Born in London England 1962 Andy began his musical life in Edinburgh, Scotland playing guitar with the band Dog Faced Hermans, a multi faceted eclectic group that mixed energetic post punk energy with traditional tunes and improvisations....
In 1990 he moved to the Netherlands after an invitation to join Dutch band
The Ex...the openess and versatility of the musicians in this group has brought them into contact with many musicians from different scenes and backgrounds..including Tom Cora(cello), Han Bennink(drums), and Ab Baars (sax). In 1995 he began another group Kletka Red with Tony Buck joe Williamson and Leonid Soybelman...fusing traditional Klezmer, Greek and Russian songs with their own frantic styles of playing....
In more recent years Andy has collaborated with musicians from many and varied backgrounds and disciplines differing from his own backround which was rooted in the post punk Britain of the 80 s. Many of these collaborations are duos with amongst others Yannis Kyriakides (cypriot composer ) with whom he performs a set of rebetika songs ( urban greek tunes from the 20s and 30 s), Anne James Chaton ( french sound poet), Colin Mclean ( ex bass player from Dog Faced Hermans) who now works with electronic music and live sampling, DJ/Rupture ( brooklyn based Dj , producer and writer) ,and Christine Abdelnour (Lebanese Paris based saxaphonist). He has also begun composing soundtracks for films working with Iranian filmaker Bani Khoshnoudi and US experimnetal filmaker Jem Cohen. His latest projects include a quartet with Ken Vandermark , Terrie Ex and Paal Nilssen Love called Lean Left and a trio with Berlin based artists and musician Alva Noto and Anne James Chaton called “Decade”. And a trio project with Anne James Chaton and Thurston Moore called Heretics. In 2013 he began a duo project with John Butcher and continues his trio project with Thermal ( John Butcher and Thomas Lehn) . Andy lives in Amsterdam at present and continues to be a full time member of The Ex who in recent years as well as working as a core 4 piece also collaborate with veteran Ethiopian saxaphonist Getatchew Mekuria, and expand their set with a horn section ( called The Ex & Brass UNbound ) which includes Ken Vandermark, Wolter Wierbos,Mats Gustafson and Roy Paci.