by Matt McGowen
Local musician releases second album of poetry Always wearing his trusty black beanie, local musician Andy Eppler embodies a new breed of West Texas artists. Beneath his beanie lies a mind teeming with unrestricted creativity as it sizzles through the processes of independent art - writing, performing, publishing and producing. And most of this, the 23-year-old said, he does solely on his laptop computer. After the success of "There is No Underground," his first album - which he released in 2007 and of which he said he sold more than 500 copies, not including sales on his Web site and iTunes - Eppler wanted to do something different, something experimental and something uncommon. In a manner true to Lubbock's Bohemian subculture, he hung up his guitar, picked up his pen and created his second album. Other than a handful of background guitar strums and subtle voice effects, Eppler's words stand alone throughout his yet-unreleased second album, "Dark Places." The album consists of eight poems, two grim short stories and a startlingly unabashed self-awareness. "If I knew a local artist that was already doing music, I'd like to hear if they had something completely different going on, and, being an independent artist, I can put out anything I want," he said. "I decided to exercise that." Also, Eppler said he wanted to have a "departure" from music for his second album, which he plans to release on the Internet sometime during the next two months. While writing and compiling the poetry and prose for the album, he drew from personal experience. "Like anything I do, there's probably a piece of me in there," he said. "That's the great thing about art. All people of art are like that. Without meaning to, you write about something that, later on, you find significant." Growing up in Lubbock may have played a role in his choice to become a musician, Eppler said, though it is hard to say for sure. Undoubtedly, life in Lubbock drives people to play music, even if they are not embraced by the city at first, such as was the case of Buddy Holly. "Lubbock is so musically - if you're an artist or if you have an artistic temperament - everybody plays the guitar so they apply it to music," he said. "If you're an artistic person in Lubbock, the likelihood of you becoming a writer is substantially lower than of you becoming a musician, just because that's considered … the go-to mode of rebellion." Talent, alone, does not guarantee success for a musician, Eppler said. He spends a great deal of time performing. During what little free time he does have, Eppler works diligently to promote himself. "Drive" is a key component in the success of a musician. Since he was 16 years old, he said he has performed his music at coffee shops and eventually bars, where he had to "sneak into his own shows" because he was not yet 21 years old. Now, years later, Eppler earns enough money with his music to support himself. He said he wanted to experiment more with his creativity and release a recording of his other passion: writing. During the album's seventh track, "Paper and Pen," Eppler defines himself as "the point between paper and pen." Too much of today's music holds little artistic expression, he said. Most musicians of his generation write formulaic lyrics and produce albums infused with artificial effects. Such music offers little in the way of musical progress. "If you're going to make art," he said, "you might as well make it legitimate." For instance, the album's first short story, "The Abernathys," explores the emotional desperation that accompanies a loved one's death. Eppler said he wrote it not long after his wedding and the death of his grandfather, approximately 18 months ago. He said his writing necessarily does not mirror his life directly, but it does mirror his thoughts and his identity. Growing up as the son of a local preacher - a trait he finds remarkably common among Lubbock's musicians - he said he has had his struggles with his own spirituality and wanted to delve into those struggles through the album's second short story. As the album's 11-minute final track, "The Surgeons of Shadow" is a graphic account of sacrifice and suffering, good and evil. Through the album's poetry, Eppler said he also gives listeners a glimpse into how he feels about certain issues, ranging anywhere from the unsightly curtains in his living-room to his apathy toward politics. During the album's second poem, "Political Man," he gives a sarcastic and somewhat-scathing critique of politicians. "You fascinate me political man, how your miraculous mind in all its infinite capacity could hold so much truth and reason," Eppler's voice reads. "By what treachery and foolishness has it come to be that the world has not recognized you for the fountain of wisdom that you are?" The motivation behind "Dark Places" was not money, he said. He created the album to merely expand his horizons. Because he does not intend to sell the second album as much as he sold the first, he will not offer it in a hard copy. He will, however, sell it on iTunes. Eppler said he could not care less if people copy his albums and give them to each other for free. To him, a free exchange of his music promotes his live performances. "If I didn't sell any more CDs of ("There is No Underground"), and everyone just burned it, that would be totally fine with me," he said. "For me, it's a free commercial." Jessica Eppler, Andy's wife and a Sweetwater native whom he met while attending South Plains College, said she encouraged his decision to produce the spoken-word album, "Dark Places." "He has always written short stories and poetry and stuff, so I thought it was pretty cool," she said. "He just does his thing, and usually it turns out pretty cool." For a third album, Andy Eppler said he will record a live album during a series of planned performances in Austin. Also, Andy Eppler said he will soon try to publish a graphic novel that he has been working on. The graphic novel's premise is "Andy Eppler versus the pop-music machine." Agreeing that the graphic novel is another radical shift in his creative energies, he said it will just be another form of expression. "He's obviously very different," Jessica Eppler said. "I think he's just a creative person, and he just channels it out in a lot of different ways." Regardless of his medium of expression, Andy Eppler has one goal when he writes, sings, plays or designs. "To me," he said, "if you're not affecting anybody at the end of the day, what are you doing?”