BIO
"So much of our lives is a roll of the die. We become saints or criminals, monks or defendants largely because of what has happened to us and around us. A lot of who we are is out of our control." Andy Palmer explains. The darkly poetic singer-songwriter explores blink-of-the-eye fate in the deeply compelling, Hazard of the Die. It's a hauntingly beautiful storyteller album filled with intriguing characters and gorgeously moody musicality.
The Denver, Colorado-based artist pulled the album title, Hazard of the Die, from Shakespeare's Richard III. It references how in life, like in battle, everything is up for chance, but you have to move ahead disregarding the outcome.
Palmer's distinctively gritty vocals and hard luck tales have garnered him favorable comparisons to Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, and Leonard Cohen. Westword Magazine has listed his music as some of "Denver's Best," calling it "timeless" and "epic". At the national level, Palmer was named the 14th best new independent artist of by Indie-music.com. Interstatelive.com says: "Voices like this have not come to the forefront of the music scene since the likes of Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits." Jive Wired enthuses: "Andy Palmer is an amazing talent and his honest and raw vocals serve to superbly compliment his wonderful arrangements." Target Audience Magazine says: "Andy Palmer is an artist to keep an eye on." In addition, his music has been featured in multiple independent films. Based in part on these notable successes, producer Warren Huart (Aerosmith, The Fray) hand-selected Palmer to work with and produced Hazard of the Die.
Palmer is a former New York City public defender whose three years of living and working in Brooklyn's trenches clearly provided fodder for the painful truths and ruggedness of his alternative folk-rock sound.
"Law school actually prepared me to perform because it instilled preparation and practice. I learned to be more comfortable on my feet in front of a crowd. I didn't have that anxiety I had in my 20s," he explains. In this new era, his approach to songwriting came from an outlaw poetic angle, focusing on themes of robbery, death, class struggle, and stories of sin and salvation.
The smoky and mystical "The Monk" is a true story about passing a Franciscan monk walking twice while on a road trip. The song is cloaked in metaphor and mystery as the monk takes on deep existential symbolism. The abstractly bluesy "Heart of Colfax" is pure beat-poetry, with vibrant prose he takes the listener on a journey through an urban underbelly. On the dark-carnival moody "The Defendant," Palmer's sandpaper rasp outlines a chilling tale of being wrongfully accused. He sings: Done some time more than what's mine/So I can guess what's down the line/Give me the island my concrete beach and I'll get harder and harder and harder each week/The cards are stacked 'gainst me being nice/and a man in a robe is rolling my dice. "That was written after a public defender experience that bothered me. I saw someone in court being hauled away to Rikers [infamous NYC prison] letting out blood curdling cries as silence went over the court. It was pretty obvious something went wrong," he says.
The album was produced in LA by Warren Huart (Aerosmith, The Fray). Palmer was picked to be produced by Huart via a Sonicbids contest. "It was pretty exciting," he says. "I went in there with guitar and bass ideas and he was spot on for what the songs needed." Huart streamlined song structures, helping to accentuate the choruses in Palmer's innovative compositions without sacrificing artistic integrity.