can play the guitar, good voice and
can definitely write a song.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
What's the catch is here? Bell end?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And that was the first email that we ever got off, No,
and I've still got that saved somewhere.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Like you said, as soon as someone like that talks
to you, you listen, don't you.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But he's been great.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
He's been such an advocate for my music, and he's
been a mentor in many ways.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And yeah, we still got a WhatsApp group.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
He still checks on me give a review of the album,
and yeah, yeah, I know he's always He's always there
to help out if.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
If I'm really struggling with something. Yeah, but he's It's
great to have such a such a good mentor, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You couldn't ask for. It was my dad's hero, and
then as I got in music, it was my hero.
I think it was one of mine growing up as well,
do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It was.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Continues to be do you know what I mean? And
the time that I signed with him was about the
same time that I lost my dad and stuff. So
it was like, I don't know, he was a I
don't know. It was like it came from somewhere else.
I don't know. I'm not superstitious in any means, but
it was.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
It was weird, the time frame of being so low,
you know, emotionally to then being on Cloud nine and
you've got a record deal on the table and you're
working with a Nor Gallagher and it's like two weeks ago,
I was planning a funeral speech.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It's like, yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's unbelievable mate, that that all element of your story
just plays me away. But going back to him saying,
you know, like you're the real deal, what does real
mean to you? You know in an industry that's so big, Yeah, yeah,
everything everything, so everything image in the brand and everything's
manufactured now you know what, So what does real mean
to you at the minute? Because I see you as
(10:11):
a really authentic, sort of genuine I think.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That's probably the right word for it. I think it's authenticity.
I write all your music, whether people like it or not,
I write it myself. This album took a massive gamble
really and and took more hands on approach with with
trying to plan how I wanted the records sound. Gareth
and not have produced at any done amazing job, but
(10:34):
I was kind of there to be like, no, I
want it to sound like this, which is something I
haven't done before.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So I think really is Yeah, I think it's been
authentic and.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Not not not sitting back and I listen. I'm not
saying that they all do it because there's there's good
music out there, do you know what I mean? There's
there's great bands out there, but you do listen. I
was watching the Ivan Novellos and the Diving development views
the other day and it was like, not one.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Of these kids come from from do you? I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And I don't mean, I don't mean place or anything that,
but I just like, I don't know, they all just seemed.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
They were being told what to say.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I watched all of Young's interview and that was that
was the best of the bunch, I do have to say.
And there was one or two of there was one
or two others that stuck out, but there was so
many of them that just it felt. It felt to
me that they were just they were there to represent
this manufactured thing. They were there to represent a product
that had been created for them, nothing that they had created.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
What do you think be wrong? But that's why I felt.
What do you think changed it? Do you think it was?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Do you think streaming had anything to do with it?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
You know, because you know, for a while you'd find
new music vibe a going to see more buying a
record because probably you're just like just belt fed music.
Do you think that's why you need all the social
media followers and all the you know, expensive press shots
in that for for a record to land.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Now, well, there's a lot less money in music now,
isn't there. You know, people used to gig to make
an album. Now people you know, will make an album.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
At the cheapest costing rate that you can possibly find,
just so you've got an excuse to go out and
gig and try and make some money on T shirt sales.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's a difference.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
And because of that, record labels out there and that's
why the indies are having all the success. Now, majors
will still always get number ones, but indies are having
a lot of success. There's it's more of a beneficial
thing for a major label to just you know, pick
somebody who's blown up on TikTok on it on a
dance song or whatever, as opposed to invest in five
(12:40):
six years and it' an artist and trying to really
get them a mature and growing at something special. So yeah,
that's that's that's why that is one hundred percent people,
you know, wanting an overnight success and I think labels
now and again that could be wrong, but it appears
to me, I've been in the industry for a few
years now, it's very much to me that people would
or they have the one hit by an artist and
(13:03):
then have them, you know, thrown on the streets, as
opposed to working with a bar and that working with
the notes for five, six, seventy nine, ten years before
they getting number one, that's going to stand the test
of time.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Well, just just take a long time and it I
think it's a lot r when there's about ten years
to get their number one.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're the ones that are reaping the
benefits now. There's a lot of these artists now that
are out there and they might be in the chart today,
but you know, we'll be back at the car form
my host tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Is that even still the shop? Is that a place?
Is there? The one is it's reopening for a field musicians.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I was going to say, yeah, the one on Grimsby
shut down about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Shut down years ago. You guys have still got a war?
What's from you or worse? Pretty sure? We and I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I'm not not really cleared up on my local retailers.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Mate. It was a joke made the field.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, I've closed about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I know.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Our biggest shops in town are probably like pound Shop
and yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I get down.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, listen if it's one of them where it's nice
people and it's well grounded and hard working people, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I'll try.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
We choose to come down and play, Gigsie, I wouldn't
come down and play if I didn't want to be here,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, that's right acrossing off as well, mate, of course
it is.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, we get good receptions, but yeah, it's always nice
to me. People feel you find a lot of common ground,
good people in the North.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So there's a lot of purity to a songwriting about it.
But obviously the industry isn't sort of structured for purity.
So how do you protect yourself in a business that
sort of sett up for algorithms rather than authenticity.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Um, you've got a trust to your working at the
first and foremost. The guy who manages me, he's managed
me since I was eighteen, since I first started. The
amazing woman who does my pr cat. She's represented me
since I was eighteen. A lot of my team have
been around us since I was young. You know, I've
had the same lawyer, the musical lawyer that is I have.
(14:58):
I haven't needed another lawyer yet. Never say never, don't
say that me man.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So all all that kind of you've got, you've just
got to trust to your work with that thing. It
can be can be toxic, and you do hear some
horror stories of people getting ripped off and all that.
But if you trust who you're working with and if
they believe in you, and if they're with you for
the right reasons, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I think you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You've you've I think you've got to be conscious and
careful of who you're inviting into your team and who
you're bringing in your circle.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know? Is that so your manager? Manager?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Since since you got into eight eight you say that
came through the KNOLLNK did it?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I started doing gigs. I think it was nineteen I
started I maybe in eighteen one of the two, uh
and I thought about two or three gigs. And I
used to know Lee through football. I used to coach
football with them, and he came down to Watchers and
he said, you know, I've never managed the band, but
I've always wanted to give it a go, you know,
I know x Y and Z was like, I don't
(15:56):
think you do, but.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yes, let's go for it. And then that's when I
kicked off.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So I'd about six gigs before getting a record deal,
which you know, some bands work ten twenty years before
they get a sniff. So we were really really lucky
and also really spoiled and were instantly walking into dressing
rooms and festivals and having that cross on me back
where you were looking at bands who would gig for
(16:20):
five ten years, who wore miles better than me, fucking miles.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Better, and it was just that's a kid. It's just
been Simon or Gallagher, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
And it was like at the time I was walking
around thinking, fucking yes I have because I'm great, And
then I'd go on stage in a string wood snap
and I wouldn't know how to fix it, and we
guitar go out with tune and I've left me fucking
tuna in the car. Do you know our guitar picks
fall and having a finger picked the last three songs
because I'm broken up guitar picks.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It was like, I don't know everything. Back to front.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Normally people do their apprenticeship with music, which you know
is gigging and all that and writing and learning your craft,
and then they get sniff at it, you know, maybe
a smaller record label. Then they release an album, then
it might go into something else. I don't know everything
back to front man, Yeah, like it, mate, but.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It forced it forced us to grow, and it forced.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Us to get good at the guitar and forced me
to become a better writer. Because when the relationship with
the major record label fell apart, which was around COVID time,
which you know, one hundreds of people when that went away,
you know, if I hadn't knuckled down and kept on
writing and kept on grafting, worked on new songs, probably
(17:25):
wouldn't be doing this now.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Say if there was another came in tomorrow and everything
went when ship bust.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm going to fucking Australia. I was going to say,
what would you do? Do you know what I mean?
What would you do if everything went to ship? I'd
rather live on a fucking pedal in the North Sea? Fuck?
Am I staying around you.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Make mate for a good YouTube video that mate, it
might might get into YouTube.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Could you imagine if something that happened again, everyone just
got obsessed with painting that. I was painting everything, painting
the fence, the dogs, fridge, I was paying Everyone.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Had such a different interpreting.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
But when when COVID kicked off in the first lockdown
and I was in the army, we got deployed to
do like the COVID testing sides, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So it was like it's fucking ship.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Everyone's furlough than that, and we're driving around the country
social distancing, swabbing people's nose isn't there? And then I
got that started a job straight away. So throughout the
whole of COVID, I just fucking worked. It was like
nothing changed, just grafted.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
For I was doing lords.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I mean, I've done loads of writing and we've done
a few of them, Instagram lives and the you know,
I'm standing in the living room getting me mounted to
take a thought of us because I've got to do
some you know, promo shops for thought to shop the
dog's head out of the background. So there was a
few there was a few bits of that going on,
but yeah, it was. It was a dreadful time. Yeah,
(18:48):
ship on, I I mean having to do a COVID
test to get a paint to set out saying the ring.
I remember we went for a paint in your castle. Apologize, Yeah,
we went for a paint in the castle. And we
all like to do corver tests to get served. And
then we say and it was hissing it down and
like that. We were all sat with umbrellas and we're
(19:08):
like sad shivering with a painted and I thought, what
the fuck is the world?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Man?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Where willn't you hate to sit and have a drink
in in a in a pub?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Mental?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Mental, I'd rather sit house and drink the.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Same mate, and mindful that ware. We've not got much
time today. So a couple more questions for you. Imagine
your music was a painting, what would it look like
and what colors and textures would be.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I'm a big fan of the the two Bulldogs playing Sugar.
Yeah that's a classic, probably something like that. But memories
are wearing your castle shirt. They've got a bottle of
browniil on the sade. That would work. I don't know
a lot of paintings, lad, but I.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Like that one.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Perfect answer, mat perfect answer and last notte When when
people look back and Andrew Cushion in twenty years time,
what do you hope they don't say about.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, I hope they don't say that he blew us
or that he wasted it. You know, I was telling
you in the corner, I'm forever getting told off by
me nana smoking a drinking.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
When you have voice one day's sons.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I hope, I hope, I hope I do switch on
a little bit more with stuff like that and not
you know, come in the house at five six o'clock
in the morning because I can't.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It doesn't necessarily mean you should.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
So yeah, I hope people don't say that I blew
it and at this and I'm very switched on. Like
I say, I've got a team and our family now
around us who I know look after us, and I
know they lookout for us. But it's very very easy
in this business to you know, to go one step
too far and get you know, seen it with Pete Docker,
you see Wamy, Waynehouse, even Jim Morrison couldn't get away
(20:59):
from the night the nasty stuff. I'm not saying I'm
that kind of person. But you never know, do you. You
just never know. So I hope people don't say that
about me. I hope people don't see it. He ruined
his voice, didn't he Do you remember when he'd done
that gig and he has fell off?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You've been jacking up in the toilets?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Do you know what I mean? I mean, I don't
even know. If that's a sad effect of it is,
it's terrified the life out of me.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We'll take that thought away with your mate and set
on it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
And if the opportunity ever presents itself, just remembering your
fucking ears will fall off, mate.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, that's it. That's it. He hasn't fall off.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
What a beautiful way to close the shame, mate, And
thank you, We thank you ever so much for coming down, mate.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And if you like what you heard, like and subscribe.
Nice one.
My dad played the guitar when he was in the
army and we always had one line around the house.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
My way out was the guitar.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
And it was either the guitar or it was getting
into some heavy drugs, or it was it was probably
gonna end in that downward spiral.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
People are still thinking it's a bit of a myth.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
A lot of the industries in London, man, a lot
of the industries down south. Things don't kind of stretch
us for there's a lot of these artists now that
are out there and they might be in the chart today,
but you know we'll be back at the car form
my house tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Well there's a new voice out the northeast of England
and now Gallagh I said, it's a real deal. And
usually when no talks everyone since so Andrew, alright, too bad,
how are you buddy?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thanks coming down all problem.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Thank you very much for having us so strap for time, mate,
so straight into it. Yeah, why not when you were
when you first picked up a guitar, was it was
it for an escape? Was it was she trying to
express yourself or was it something completely different?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
When I first picked up the guitar, it was bored
and it was only sixteen and we were, you know,
we lived the estate where I lived, it was one
of those leave your front doors open and you know,
knock at the neighbors for a cup of sugar and
all that kind of stuff. So Nat, you were out
playing football till the early hours of the morning, all
that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
We moved out of there when I was about fourteen.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I want to see in the area that we moved to,
it was a lot quieter and I didn't know anybody
around there. So my dad played the guitar when he
was in the army, and we always had one line
around the house. And yeah, I picked it up, but
I purely picked it up out border me. It was
it was a case to I don't know who my
fucking neighbors are, so I'm going to get familiar with
this guitar. When I first started writing that, that was
(02:01):
when it was for Yeah, it almost terrapizing myself, I think,
is the right way to go with that one.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
For a lot of people that.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, of course it is, man And it's like, you know,
it's such a cliche thing to say now, especially in
the world that we're living now, where a lot of
musicians tend to get on my nerves because they just
say the things that the thing everybody else wants to hear.
It wasn't a case of me sitting there going I
want to write something that's going to change the world,
and I want to write something because I feel a
(02:30):
little bit down, because I'm going to feel me exams.
It was like I was dealing with quite a nasty
environment at home that naturally needed written about. Yeah, then
my dad died, and it was like, I ain't tell
(02:51):
you this now, because this is what everybody wants to hear,
and I want people to feel sorry for me if
I didn't write songs like four and off percent and
where's my family gone? You know, I in the kind
of us and that can go to a therapist. A
lot of my family did. And I always commend people,
and I know I'm big, a big, big advocate for
men's mental health and all that kind of stuff, but
I'm not that person I can sit down and have
(03:13):
that conversation until now.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
So naturally, my way out was the guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
And it was either the guitar, or it was getting
into some fucking heavy drugs, or it was it was
probably gonna end in that downward spiral.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So was there anyone? Was anyone around your playing guitar
when he was young growing up? Or was it something
that just you had a curiosity towards in yourself.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Weren't we weren't that Well? No, you said you said
your dad played when it didn't guitar.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, yeah, he played a bit, but it was never
you know, he wasn't Bob Dylan, and I was in
his fucking son prodigy, hanging off his ankles.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Go and teach me and he you know what I mean,
teach me that g minor chord? Please.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
It was not that going about in the friendship group
that I was in. It wasn't that kind of friendship.
Everyone was just getting stunned all the time, forever getting
stormed and stealing in peoples.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I was just standing up bringing Yeah, so it was
like I loved it.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I loved going to school and selling me tabs. Yeah
you know what I mean, going out on afraid of
with the lads and making the backpack with a couple
of cans. How which was a fag at school when
he was at school. It depends on when you had left.
Normally fifty pence tab. Yeah, fifty pence was when I
was younger, when.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
I went.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
When I got to the last box, I used to
open to a quid, just trying to bring the money
in a bit more.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Because you have a do deal was like free for
a quid. And of course I think I used to
make more money than than I do. Know. Yeah there
you get. I can't remember. We get like ten ten
mayfair for two quid.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Then you'd sell five get two pounds fifty right.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
My Nanomi, dad's ma'am and hermie grandad used to.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Go on where where they used to go on holiday.
It was all there, the tax free sort of thing.
So it was a lot of two keys and all that. Yeah,
so she should come back with like two hundreds you know,
fucking Leonardo and Butler's do you know what I mean,
that's the one that's yeah, proper legal regals and all
(05:10):
that kind of stuff. So I'd be flogging the worst
possible cigarettes in school.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I wonder how much ill healthy of carse around Newcastle
chest and you got you got the gig tonight. I
feel rounds come rounds and all that. So obviously being
from Newcastle, it kind of runs right. Your story do
you think that shakes your song righting anyway, either consciously
or subconsciously.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
I don't think it's shipped that we are right. I
think it shaped me work ethic in the sense that
probably similar to Grimsby in the sense of very working
class people in Newcastle, you know, the work for what
they've got, and you know, I'm fortunate enough that I
do this for a living. I travel around the UK
and around the world. But there is a lot and
(05:59):
there is that people are still thinking it's a bit
of a myth. A lot of the industries in London man,
a lot of the industries down south, things don't kind
of stretch as far up to the northeast. In your
castle in particular, we've got a beautiful sea and we've
got amazing people and beautiful bridges and on the cay.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Sear in the night. Don't believes the most friendliest people
in the world are Jordy's, you know.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
But they're all really really hard working people and all
they want is they one a football team that tries
and succeeds, not not even necessarily succeeds, just tries.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
You know.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
They want food on the table for their family, and
they want to have a drink. The other might want to,
you know, they might not want to have a drink.
They might want to, you know, go to a gig,
or they might want to sit in on fucking you know,
that normal kind of living stuff. But they tend to
work harder. So in my opinion, you work really hard
to get what you're given in your in the Northeast.
So yeah, so I think it changed my work ethic
of that. We were very lucky and when I first
(06:56):
started getting that leg up by nor Gallagher, it would
be very very easy for me.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
At that point, I just go, well, I must be
fucking great.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
If he's saying I'm great, and if that record label
wants me to sign with him, I must be great.
But what I wasn't And I kind of knew that
in my head as well, and it was like, right, well,
you've you've put faith in me.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I want to go back and prove to you. And
I've wrote.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Really odd and I played you know, We've been doing
about one hundred and seventy gigs a year.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Continuously for the last four or five years. I've been
smashing it, mate.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
But it's just working hard. It's just working on and
it's not.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
It's not like we've we've got this opportunity because we've
got to I want to keep on grafting.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
I'm obsessed with it, man, Yeah, you've got to be
on here. But makes a lot easier when you love it.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Though, Yeah, of course, of course when I'm still I'm
still as obsessed with music and we're writing and we're
playing as I was when I first picked up the guitar,
which is a rare thing.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
I think, yeah, yeah, that's great.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
So I said in my op monologue about Nor Gallagher
calling yeah the real fucking Dale, which is quite quite
a common in it.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
You know. I bet that goes on every press relates.
I'll give you an exclusive.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Man his first ever email that he sent, So I
got a phone call off him when we first started
off a no caller ID, which is.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Mad in itself. It was Andrew Cushion. This is no
totally not believing it at all.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
But we got an email as well, and it was
it was an email to me manager and it read
he can he can play the guitar, good voice and
can definitely write a song.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
What's the catch is here? Bell end?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
And that was the first email that we ever got off, No,
and I've still got that saved somewhere.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Like you said, as soon as someone like that talks
to you, you listen, don't you.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
But he's been great.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
He's been such an advocate for my music, and he's
been a mentor in many ways.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And yeah, we still got a WhatsApp group.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
He still checks on me give a review of the album,
and yeah, yeah, I know he's always He's always there
to help out if.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
If I'm really struggling with something. Yeah, but he's It's
great to have such a such a good mentor, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You couldn't ask for. It was my dad's hero, and
then as I got in music, it was my hero.
I think it was one of mine growing up as well,
do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
It was.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Continues to be do you know what I mean? And
the time that I signed with him was about the
same time that I lost my dad and stuff. So
it was like, I don't know, he was a I
don't know. It was like it came from somewhere else.
I don't know. I'm not superstitious in any means, but
it was.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
It was weird, the time frame of being so low,
you know, emotionally to then being on Cloud nine and
you've got a record deal on the table and you're
working with a Nor Gallagher and it's like two weeks ago,
I was planning a funeral speech.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
It's like, yeah, yeah, it's.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
It's unbelievable mate, that that all element of your story
just plays me away. But going back to him saying,
you know, like you're the real deal, what does real
mean to you? You know in an industry that's so big, Yeah, yeah,
everything everything, so everything image in the brand and everything's
manufactured now you know what, So what does real mean
to you at the minute? Because I see you as
(10:11):
a really authentic, sort of genuine I think.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
That's probably the right word for it. I think it's authenticity.
I write all your music, whether people like it or not,
I write it myself. This album took a massive gamble
really and and took more hands on approach with with
trying to plan how I wanted the records sound. Gareth
and not have produced at any done amazing job, but
(10:34):
I was kind of there to be like, no, I
want it to sound like this, which is something I
haven't done before.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
So I think really is Yeah, I think it's been
authentic and.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Not not not sitting back and I listen. I'm not
saying that they all do it because there's there's good
music out there, do you know what I mean? There's
there's great bands out there, but you do listen. I
was watching the Ivan Novellos and the Diving development views
the other day and it was like, not one.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Of these kids come from from do you? I mean?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
And I don't mean, I don't mean place or anything that,
but I just like, I don't know, they all just seemed.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
They were being told what to say.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I watched all of Young's interview and that was that
was the best of the bunch, I do have to say.
And there was one or two of there was one
or two others that stuck out, but there was so
many of them that just it felt. It felt to
me that they were just they were there to represent
this manufactured thing. They were there to represent a product
that had been created for them, nothing that they had created.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
What do you think?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
What do you think be wrong? But that's why I felt.
What do you think changed it? Do you think it was?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Do you think streaming had anything to do with it?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
You know, because you know, for a while you'd find
new music vibe a going to see more buying a
record because probably you're just like just belt fed music.
Do you think that's why you need all the social
media followers and all the you know, expensive press shots
in that for for a record to land.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Now, well, there's a lot less money in music now,
isn't there. You know, people used to gig to make
an album. Now people you know, will make an album.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
At the cheapest costing rate that you can possibly find,
just so you've got an excuse to go out and
gig and try and make some money on T shirt sales.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
That's a difference.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
And because of that, record labels out there and that's
why the indies are having all the success. Now, majors
will still always get number ones, but indies are having
a lot of success. There's it's more of a beneficial
thing for a major label to just you know, pick
somebody who's blown up on TikTok on it on a
dance song or whatever, as opposed to invest in five
(12:40):
six years and it' an artist and trying to really
get them a mature and growing at something special. So yeah,
that's that's that's why that is one hundred percent people,
you know, wanting an overnight success and I think labels
now and again that could be wrong, but it appears
to me, I've been in the industry for a few
years now, it's very much to me that people would
or they have the one hit by an artist and
(13:03):
then have them, you know, thrown on the streets, as
opposed to working with a bar and that working with
the notes for five, six, seventy nine, ten years before
they getting number one, that's going to stand the test
of time.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Well, just just take a long time and it I
think it's a lot r when there's about ten years
to get their number one.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. They're the ones that are reaping the
benefits now. There's a lot of these artists now that
are out there and they might be in the chart today,
but you know, we'll be back at the car form
my host tomorrow.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Is that even still the shop? Is that a place?
Is there? The one is it's reopening for a field musicians.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I was going to say, yeah, the one on Grimsby
shut down about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Shut down years ago. You guys have still got a war?
What's from you or worse? Pretty sure? We and I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
I'm not not really cleared up on my local retailers.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Mate. It was a joke made the field.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Yeah, I've closed about fifteen years ago.
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I know.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Our biggest shops in town are probably like pound Shop
and yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
I get down.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Yeah, listen if it's one of them where it's nice
people and it's well grounded and hard working people, I
love it.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I'll try.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
We choose to come down and play, Gigsie, I wouldn't
come down and play if I didn't want to be here,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah, that's right acrossing off as well, mate, of course
it is.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Yeah, we get good receptions, but yeah, it's always nice
to me. People feel you find a lot of common ground,
good people in the North.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
I think. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So there's a lot of purity to a songwriting about it.
But obviously the industry isn't sort of structured for purity.
So how do you protect yourself in a business that
sort of sett up for algorithms rather than authenticity.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Um, you've got a trust to your working at the
first and foremost. The guy who manages me, he's managed
me since I was eighteen, since I first started. The
amazing woman who does my pr cat. She's represented me
since I was eighteen. A lot of my team have
been around us since I was young. You know, I've
had the same lawyer, the musical lawyer that is I have.
(14:58):
I haven't needed another lawyer yet. Never say never, don't
say that me man.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
So all all that kind of you've got, you've just
got to trust to your work with that thing. It
can be can be toxic, and you do hear some
horror stories of people getting ripped off and all that.
But if you trust who you're working with and if
they believe in you, and if they're with you for
the right reasons, you know.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
I think you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You've you've I think you've got to be conscious and
careful of who you're inviting into your team and who
you're bringing in your circle.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You know? Is that so your manager? Manager?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
Since since you got into eight eight you say that
came through the KNOLLNK did it?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
So?
Speaker 1 (15:34):
I started doing gigs. I think it was nineteen I
started I maybe in eighteen one of the two, uh
and I thought about two or three gigs. And I
used to know Lee through football. I used to coach
football with them, and he came down to Watchers and
he said, you know, I've never managed the band, but
I've always wanted to give it a go, you know,
I know x Y and Z was like, I don't
(15:56):
think you do, but.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Yes, let's go for it. And then that's when I
kicked off.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
So I'd about six gigs before getting a record deal,
which you know, some bands work ten twenty years before
they get a sniff. So we were really really lucky
and also really spoiled and were instantly walking into dressing
rooms and festivals and having that cross on me back
where you were looking at bands who would gig for
(16:20):
five ten years, who wore miles better than me, fucking miles.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Better, and it was just that's a kid. It's just
been Simon or Gallagher, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
And it was like at the time I was walking
around thinking, fucking yes I have because I'm great, And
then I'd go on stage in a string wood snap
and I wouldn't know how to fix it, and we
guitar go out with tune and I've left me fucking
tuna in the car. Do you know our guitar picks
fall and having a finger picked the last three songs
because I'm broken up guitar picks.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
It was like, I don't know everything. Back to front.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Normally people do their apprenticeship with music, which you know
is gigging and all that and writing and learning your craft,
and then they get sniff at it, you know, maybe
a smaller record label. Then they release an album, then
it might go into something else. I don't know everything
back to front man, Yeah, like it, mate, but.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
It forced it forced us to grow, and it forced.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Us to get good at the guitar and forced me
to become a better writer. Because when the relationship with
the major record label fell apart, which was around COVID time,
which you know, one hundreds of people when that went away,
you know, if I hadn't knuckled down and kept on
writing and kept on grafting, worked on new songs, probably
(17:25):
wouldn't be doing this now.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Say if there was another came in tomorrow and everything
went when ship bust.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
I'm going to fucking Australia. I was going to say,
what would you do? Do you know what I mean?
What would you do if everything went to ship? I'd
rather live on a fucking pedal in the North Sea? Fuck?
Am I staying around you.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Make mate for a good YouTube video that mate, it
might might get into YouTube.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Could you imagine if something that happened again, everyone just
got obsessed with painting that. I was painting everything, painting
the fence, the dogs, fridge, I was paying Everyone.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Had such a different interpreting.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
But when when COVID kicked off in the first lockdown
and I was in the army, we got deployed to
do like the COVID testing sides, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
So it was like it's fucking ship.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Everyone's furlough than that, and we're driving around the country
social distancing, swabbing people's nose isn't there? And then I
got that started a job straight away. So throughout the
whole of COVID, I just fucking worked. It was like
nothing changed, just grafted.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
For I was doing lords.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I mean, I've done loads of writing and we've done
a few of them, Instagram lives and the you know,
I'm standing in the living room getting me mounted to
take a thought of us because I've got to do
some you know, promo shops for thought to shop the
dog's head out of the background. So there was a
few there was a few bits of that going on,
but yeah, it was. It was a dreadful time. Yeah,
(18:48):
ship on, I I mean having to do a COVID
test to get a paint to set out saying the ring.
I remember we went for a paint in your castle. Apologize, Yeah,
we went for a paint in the castle. And we
all like to do corver tests to get served. And
then we say and it was hissing it down and
like that. We were all sat with umbrellas and we're
(19:08):
like sad shivering with a painted and I thought, what
the fuck is the world?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Man?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Where willn't you hate to sit and have a drink
in in a in a pub?
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Mental?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Mental, I'd rather sit house and drink the.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Same mate, and mindful that ware. We've not got much
time today. So a couple more questions for you. Imagine
your music was a painting, what would it look like
and what colors and textures would be.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I'm a big fan of the the two Bulldogs playing Sugar.
Yeah that's a classic, probably something like that. But memories
are wearing your castle shirt. They've got a bottle of
browniil on the sade. That would work. I don't know
a lot of paintings, lad, but I.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Like that one.
Speaker 3 (19:56):
Perfect answer, mat perfect answer and last notte When when
people look back and Andrew Cushion in twenty years time,
what do you hope they don't say about.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Yeah, I hope they don't say that he blew us
or that he wasted it. You know, I was telling
you in the corner, I'm forever getting told off by
me nana smoking a drinking.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
When you have voice one day's sons.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I hope, I hope, I hope I do switch on
a little bit more with stuff like that and not
you know, come in the house at five six o'clock
in the morning because I can't.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
It doesn't necessarily mean you should.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
So yeah, I hope people don't say that I blew
it and at this and I'm very switched on. Like
I say, I've got a team and our family now
around us who I know look after us, and I
know they lookout for us. But it's very very easy
in this business to you know, to go one step
too far and get you know, seen it with Pete Docker,
you see Wamy, Waynehouse, even Jim Morrison couldn't get away
(20:59):
from the night the nasty stuff. I'm not saying I'm
that kind of person. But you never know, do you. You
just never know. So I hope people don't say that
about me. I hope people don't see it. He ruined
his voice, didn't he Do you remember when he'd done
that gig and he has fell off?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
You've been jacking up in the toilets?
Speaker 1 (21:21):
Do you know what I mean? I mean, I don't
even know. If that's a sad effect of it is,
it's terrified the life out of me.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
We'll take that thought away with your mate and set
on it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
And if the opportunity ever presents itself, just remembering your
fucking ears will fall off, mate.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Yeah, that's it. That's it. He hasn't fall off.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
What a beautiful way to close the shame, mate, And
thank you, We thank you ever so much for coming down, mate.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
And if you like what you heard, like and subscribe.
Nice one.
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