Story of a Session Guitarist, with Andrew Synowiec
Description
You might not know Andrew Synowiec's name, but chances are you've heard his guitar playing. Heck, chances are you heard his guitar playing this week.
Synowiec makes his living as an LA session guitarist, with a list of credits as long as the California coastline. Among those credits: you can hear him on the score for pretty much every recent Disney film (Frozen, CoCo, Zootopia), as well superhero flicks like Logan and Spider-Man: Far From Home, TV shows like The Simpsons and The Good Place, as well as on records with recording artists like The Who, HAIM, P!nk, Nick Jonas, Donna Summer, and so many more.
A couple weeks back, Kirk sat down with Andrew to talk about his career as a session player, how he finds a good balance when doing creative work for hire, his approach to practicing and guitar tone, how he designed and built his home studio, and why he continues to make the time for his own personal music projects.
FEATURED/DISCUSSED ON THIS EPISODE:
- Guy Lacour etude No. 4 as performed by David Hernando Vitores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyGo9NmZUNw
- Wes Montgomery on “No Blues” from Smokin’ at the Half Note w/ the Wynton Kelly Trio, 1965
- “Where The Streets Have No Name” by U2 from The Joshua Tree, 1987
- “Sad But True” by Metallica from Metallica, 1991
- “Blood and Thunder” by Mastodon from Leviathan, 2004
- “Last Goodbye” by Jeff Buckley from Grace, 1994
- “Already Taken,” “Second Story,” and “Humor Me” by Andrew Synowiec from Second Story, 2019
- “Jonkoloni” by Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba from Segu Blue, 2006, feat. the Ngoni
- “Salsa Caliente (Versión Aumentada)” by Meridian Brothers from Desperanza, 2012
- “You Are Young” by Keane from Strangeland, 2012
- A video with Andrew about his work and his home studio
- A Spotify playlist Andrew maintains featuring things he's played on
- Andrew's website, with lots more credits and other info
STRONG MERCH
Check out the Strong Songs merch store for some cool t-shirts, mugs, totes, and more: store.strongsongspodcast.com
JOIN THE STRONG SONGS DISCORD
The Strong Songs Discord server is now open to everyone! Come join the conversation and get (or give) some music recs: https://discord.gg/GCvKqAM8Sm
KEEP IT SOCIAL
Follow Strong Songs on Twitter: @StrongSongs
And find Kirk on Twitter @Kirkhamilton and on Instagram at @Kirk_Hamilton
NEWSLETTER/MAILING LIST
Sign up for Kirk's mailing list to start getting newsletters with music recommendations, links, news, and extra thoughts on new Strong Songs episodes: https://kirkhamilton.substack.com/subscribe
STRONG PLAYLISTS
Kirk has condensed his Strong Songs picks into a single new list, which you can find on Spotify and Apple Music, and YouTube Music.
SUPPORT STRONG SONGS!
A huge thank-you to all of Strong Songs' Patreon supporters! For more on how to support the creation of this show, go here: https://Patreon.com/StrongSongs
You can also make a one-time Paypal donation here: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/kirkhamiltonmusic
FEBRUARY 2022 WHOLE-NOTE PATRONS
Daniel Hannon-Barry
RR
Prince M. Levy-Benitez
Elliot Rosen
Ashley Hoag
Mark and Michelle
Kelsair
Rob Bosworth
Kyle Cooke
Donald Mackie
Melissa Osborne
Christopher Miller
Tim Byrne
Jamie White
Christopher McConnell
Joshua Jarvis
Niko
Joe Laska
Laurie Acreman
Ken Hirsh
Jez
Melanie Andrich
Jenness Gardner
Simon Cammell
Guinevere Boostrom
Narelle Horn
Bill Rosinger
Erin
Aidan Coughlan
Jeanneret Manning Family Four
Doug Paton
Dave Sharpe
Sami Samhuri
AccessViolation
Ryan Torvik
Merlin Mann
Glenn
Jim Chokey
Andre Bremer
Mark Schechter
Dave Florey
FEBRUARY 2022 HALF-NOTE PATRONS
Portland Eye Care
Adam Ray
Anupama Raghavan
Demetri Detsaridis
Carrie Schneider
Alenka Grealish
Anne Gerry
Richard Sneddon
David Judson
Julian Roleff
Melissa Gallardo
Janice Berry
Doreen Carlson
mtwolf
David McDarby
Abigail Duffield
Raphadavid
Wendy Gilchrist
Lisa Turner
Paul Wayper
Miles Forman
Dennis M Edwards
Jeffrey Ferris
Bruno Gaeta
Kenneth Jung
ben
Adam Stofsky
Zak Remer
Rishi Sahay
Jason Reitman
Greg Burgess
Ailie Fraser
Simon Prieto
Paul McGreal
Karen Arnold
NATALIE MISTILIS
Josh Singer
Phino DeLeon
Schloss Edward J. MD
Amy Lynn Thornsen
Adam W
Kelli Brockington
Stephen Rawlings
Ben Machta
Victoria Yu
Kevin Rivers
Brad Clark
Christopher
Michael J. Cunningham
Kari Kirk
Mark Boggs
mino capossela
Steve Paquin
Mary Schoenmaker
Sarah
David Joske
Emma Sklar
Bernard Khoo
David Blackman
Robert Heuer
Matthew Golden
Brian Meldrum
David Noah
Geraldine Butler
Richard Cambier
Madeleine Mader
Timothy Dougherty
Jason Pratt
Caroline Miller
Abbie Berg
Sam Norton
Nicole Schleicher
Doug Belew
Dermot Crowley
Achint Srivastava
Ryan Rairigh
Michael Berman
Olivia Bishop
John Gisselquist
Elaine Martin
Kouroth
Bonnie Prinsen
Sharon Tree
Belinda Mcgrath-steer
Liz Seger
Eoin de Burca
Kevin Potter
M Shane Borders
Pete Simm
Susan Plein
Dallas Hockley
Jana J
Jason Gerry
Nathan Gouwens
Will Dwyer Alethea Lee
Lauren Reay
Eric Prestemon
Cookies250
Damian Brady
Angela Livingstone
JeffyThanadros
David Friedman
Phillip Dalton
Sarah Sulan
Diane Hughes
Kenneth Tiong
Jo Sutherland
Michael Casner
Michael York
Barb Courtney
Derek Bender
Jen Small
Lowell Meyer
Etele Illes
Stephen Tsoneff
Lorenz Schwarz
Wen
Jack Sjogren
Geoff Golden
Robyn Fraser
Pascal Rueger
Randy Souza
JC
Clare Holberton
Diane Turner
Tom Coleman
Tijs Soete
Mark Perry
Dhu Wik
Mel
Eric Helm
Jake Roberts
Bill Fuller
Steven Maron
Michael Flaherty
Jarrod Schindler
Zoe Little
Caro Field
michael bochner
Duncan
Naomi Watson
David Cushman
Alexander
Chris K
Gavin Doig
Sam Fenn
Tanner Morton
AJ Schuster
Jennifer Bush
David Stroud
Amanda Furlotti
Andrew Baker
Matt Gaskell
Jules Bailey
Eero Wahlstedt
Andrew Fair
Bill Thornton
Brian Amoebas
Brett Douville
Jeffrey Olson
Matt Betzel
Mueller
Nate from Kalamazoo
Melanie Stivers
Richard Toller
Alexander Polson
Earl Lozada
Jon O’Keefe
Justin McElroy
Arjun Sharma
James Johnson
Andrew Lee
Kevin Morrell
Kevin Pennyfeather
Nicholas Schechter
Emily Williams