Drinks with Devyn Andersen

a spin on the Alexander

What are you drinking? How did you make it?

A drink of my own creation—the Devyn. It’s my own spin on the Alexander: two aged rums, mixed with chocolate liquor and coffee liquor, shaken with heavy cream and topped with nutmeg. I’ve made it for you before; it’s good.

I went with a simple dry martini.

As our resident photographer, do you have a favorite story or author we’ve published this year?

“Pool Party at Captain Jack’s” by Chuck Augello. It’s surreal imagery and unpredictability are really great.

How do you put an album together? Do you just write regularly and when you have enough songs collect them, or is there a concept or idea from the start that guides the songwriting?

A combination of both, but usually, I have some kind of idea, then after a while it starts to glue itself together. But it’s a bit of both.

How many songs did you write for this album?

Probably close to 20, maybe a little over. Then I whittled it down to 10.

Approximations is a departure of sorts for you. It’s much brighter and smoother than your other records. Why is that?

My last record, Burned, sounded like it came out of Hell, so I wanted to make something different but still me. But when you say “bright,” that’s what I wanted.

I see it like painting. I have an image in my head I’m sort of writing the music for.

(The Cathedral, by Czech artist František Kupka, 1912–13)

“Buried,” the first single, is your first release with lyrics. Not all of the songs on Approximations contain lyrics, but a few do. Was that something you wanted to do differently from the start or did that choice evolve with the project?

I wanted lyrics from the beginning. I wrote a lot of these with lyrics in mind. It works for most of them, but some it didn’t so I took those off. In keeping with the theme of the album, I left a few more abstract.

The second single, “Cathedral,” seems to be receiving more traction than “Buried,” at least on Spotify (where I listen). Why do you think that is?

That’s because ambient playlists are popular right now, and there are a lot of options.

Do you have a favorite song on the album? Or is there one in particular you’re excited for people to hear?

“Only Heaven” is my favorite. It’s the kind of thing I’ve always wanted to do. I just had to get to a certain point to be able to do that, and I did. But I like all of them.

With this release, you’ve also put together a limited edition cassette, complete with your own original artwork, which looks really cool. What do you think the role of physical media like that is in today’s digital hellscape?

It’s certainly more special. There’s a physicality to it that I like. Even if the sound is of a lesser quality, they’re fun to hold and fool around with.

The problem with releasing everything digitally is my distributor could decide tomorrow to pull everything, and it would just disappear. So, there’s somewhat of a self-preservation aspect to it as well.

Did any of the art inspire the songs or vice-versa?

The songs inspired the art. The art didn’t exist until recently, and the songs have been around for a while.

The release of Approximations coincides with your turning thirty. How do you feel about the age you are?

I have felt like a thirty-year-old for the past two years, so I have accepted that I’m no longer “young” in a way that feels comfortable for someone pursuing the arts in this way.

Since we here specialize in what many perceive as “wrong turns” in literature, what would you say a “wrong turn” for a musician or songwriter would be?

I feel like everything I do is a “wrong” move. I’ve always tried to do what I wanted, whether anybody was interested in it or not. Most of my songs don’t follow a traditional structure, and so yeah, everything I do, pretty much would be considered “wrong.” I try to make stuff that isn’t easily classifiable.