Drew Angus Interview

Kicking off the mainstage at this weekend’s Sound On Sound Festival in Bridgeport, Connecticut, local artist and former American Idol contestant Drew Angus showed up ready to rock to a massive crowd on his home turf. Tongue Tied received the opportunity to sit down with Drew post-set to chat about his set, the inaugural Sound On Sound festival, and what comes next for his music.

Right off the bat I was curious to see what it meant for Drew to be one of the opening acts for such a major festival lineup at Seaside Park, especially as a Connecticut-native. Drew beamed as he looked out over the festival, pride radiating off of him as he saw such a large gathering of live music lovers showing up to support a Connecticut festival in its infancy.

“It’s such an honor to be one of the local artists playing on the main stage at Sound On Sound. This is the first festival since Gathering Of The Vibes here at Seaside Park. This is just such a beautiful place. It's so great to be able to play music here.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

This was my first time in Connecticut, and neither of us could help but love the breezy mid-70 degree weather that was perfect for lounging and listening to live music. With such a perfect backdrop, Drew commented that the Sound On Sound mainstage was the largest crowd he had ever played to, with thousands of people already in attendance at the opening of the festival gates.

“It was the coolest. I walked out there and it's just like a sea of people everywhere, all listening to me play.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Throughout his 45 minute set on the Seaside Stage, Angus played a blended set of both his original music and some of his released covers. Drew told me his favorite song to play on Saturday ended up being “Home Is When You’re Here With Me”, a beautiful love song that had the crowd swooning.

“You know, “Home Is When You’re Here With Me” is all about how location and wealth doesn’t matter as long as you’re with the person you love. Especially playing it here with this massive crowd, that’s home enough.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

When I asked Drew if he could assign a color to the music he makes, he chose teal and laughed about not knowing why, but teal felt correct. Given that Sound On Sound was perfectly placed on the beautiful blue water of the Long Island Sound, the skies were vibrantly blue and clear, and the colors of the festival were blue, we both agreed teal made perfect sense for the energy of Angus’ music.

Earlier this year Drew released his EP You and Me, featuring the emotive love song “Made To Love You” which has been used in viral proclamations of love and first dances at weddings since its release. Drew touched upon the response “Made To Love You” has received during his set, however I was curious to learn more about what the experience of virality within weddings was like for him.

“Honestly, “Made To Love You” came out at a point in the pandemic where I started questioning whether music was actually the path for me or not. Putting it out and then to start getting videos into my Instagram messages of people showing their love through my lyrics was insane. People all around the world have just consistently been sending me videos, and that’s what really reignited the fire and pulled me back in. I make music to hopefully make people feel something. I feel like a lot of the world is a little numb these days, so I try to take people out of that numbness and feel something good, or nostalgic, or sad, or happy. That's all I want, and it’s incredible to watch that really happen around the world.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Preparing for Sound On Sound brought about a different kind of planning for Drew, especially as he moved from a 30 minute set on the Sunset Stage to a 45 minute set on the Seaside Stage the week of the festival. 

“When we were opening the festival on the Sunset Stage with only 30 minutes, we knew we could only really play the hits. At the last minute we were moved over to the main stage after really pushing for more time. We really just got lucky, but it’s been incredible getting to play some more music and make some new fans of people in this stacked line up. It is just so cool to be playing to this many people right down the street from my house and get to tell my story to both people who know me well and have never heard my music before.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Drew mentioned how excited he is to play more festivals in the future, especially with how different of an experience playing a festival is from playing just a normal show.

“I'm used to stepping on stage after having driven the van loaded in, wrangled all the people, and then finally getting to be the artist on stage where everybody's right on top of you in small venues. Today, we pulled in and suddenly we had a whole swarm of hands just taking all of our gear to the stage. All we really had to do at the point was hop on and give a good show. It was wild. It's a very different experience.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

Looking towards the future, Angus has a song called “Still No Fire” out on September 30th, a cover with friends coming out in mid-October, and then an original song coming out in late-October. He’s also amped for a major 2023 with even more releases and shows, and hopefully some more festival placements.

“To go from working in festivals like this to playing a festival like this… it can be an overwhelming experience. I feel so grateful and lucky to be able to do what I get to do, and I can’t wait to play more in the future.” - Drew Angus, for Tongue Tied Magazine

We loved getting to know Drew at Seaside Park, and you definitely don’t want to miss his soulful indie-pop. You can find Drew Angus on Spotify, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram.