Andrew Akins began his musical journey as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, playing for churches and performing his originals around the city of Amarillo. Over the years, he found himself in a recording environment many times – whether at a home or a studio – and he absolutely fell in love with the process. Eventually he saved up for a four channel Antelope interface, and cut his teeth on audio techniques by recording his own material in closets and empty libraries, often staying up late into the night mixing through headphones.
As flawed as Andrew's methods were, he labored over every second of every song to produce two EPs and one full-length over three years, often playing most of the instruments himself. He continued to hone his craft afterward, recording demos in an empty classroom at his college during lockdown, spending hours producing and learning how to mix. His curiosity, and frankly, obsession for audio landed him a frequent position running live sound at his church, which he credits for truly teaching him the techniques necessary for audio engineering and mixing. Eventually, Andrew got married, and he and his wife were able to purchase a house and delegate a room specifically for studio use, which he called Yellow Rose Garden Recordings. It was here that he cut his critically-acclaimed LP, Parables; completely recorded, mixed, and mastered by himself.
Parables was hardly even a modest success in terms of stream counts, but Andrew used it as fuel to his passion as an engineer. He had heard of Covenant Recording, a local studio, from a handful of friends, and decided he would take his own record there to approach the owner, Glenn Storlie, for a job as an assistant. To his surprise, Glenn was actually in need of a full-time engineer, and Andrew had made an impression with his skill, confidence, and passion. Glenn ultimately wound up hiring Andrew for the job after a handful of trial-by-fire sessions.
As Chief Engineer at Covenant Recording now, Andrew has worked with several local bands and singer-songwriters, including Rī Wolf, Estrategia Norteña, Brody Blue, Texas Blues Rangers, and Joel White. He has helped all of these people achieve the visions of their music and create top shelf-quality songs and albums.
So why work with Andrew Akins? With his background as a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Andrew is uniquely suited to help bands and artists achieve their vision with his quality production and arrangement skills, coupled with a deep knowledge of commercial music theory, vocal technique, and part writing. He uses these skills in his approach to recording and mixing as well, giving a space and liveliness to every instrument, and preserving the authenticity behind the performers themselves. His work comes across the same way his personality does – authentic and genuine.
Listen below for some of his work.