From painting to producing: Birmingham DJ Andrea Really releases first album

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Birmingham DJ Andrea Really wasn’t always a music producer. She used to be a prolific painter. But when her art studio burned down in 2017, she pivoted careers. Really spoke with WBHM about that journey upon the release of her first album this summer, called Zeitgeist.

The following is taken from an interview with Really. It was edited for length and clarity.

So it’s definitely electronic music. 

But really, the thing about electronic music is it’s so big. Most people have heard the term EDM, which is electronic dance music. That really is like a huge umbrella. But my stuff is electronic music, but I try to fill in the gaps between genres, that’s kind of like my thing. 

I want to make music that goes into an Andrea Really set. 

I really like minimal vocals. I like vocal chops that are hard to understand or repetitive rhythmic vocals. I like really weird visceral sounds like ‘beboop,’ like I don’t even know, the brain tickle sounds with very danceable beats 

I went to art school for college. I was really good at math in high school. And then my dad said, “You should go to the math and science school because you’re good at math.” But then, I got into the art program and made friends with art kids and had a lot of fun with that. And I was really good at art. And then, I say, “Dad, I want to do art instead.” And he’s like. “s—.” 

I got my first job as a video editor. I was making a little more money. And so I rented out an art studio because I was just going to use this day job to help me fuel my art. Right? 

I rented out this little spot in Forest Park. I called it Chroma Cove and I decked it out. I put fake plants and stuff everywhere and colorful quilts and it had nice track lighting in it so it worked well. It was like a little gallery space and I just got a few local artist friends to come in and show their stuff. It was going really well and the first few shows were great. 

One day, I packed up and locked up everything. I was the last person there after the show and everything seemed fine. Later, I get a call from a friend and she says, “Andrea, Chroma Cove is on fire. It’s literally on fire.” 

I lost all of the art in there. It was just a crisp, just ruined. It kind of crushed my momentum. 

I decided I want a new hobby and I always loved electronic music. I decide I’m gonna buy a little DJ board and I’m going to just play around with mixing music. And I literally bought a board that is almost like a kid’s toy. It has silly party lights on it. I got it and I was hooked. Like I was addicted. 

I’ve been a DJ for five years and if you really want to grow as a DJ, you have to produce your music. That’s something I’ve always wanted to do and fantasized about for even before I ever started to DJ. 

So “The Bubble,” the song that I have here, the lyrics in it literally just say “I can feel it, the bubble’s about to burst. Any minute, the bubble is about to burst.”

All of the themes in this time to me are overwhelmed with politics and the state of the world. The way we’ve seen all these policies happening and the way we’ve seen late stage capitalism just getting so grotesque and inflated and that the lid is just coming off of that. And I’m sure a lot of people can relate to just all the anxiety of “What is gonna happen? We’re just getting started.” And to me, it just feels like we’re on the verge of this thing blowing up. But that’s the theme I’m keeping in mind when I’m making these songs, because that’s a thing that’s emotionally heavy on me. And this is how I cope with it or deal with it or let it out. 

For me, this is my project and it’s my garden that I’m watering. And it’s given me so much joy and passion and purpose, so I’m gonna keep watering it. I’m going to just put one foot in front of the other and just do the next thing because that’s only gotten me to really cool places.