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Welcome to Andrew Butler's Home Page
Lookinglass -
Howe Sound Studios -
My CD "The Lava Goddess"
VW Van -
Music Biography
Early
My musical career began early in my home where my mother, a piano
teacher, would assemble the family for music perfomance and
singing. Some of my siblings would begin singing in harmony and my eager voice
soon caught on. Before long, by age 5, I was taking classical piano
lessons reaching the dizzying heights of Royal Conservatory
Grade 2. I was, by age 10, closely tuned into pop music on my
rocket radio. It appeared that guitar, not piano, was going to
launch me to stardom. I did continue taking popular
piano lessons and have continued exporing the keyboard to this day.
Guitar lessons carried on for several years, including classical
and jazz styles (jazz under the supervision of Ian McConkey),
eventually teaching guitar myself for several years.
Early Performance
My first performances were mostly classical guitar pieces at my
mother's music-school recitals in Victoria, BC, Canada. During
my teen years I formed bands more in keeping with my pop music
interests, the first as guitarist and lead-vocal in
"The
Odyssey", circa Grade 9 (1966). We played mostly Beatles and
Beach Boys covers. The following years saw the evolution of
"Uranus and the Four Moons" in which I again played
guitar and sang lead-vocal. We were an irreverent band inspired
by the likes of early Frank Zappa. We made fun of
"greaser" and Western songs and attempted modernizing
some early North American folk music. This band wrote many songs.
We played many dates at high school Battle
of the Bands and church youth-group concerts. By Grade 12 more serious
interests saw the the creation of "Amethyst", a
folk-rock trio playing folk and jazz covers at local Victoria
coffee-houses.
Recording
After high school I bought a 4 track reel-to-reel tape recorder and began
recording my original songs. I developed a keen interest in the
music recording industry and applied for entrance into
Fanshawe
Technical Arts College's
Music Industry Arts program in London, Ontario, Canada in 1975, at that
time English speaking Canada's only music recording school. Awaiting
acceptance there I studied music locally at the University of Victoria
and worked at it's music library until finally receiving Fanshawe's
acceptance in 1976. The Fanshawe MIA program included all aspects of
the
music industry at that time, including practical music
production, recording, arranging, basic electronics, ear-training and
music theory. My songwriting and music performance blossomed there, and
in the first college year
my song "Frozen Moment" charted on the school's annual record album.
The next year saw the recording of my
"Loving Company" win second prize in the college music
awards show. During this period I also performed with Pat Logier's
folk-trio
touring the southern Ontario coffee-house scene, also recording for
national broadcast with the Canadian Broadcast Corp. My first
music industry professional position began in 1978 managing and
engineering at the Toronto recording studio "Studiofarm", and touring
the S. Ontario circuit as monitor-mixer with the Genesis
clone-band "Nightwinds". Here I continued writing and recording my original music. In 1979 I received an engineering position at "Bullfrog Studios",
a Vancouver BC recording studio, and instituted thier sound-engineering school. By 1983 I founded my own
recording studio, Howe Sound Studios, which continues in Vancouver
to this day. I have been involved since with many artists since as a
producer, engineer, co-writer, and PA mixer. In 1998 I compiled the best of my song-writing history
onto a self-produced CD entitled "In Search of the Lava Goddess".
Other Performance
In 1988 I became the keyboardist, and one of two lead-singers with
the group "Third Wave", a Vancouver hard-rock band. We wrote and performed socio-politically motivated original and cover songs
for the local club scene. Three years later the band dissolved
and I was asked to play bass guitar and sing backing
vocals in "SKWID", an all-original power-funk alternative
band playing in Vancouver and the Gulf Islands.
In 1997 I formed a cover band called
"Lookinglass" as a
guitarist and lead-singer. We still play popular dance music from the Sixties to the
present.
Current Projects
The Jammers Handbook
This is a songbook project compiling popular music that I have been analyzing
since about 1996. I've included song format, lyric, and chord information for
each song. Currently including over 470
titles.
I am currently in the process of acquiring publishing for the songbook.
Personal Info
Birthdate: January 28, 1953
Citizenship: Canadian and British
Phone: 604-836-4693
email abutler@hotmail.com
Andrew Butler Photo Album Index #1
Andrew Butler Photo Album Index #2
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