BIOS

SOCIAL MEDIA (150 characters):

NYC songwriter, singer, & possibly also your psychotherapist. Performs solo, with the Syntonics, Larry Krone, and co-host Grand Ole Pubry at Joe’s Pub.

SHORT FORM (1000 characters - for marketing purposes):

Originally born and raised in Pennsylvania, New York City-based Jim Andralis has proudly entrenched himself within the New York music community. He went from member of queer NYC punk band The Isotoners to featured performer in Joe’s Pub monthly variety show, Our Hit Parade. His 2016 solo debut, Your Dying Wish Come True, garnered critical acclaim with The Miami Herald christening it, “One of the best solo debut discs of the year.” Joined by The Syntonics, he took flight with Shut Up Shut Up [2018] and My Beautiful Enemy [2020]. Among various collaborations, he teamed up with Bridget Everett [Somebody Somewhere, Love You More, Patti Cake$] on “Hit The Ground Fuckin’” and lent his voice to Champagne Jerry’s The Champagne Roomalongside the likes of Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz [The Beastie Boys], Erin Markey, and Murray Hill. In addition, he notably works as a trauma-focused psychotherapist in private practice and co-hosts country music variety show Grand Ole Pubry at Joe’s Pub.

LONG FORM:

A city slips into a sequestered slumber unlike anything in its near 400-year history. Love sours and spirals into the unthinkable. A stray dog escapes certain death on a faraway island only to realize her destiny as a superhero. A dusted-off Neil Diamond tune feels alive and queerer than ever. Jim Andralis peels back these layers of life for all to hear, see, and experience within his independent second full-length solo album, I Can’t Stop Trying. After packing gigs and earning acclaim and looks from American Songwriter, Atwood Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan, Maximum Ink, and more, he presents an unforgettable and undeniable vision across eleven tracks.

“It’s about isolation emotionally and physically,” he says. “I’m certainly not the only person who was isolated over the last couple of years. I spent a lot of time thinking and adding more meaning into these songs because of the time I had. I wanted to make as much of an impact as possible in those three minutes or so.”

Originally born and raised in Pennsylvania, Jim has proudly entrenched himself within the New York music community. He went from member of queer NYC punk band The Isotoners to featured performer in Joe’s Pub monthly variety show, Our Hit Parade. His 2016 solo debut, Your Dying Wish Come True, garnered critical acclaim with The Miami Herald christening it, “One of the best solo debut discs of the year.” Joined by The Syntonics, he took flight with Shut Up Shut Up [2018] and My Beautiful Enemy [2020]. Among various collaborations, he teamed up with Bridget Everett [Somebody Somewhere, Love You More, Patti Cake$] on “Hit The Ground Fuckin’” and lent his voice to Champagne Jerry’s The Champagne Room alongside the likes of Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz [The Beastie Boys], Erin Markey, and Murray Hill. In addition, he notably works as a trauma-focused psychotherapist in private practice and co-hosts country music variety show Grand Ole Pubry at Joe’s Pub.

Throughout 2020 and 2021, Jim carefully assembled I Can’t Stop Trying with producer Tom Beaujour [Nada Surf] at Nuthouse Studios. Together, they deepened the sound with a wall of guitars offset by vitally vulnerable storytelling.

“A couple of these are fucking anthems,” he declares. “It’s a hodgepodge of everything I listen to and what comes out of my body and brain. We wanted it to sound big with the guitar, but there was also something about those Pandemic records Taylor Swift released, Folklore and Evermore, that I loved. I was going through some dark shit.”

Speaking of, the first single “Soloflex” hinges on sparse acoustic guitar as Jim details an unbelievable true story of two old friends in a small Pennsylvania town—and the tragedy to follow.

“I was waiting tables in college, and I was very closeted,” he recalls. “There was a lovely waiter named Scot. He never asked if I was gay; he just respected my situation and was nice to me. I would hang out at his house where he lived with his partner Sean. I think I needed to be around them to see what my life might eventually look like. Shortly before I left Pennsylvania, I found out Scott had stabbed Sean to death. He is serving a life sentence, and the song is my way of sending love in spite of this horrible thing he did. The lyrics are flashes of my memory and the hole where a friend used to be.”

His voice reverberates above a muted riff on “Almost Dead,” which unspools a violent revenge fantasy to right injustice. “When Trump got elected, I thought, ‘I’ve got to get fucking strong in case I have to fight’,” he confesses.

On “New York City Spring,” he walks through his memories of the Big Apple before his voice rings out on an uplifting and undeniable chorus.

“It’s a tour of a place where I used to live even though I still live here,” he elaborates. “I’m singing to New York itself. I could feel the city really trying to survive the Global Pandemic, and I’m rooting for it. To me, New York is a living organism. It was in pain, so I’m saying, ‘Come on motherfucker, let’s not lose faith’. I’m also saying it to myself.”

Then, there’s “Heights.” He examines a recurring nightmare as “a metaphor for mortality” above another ebbing and flowing soundscape.  A head-nodding beat drives “Believe Me” as he adopts the perspective of his rescue dog (and stunning album cover star) Dory in cinematic fashion punctuated by a bombastic crescendo.

“I’m presenting her as a superhero, this powerful representation of fighting your way through hell,” he explains. “She had a horrific past, but there’s something about seeing her comfortable, safe, and loved now. It feels like she manifested this for herself, because she came from a beach in Puerto Rico known as ‘Dead Dog Beach’, because dogs are abandoned there to die. Somehow, she gave birth to five puppies and brought a kitten into her litter. She survived, so this song imagines her possessing ESP and other powers. It’s also just about how inspiring rescue dogs are.”

In a moment of bliss, he duets on a cover of Neil Diamond’s “Play Me” with his husband Larry Krone. 

“We sang it at our wedding, and we sing it everywhere,” he smiles. “It was the infusion of love and sweetness this record needed.”

In the end, Jim connects through such honesty about every facet of his life. “For me, my songs come from a desire to understand unknown aspects of myself,” he leaves off. “It’s also sending out tiny little radio signals asking, ‘Does anybody else feel this way?’”