Brynn Andre’s new album explores the journey to self-discovery and defining oneself post-parenthood. Photo: Little Lion Studios
Songwriter Brynn Andre weaves themes of motherhood and growing up with the appealing lightness of pop music.
Brynn Andre has always loved music. Growing up in western North Dakota, she started playing piano in third grade and eventually figured out she had a bit of a knack. “I could hear something on the radio and pick it out and find a way to play it myself on the piano,” Andre says. “It really unlocked this whole passion and private world for myself that was really special.” Even while studying psychology and English at the University of St. Thomas (the move that brought her to the Twin Cities), Andre kept thinking about—and playing—music. “Music was my passion, but I wanted to have security,” she says.
“I actually recorded an album while I was in college. I thought the plan was to play in a coffee shop and get discovered,” she says with a laugh. “I was engineering two dreams at once.”
Like many creative artists, Andre’s two dreams complemented each other. After college, her day job in digital marketing allowed her to pay the bills, and she kept playing music whenever she could. Then, a few years ago, a milestone of a different kind prompted her to push her music career to the fore—she became a mom.
“Having kids was a real turning point, and it meant committing more to music,” she says. Andre lives with her husband and twin girls, now 3, in southwest Minneapolis. “Kids see everything. I wanted them to say, ‘My mom plays music and sings.’ As a creative person, music and songwriting will never let me go,” she says. “It haunts me if I’m not doing it. But it requires a lot of confidence, and you have to have thick skin.”
She faced the duality most mothers face.
“Having kids is so all-consuming and so wonderful, but I could disappear into motherhood, and it made me sad to think about that,” she says. To hold on to the other parts of herself, Andre decided it was time to make a new album and to embrace the transitional years between youth and middle age. “It’s called Honeymoon because it’s about what happens when you get to that phase. You maybe find the life you want that you’ve worked hard for, but then that’s where the story ends,” she says. “I wanted to explore what happens after the honeymoon.”
Critics have noted the paradox of Andre’s album. The material is the experience of Millennial mothers, she says. “There’s so much to explore there. The pressures on women, on mothers.” But the style of the album is decidedly pop—approachable, fun and eminently sing-along-able. “The fullest expression of this is to have a dedicated fanbase that cares about my music, so that when I play a show in Minnesota, people will come and be excited,” she says. “That’s the dream.”
Andre says that, since most of her fans are women in their 30s and 40s, she’s working to make her shows more accessible to that group, maybe including virtual or daytime performances. “Some of my friends couldn’t go to my CD release show because they had sick kids that night,” she says. “I’m committed to getting more creative.”
Honeymoon was released in August and is available wherever you listen to music.
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