
I have a special place in my heart for songs that bring a smile to my face. You know the kind… the ones that help to level you out when you’re having a particularly tough day… that function as a catalyst for you to focus on what you have, instead of what you don’t. I have a playlist (both audio and video) of about a dozen such songs I like to go to on a regular basis, just to keep me grounded.
Prominently featured in that playlist is Andy Frasco & The U.N. Originally formed in Los Angeles in 2007, Frasco (who now calls Denver his home) and his bandmates have released nine studio and two live albums over the past fifteen years. Album number twelve is on its way, to be released this spring. The band recently kicked off an extended North American tour that will keep them busy into June. On Friday, February 7 (yep, that’s this Friday), they bring their legendary live show to the Mission Ballroom in Denver.
Ahead of that show, I connected with Andy via Zoom. Talk about an everyday kind of dude! Talking to Andy is as easy and comfortable as talking with a good friend. We covered a lot of ground… from the recent blockbuster trade between the NBA’s LA Lakers and Dallas Mavericks, to his evolution and growth as a musical artist, to Denver’s underappreciated live music scene. Along the way, I also picked up a recommendation for one of Andy’s favorite local restaurants. Read on…

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Rick: Thanks so much for spending time with me today, Andy. I’ve got so many things I’d like to chat with you about, and we’ll see how far we get with the time we have. Before we get started, I do have a couple of out of the box things I want to hit you with first.
First of all, given your allegiance to your beloved Lakers (for the interview Frasco is wearing a purple Lakers hoodie), what are your thoughts on the trade that went down over the weekend. (The Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers in exchange for Anthony Davis.)
Andy: Yeah, Luca, baby. Oh, man, I mean, I can’t say anything but thank you to the Dallas Mavericks, you know. But going deeper, it kind of bums me out for the city of Dallas. He just realized that, you know, it’s just an entertainment business. It’s no different than me signing a different record deal. So I heard about it, and it made me sad. But we’re going to give him all the love we can. Our management will take care of him. I couldn’t believe he’s just 25 years old.
Rick: Well, I wish your team all the luck in the world, except when they play the Nuggets. After the Nuggets, I’ve always liked the Lakers, going back to Magic, Kareem, James Worthy, and the three-peat days.
Andy: Well, I’m honored, brother. I feel the same way about the Nuggets. You know, it’s my fifth year in Denver, and this is the first place I really feel at home. Whenever they’re not playing the Lakers, I’m rooting for Joker and Westbrook and Murray, the whole team.
Rick: The second out of the box thing I have… unless I have been misinformed, I believe you have a birthday coming up in just a few days.
Andy: Yeah, man, February 11… 37 (years old).
Rick: Well, early Happy Birthday to you.
Andy: Thank you. I mean, getting Luca Doncic is the best birthday present ever.
Rick: So let’s shift gears a bit… I want to talk about your musical journey. Way back when you were working on your first album – 15 or 16 years ago – did it ever occur to you that not too far in the future you would be getting ready to release your 12th?
Andy: (Laughs) No, dude, you’re aging me. Yeah, twelve albums. I can’t believe it. You know, I’ve always been a workhorse. I’ve always just put my head down and done the work. And this is the first year that I woke up and, like, enjoyed what’s been going on. And it felt like a blur. I can’t believe this is going to be my 12th record. It’s just insane.
Rick: You know, for a lot of people, it take 20 years to get to 12 records. You’ve been very prolific in terms of releasing new material.
Andy: Yeah, man, I don’t know if it’s prolific or I’m just ADD and anxious. I need to get the words out there. I’m a student of Kobe Bryant, you know, where you’re working on everything every day. Even if it takes an inch by inch to get there, I will. I’m going to keep trying to get better. For me, a record is like a yearbook, and it shows your growth and how much you’re improving every year. I got to relisten to a lot of these (older) records, and I’ve seen the growth from when I was a party guy to focusing on the songs. It took the last four or five years to really start focusing on the lyrics and the songwriting instead of just the live show. And I’m really proud about how far I’ve come.
Rick: I want to ask you a little more about something you said just a minute ago when you were talking about Kobe, and the inch-by-inch thing. Have you ever read a book called The Slight Edge? It’s all about moving forward through small, incremental gains, rather than trying to take huge steps.
Andy: Yeah, this is the reason people have anxiety. They think about too big of footsteps, instead of realizing little (footsteps), inch by inch, keeps you alive. You’re still winning. You know, we’ve always joked that we’re the band that’s been taking the stairs for 15 years. We never took an elevator. 250 shows a year, 15 years, and every year we’ll add another ten fans in each city. That used to bum me out. I see all my friends getting all popular and stuff. And then I realized that’s just your path. And like, you have to enjoy the inch.
Kobe talks about waking up at 4am. Sometimes his pass is off, or his shot is off, or maybe he’s just not reading his teammates right. But he understands why he’s not reading his teammates right. Why his shot is off. You know, my friend told me the first 10,000 hours are hard, but the second 10,000 hours is where you start becoming a real master. And I think I’m finally getting into my second 10,000 hours, where I could get better through chipping away and not seeing the horizon and trying to get there instead. That’s my new mind state.

Rick: Your 2023 album L’Optimist really seemed to represent the beginning of a new phase in your musical journey – one where your maturity as a songwriter, not to mention your maturity as a person, really stepped front and center. Do you think that’s a fair and accurate statement?
Andy: Yeah, totally. I had a couple of health scares. I was partying a little too hard, and I was doing music for the wrong reasons. And I think writing L’Optimist got me focused again. It was like, don’t rely on the stuff you’re good at, figure out the stuff you’re not good at. And I was realizing that the stuff I wasn’t good at was actually being a musician. I was good at the entertaining thing, and I was good at being a great front man. But writing songs… (I was) still learning how to be a musician and songwriter. And I felt like L’Optimist really woke me up that I could do this too, you know.
I mean, it’s getting older, growing… I don’t want to stay still the whole time. I want to keep learning about myself, keep figuring out different ways that I could get better and keep fighting the good fight. I don’t want it to feel stale. Keep learning about yourself and keep learning about your craft, you know.
Rick: Let’s talk about you living in Denver. Most everybody knows you’re originally from LA, and as a young man, you moved all the way across the country to New York. Talk about a culture shock, right? I know that you’ve also spent some time in Arkansas, culture shock phase two, yeah? Are there any other places over the years, other than Denver, that you’ve called home, even temporarily?
Andy: Yeah, I moved to Berlin for a little bit. And then I moved to Utrecht for a girl. I proposed to her, she said no, and I think that changed my life. I’m glad she said no because I probably wouldn’t be a musician right now. But yeah, I’ve always just been running my whole life. Even in LA I didn’t feel like that was a place that accepted me. Denver’s been the first place where I could feel comfortable sitting on my couch and feeling like I don’t have to go anywhere, you know?
Rick: What was it about Denver that gave you that sense, that feeling?
Andy: I think it’s the acceptance that (people here) know I’m not the normal jam fan; I’m not the normal sports fan. I mean I rep the Lakers deep in the city. They accept me for who I am and what I bring to the community, and they know I’m here for a good reason to build community. My whole goal is to be the glue for different sides of thought. You know, we can’t all just live in an echo chamber. I want to make sure everyone’s communicating with each other, so we can grow as humans. And I think they accept my weirdness of how I approach it. I’m not really normal. I do it in a little spicier way, and they’re totally cool with it, and they’ve accepted me with open arms. It’s cool, and I’m here to stay.
I like the city. I like being 10 minutes away from Cervantes to go see a show on a Tuesday. Denver’s got an underappreciated live music scene. It’s one of the best in the country. I mean, what other city is selling out shows on a Tuesday?

Rick: You’ve got a show coming up Friday night at the Mission Ballroom. Now, I have been told that you’re going to announce the release of your new album during the show on Friday. Is this like a state secret or something? Or can you tell me, so I can put it in my post, what the name of the new album is, and what the drop date is going to be?
Andy: Since technically it isn’t being announced until Friday, I can’t give you specifics until then. But I can tell you that it is the most important piece of art I’ve ever written in my life. I’m so proud of this. You know, I wrote this, like seven months ago. And sometimes, after you make a record, you get sick of it. But this is a record that I have not been sick of. This is the most powerful piece of music I’ve ever written in my life, and I’m just so happy it’s finally coming out. It’s going to be awesome.
Rick: That’s fantastic. The first single, “Try Not To Die” is amazing. For my money, it’s one of the best things you’ve ever written. I really want to get a t-shirt that says, “Pay all your bills, stay off the pills, try not to die.” It’s great to hear that you’re so enthusiastic about the record… is there anything else you can tell us about it?
Andy: Yeah, I got some really nice collabs on it. I wrote a couple songs with Steve Poltz. I wrote a song with Billy strings. Got a couple rappers out of Chicago, ProbCause and Ric Wilson. G. Love is on it.
But the most important thing is the lyrics are the most authentic I’ve ever felt in my life. I feel like I’m finally owning songwriting enough to where I can actually put it into words. You know, sometimes it’s hard for me. I’m so worried about what people are going to think about me. This is the first year I actually love myself enough that I’m cool with just putting out exactly how I feel, not worrying about what other people think. I think that’s why this (album) feels so authentic.
Rick: Speaking of loving yourself, you are a very active and vocal advocate for mental health awareness and self-care. I’ve heard you describe yourself as both a “backwoods doctor” and a “medicine man.” And I know you’ve dealt with your own struggles with depression and just dealing with the challenges that life throws at all of us. So was there a tipping point… a particular time or event that led you to where you actively decided that you wanted to take on this “healer” role, or was it just part of a natural, organic process that was a result of you living your life?
Andy: I think I just always was a good listener. I’ve been a good listener my whole life. And I’ve always felt like whoever’s inside of me giving this advice… I was giving out advice that I didn’t even know came out of my body. It was like I was a vessel or some stuff. When I was a kid, my mom used to tell me, how did you learn about that? And then I think when I stopped doing as much cocaine as I used to do, I kind of woke up and realized I could help more when I’m not in the clouds and when I’m not just bullshitting. I gotta act too. I gotta believe the shit I’m saying. And so that’s why the last three years, I’m finally believing the words I’m saying. And I think that’s why I’m happier, and I think that’s why people are actually listening to me.
Rick: I want to shift gears really quickly here, and ask you about your podcast, Andy Frasco’s World Saving Podcast. You’ve been doing this now for going on seven years. You’ve dropped more than three hundred episodes. When you started this thing back in 2018, what was the vision for it? And did you ever think it would be going strong after three hundred plus episodes?
Andy: Well, I started the podcast because I was scared to go to therapy and I just wanted to talk to my friends who were going through addiction problems. And then from there I was learning how to listen, and how to ask questions regarding the conversation. I just fell in love with the idea of how present I was. And I kept on getting better and better, and I learned so much about people, and I learned so much about myself. I always thought I was alone in this fight, you know. Being in a van in Kansas one day and in Oklahoma the next, not realizing how many other people are going through this and are not talking about it.

Rick: So I’ve done the math. Three hundred episodes over a seven-year period. Averages out to forty-three episodes a year. And 250 show dates a year. How in the world do you fit all of this in?
Andy: That’s what I mean… I’ve dedicated my life to serving others. I don’t have any other life besides working, you know? I’m working three hundred days a year. It’s crazy, but I love it. It’s absolutely nuts.
Rick: Let’s get back to this living in Denver thing. If you ever do take a break where you’re not touring and you’re not working, what do you like to do? Are there any “Colorado” things you particularly like to do, or places you like to go?
Andy: Colorado has a great food scene. Like, right now I’m at Onefold. I love this place. Onefold is amazing. I like the mountains. I like Don’s (Club Tavern). I like all the local stuff. I love sports… Mammoth games. I will go to every Rockies game and drink dollar beers and hang out at the batting cages and watch the guys hit. It’s a beautiful place to watch a game. I just love sports. That’s my thing. I want to be the guy who’s always supporting the local sports teams.
Rick: Your live shows are legendary for their energy, and for the level of fan interaction and involvement. Friday’s crowd at the Mission Ballroom will be filled with loyal fans who know exactly what they’re going to get from the show. But for the newbies… the first timers who have heard about it but have yet to experience it firsthand… they might not really know what to expect. Tell them, in your own words, what they’re going to experience when they come out to see you Friday night.
Andy: I think it’s a chance to be present, be out there, celebrate life, not worry about anything else that’s going on outside of the Mission Ballroom. Be with people who are feeling the same way and just love each other. It’s going to be a love fest, and it’s going to be the biggest headline we’ve ever done. So we’re pulling out all the stops. If you’re going to come to your first Frasco show, it should be this one. I don’t want to tell you everything, but we’re pulling out all the stops. We’re stoked for it.
Rick: Okay, last question for you… let’s look way into the future. Hopefully, many, many years from now. We’re looking at a time when people are dancing around your grave (a play on the Frasco song “Dancing Around My Grave”), for real. When they’re doing that, what’s it going to say on your headstone? Who was Andy Frasco?
Andy: Andy Frasco was a guy who tried his best every day. I woke up every day, and I tried my best. I woke up trying to follow a dream. Trying to be a good person. Trying to be somebody for everybody, and mostly to be there for me. Trying my best to be there for everyone.
Rick: All right, my friend, that sounds good. I want to tell you how much I appreciate what you do, and the gift you give all of us, through your music. Thank you so much for your time, and good luck with the new record and the tour.
Andy: Yeah, thank you. And thank you again for giving us your time to help promote this show. We need all the help we could get.
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I think Andy was being a little bit modest when he talked about what fans should expect when they show up for his show Friday night at the Mission Ballroom. Frasco’s shows redefine the concept of high energy. The are frantic, frenetic, and sometimes chaotic. But it’s (almost) always controlled chaos. They are full of improvisation, including guest musicians (frequently including audience members) on stage. They are, in a word, a party. Ask anyone you know who has attended a Frasco show. Then tell them that Andy has promised to “pull out all the stops” for this Friday’s show… and watch as their eyes glaze over.
Andy Frasco & The U.N. play the Mission Ballroom on Friday, February 7 at 7:30 pm. Support by The Main Squeeze and Squeaky Feet. Tickets range from $53.56 to $95.23 at https://www.axs.com/andy-frasco
Story by Rick Witt www.rickwittphotography.com
Photos by Stephanie Parsley, Andrew Hutchins, Nick Langlois, and Nick Codina