Music shapes our identities and changes our lives. It brings back our memories and stirs up our emotions. My Song Stories asks music professionals and indie artists questions about the songs in their libraries. Today, Andrew Woloz, a consultant who helps companies and artists with their digital music strategy, shares the artists and songs that have impacted his life and career.
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By Kyle Bylin, author of Song Stories
Who are you and what do you do?I’m Andrew Woloz. I’m a digital music strategy consultant working with various clients and their rosters like Red Bull Records, Interscope, and Infamous PR. I help artists optimize their presence on the various streaming platforms. I got my start in the industry as an early employee of Beats Music, where I harnessed all the knowledge I could learn about the streaming space from Jimmy Iovine, Trent Reznor, and the rest of the Beats crew. I’m extremely fortunate that I was able to enter the industry at the cutting-edge of the streaming game. It’s certainly a very interesting time for the music industry and I look forward to riding the rollercoaster of its future.
What is your most recent favorite song?
Tom Misch – “Day 3: When You Want to Love (ft. Will Heard)”
What is your favorite ballad or slow jam?
Broken Social Scene – “Lover’s Spit”
What song makes you happy and smile?
Toto – “Africa”
What song makes you sad or want to cry?
Sampha – “(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano”
Did you inherit any music taste from your parents?
Growing up, my mom always me singing along to The Beatles in the car. I also discovered all my parent’s Michael Jackson tapes at an early age and gave those a go in my Playskool cassette player (equipped with colorful karaoke mic).
What five artists best represent their favorite music?
1) The Beatles – “Love Me Do”
2) The Beach Boys – “Good Vibrations”
3) Michael Jackson – “Rock with You”
4) Bee Gees – “Stayin’ Alive”
5) Michael McDonald – “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”
What five artists best represent your favorite music?
This is most likely going to be an amalgamation of all of my musical phases of my life up to this point…
1) Led Zeppelin – “That’s The Way”
2) Gwen McCrae – “Keep The Fire Burning”
3) Something Corporate – “I Woke Up In A Car”
4) Starfucker – “Florida”
5) The National – “Terrible Love (Alternative Version)”
What song evokes memories from your childhood?
The entire Space Jam Soundtrack (mainly R. Kelly – “I Believe I Can Fly). This was the first album I ever bought with my own money (ironically purchased at Blockbuster Video). As a young kid, my dream was to play in the NBA, so this movie and song seemed like the epitome of my existence at the time. To this day, I still have every frame of the music video engrained in my mind. I played this disc so much it was completely scuffed up within a couple weeks. Someday, I’m hoping the complete soundtrack finally makes its way completely to a streaming service (right now it can only be had with some track restrictions).
What is one song from the soundtrack of your life?
“Heretics” by Andrew Bird. This song will always stick out to me. It was released just as I was gearing up to go off to college and seems to always take me back every time it comes on. This is the power of music. Music has the power to bring you back to exact moments in your life. “Heretics” by Andrew Bird has always made me feel like I was part of a movie and life was but a dream.
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Kyle Bylin is the author of Song Stories: Music That Shaped Our Identities and Changed Our Lives, a collection of essays about songs that impacted people’s lives. Read an excerpt here.