Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Pelletier.
Hi Andrew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Making music has always been the center of my entire world. My parents were weekend warrior musicians. They were public school teachers during the week and would gig at local bars/venues on the weekends. I grew up just outside Chicago, in a small but densely populated suburb, and everyone that I knew played music. At least it felt that way. As soon as I could play an instrument, I began writing songs. Piano came first, then guitar. I wrote a bunch of songs in middle school and performed them when I could- school projects, DARE graduation, family parties. Then I started a band when I was 13 and we played and wrote music pretty consistently through all of high school. I then went to music school in Chicago and lost the band. During this time, I tried to become a folksinger and wrote an album of acoustic songs, most of which were a commentary on George W Bush and the Iraq War, I suppose. After college, I spent a few years trying to figure out myself and what I wanted to do, still am. Wrote a lot of songs and recorded a bunch of them, most of which never saw the light of day.
I was working in a high school as a TA in a special education department and teaching music after school. I realized I could support myself through teaching music to people and decided to do that full-time. I still am, actually. One night I met some wonderful musicians at a party and we decided to start a band. I was the songwriter and singer, and we ended up playing together for ten years. We were called Minor Characters. We toured and made records and played an inexplicable amount of Chicago and greater Midwestern venues until we felt like we couldn’t make the band work any longer into our 30s. I got extremely burnt out trying to move the band along and also teaching full time. I met my now wife in the middle of the band’s tenure and she wanted to move to Los Angeles, and so I (reluctantly) followed. I’m glad I did because I love it here. I’m still teaching a lot of my Chicago students online and have a really great group of students here in Eagle Rock. I’m also mixing and playing on other people’s projects remotely. I’m now writing and recording music under the name Fur Trader, which is what I’m told my surname translates to in French.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t think there any smooth roads in the field of music. Writing songs has always been an easy and passionate part of my life, but getting them recorded correctly and subsequently released and into people’s ears has been a constant struggle. Having close friends and going through things a band goes through naturally is also an extremely difficult thing. Having something you love end and starting something artistically new is hard. There are friendships I miss dearly. Music is a very masochistic industry but I really believe it’s something we all go through together as artists and come out of it wise and motivated improve ourselves, the working relationships we have, and the art.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m not totally sure what I’m known for. I’m not really known at all! But in my small world of artists and music folk I guess I would have to be known for a crafty way of writing songs? I have a degree in music composition and I don’t really compose classical music whatsoever. I have kind of formatted all the musical knowledge I have into my songs: harmonically, melodically, counterpoint. And then writing pretty bizarre lyrics and trying to tell stories. I just finished an album about the Civil War? I mean, loosely based on the Civil War. With Minor Characters, I wrote almost exclusively about the state of the country during the Great Recession. Wrote an album about the bank bailout and how it affected us as a young people, basically trying to put music to the Occupy Wall Street movement or something like that. That record is called Voir Dire. I’m honestly very proud of the albums I’m apart of. There are many things I’d change about them, but that doesn’t matter. There really isn’t anything out in the world I wish wasn’t in the world. As of now, hah.
Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
Be kind and overly communicative. Only work with people you believe in and believe in you. If you’re a moody and sometimes unruly artist/creative person like myself, make sure you surround yourself with people who understand you and know that it’s not THEM but it’s YOU and you’re willing to get better at compromising. Also, get good at compromising and trusting other people’s advice and guidance.
Contact Info:
- Email: furtradermusic@gmail.com
- Website: https://furtrader.bandcamp.com/
- Instagram: instagram.com/andrewpelletier
- Facebook: facebook.com/andrewpelletier
- Twitter: twitter.com/andrewpelletier
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7vVyj0ZgOKWl0FzxrW7rAg
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/furtradermusic
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4a6mhz326khnhMlgqZ1ojO?si=-787mvK3SM6_1gkyQTrjlg
Image Credits:
Kate Kasbee, Richard Shell
