Five Minutes With... Andrew Cushin

Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming album Love is for Everyone?

So the album comes out on the 2^nd May. I was quite conscious when I was in the studio to make it as upbeat as I possibly could – I think with the first album I was dealing with a lot of the trauma from my youth to be truthfully honest, so naturally the songs sounded a little bit more dour and had more personal reflection.

This album, I haven’t had that cross to bear and I’ve said everything I wanted to say so I tried to write things that are more universal. You know, everyone falls in love, everyone falls out of love, there’s a lot of talk of love on the album. The songs have come out a little bit more upbeat, a little bit more suited to festivals as well.

It’s a record I’m really proud of. I’m really, really proud of the songs and can’t wait for everyone to hear it.

Can you give us three artists that have influenced this record? 

We leant on The Verve a little bit and there’s a few that are a little bit Catfish and the Bottlemen. I’ve got a song called Standing By My Side which I suppose is closer to Iron Sky by Paulo Nutini than anything else that I’ve done.

I’ve been labelled with that Noel Gallegar rip-off for so long now that I try not to lean on any other artists anymore - when I was in the studio, it’s very easy to play a song and go ‘yeah that’d sound great if it was in the style of this.’

I think we particularly  leant on Urban Hymns quite a bit, there’s a lot of jangly guitars and analogue reverse stuff going on with the strings and all that kind of stuff, so it touches a little bit of psychedelia I think in some parts – but as a whole, it’s just me.

How do you feel about playing Come Together Festival in your hometown? 

I’m buzzing, it’s gonna be amazing. Obviously it’s a privilege and a pleasure to be sharing the stage with Robbie Williams, but the biggest thing for me however though, is getting out in front of a hometown crowd again. I’ve travelled everywhere in the past three years, and we’ve done about 130 shows a year, and with that naturally comes that you don’t get to play in Newcastle every time you want to, so when these shows come about I do not take them for granted, and I want to give the people of Newcastle the best possible version of myself.

What this will do for the city is huge as well. Robbie Williams is obviously an international superstar so naturally people are going to come up from London and hopefully come in from various other countries as well to come see it. What I think Come Together Festival has done really really well is honing in and championing local talent - myself, Sonny Tennet and Harriet Rose for example are all on the bill - and hopefully people can come over and see just what Newcastle has to offer.

You’ve got Robbie Williams who is obviously an amazing performer, but it’s gonna be nice for the North East lot to show their worth as well. And with that hopefully comes more people coming to Newcastle for gigs, more money getting pumped into our local venues – because you see them closing up and down the country. There’s a couple closing in this area at the minute which is heartbreaking.

I think the more things we do like this where people can come and really see that Newcastle has a lot to offer and a lot of talent to offer, hopefully the government or whoever’s in charge of pumping money into these venues can try and do a little bit more to really hone and develop the talent that we’ve got going on in the North East.

Come Together Festival is being billed as the biggest music festival in the North East, how do you feel the impact of that as a musician from the region? 

We haven’t had a festival like this in years - you know there’s been a real void for a festival like this. Obviously we had Hit the North and This is Tomorrow which no longer go ahead, so something like this where you’ve got 35,000 people in a field watching some of the biggest names in music history – it’s huge.

It’s huge for the region, it’s huge for the city, it’s huge for the artists, it’s huge for me to be involved in - it’s an amazing thing. If this continues to build – and hopefully this isn’t a one-off and they continue to do it every year - we could really see almost a TRNSMT vibe going on in Newcastle, which is obviously the dream. You know, keep on getting people to Newcastle to see new music, and see their heroes.

So yeah, this is an amazing opportunity for the city and an amazing opportunity for the organisers of Come Together to really create something special in Newcastle I think.

What food are you grabbing while you’re in the city centre? 

I’m a sucker for a Nando’s! You gotta go medium spice, any more than medium and it affects my voice – but I will stick loads of the medium sauce on as well, it’s not just medium seasoning!

So I do half a chicken and then normally chips, mash and garlic bread which is triple carbs so you know - good luck playing a show after that, you need a lie down after! I normally have it quite early in the morning and then a little afternoon siesta, and then get on stage!

Obviously you’ve got the Love is for Everyone tour coming up, but what else is on the agenda for 2025? 

We’ve got loads going on! We’ve come up with a proper strategy this year. Obviously as I said, we’ve gigged about 130 shows through the past sort of three years, so it’s been manic and we’ve never really had any time off. With this little bit of time off now we’re in a proper campaign for the album, we’ve teamed up with Anarchy Brewery to launch an IPA across different pubs, and – I can’t say too much! – but various other big places in Newcastle.

I’ve also teamed up with Aston Martin Aramco and the Formula 1 so I’ve wrote a few bits for them as well that hopefully are going to be coming out soon so we’ve been able to put our fingers in various other pies I think, and not just focus on the live side of it, but focus on me – I don’t want to say that I’m a brand ‘cause that makes us wanna vomit! – but focus on me as that thing.

I’m not just an artist that gets on stage and sings my heart out, there’s got to be a little bit more to that. With the opportunities around different companies, this stuff has become quite vital to not only make some money but to really etching my name onto every other thing.  

Come Together Festival takes place from Wednesday 4th June to Sunday 8th June 2025 at Newcastle Town Moor. For more information, including ticket prices and line-ups, visit the official website or check out our guide to Come Together Festival.

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