Andrew Osenga to release album

Singer/songwriter, producer, and session player Andrew Osenga defies convention with his most determined disc to date, Leonard, The Lonely Astronaut. Mixed by Grammy winner Vance Powell (Jack White, The White Stripes, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs), the album returns to Earth on September 18, 2012.


The pop/rock sci-fi concept album was born from Andrew's love of science fiction as he explains, "at the time, I was watching the series 'Battlestar Galactica.' So in my mind, to fight insomnia, I started designing a spaceship and the idea of this guy named Leonard who lived in it. Then I wrote a couple songs about him and it was over. I had to do this."


Besides taking listeners on the conceptual journey of a guy who literally spends an entire year alone in outer space, the Nashville-based Osenga also invited fans to participate in helping him build a movie set-like spaceship interior, which became his recording studio to add additional artistic authenticity - but not kitsch.


"Some people probably expected this spaceship studio to be made out of cardboard or Styrofoam, but then after they saw the video, they were like 'oh dude, you're for real!'" he jokes, giving credit to the project's construction foreman Todd Bragg (of Caedmon's Call fame).


"I've never been a huge fan of musicals and don't want the record to have plot points, but there are certainly main ideas that help make up Leonard the character," unveils Andrew.


In the midst of a divorce when his wife dies, Leonard takes a menial job on a spaceship to escape his circumstances and reality. "Since he doesn't have a single person to talk to in space, he uses that year to go through all of his memories, looking back at relationships, mainly the one with his wife, plus other aspects like religion, family and childhood."


As a result, most of the songs are told in flashbacks, from focusing on the reasons his marriage failed through "Out Of Time" to all of the instances he chickened out as a kid across "Hold On, Boy" to eventually realizing community is always more meaningful than isolation during "It Was Not Good For Man To Be Alone." While "Shooting Star" rounds out the record with empowering lines like "ready or not, here I come," there's still a cautioned optimism and hopeful apprehension as begins transitioning back towards the life he left behind.


"The purpose of this record is two fold," Andrew sums up. "First, I want it to be a tool for people to examine their lives and take stock of why there are certain times when we hide and pull away from each other. And second, I want people, especially my kids, to be motivated by the whole idea of this project. It's okay to do something a little crazy if, to you, it's beautiful. Hopefully this will inspire my daughters to not give into their fears and just go for it. If you have something pulling at your heart and there's a tug, you need to chase it."

http://andrewosenga.com/