Andy Frasco Faces the Full Cycles of Love on “Grow Old”

When Andy Frasco was stuck at home during the pandemic, he began looking inward, then became confused and a bit existential, chronicling his collection of thoughts on his upcoming album Wash, Rinse, Repeat, out April 8. 

A follow up to Andy Frasco & The U.N.’s most recent single “Dancin’ Around My Grave,” and the title track, which explores the PTSD of being locked in your home for a long period of time, “Grow Old” addresses not giving up on love, even before it’s had a chance to blossom, something Frasco admits he’s done his entire life. Love takes work, time, and rarely flourishes without effort.

“I seem to run away from it when the going gets tough, but what I’m realizing as I get older is that true love is something that doesn’t just come without effort,” shares Frasco. “It takes work, and it takes going through the full cycle of emotions to really let it blossom like a flower. That’s why I edited  a music video to Neil Bromhall’s time-lapse of flowers, mushrooms, and beans growing from the ground into the world.”

Everyday can feel the same / But I know I’m starting to change / So many ways to kill the pain / Maybe this time, I won’t run away / I took it slow to find what I want / But when it’s good and you know it, you gotta hold on, sings Frasco soulfully through the changing notions of love.

Produced by Chris Carrabba (Dashboard Confessional), Eric Krasno (Tedeschi Trucks Band), Justin Osborne (Susto), Nathaniel Motte (3oh!3), and Kenny Carkeet (AWOLNATION), Wash, Rinse, Repeat is Frasco’s musical purging of doubts, anxieties, and other self-inflicted mental constraints.

For Frasco, writing is typically a global experience. For Wash, Rinse, Repeat, all the songs were written in different corners of the country—New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Nashville, Charleston, South Carolina since he couldn’t leave the U.S. during the pandemic. “I tend to take the Bill Murray route on art most of the time,” says Frasco. “I like writing from around the world. This record emulates that process… Every city has a different beat to it. I like that to inspire me when I’m writing down my thoughts.”

Frasco has also been busy spreading his stories on the Andy Frasco World Saving Podcast, which has featured guests like Melissa Etheridge, Fat Boy Slim, Tony Hawk, Bert Kreischer, Kurt Vile, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Steve Van Zandt and catering to his nearly one million monthly dance party views on Twitch.

Now, Frasco is living in Wash, Rinse, Repeat and his place in life. “This album means a lot to me because it sparked new ideas of what life is about,” says Frasco. “I’ve been on tour for so long that I have never been in my house for this long ever. I got sad, I got confused, I got existential because all these feelings were new. Normally I can run away to the next town, see new things and distract myself if I’m feeling sad or depleted. But during this pandemic, I really had to stay at home.”

He added, “It’s true and authentic with what I really wanted to write about coming off of a two-year hiatus.”

Wash, Rinse Repeat Track List:

1. Friends (A Song About Friends)
2. Blame It On Me
3. Puff Break (Believe That)
4. Spill The Beans
5. Wash, Rinse, Repeat
6. Dancin’ Around My Grave
7. Grow Old
8. Lets Get Down To Business Pt. 2
9. Into The Blue
10. Dream
11. Love Hard
12. Work, Work, Work

Photo: Andrew Hutchins