Last Tuesday, New Jersey artist ANDI made a stop at Valley Bar in downtown Phoenix for her Rule Book tour.
Andi Mitchell, professionally known as ANDI, is a pop artist on the rise who has built a platform for herself for the past few years. ANDI rose to prominence online through sharing her songs like “Made Up Story” on TikTok and Instagram.
At just 16 years old, ANDI packed up and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career.
“When I was fifteen, I visited my friend who was living in L.A., and she was pursuing music at the time,” she said. “I was supposed to go for a week but I ended up staying like three weeks because I got really ill, so I ended up staying there much longer. During that time, I just really fell in love with L.A. and her lifestyle, and fate just aligned perfectly.”
A lot of ANDI’s music draws from her own life experiences and emotions.
“In terms of musical inspiration, definitely the people I listen to. My favorite singer ever is Ariana Grande, like I’m obsessed with her voice,” she said. “But in terms of writing, my personal life inspires me to write. When I’m going through something or when I’ve realized something about a situation, I always just want to write a song about it.”
ANDI’s most recent single “Crazier Best Friend” has nearly 640,000 streams on Spotify. With this growing interest, she hopes to release some new music soon.
“I’m touring a lot of unreleased songs and seeing how they’re perceived by my audience, and I’m going based off that to see which ones I want to release,” she said.
ANDI began her month-long tour at the beginning of March, saying that it’s been one of the things she’s been looking forward to for a long time.
“Going on tour right now is more of a goal that I had for 2023, so I told my booking agent ‘Hey, this is what I want to do this year,’” and she made it happen,” said ANDI. “I feel like I’m ready, I have enough music out, I have enough of a fan base to do it, and it’s been really fun.”
The tour didn’t come about without any labor, though. ANDI and her team spent hours in rehearsal to make sure everything was just right.
Mark Otero, the bassist and guitarist for ANDI’s touring band, said everyone’s been working with her to make sure the shows are perfect.
“We did like ten days of rehearsals. It was really cool learning the songs, practicing in New York. It’s super fun to see it all come together,” Otero said.
ANDI’s show featured a variety of openers, Carrington Zane Sklar, a rock artist; HARIZ, who focuses on pop sounds; and local indie/alternative artist Cali Rodi all performed sets to warm up the crowd.
Sklar said going on tour with ANDI was a “blessing.”
“I drive the bus, so I ended up cracking a deal. I said, ‘Listen, I’m going to open at every single show, and I’ll drive the bus,’ and the publicist said yes, so I joined the tour,” Sklar said.
Sklar, also a New Jersey native, knew ANDI from before she moved to Los Angeles.
“I’m not going to say the addresses, but me and ANDI were neighbors,” Sklar said.
As for his inspiration to play, Sklar said, “I live this life, stay up until 7 a.m. playing. I decided three, maybe four years ago, that instead of trying to find a stage, I’m just going to be the guy the stage needs.”
Sklar plans to wrap up his tour with ANDI and then work to promote his new music videos.
ANDI’s next concerts will take her through the south and to the east coast, with a final international stop in London in mid-April.
Contact the reporter at llmay@asu.edu
