Colin: It says on your Twitter bio that you're from Pittsburg/Abu Dhabi, can you explain that to me?

Andrew: Yeah the quick break down: I'm from a small town in Pennsylvania called Summerset, and when I was 18 I moved to Pittsburg and really kind of came to my own there. So I consider Pittsburg very much like home, western Pennsylvania. I kind of bounced around a lot after school, moved to Massechucets, went to grad school, and then got a teaching job in Nashvillle for three years. And then I moved to Abu Dhabi to teach English.

Colin: What's the music scene like in Abu Dhabi? Are there many venues?

Andrew: The UAE has two main cities: Abu Dhabi and Dubai. They're about an hour apart. Abu Dhabi is the capital, but super chill, very liveable. Dubai is the capital more in the entertainment sense. I always say going from Abu Dhabi to Dubai is like going from Pittsburg to New York. You get this overwhelming feeling both good and kind of scary. It's so busy and there's so much going on. There is music in Abu Dhabi, there is an NYU campus that has an amazing programing coordinater who is bringing in a lot of great things. There is little indie pockets happening. In Dubai there is some really cool things, electronic stuff, some indie rock, some hip hop.

The problem is alcohol can only be taken in hotels, bars and restaurants. So you can't have a cool indie space right off the street that sells booze. So it kind of in some ways prevents this culture from happening, because everything gets kind of funneled into hotels so the vibe is kind of weird. But house shows are kind of the way to get around that. So there is stuff happening in both cities.

Colin: How would you compare touring Europe to touring the US?

Andrew: When I'm booking shows here I try to find the small DIY art spaces, which is what I do at home, so there's a common thread. People have been super cool, interested, welcoming, and supportive.