Indie artists often come with a laundry list of titles: Creatives, producers, marketers, networkers. For multi-creative Andrew Paul Davis, the list of definitions keeps growing. Since 2015, the award-winning writer, director, and musician has created two feature films and 28 narrative short films. In recent years, the 29-year-old Fort Lauderdale native has fused his musical and filmmaking talents through original music videos.
After purchasing a guitar in 2014, he rapidly honed skills despite a disability that limits movement in his left hand. After learning a handful of tracks from “Her” and “Inside Llewyn Davis”, he began experimenting with chord progressions while attending Taylor University in Indiana. “It was a beautiful day and I sat against this tree with my trumpet; I had the guitar part in my head and came up with my first counter-melody,” he recalls. “It was this transcendent creative moment; I’ll never forget it.” After that song, “Frenemy”, was released in 2016, Davis kept writing. Between 2019 and 2021, he wrote two full-length albums—each a blend of apocalyptic art pop and psychedelic folk-rock.
“If film was a marital partner, then music was a mistress,” says Davis, who now lives in Chicago. “A song could happen in a short amount of time. It provided a more immediate creative outlet, versus the more calculated, grueling realities of film production.”
Though he’s hands-on with most projects, he relies on others when it comes to music, producing with Taylor Hecocks of King Shelter and Bill Baird (Sound Team, Heavy Meddo). The result? Clear, crisp vocals backed by gritty guitar riffs and experimental horns and synths. “I’m more critical of my film work, but because I keep distance from the technicalities of recording music, I can enjoy the process more,” he says. “Music composition feels more abstract than narrative film, but both grow my creative capacity and relate to people in ways the other doesn’t quite do.”
The real challenge, he says, is connecting with people in an algorithm-driven world. “The algorithm wants you to be one-note and force you into a single sub-genre. Trying to cut through the noise can be exhausting,” Davis admits. “There’s a post-COVID ‘TikTok-ization’ around trends, and there’s something sinister and strange about being asked to become slaves to an algorithm, no matter how it changes.”
Davis’ latest music video, “Commercial” (2024), mirrors this maddened world enveloped by advertising—punctuated by black frames that simulate channel-changing and a mask personifying the everyman. It’s the final installment in a series of music videos, short films, and feature films that Davis calls “Americana Inverted”. While the video is more light-hearted than much of his works, it’s unequivocally Andrew Paul Davis, whose poignant narratives often serve as observations of culture—including his features “Palace” (2018) and “Pompano Boy” (2021), which capture withering social cohesion in rural Indiana and suburban South Florida.
“I stumbled upon this style and fully enjoyed the chaos of it,” he says. “I’ve learned how to bridge the gaps of absurdity, realism, and my sense of humor. I’ve received more clarity in my life, and it’s given me license to be myself.”
His advice for other artists? Have patience, enjoy the process of collaboration, and know thyself.
