Last updated 12-02-2024
Let Talking Heads, David Bowie, Trent Reznor, the Cars, Roger Waters, and half a Ramone take turns writing and playing songs together, with Frank Zappa, Lou Reed, and Ringo Starr splitting vocal duties, and you might get something like Andersen Silva's music. Or you might not.
Andersen Silva had already tinkered with a recorder and various electric organs and keyboards, and sung in a church choir, when he found himself enthralled by music upon discovering and really listening to the Beatles in the early '80s. His tastes soon exploded to encompass the Who and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, as well as some of the pop and new wave music of the time, and then on to progressive rock, early hard rock and heavy metal, jazz, punk rock, industrial, thrash, and more.
Andy attended the Rutgers Dean's Summer Scholars Program in New Brunswick, NJ in the summer of 1987 before his senior year of high school. Encountering some of the program's other young men in the lounge one night brainstorming lyrics to a sarcastic take on "Theme from New York, New York," he contributed a line or two to "Newark, Newark," and over the course of the next few days, the parody band the Hellevators was formed. Comprised originally of Andy, Mike Perler, Jason Tiscione, and Dave Roberts, the band named itself after Tinsley Hall's rickety old elevator. Andy soon brought his Yamaha PortaSound PS-400 keyboard to the dorm, and he and the other members wrote lyrics to "Out of Time" (a risque´ take on Hall & Oates' "Out of Touch") and "Midnight Curfew" (to Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2"). Next, Susan Schleck was invited to join the band; she had a Casio keyboard and could actually play it. By the time the Hellevators decided to sign up for the program's talent show, Dave had been replaced by Satish Shah and were being 'managed' by Barbara Aspeling.
Cover art for
This Is Hell...
Satan Speaking
Andy (top left) with
the Hellevators
They'd re-written the lyrics of the Go-Go's "We Got the Beat" to come up with "We Got to Eat," and Queen's "We Will Rock You" was turned into "We Dig Rutgers." The Hellevators performed four songs (excluding "Out of Time") during two sets at the talent show, in which they came in second place. The program coordinator, Jackie Bullard, was there for the show and wanted the band to perform for Rutgers College's Dean James Reed, to which Andy (as 'Head Hellevator') quickly agreed. The Dean Aid concert (which raised no money for Dean Reed or anyone else) happened a few weeks later, by which time the band had written a few more songs and recorded This Is Hell... Satan Speaking with some cassette players for fun; two or three dozen cassettes were sold among the other Summer Scholars.
By popular request, the Hellevators have never reunited since that summer.
The PS-400 was joined by a Yamaha PortaSound PSS-170. Having spent a little time with a used acoustic guitar, Andy purchased a black, right-handed Epiphone S-310 electric guitar at Sam Ash around the end of the '80s, dubbing it "Roxanne" after the Police song and stringing it upside-down so he could learn to play it left-handed. A few weeks into this, he realized that he could have made things easier on himself by just teaching himself to play right-handed instead, but by then it was too late to go back. In 1992, while still figuring out this guitar thing and having acquired a Yamaha PortaTone PSR-48 digital keyboard, he formed the experimental duo Not An Exit with his friend and onetime Toys "R" Us co-worker Jon Wardell.
NAE recorded a primitive industrial take on the Doors' "Not to Touch the Earth," as well as original song "Dead," featuring Jon's lyrics and vocals and Andy's rough rockabilly guitar lick and Chuck Berry-inspired solo. The two also composed and put to cassette tape several original instrumental tracks, including "Columbus Was a Dope" (working title: "Rice, Bread Crumbs, and Red Pepper," after the found items shaken as rhythm instruments during recording), "Recovering Catholic," and "The Unexpected Guest." Not An Exit have continued to jam and record together every so often since then, with one or the other playing guitar, bass, or keyboards at various points in the band's history.
Not An Exit in 2000
Numerous updated takes on "Dead," as well as songs including "East," "What You Do to Me," "April Fool's Day," "Lies," and others have been tackled. While they'd tried looking for a third member early on, and briefly considered a new recording of "A Better Place" with Jon's associate Scott Kochman on another keyboard in late '94 / early '95, NAE remained (and still remains) a duo. The music for the song "Not An Exit" came together in 2000 over various jam sessions; Andy's lyrics didn't quite work for Jon, who planned to write some of his own, but Not An Exit's version of "Not An Exit" remains unfinished, for now.
In 1992, Andy recorded the first two of numerous full and excerpted cover songs he'd eventually take on solo: the themes from the TV show "Jeopardy!" and the movie "A Summer Place." More importantly, however, he also wrote the lyrics and music to a full song by himself, "Human Thing," that year, and he now realized that he could write and record his own songs, apart from Not An Exit.
1994 found Andy acquiring his first Macintosh computer, a Performa 550, which he (and NAE) soon began using instead of cassette tape for recording. He made the short instrumental "Victory Samba" (celebrating Brazil's 1994 World Cup win) and wrote the lyrics and music to "Dorable" in 1996, putting together a brief instrumental demo, though the song is one of several that remain unrecorded. Over the rest of the decade, he also recorded the original, industrial version of "Human Thing" and the first demo of the instrumental "Hate Theme from 'Waiting for X,'" as well as a few more covers. Andy played the guitar, bass, keyboard, and vocal parts himself, and availed himself of virtual drum technology. He wrote the lyrics to what would become "For Dana" in 1999, recording an early version that year and then creating the sample-heavy techno/gabber track "Troll Doll" for fun.
"For Dana" led Andy to write and record several songs over the next few years, starting his songwriting in earnest. "Swingin' in the Park (After Dark)" was written in 2000, and first recorded by Not An Exit that year; Andy's solo version was completed three years later. In 2002, "For Dana" was included on Kid Antrim Music's 2002 Rock Compilation, and the pop-punk recording of "Blond on Blonde" on Crankspiv Records' Volume III. Andy obtained a used Alesis SR-16 drum machine that year, and two left-handed instruments, a black Kramer Focus 420S bass guitar and an aqua Danelectro 56-U2 guitar ("Nena"), in early 2003. A burst of inspiration led to more songwriting and numerous home-studio recording sessions where he continued to lay down all the tracks himself. On August 3, 2004, he self-released the 21-track album Joy in the New, featuring the above-mentioned "Human Thing," "For Dana," "Swingin'," "Blond on Blonde," a solo take on "Not An Exit," the title track, and more. Not An Exit worked on an intro to Andy's "Joy in the Now" as well as a cover of his "Look at the Stars with Me" during this time, though neither was ever completed.
The following year, Andersen added an M-Audio Ozonic MIDI controller to the PSR-48 and other musical instruments and equipment. Between 2005 and 2007, he created four Nine Inch Nails song remixes using stems that Trent Reznor made publicly available. He also continued writing and recording, if at a slower pace.
Around 2006, Andy started spending more time at indie shows in small NYC venues, sometimes after connecting with the artists online first (MySpace was good for somethin'), and made the acquaintance of many a fellow singer/songwriter. One of these, Margarita Shamrakov, a regular at open mic performances at Banjo Jim's on the Lower East Side, convinced him to bring his guitar to the open mic and perform in public in 2008 for the first time (unless you count those Hellevators sets, and who would?); he dusted off "That's Just What I Am," "For Dana," and "Joy in the Now" on two different days. He followed these up with a gig during the second annual Make Music New York festival that June 21st, performing at Merchants' Gate in Central Park. He took part in the next four MMNYs as well, in different locations each year.
Open mic at
Banjo Jim's
Make Music New York 2008
with Margarita seated at left
Between 2009 and 2011, he acquired two more left-handed guitars, a Traveler Escape Mark II and a Kona K2 acoustic/electric. Andy brought the latter to the Occupy Guitarmy march in NYC on May 1, 2012, and even got on stage with it (along with a few dozen others wielding guitars and other instruments) behind the Nightwatchman, aka Rage Against the Machine's (and Audioslave's) guitarist Tom Morello, at the march's end in Union Square for "World Wide Rebel Songs" and "This Land Is Your Land."
In March 2014, Andy and his Not An Exit partner-in-crime Jon joined (as rhythm and lead guitar, respectively) bass player Anthony Minichino and drummer Michael Perry in forming Greta's Unmentionables. The rock band jammed in the studio multiple times on several riffs and song ideas, beginning during their very first session at Aarius Studios in Old Bridge with "The Bite" from Andy's opening riff and first three lines of lyrics. That studio subsequently closed (coincidence?), so they relocated to Hellhound Studios for future sessions. While they had fun getting together when schedules allowed, creative differences led to an amicable split after three years.
While GU never finished a definitive version of "The Bite," Andy, inspired by their many takes on it, ended up recording his own for his self-released sophomore album, the double-length, 42-track I'll Live released on November 11, 2016. It included some remixed or completely re-recorded tunes from Joy in the New, as well as songs written and recorded in the interim. Andy's music can be streamed on:
among other streaming services. Andy made music videos for two of I'll Live's songs using his iPhone.
Andy has been a member of ASCAP since 2017. He sometimes records covers to jump-start the creative process; over the years, these have included an instrumental "Rainbow Connection," the Police's "Can't Stand Losing You," Paul Revere & the Raiders' / the Monkees' "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone," David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" (and an attempt at '"'Heroes'" that was abandoned when it became too much for the Performa to handle), Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," Nine Inch Nails' "Terrible Lie," the Cure's "Just Like Heaven," Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World," the Go-Go's "How Much More," an excerpt of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse," the Standells' "Dirty Water," Darlene Love's "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," X's "4th of July," the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "I've Just Seen a Face," the Ramones' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," Willie Nile's "One Guitar," the Nightwatchman's "World Wide Rebel Songs," and the "Doctor Who" theme music.
In September 2020, Andersen wrote, recorded, and released the indie rock single "She." Next up was the song "My All," finished in May 2021, followed by "Spark Rekindled" in May 2023; the latter tune incorporates the ukulele he received as a birthday gift. He attended the ASCAP Membership Meeting in New York City in February 2024. In late 2024, he was reminded of how much fun keyboards and synths can be; he also became one of many founding artist members/co-owners of the Subvert Co-op, intended as a 'collectively owned Bandcamp successor. The music's still comin'... and there's always merch at the Shop... of Death!
Instruments... of Death!
