Andrea Wittgens

Common wisdom in the entertainment business dictates if you can't describe it in two sentences, go back to the boards and refine your pitch. However, those experienced and well traveled in the business know that in truth, it's the ones that you can't describe easily that are the true and lasting artists (think Nellie McKay, Rufus Wainwright, Jeff Buckley).

New York City-based singer/songwriter Andrea Wittgens is surely one of those artists. Armed with witty yet disarmingly honest lyrics and a voice that simply soars, Wittgens creates songs that are both hypnotic and exuberant. In the words of Shawn Telford from Seattle Sound Magazine “a silver tongue rides a voice that flitters with the wonderful unpredictability of a butterfly and the laser precision of, well, a laser.”

Originally from the small town of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Andrea's earliest stage training was in classical piano and modern dance. She followed her studies all the way to a Music degree at Queen's University but always felt a wistful pull away from the classical path and towards the pop-rock scenes. Eventually moving to Seattle, WA in the mid-90's, she cut her teeth as front woman and songwriter for pop band Sugartown. Their debut EP "Blue Eyed Fool" and follow up LP “How Do You Love, Aquamarine” stirred up a wave of notice despite being an earnest fun-pop outfit pushing against the considerable tide of flannel-shirted grunge.

By the new millennium, Andrea was ready to step out on her own. She had also caught the attention of Grammy producer Bob Power (Erykah Badu, Tribe Called Quest, Citizen Cope) and in 2006 he produced her first solo album “Alibi”. The EP and Andrea's instantly arresting voice garnered excited reviews both in the Northwest and in her new home of New York City where she performed to packed houses on the lower east side. Shortly after, in 2008, she followed up with “In The Skyline”, a 12-song ode to escapism in a more viscerally emotional live band setting thanks to rock producer-mixer Johnny Sangster (Young Fresh Fellows, Mudhoney, The Briefs). The critically acclaimed LP also included collaborations with former Sugartown band-mate Vincent Gates and a reunion with Bob Power.

“In The Skyline” brought many opportunities to perform and tour and Andrea jumped in with both feet, touring throughout the country to promote the record. By 2010, just when she was starting to yearn for the more insular life of writing, she attended for the first time the songwriting festival Steel Bridge Songfest in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The only of its kind in the world, the annual festival as well as its sister festivals Dark Songs and Love On Holiday introduced Andrea to the power of collaborative writing.

Her latest recording project, a set of two 5-song EPs, is the result of five years of songwriting collaborations. The first EP “Girl In A Box” produced by Geoff Stanfield (Sun Kill Moon, Leah Siegel) weaves her darker lyrical material into beautifully strange and cinematic soundscapes while its sister EP “Grace” produced by longtime band-mate and collaborator Vincent Gates, explores the realm of the spirit with more acoustic and gospel-infused instrumentation. Both EP’s will have their public release in fall of 2016.