Behind The Video: Spoiler Alert w/ Andy D

With the
launch and premier of FanFest.com’s first

original video, Spoiler Alert, director Nick Floyd decided to sit
down
with Andy D to discuss the
inception of the idea, the writing process and other
geeky
stuff.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkOrZ0NRzLA[/embedyt]

NICK: Tell me a little bit about Andy D and

V.

ANDY D: I’m Andy D,
and ‘V’ is my wife Victoria. A couple
musicians who are a couple. We’ve
toured
the entire country [36 states at this point]. We’ve toured
full time for
about 3 years,
went to Europe twice (with the band Electric Six) and we’ve had
the
opportunity to play with a lot of our
heroes/idols.

It just kind of
started as me rapping and making
all
of the music; just exuberant, triumphant kind of party music that also
dealt
with sexuality,
politics, gender politics and some existential themes. It mostly
focuses on
having a good time and
experiencing the more upbeat emotions like
partying and
dancing.

NICK: What
were some of your favorite films and TV shows of
2015?

ANDY D: I feel like this was a pretty
good
year…maybe I say that every
year; but, I’m such a fan of culture, pop culture
and the artifacts they
produce.

I
did like The Revenant; I thought it was pretty
nihilistic…which is funny that

Leo DiCaprio called it a ‘triumph of the human spirit,’ and I’m like: NO
IT’S
NOT.

I liked Age of Ultron, but,
I’m a big sucker for
those comic book movies. A lot
of my friends didn’t like
that movie, but, I liked it.

I

can’t really remember the early part of the year that much [Victoria
whispers
something to him off
camera]…OH! The best movie of the year was Magic Mike
XXL.

NICK: (Laughing
hysterically)

ANDY D:

I’m serious! It’s SO good. That first one had the Soderbergh darkness to
it,
but, this one was total
buddy/road movie romp. It was just so good. The dancing
was great. It was
just funny. That was probably my
favorite movie of the
year.

NICK: What about

television?

ANDY D:
Man,
Game of Thrones is
always my fav. Now that True Blood is off the air, Game of
Thrones is it for
me; and, Netflix is killing it
now! I enjoyed both Daredevil
and Jessica Jones. In fact, I think Jessica
Jones turned out to be one of

Marvels best properties with what Netflix is doing with it. Also, I finally

caught up with Doctor Who.
So, that’s been a new obsession.

NICK: That’s hard to do
[catching up with
Doctor Who]. How did you manage to do
that?

ANDY D: Just epic binge watching.
EPIC
amounts of binge
watching on Netflix.

NICK:
So, what was your inspiration
behind ‘Spoiler
Alert?’

ANDY D: There is
a
definite culture surrounding spoilers. I do occasionally listen to podcasts

like ‘Slate,’ and they
have a whole podcast called ‘Spoiler
Special’ where they spoil things
about specific movies or TV.
But, with
social media there’s an increase of talking about cultural
artifacts and pop
culture on those
platforms. There’s a culture of that has arisen that’s very
aware not to
ruin or taint the experience [of
watching these films or reading
books] for other people.

It

can get to absurd extremes on both ends, though. I’ve been yelled at for

spoiling movies like Citizen
Kane. That movie has been out for a while,
and in order to be culturally
literate, you have to know about
Rosebud. There’s
nothing to spoil about that! It’s a work of culture that
has been discussed a
bunch.

I’m not one who can be

spoiled. Sometimes I read the end of
books just because; but, I do understand
that people like twists and turns.
Personally, I like the journey. I
like to
know where I’m going, so, I don’t mind knowing the end. There are
people who
don’t want to have
things spoiled for them, but, also take way too long to see
things. Then
again there are people who just like
to troll and ruin things for
people.

It’s just a funny

interaction that I see everyday on social media, and I thought I’d comment
on
it.

NICK: Speaking of seeing the
journey unfold,
with Spoiler Alert, you’ve said
the song was written in
chronological order from beginning of 2015 to end of
2015. Besides it being a

direct timeline, was there another convenience to writing it that

way?

ANDY D: Oh yeah!
Absolutely! The release
of Star Wars was the biggest pop
culture news [of the
2015], and it was just a gift to the structure
of the song for this to

release at the end of the year. When I first came up with the song, I knew
that
I had to end it with a
full verse on Star Wars. So, it just worked out that it
came out at the end
of 2015 and wound up being the
climax of the song by
featuring one of the years biggest
spoilers.

NICK: What made you pick the films and TV shows that you did
in
the song?

ANDY D: I
tried to
pick the ones that were talked
about the most last year. Some of them
were the ending of Game of Thrones
and Star Wars; but, The Revenant,
while not
super nerdy, still played a big and weird part in 2015 where
people thought the
bear wasn’t
just mauling Leo DiCaprio’s character…but, maybe also having sex
with him.
So, I had to mention that! The
others were primarily just key moments
that spawned a lot of internet
discussions.

NICK: A lot of meme’s were made last year.
How do you feel about
meme
culture?

ANDY D:
Oh,
I love meme’s! When you look at
what a meme is, it’s like the smallest unit
of information that is
culturally relevant or recognizable. But,
I like that
we’re talking about meme’s kind of like they’re atoms of
information.

The key point of a meme is that
everyone can
have their own spin to it. It’s kind
of like a democratizing form
of famous quotations that provide social
commentary to certain things. I’m

personally a fan of the art form.

NICK: Do you consider
yourself a nerd? If so, are you proud to be
a nerd in
2016?

ANDY D:
Absolutely, I’m a nerd! And, I’m very, very proud
to be a nerd. You know,
the
whole concept of nerd culture has been around forever. Revenge of the Nerds

seemed to have started a spark,
and a lot of people were kind of moved by the
concept of the nerd. There are
people who are passionate about
things; because,
that’s really what nerdery is. I like to engage with
culture, analyze it,
discuss it and
freak out about it! I think the point of the song is that nerd
culture is
ascendant right now, the Lord of
the Rings were hugely grossing
movies that keep going and as well as every
blockbuster from a comic book.
When
you have that much critical mass around giant pop culture artifacts,
like a
blockbuster, that has so
much mainstream money behind it, it’s undeniable that
nerd culture won over
any other competing cultures.
There was a time in the
early 90’s when pop culture was basketball, when
Michael Jordan took that sport

to the utter mainstream…and, now we’re just seeing the same thing now with
nerd
culture and geek culture.
So, yeah; I’m absolutely a proud nerd. I’m having a
lot of fun right
now.

NICK: So,
what’s next for Andy D and V?

ANDY D: We’re currently working on a web series to be
shown on
NoisePorn.com. We’ve

shot it and I’m editing some of
that now. We’re working on new music and we have
a few things brewing for a
new album or new release of some
sort. We’ll be doing
some shows; we’re not touring quite as much to focus on
this other part of the
cycle
[the web presence and more music]. So, yeah, it should be a fun

year!

NICK: I feel like
‘Noise Porn’ is
probably the best website for you,
because, it best
describes a genre for your music.

ANDY D: You’re right! I do not hate that association at
all.

NICK: It’s fitting. Well, Andy,
thanks so
much for taking time out of your day
to sit down with me; I cannot
wait to share ‘Spoiler Alert’ with
everyone.

ANDY D: No, thank you! Thanks for talking

with me and I hope everyone
likes the song and music
video.