The world needs people like Andy Frasco these days. With all the chaos and carnage and overall depressing shit people are being constantly inundated with on a day to day basis, Frasco cuts through the noise by making a whole hell of a lot of noise himself. While he’s a musician first and foremost, he’s also this powerful force of positivity. And it’s not some fake positivity, pretending like everything’s okay always kind of bullshit. It’s more he’s unafraid to stare into the darkness that comes for us all at times and sees through it, is able to find the light, that which keeps us moving forward. He’s a light at the end of the fuckin’ tunnel, the kind of light a whole lot of people are searching for these days. It’s a long tunnel many find themselves in but it is the striving to make it through, the refusal to give in to the creeping darkness, that breeds hope, which we need more than ever. Frasco provides people hope and in doing so, in showing those that listen to him that it’s okay to try to better themselves and therefore the world, that makes it seem possible that Andy Frasco just might be able to save the world.
That all being said, his band, Andy Frasco and the UN, is great, the music honest and authentic, just like the man himself. It never takes itself too seriously but doesn’t shy away from heavier topics. It’s so unabashedly human, exploring human failings and how to pick oneself up from the dirt and keep on going. It’s allowed Frasco to cultivate an almost larger-than life-persona, best seen during his insane live shows, during which he acts as this semi-mad conductor. He’s capitalized on this persona outside of music as well, most notably through his podcast Andy Frasco Saves the World — which he now co-hosts with fellow Denver musician Nick Gerlach — mostly a comedy show that delves deep into music and the jam scene and usually feels like a couple of friends hanging out. All of this has turned Frasco into a sort of mouthpiece for the jam community, a bridge between the rather niche scene and the wider world as a whole. Whether this was his intention or not, more Frasco is a good thing. The world may need more people like him but there truly is only one Andy Frasco.
Denver Dive recently spoke to Frasco about his musical origins, his first forays into making music his life, the intersection between comedy and music, what the future holds and much more.
Frasco’s early interest in music was largely shaped by his sisters. Growing up in Los Angeles, he remembers being a kid and driving around with his older sisters who introduced him to artists such as Ryan Adams and Counting Crows, still some of his favorite artists to this day. Most kids growing up interested in music dream of becoming rock stars, their names in lights. Though he eventually got there, this wasn’t the case for Frasco. Instead, given his young exposure to such influential artists as well as the environment he grew up in, Frasco became more interested in the music industry itself, dreaming of running a record label and putting on other artists. This led him to working jobs and internships at record labels at a very young age, experiences that exposed him to how the industry really works.
In high school, Frasco’s music interest shifted to pop-punk, describing himself as an “emo kid going to Warped tour and listening to bands like Something Corporate and New Found Glory.” These bands taught him about rebellion. His sisters were straight-A students, star athletes, and Frasco found himself really only caring about figuring out how to work in the music industry. This focus and spirit of rebellion influenced him to start his own label while still in high school which then evolved into a booking agency. His junior year, his mother allowed him to take one of the bands he was booking for out on tour. “I fell in love with the road,” Frasco said. This has remained true throughout his whole life, most of his time today still spent out on the road.
These early experiences shaped how Frasco has led his career, rebellion and passion mixed with an always-working, DIY mindset focused on adapting to whatever comes. His time trying to build his high school label led Frasco to apply to the music business program at the University of Southern California. He, however, was rejected. “I was pissed,” he said. “But I really think it was a blessing in disguise when I look back on it.” Frasco channeled his anger, turned it to kindling for a fire that’s never really gone out. At 19, he decided “fuck it. I’m going to learn an instrument and how to micro-market and go out on the road and book myself and learn the instrument while I’m playing shows.” He eventually did a semester studying philosophy at San Fransisco State while learning to play the piano, his piano teacher Holly Bowling from Greensky Bluegrass. Frasco said, “She gave me one lesson and told me to quit school and follow your dream. [She said] ‘You’re not gonna make a beautiful living having a philosophy major. You might as well do it in something else.’ I quit school, and I had like $10,000 left in my Bar Mitzvah money and I bought a van and I just left and I just stayed on the road and I’ve been on the road ever since.” He said he would cold call about 1000 venues all over the country a year, traveling while learning keys. He knew he needed a band and would go on Craigslist in each city he’d find himself in, putting calls out for musicians to go on the road with him. This is how the first iterations of the UN came to be and the foundation of what would end up being the rest of Frasco’s life solidified.
Now, Frasco considers the road his real home, his van and the people within it his family. He says this is the key to longevity as a band, saying “You got to really love the grind of fucking sleeping on the floor of a van and eating 711 sausages. You got to love that shitty sausage.” Andy Frasco and the UN, a band whose lineup has always rotated a bit, is currently made up of Mike Gantzer (formerly of Aqueous) on guitar, Sam Kelly on sax, Andy “Beats” Avila on drums, Floyd Kellogg on bass, Allie Kral (formerly of Yonder Mountain String Band) on fiddle and vocals and Andrew Cooney on guitar and vocals. Frasco himself leads proceedings, a semi-deranged conductor on the keys and main vocals. The band, while based in Denver, tours constantly, garnering a reputation as one of the hardest working bands on the scene. Their shows are these beautiful exercises in chaos, typically leaning towards debauchery. But that chaos belies a real sense of love and heart, an authenticity this world so desperately needs. Their shows are safe places where the audience can be unabashedly themselves, as weird and wonderful as they so desire.
Though they are most associated with the jam scene, regularly touring with some of the biggest names in the scene, Frasco doesn’t consider the band a jam band in the traditional sense. Sure, there’s a great many talented improvisers in the band and they rarely play the same song the same way twice but Frasco just doesn’t see it that way. He said he thinks of themselves like Counting Crows, able to do whatever they want while still sticking to a basic sort of structure. He also imbues the shows with a healthy dose of punk sensibilities, regularly covering pop-punk classics. At most shows, Frasco will hop into the crowd to lead them in the Hora which usually devolves into something closer to a mosh pit. The UN is always a great time, surprising and heartfelt in equal measure.
Frasco is known for some on-stage debauchery, never really hitting the stage without a bottle of Jamison nearby and garnering a reputation for doing things such as eating mushrooms thrown on stage by fans. He says his level of debauchery depends on the crowd. If it’s a festival show where most in the audience are rather debaucherous themselves, he’ll match the energy. But if it’s something a little more family friendly — such as the free show they did at Levitt Pavilion last year, which saw one of his biggest fans, a maybe 10 year old kid, joining Frasco on stage for a song — he’ll tone it down. It speaks to his adaptability and how in tune he’s able to be with his audiences, how deeply he’s able to connect.
This connection has led to Frasco being perceived as a sort of larger-than-life figure, a loud and wild frontman/cult leader who people are just naturally drawn to. While some of this is true, Frasco is just like us at the end of the day. He’s a man dedicated to a dream with his own doubts and flaws and worries about the world and the future. This is what makes him so magnetic, how he is able to combine that larger-than-life persona with deeply human emotion. It’s very apparent in his lyrics, which speak of anxiety and addiction and heartbreak but always focused on hope, that which keeps us going, that though the past and its horrors may linger always behind, there is always a light, always something to keep moving towards. He sings of things we all worry about but imbues it all with positivity, showing that Frasco is all of us and we can be our own sources of hope when things get dark.
Regarding his approach to songwriting, he said he tries not to overthink too much. “I think writing is like a timestamp of how you’re feeling,” he said. “My philosophy in songwriting is make it be personal, make it be intimate. But also don’t forget some feelings are universal and everyone goes through them and sometimes it’s hard to explain a feeling but we all know it. We all go through it. We shouldn’t overthink feeling. There’s sometimes a feeling doesn’t have a word. It’s like we’re always going to go back to our first gut feeling about how we approach lyrics.”
The dude is also charismatic as hell, funny, self-deprecating, honest. This charisma has never gone unnoticed and has actually led to Frasco stepping outside of music and into the podcast world. His podcast Andy Frasco Saves the World started as a sort of a mix between being told he had the “gift of gab” by comedian Todd Glass and a need to face some demons and chill out a bit regarding all the partying he was doing at the time. He recalled Dave Schools — legendary bassist of Widespread Panic — telling him that he couldn’t keep going like he was going and expect to have a long career, or life for that matter. So Frasco started the podcast and launched it during COVID. It was initially a music-focused podcast that dealt out comedy and real human stories in equal measure that featured Frasco talking to musicians about the road and mental heath and making jokes and observations on the music scene.
However, Frasco said the early days of the podcast felt a bit like screaming into the void, like he was alone in a bit of an echo chamber and was unsure how beneficial the thing actually was to himself or the rest of the world. He came to a point where he wanted to quit. However, he eventually brought on Nick Gerlach — one of his best friends and an incredible Denver-based sax player who can be found playing sporadically with his band The Cultet and hosting Monday night trivia at Yacht Club — to act as co-host and rediscovered how much he loved podcasting. Though the podcast now largely follows the same format as it did in its earlier iteration, it really feels like two friends hanging out with guest appearances from some of the biggest names in music and comedy such as Cameron Winter of Geese and so many more.
The podcast and its popularity also speaks to a growing intersection between the rather niche jam scene and mainstream comedy. Recently, comedians such as Bert Kreischer and Ari Shaffir have been talking about getting into the jam scene, talking about Goose on their podcasts and posting themselves at Umphrey’s McGee shows. You have people like Billy Strings and Marcus King on Theo Von’s podcast. Frasco thinks this intersection happens because of modern podcast culture, how these comedians sit once a week and improv to entertain. “Jam bands are doing that every night,” Frasco said. He said there may also be a little bit of mutual jealousy influencing things. “We want to be them, because when they’re doing stand up, they do the whole set for a year. We can’t do that. We have to change it up every time. They want to change it up. I think we’re both envious of each other’s careers because we’re not doing each other’s careers.”
Despite Frasco’s forays into podcasting, the music is the most important thing at the end of the day. He’s got a lot in the works, including an up coming pop-punk record as well as a country record. He described himself as “going Gizz with it,” referring to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s legendary musical output. The first single off the pop-punk record, “The Older I Get,” dropped April 23rd and it marks a real departure from Frasco’s usual sound. Like the best pop-punk anthems of old, it’s heartfelt and loud and sweet but not saccharine and you can just hear how much Frasco enjoyed making it. While no official release dates for either album has been announced yet, Frasco’s got a lot coming out this year so keep your ears open.
In addition to the records, Andy Frasco and the UN are keeping up their insane tour schedule, set to play 45 festivals throughout the year with a whole bunch of shows set up in between. If you’ve never seen them before, there’s never been a better time than now. You’ll have plenty of opportunities but that doesn’t mean you should wait. Trust me, do yourself a favor and buy a ticket.
Andy Frasco is an example of how to be a light in a dark world, a beacon of whiskey-soaked hope that reminds us that even though the world is a hard place there will always be room for laughter and joy. If we follow his lead, we just might be able to make this world a better place for everyone, saving it in the process. So grab a bottle of Jamison, get ready to sing and always remember to keep on keepin’ on.
Stream “Older I Get” wherever you stream music!
