Andrew Robert “Andy” Fowler is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. He was part of the five-piece band, RoadTrip, from 2015-2020.
Andy was born on February 16, 1994, in Manchester, England, to Lesley Fowler. He was raised by his mother, his father leaving when he was young. He lived in the two major cities, Manchester and London. He attended Priestnall Secondary School and later studied physics, maths, psychology, music and French at Xaverian College.
At the age of six, he began learning how to play guitar because he wanted to be like Charlie Simpson from Busted, and took lessons until the age of fifteen.He played piano during high school because it was required in the curriculum, learnt the violin when he wanted to be a session musician, and a bit of percussion after seeing artist acoustic live, as well as in his school’s orchestra. He sang in the Manchester United Youth choir, was a voluntary leader in the scouts, played football in school and for an outside team, and did county level badminton. In high school, one of his injuries was a slipped disc when he sat down on a chair. The next day he played football and it felt like his leg came out of the socket. He had to take physiotherapy for a long time, but didn’t do it properly because he didn’t listen. His hip will occasionally act up again.
He struggled with depression, and around the age of 17 booked an appointment with the doctor and took counselling for six months. He was on a four-month waiting list but got through within two weeks because of how severe his depression was. He observed that counselling worked for him since he was articulate about his feelings, and trusted his two counsellors—one in college, and one in the hospital—though everyone has different ways of recovery, some not being as open or as comfortable. Later he relapsed but wanted to overcome it by himself, not taking antidepressants, sleeping tablets, or any other medication. He experienced manic episodes; one instance he was with a friend in France and felt genuinely happy, not remembering the last time he laughed and it wasn’t for show. He realised after he didn’t want to let that feeling go. He named it his biggest mistake, not needing help when he did, and it took two and a half years to battle it which made him more self-aware and in tune with his emotions.
When he was younger he wanted to be an astrophysicist because he loved the stars and performed well academically. He then wanted to go into law up until secondary education, a teacher in music, and finally a performer. Upon knowing that he wanted to end up in a music-related field, there were two cases. One was picking options for high school, choosing triple science, math and history, but then having to decide between music or drama, as he loved both, and had to think about it. The second was at a place called Reading, where he went into a pub with his mother, and there was karaoke there. A bad singer was performing, and his mother suggested he should do it. He sang Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”, which was when his mother believed that he could make it as a career. He did local gigs for awhile as an acoustic act. Before he was a singer, he was a guitar teacher and worked in retail for about three months.
2012-2015: Early beginnings
Andy was part of a lineup for the tribute band Only One Direction between 2012-2014, which toured internationally across cities including Dubai, which he named as one of his favourite places he’s ever visited.[20] He was briefly in a group called Monroe, a quartet. Near the end of 2013, Blair Dreelan took him in as a guitarist for English pop singer Harvey Cantwell. Andy was then introduced as the fifth member of the boy band Overload in April 2014, the group managed by Blair. The band went on the 11th series of The X Factor, and split up in February 2015. During the period of being in the group, he composed several songs in his spare time, including “Lay My Hat” and “Maps,” which are uploaded to his Facebook account.[38] He also headlined as a solo act for ViewMyGig in early 2015, where he met his future bandmates Rye Beaumont and Mikey Cobban, who were in another band at the time.[39]
2015-2020: RoadTrip
In March 2015, Andy was revealed as the first member of a new boy band, which assembled as a five-piece in November 2016 along with Rye, Brooklyn Wyatt, Mikey, and Jack Duff. Together they released two demo EPs in 2017 and went on multiple headlining and supporting tours around the UK and Ireland. In the last week of April 2019, Mikey departed from the group. Sonny Robertson, fellow former member from Overload, came in on trial, joining the lineup in June. On December 8, Jack publicly announced of leaving the band to go solo. After Jack’s departure, Harper Dark—who was an opening act for two of RoadTrip’s 2019 tours—went through a trial process before officially joining on the 1st of January, 2020.
In May, several allegations were made online against one of the members, and it was announced from two members of RoadTrip that the band was splitting up. Andy made a public statement of not taking any sides and continuing music with Blair as his manager. He has not made any reference to the band being over, though later in an October livestream said he was no longer associated with it. It is unclear if he left management, explaining that he would not speak about the situation in a December livestream, as he only wanted positivity. The next day he admitted he felt emotional and a lot of love to certain people, implying that he saw the podcast. In terms of his career, he stated, “I’ve spent too much time losing time at this point to give up. Like I’ve done everything I can to keep myself and my family safe. So, to me, the couple of months difference in terms of releasing or anything like that, it isn’t the end of the world for me.” He went on to say that he will focus on his music in 2021.
Musical style and genres
Andy’s music style can be categorised under folk-pop before RoadTrip, with his known songs as a solo artist played predominantly with the acoustic guitar. He observed that he is a “gritty singer” as those were his influences growing up. He recently considered his genre to be pop-rock and soul, and his runs to be “country-influenced”.
Influences
He grew up listening to Charlie Simpson (a member of Busted), who he named as one of his favourite singers of all time. When the singer-songwriter left the band, he started listening to James Arthur, who was a stopgap for him, reminding him of Simpson. Musicians that inspired him before entering the pop world included artists Ed Sheeran, Newton Faulkner, Max Milner, and JP Cooper, all of whom he referred to as “a guy and a guitar, who wrote their music”. He has incorporated from Faulkner the percussive style of guitar playing in his performances. He has cited Brendon Urie as an influence performance and vocal-wise, which he said was the closest to Freddie Mercury, and the direction to what he wants to achieve. Other influences include Queen and Jon Bellion. He once stated that Casey Abrams was someone he aspired to be like as a songwriter.
Hobbies
His two main passions are music and football. He didn’t like football until he was seven and saw the England versus Germany match in 2001. His mother and grandfather supported United, while the rest of his family supported Manchester City. His favourite sports team is Manchester United. If he wasn’t a singer, he once said he’d be a sports commentator.
In June 2020, he began streaming regularly over Twitch.
Family
He described having “virtually no relationship” with his biological father, leaving him and his mother when he was young. On April 4, 2019, his father passed away. Andy paid tribute in the form of music and posted the videos to his Instagram account on the 22nd.
Health
Andy suffered from bulimia nervosa. While being in the boy band Overload Generation on The X Factor, he was self-conscious of his weight as he felt that he was letting the group’s image down. Around 2016 in RoadTrip, he made sure to go to the gym and burn off a thousand calories. He took a pre-workout drink for about three weeks, and afterward would not allow himself to eat because he thought it was the quickest way to lose weight. Late at night he would eat but make himself throw up. In 2020, he acknowledged in RoadTrip’s documentary’s extended cut that he was bulimic at a time during the band. He stated that his weight fluctuates a lot, but his dietary habits are now healthier.
He is open about his mental health, and revealed that he has anxiety, which has been prominent in the past six months during COVID-19, where he would have episodes that he described as “inconvenient and annoying” and personally doesn’t feel bad, but something will trigger it, coming on at any time. He once felt cold despite it being boiling, and was shaking and panicking, which was his first panic attack.
He used to smoke for 7-8 years before quitting. He first did it around the age of fifteen because he wanted to fit in. He confirmed that he vapes, but would not promote it at all, or want anyone to do it. When asked if he tried quitting, he explained that nicotine helps with stress.