Andrew Combs

Andrew Combs is a singer and songwriter whose work bridges the freedom and possibilities of his visual art and the influence of classical writing and storytelling. On his new album Ideal Man, Combs worked with producer/engineer Sam Cohen (Kevin Morby, Benjamin Booker) to achieve a rawer, more direct sound. The collection was recorded live in Cohen's Brooklyn studio, with compact arrangements fueled by tight, elastic grooves, and also featuring Combs' longtime collaborators, drummer Dom Billet and guitarist/keyboardist/bassist Jerry Bernhardt.

Combs may be best known as a singer/songwriter in the classic Laurel Canyon '70s sense of the term, but here he proves the true versatility of his work, often putting his acoustic guitar aside in favor of atmospheric synthesizers and distorted electric guitars.

The songwriting for Ideal Man was partly inspired by Combs' recent fascination with painting. Combs started painting when his wife was pregnant. “It really changed the way I write songs,” he says. "When I paint, I may start with a very abstract idea or maybe even just a feeling, but from there I paint and scrape and paint and erase and keep painting until something starts to take shape. I let nature take its course."