Celebrating the Savior Through Music: Andy Lloyd's Story - Latter-Day Lights

In this weeks episode, professional organist and composer Andy Lloyd shares his love and passion for creating beautiful, timeless organ compositions centered around the life, death, and resurrection of the Savior.

Andy's celebrated works have graced the halls of many famous concert halls and cathedrals, from Notre Dame in Paris to his upcoming performance in Carnegie Hall in New York.

Andy's humor and wit, combined with this excitement and love for the gospel make for a fitting Easter story that you don't want to miss.

*** Please SHARE Andy's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/q46ya6qbr2I

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To PURCHASE tickets for the upcoming concert at Carnegie Hall on April 9th, 2024, visit:
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/04/09/Rachel-WillisSorensen-Soprano-0730PM

To VISIT Andy's website, go to: https://www.sandrewlloyd.com/

To WATCH Andy's performances on YouTube, visit: https://www.youtube.com/@sandrewlloyd

To WATCH the Christus being performed on YouTube, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3ceJWtPZyc&t=3005s

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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.

Transcript

Alisha Coakley: 0:00

Hey everyone. I'm Scott Brandley and I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley: 0:11

On today's episode we're going to hear how one man's lifelong pursuit of music is helping to show others that when we connect with the Lord, our talents will be magnified through Him. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we're really excited to introduce our special guest, andy Lloyd. Andy, how are you doing, my friend?

Andy Lloyd: 0:50

I'm doing wonderful. Yeah, just got done with a good service and just thrilled to be with you both and you both are very delightful. This is a lot of fun.

Scott Brandley: 0:56

We know it.

Alisha Coakley: 0:57

Oh well, thank you, we're humble too. Yeah, we're really humble oh no, well, this is, this is the. This is off. We're we're recording later than normal tonight, so I think we are a little delirious I think that's what the problem is that probably is. This is fun nighttime, scott and alisha. No, yeah, party, party scott and alisha.

Scott Brandley: 1:23

Anyway, andy welcome. Fun nighttime. Scott and Alisha no yeah.

Alisha Coakley: 1:26

Party Party Scott and Alisha. Anyway, andy, welcome. We appreciate you coming on tonight, because when we actually had Colton from, let me get the name of this right the Center for Latter-day Saints Arts, is that right? He reached out to us and told us about you and when I first read the email I was like reading kind of fast, and I heard I read Andrew Lloyd and I filled in Weber.

Andy Lloyd: 1:56

You're not the first.

Alisha Coakley: 1:57

Andrew Lloyd Weber. So I had these high expectations and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's Andrew Lloyd who is hilarious. And so you guys our guests don't know that yet, but you're really funny and I'm really excited about this podcast. I think it's going to be a really good one and we're excited to have you Well just to throw something in there.

Andy Lloyd: 2:21

Once upon a time I was set apart in an elders quorum presidency as andrew lloyd brother, andrew lloyd weber, and I actually had to stop the blessing and say hey, I think we gotta get this fixed here, and I started I started saying I'm of the opera you know, just started throwing it out there, right? No, I've gotten that so many times. It's so nice to have brother weber in the war. I'm like what?

Alisha Coakley: 2:46

yeah that is so funny. See if, if it were me, I would take it as a financial opportunity and I would just start charging for my signature.

Andy Lloyd: 2:56

I'd just be like would you like me?

Alisha Coakley: 2:57

to sign your baby a dollar.

Andy Lloyd: 2:59

Well, what's crazy is we're both music like I'm a composer, like that's it, that's what's crazy. But right, angeloid, we Like I'm a composer, like that's what's crazy. But Andrew Lloyd Webber is the man I mean. That guy's written some of the most incredible music Like I hope someday, maybe someday I can throw it down like him, but that guy's awesome.

Scott Brandley: 3:15

Yeah, I was going to say when you introduce yourself and you say, hey, I'm Andrew Lloyd. Do people like pause and wait for you to say Weber at the end, or?

Andy Lloyd: 3:25

sometimes, so I actually on my on my music I put s Andrew Lloyd and and so everybody will ask me. A lot of times people ask me like, well, that's always get the Weber jokes, but um, but then every once in a while people ask like, what does the s stand for? I'm always like sir, uh, sir, andrew Lloyd, and then they, they lose it. They think that's the funniest, the funniest thing. But yeah, it doesn't stand for, sir, just in case you're wondering.

Alisha Coakley: 3:50

So what is the s4?

Scott Brandley: 3:53

uh steven oh okay, gotcha, yeah, so gotcha yeah so, andy, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Andy Lloyd: 4:02

uh, oh, my goodness, uh, I, I love, I absolutely love music. So that's music is my life, um, and uh, of course, uh, it doesn't, it doesn't take the place of, you know, my, my love of faith and family. I've got a beautiful wife and four beautiful daughters, so I'm a proud girl dad. I think that's pretty amazing, um, wow. But um, as far as my profession goes, and as part of part of what I'm deeply passionate about is music and I teach, uh, actually, organ. I'm an organist. I teach organ, a professor of organ and composition, at university of texas, at san antonio.

Andy Lloyd: 4:41

I'm going up for tenure this, so hopefully we'll be able to get tenure, but I love teaching the students, inspiring them, and I love writing music and I love performing. So I've performed all over the world. My music's been performed all over the world at the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris it's pretty cool, right, la Trinité in Paris as well, south Africa, taiwan, russia, the National Cathedral. So my music's been performed all over the place, and so it's just a real honor. And soon actually at Carnegie Hall, which I'm super excited about. That's how we kind of connected a little bit, because I have a piece being performed there by Rachel Willis-Storensen, who is just absolutely one of the top, most wonderful sopranos in the world. Just absolutely stunning. And so I'm just I'm deeply honored, I'm just deeply honored to be here and to be able to talk about faith and music.

Alisha Coakley: 5:59

That's awesome, so why don't you tell us a little bit more about that?

Andy Lloyd: 6:01

You have the concert at Carnegie Hall is going to be April 9th, right? So are there tickets still available for those who are able to get there? I know, just type in Rachel Willis, sorenson and Carnegie Hall and it will show up and yes, tickets are available. I think, yeah, I think, there's plenty of tickets still available.

Alisha Coakley: 6:18

Okay, awesome.

Scott Brandley: 6:19

Very cool Cool.

Alisha Coakley: 6:21

Well, Mr Andy, why don't you go ahead and kind of take us along this journey, Like, let us know how, where did this passion for music begin and how has it, you know, really helped you in your life, your life's journey, your life's purpose and stuff like that? Um, you know where does your story start?

Andy Lloyd: 6:41

Oh my gosh, uh, there's so much I can talk about today, so, but I really feel like my musical journey. It's really about family and I have a deep reverence for the sacrifices that my family has made throughout their lives. My great great grandpa, nils Christensen, joined the church in Denmark in 1857 and came across the plains in a wagon, and several generations later my grandpa Christensen married a wonderful woman named Lois Gordon, and at some point in their marriage they got an inheritance for about $2,000, which back in those days was probably enough to buy a car or something more. That is a lot of money, and they decided to use that money to buy a house organ. And I like, I really I played on that organ and you know it's had like. You know it had like the buttons you push, it has like a bossa nova beat, you know, and it had like only had like eight pedals on the pedal board. But grandma lois taught anybody who wanted to to learn how to play hymns for church. She would teach him, and so she she must have supplied, supplied her ward with tens of organists, but most importantly, organ was part of the home and and so so my mom learned how to play the organ and actually took organ lessons at BYU Idaho and studied with the late Darwin Wolford up there and really took to it. And so when I was born it's fun, it's funny stories here she, my mom, bought a $75 organ with this massive speaker with tubes in it. I don't know if you guys are old enough to remember tube speakers, I don't even know how those stupid things work, but it's this massive refrigerator speaker basically in our front room and I love this organ. It had this like awesome tremolo. And then one day she goes out and decides, does something crazy and buys a $4,500 organ and brings it home and I had the nerve to say, mom, why did you do that? I like the old organ. Oh no, 4,500 bucks on this organ and I wanted the $75 one, which is just funny, and I got.

Andy Lloyd: 9:01

He was to say I may have been in just a poquito trouble, I'm from Texas, I probably anyways. So so yeah, I grew up, I started the organ. I started the piano when I was five and the organ when I was not. I'm talking really fast Piano when I was five, the organ when I was nine and my mom was my first teacher and really I feel like she gave me the foundation, like she gave me the core of who I, who I I've ever been as a musician and um, and so I took organ lessons till I was 17, and then for my mom and then it's that some point she decided she says, andy, do you want to do jazz or do you want to do organ? So I said I want to do organ lessons. And I, so I got a professional organ teacher in the community.

Andy Lloyd: 9:46

And um, I remember my first time walking into saint john the evangelist episcopal cathedral in spokane, washington, this massive english gothic cathedral, this big, beautiful organ, and my eyes just got about that big because any, any organ I'd ever played on was our little electronic toasters that we have at church. Not trying to make fun of them, they're really, they're, they're, they're beautiful for it, they're efficient, absolutely. But anyways, my, I was sold and so from then on I must have just two or three hours a day and I just loved it. I got, uh, I got, I got into byu and uh chose to go to BYU for my undergraduate.

Andy Lloyd: 10:25

I got offered awesome scholarships at University of Washington as well, but went to BYU and so, yeah, so at BYU I studied with my professor Doug Bush, I don't. I'll just drop his name because he's. I'm going to talk a little more about him later in this, as he passed away of cancer and I was asked to write, or I was asked to do an honorary performance in his memory and I wrote a piece in memory of him so he was really influential for me.

Andy Lloyd: 10:54

And uh, I did organ for four years and just realized, hey, man, there's no money in this, I need to go get a real, a real job. I know that I'm probably offending a lot of musicians when I say that. So I, I did dentistry for two years and, um, I got a in the 98th percentile on the dat and I got a 3.9 chemistry gpa and I didn't get accepted into one single dental school. If that's just why I don't know what it is. And so at that point I realized, like, well, somebody, am I supposed to be doing something else? And, and, I've just gotten married to my incredible wife, who's been so supportive because she married a dentist, so I'll have a moment, moment of silence. And, um, and uh, yeah, I'm not a dentist, by the way. And, uh, this is a cheap suit. Uh, just so you guys know, um, but no, not a dentist, by the way, and this is a cheap suit, but no, she's been just incredibly supportive and cheerful, through having to go through a lot of fire really to try to get to a point where I can have my music performed by some incredible performers, and I've worked really hard for that. But I've also felt called to do it.

Andy Lloyd: 12:07

It was early on, after doing dentistry and kind of coming face to face with what am I going to do? You know, like I didn't get accepted and I also I'm like do I really want to work in someone's mouth? The rest of my life I've been spent. I've spent my entire childhood in massive cathedrals. That's what I was meant to do.

Andy Lloyd: 12:27

During the whole time being in dentistry, all I could think about was composing. I would envision these beautiful cello solos to hymns that we do in church. I was just constantly swirling. I'd never done much composition. I'd written some fugues, some Bach-like fugues that I was really proud of, but that was about it. But I could tell that I was always creative. When I was younger I painted a lot. I drew Air Jordan shoes because we never had enough money to buy a pair of Air Jordans, so I just draw them anyways. So I loved art and creativity and wrote. I wrote some music and my friends in high school would always ask me to pick off songs off the radio. So I would go to like seminary and parties and play smashing pumpkins or green day and stuff like that on the piano so that, like I was nice, I arranged stuff and I was into that kind of thing.

Andy Lloyd: 13:21

But anyways, to go back to this point in my life when I didn't get accepted into dental school, I remember just at some point my mother-in-law is a psychologist and she gave me a test to say what would you be passionate about? And professor was kind of at the top of the list. I'm like professor, I'm like I don't want to do that. But then I started thinking about it and it wasn't too long later, professor, I don't want to do that, but then I started thinking about it and it wasn't too long later. I was at a organ concert, the cathedral of the madeline in salt lake, which is one of my favorite venues. I was just asked to do a performance there this last year as part of a festival in salt lake city. But I was at this concert and one of my good friends came up to me after the concert. He says you. You know, I had a dream about you last night. I said, oh yeah.

Scott Brandley: 14:06

What are you doing to hear that, right, scott?

Andy Lloyd: 14:11

And anyways, he said, yeah, I had a dream last night that you were a professor. And I said what? And so at that point I decided, you know, I think maybe the Lord's teaching me, and I am so glad A little bit of a two by four to the face right.

Andy Lloyd: 14:26

Yeah, well, I, I, I'm, that's what I am now. I love being a professor, I love like work with the students. The journey really opened my eyes to what my, what I feel like my real calling is in music and that's creating music. And my passion is creating music that brings people to Christ and that kind of solidified. When I was at my master studies at University of Kansas, I was able to study with an incredible professor, forrest Pierce, who's a dear friend and just always been so supportive, but he was also very religious in his music and ascribes to more of a muslim, uh, uh, philosophy or theology, um. But he opened my eyes to, to a composer, john taverner, and I read his book, the music of silence. And john taverner was really it was a greek orthodox composer and very into the mystic writing music, that concert music that was focused on Christ.

Andy Lloyd: 15:24

And of course I always loved Bach and studying with Dr Douglas E Bush at BYU, he really opened my eyes to to Bach. Everything Bach wrote he wrote Soli Deo Gloria at the end of it, for, for the, for the, for the glory of God, and every time I'd hear these things I just seemed to be drawn to writing music. And of course I have a deep, just incredibly deep testimony of Jesus Christ through personal experiences in my life that maybe I can talk about later, but just I felt his atoning influence in my life and I felt him close, and so there came a point where I just I wanted to be that. I wanted like Bach, like Mendelssohn, whose Judeo-Christian beliefs permeated his music, like Elijah and Apollos. He even wrote a piece called Christus. Franz Liszt wrote a piece called Christus At the end of his life. He wrote only sacred music. Franz Liszt was one of the greatest piano virtuosos of all time. Olivier Messiaen, whose deep, abiding Catholic faith ends up in his music, and just that resonates with me, and so everything I write is for the glory of my God, and that's important to me, that's what I'm passionate about and it fuels me, and so that's kind of being at University of Kansas is when the seeds of composition really started incubating for me and I started writing more music in about 2008, 2009.

Andy Lloyd: 16:57

It's when I wrote my first large scale piece. It's an organ piece called the Three Guns, about the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden of Resurrection. It's an organ piece called the Three Bins about the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden of Resurrection. It's an organ solo and it gets performed a lot all over the world. It's a really well-performed piece of mine. And then, after University of Kansas, I went to University of North Texas, I got my doctorate and I continued my composition studies alongside my organ studies. So all of my degrees are in organ performance and so and yeah, and then I got a job at University of Texas, san Antonio, teaching organ and composition. So that's kind of the the the Cliff Notes version of my story.

Alisha Coakley: 17:46

So anyway, Wow, that's crazy. So you didn't really know necessarily that you were going to go down this path of being a professor but also being a composer, right yeah? Right yeah, so did you just kind of I mean, how did that look as far as like? Did you just kind of like take the next step and and be like, hey, heavenly father, catch me if I'm on the wrong track? Or or did you feel like you were like guided to the next step? You know each time, absolutely guided, yeah.

Andy Lloyd: 18:17

So, um, when I went back on the journey, I I hadn't done organ for a couple of years and so I reached out to the professor at University of Washington, and then University of Kansas was also on my radar and I and I kind of opened the door and man, once I started getting back into it, doors just open, just felt right, and so I just kind of yeah, kind of walked through that door. And then when I was at University of Kansas and I remember once I, once I had just baby, and so at the end of the semester and in work and performance, we do what they call the jury. So at the end of the semester you have to perform about 30 minutes of music or 20 minutes, I can't remember what it was and unfortunately I hadn't practiced a whole lot because I wasn't sleeping a whole lot because I had a little baby keeping me up at night and she's adorable, she, she's a baby and she's adorable. Now. She's 15 now, which is crazy.

Andy Lloyd: 19:09

And so for that jury I decided to just improvise something. So I played like one piece of music and I improvised an arrangement of the hymn I'm a Child of God, but in a very modern style. I don't know if I have any recordings of God, but in a very modern style it's. It's kind of we can. Actually I don't know if I have any recordings of it, but they, the professors, went nuts. They said I didn't know you were a composer. Well, you need to take composition lessons. I'm like okay. And so they got me hooked up with Forrest Pierce and really Forrest Pierce changed my life Like that.

Andy Lloyd: 19:40

That's when it really opened up to me. Just open the door, like I'm telling you, like I had no idea what I could do as a composer and he helped me see, like he, as you don't. Sometimes I feel like life is like a big dome and there's a, there's a little, there's a little light at the top. You can see there's something up there and you get up there and there's a key. You open the, you go up through that little light and there's like the whole other world for you and you're in another dome and then there's a whole other world beyond that and it's like I think that's what life is like and sometimes you don't realize what your potential is.

Andy Lloyd: 20:10

And once I climbed up through that hole, like I just exploded and and man, I just I love it, like I love writing, and um, yeah, so yeah, the doors kept opening right, and so with each piece I wrote, like I wrote the Three Gardens about, basically about the fall, the atonement and the resurrection of Christ and I, which is really about, um, I wasn't planning on talking about any of these pieces, that's okay, talk about the ones I want to talk about. But it was about elisha's eyes being open, right, the servant of elisha asking like what, what should we do? And his open, he saw chariots of fire, so, and horses, and and all covering the entire mountain and and he said those that be with us are more than those that be with them. So I depicted that through this music, this musical firestorm, and I just performed that, actually that piece, at University of Florida for the first time in like 12 years. So they loved it, it was a lot of fun.

Andy Lloyd: 21:19

So with each new piece I write, I have this imagery in my mind of walking. I remember vividly on a scout camp back when I was younger, climbing Mount David as a scout troop and this is in the Cascade Mountain Range and standing on the top of the mountain and seeing I could see Mount Rainier, mount St Helens. So I had this vivid imagery of like I I'm the world is so noisy, right, and um, there's just so much chaos and clutter and the buildings are square, everything's just, it's just. And so I have these, this vision of being, you know, in a Valley and looking up and seeing mountains, and, and for me, me, I have lots of mountains that I ain't climbing, like there's a lot of mountains that I should be climbing, uh, that I'm like not today I'm going to go eat my burger.

Scott Brandley: 22:13

Um but I want to climb it?

Andy Lloyd: 22:15

I do, but I got to work on it. But but music? I feel like there's a voice calling me from the top of the mountain, uh, as if I have a purpose that, that that God wants me to write this music and that that he's appreciative, that I want to glorify him. And so you see that glimmer of light coming from the top of the mountain and you look ahead and all you see is just a, just a canvas of trees and steep trails, and you climb the mountain. And so with each new piece that I write, usually by the time I get to the top of the mountain, it's incredible and I experience the divine in many ways. But a lot of times when I get there, I realized that, that I didn't do it myself, that God was walking with me the entire time and not just helping me, but like chatting with me, you know, and giving me a little bit of help.

Andy Lloyd: 23:15

You know I had to do it, but he's like hey, buddy, you know, like what do you think about this? I feel that I feel like and no other experience have I had this more than with a piece that I was compelled to write right at the end of my doctoral studies at University of North Texas. I just graduated and I had no job, except for a church job that I had in the community, except for a church job that I had in the community. And I just I don't I can't remember when it started, but I felt. I felt I just saw writing a large-scale piece, an hour-long piece about christ, and I was drawn to the christus statue at temple square christ with his hands outstretched, with the worlds, the cosmos behind him, right and um. It was kind of cool because my one of my favorite artists is jay kirk richards. When I finished the piece, I was on his website and noticed he's working on a christus statue.

Andy Lloyd: 24:19

The same time I finished my christus piece and I remember doing a Facebook post about it and one of my, a person I never met in Fort Worth, fort Worth reached out to me and said I've got a Christus. I got one of those J Kirk Richards. Christus statues in my house. You got to come over so I went over there. It was the coolest thing, but anyways, I was drawn to the Christus statue and drawn to writing a full scale work about Christ. And it was hard because I probably you know the world would say, hey, you got to get a job Like you got to take care of your family. And I did, I don't worry, like the Lord took, this is the cool thing. The Lord took care of all that for me.

Alisha Coakley: 24:58

You know what we had to live without.

Andy Lloyd: 25:00

We lived, we lived right, I'm done. We lived, we lived right, I'm done. My doctoral studies were living in a garage apartment 900 square foot apartment with three kids, four kids, sorry, four kids. Wow, it's crazy. It was tiny and we were. You know what. We were happy Like. Our garage had a swing set in it and the kids would always go down there and do on the swing and we had what we needed.

Andy Lloyd: 25:19

There were some hard times, there were some hard conversations being had and there were a lot of people around that were saying, hey, maybe you should be not doing that, maybe you should be doing something else and I remember feeling a lot of adversity in writing this piece and early on in the process the music came to me, it just flowed and the texts came to me and essentially it ended up being a mass, uh, a catholic mass, and I was. I was drawn to this because, um, several years earlier I just felt strongly like I, I tried to create what was my mission statement, like what, who, who was andy lloyd going to be, be? Especially, music was such a big part of that that it really quantified and solidified into. I want to write music that endures time, continues to bring people to Christ, even after I leave this world. And that sounds a little epic, but I felt good about it and to do that.

Andy Lloyd: 26:23

So I had to figure out well, why do we still engage with music today? Like, what are what are we still engaging with? All right, and and for me, like I love, I love rock music and pop music and that kind of thing, but but I haven't listened to the Beatles since I was in high school Like, like, there's certain things that we don't engage with over and over and over. Now that might be offensive. I apologize, scott, I don't know.

Alisha Coakley: 26:46

He just called you old.

Andy Lloyd: 26:48

Yeah, no, but so for me, going back to Douglas Bush, I remember listening in his house for Good Friday this is the season right now right, we listened to Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew's Passion, which is a three-hour monumental oratorio about the passion of Christ as dictated from the book of Matthew. And I remember this moment when the music says he gave up the ghost. And the music just went silent. And I remember, just felt the spirit so strong. This is a german piece, a lutheran composer, has nothing to do with mormonism, and yet I am. The spirit is communicating with me, gosh.

Andy Lloyd: 27:33

A couple weeks ago, or a couple last year, I was listening to to claudio monteverdi's vespers from 1614. It's an hour and a half long piece, uh, that has a bunch of psalm settings and ends with the Magnificat, the text from Mary herself that says my soul doth magnify the Lord. And I'm sitting in my car, 400 years later, I'm listening to this piece of music and it moves me to tears, me to tears. It's this moment when this treble choir, this just boys and little kids, children seeing this gorgeous line with these two tenors, from opposite sides of the cathedral, in St Paul's Cathedral, and echo with each other while you hear this angelic voices over the top of that, and I I'm sobbing. And so I asked the question well, what, what kind of music do I need to write that might endure time? And so I came up with some parameters. A lot of the composers we still listen to wrote epic works, big works like they. They wrote works that look like handles messiah right, that's a classic one that we still engage with today, hundreds of years later.

Andy Lloyd: 28:44

Um, they write virtuosic works. Most of these are concert composers. We're not talking. There's nothing wrong. There's all sorts of kinds of music, but those are some things I discovered. I've got to work on this. But here's the deal. I'm 30-something years old. I'm not Bach. Bach was writing this stuff when he was 10. Mozart was writing this stuff when he was 12. Mend, I'm not Bach. Bach was writing this stuff when he was 10. Mozart was writing this stuff when he was 12. Mendelssohn was writing this stuff. He died when he was 40, and he had more music than I could ever dream of writing. So I'm climbing a mountain. This is an uphill battle.

Andy Lloyd: 29:31

This is Joseph Smith, 14 years old, dealing in the Sacred Grove asking which church to join and completely unprepared for what was coming next. And so it's been difficult at times, because you feel the imposter syndrome. You feel like I don't belong to Bach or Brahms, Although my kids. One more funny story I remember once I had a piece being performed in Dallas and they were doing an advertisement for it on the radio, and so I turned it up. I'm like guys look advertisement for it on the radio, and so I turned it up I'm like guys, look dad's on the radio. Little girls were like, wow, dad, you're like the third greatest composer of all time and my first thought was like, oh, no, no, no, I'm not even the top thousand. But then all of a sudden I realized wait a minute, who's ahead of me? I was like I want to know who's ahead of?

Andy Lloyd: 30:07

me and they were like six or seven or something like that, and they were like, oh, it's, I think they said Bach and Brahms. I was like, okay, I'll give you that. So they actually said the right answers. Cool, so according to my daughters, I'm the third. But anyways, you can't compare yourself to those composers, otherwise it weighs you down, it's discouraged, so that you can have the peace to allow your mind to be open enough to learn what needs, to learn to write music that might someday belong. Does that make sense? Yeah, and my music might not ever belong, but I'm never going to stop trying because that voice is still calling me and it's my offering. I'm giving everything that I possibly can. And, case in point, I'm going to come back to priesthood in a second.

Andy Lloyd: 31:10

This, this piece, amaranth. This piece I wrote, called Amaranth. It's a collection of five art songs for Rachel Willis-Sorns that's getting premiered next week. It was the most challenging time, I'm telling you. I had so many things weighing me down just to push everything aside to write the piece. When I finished I was so exhausted. I was like I'm never going to compose again. My mind just wants to explode with creativity and I just want to just let it go. But then I got to go to emails and I got people over here and I got this and that and I just can't clear everything away. To just write Because guess what I got this and that and I just can't get. I can't clear everything away, to just write because guess what I got to provide for family I've got to magnify my calling.

Andy Lloyd: 31:50

I got. I got things that are also important, and it's been amazing to see even what little I can offer, how much the Lord magnifies it, like he literally touches it, and I feel like every piece that I write it's. I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for music. I'm grateful mom kept me going in music because it's it's allowed me to connect with god and to have something in my life that humbles me, that makes me, that forces me on my knees, where I'm.

Andy Lloyd: 32:22

I gotta get a piece written next week and, heavenly Father, I cannot figure out this movement and it forces me on my knees to just plead. I know I'm I'm not the best person. I probably shouldn't have watched the show on Netflix last week. I should have been writing this instead. But I need your help, I really need your help. And then and then I get up and magic happens. And then, 10 years later, I look at the piece and I realized I never wrote that piece. Like the Lord really picked me up in the dark, in the dark time, and I, like I said, I feel like I'm kind of all over the place. But this, you know, this brings me back to Christus is is um. I'm going to come back and just talk a little more about that, because to me that was kind of my the premier mountaintop experience for me in my life andy, as you, as you get back into that, you were saying that it's an hour long.

Scott Brandley: 33:16

Right, yeah, the piece. How do you, how do you even start to tackle something that's an hour like it? Where that?

Alisha Coakley: 33:26

just seems overwhelming just to say, though, just to say that it's a now, you know, yeah I was wondering the same thing and like, like, is it kind of like, uh, um and I forgive me like I'm not cultured, but um, it's fine, it's okay.

Alisha Coakley: 33:42

I know like you, uncultured swine, that's what I feel like right now. But is it like you're one, I guess? Do you really study the stories? Do you kind of take pieces of it and then put is it one whole long, nonstop, set in little scenes, almost like you would see it like the opera or something I'm assuming.

Andy Lloyd: 34:02

Yeah, yeah, somewhat, yeah, actually, that's that's that's like you would see it like the opera or something. I'm assuming. Yeah, yeah, somewhat. Yeah, actually that's. That's that's I mean for an uncultured. No, just kidding. No, that's actually perfect. I don't know if I could have explained it better, but yeah, that's. It's actually nine scenes, so it's we call it movements, but but I love, I love the term scenes, because that's really what I'm depicting through the piece. Okay, um gotcha, yeah.

Andy Lloyd: 34:22

So with christ, again, it was kind of that. Again I felt like if I wanted to have something that might be performed in 200 years, like I needed to think somewhat bigger, because at this point I'd only just written kind of lots of piano pieces, choir pieces, organ pieces. So this was the biggest thing I'd ever tackled and I didn't realize how much work was going to be. But yeah, I started again. Again, I had this idea of having a piece that's completely focused on Christ with his hands outstretched. So I started with the research. What does that even mean? So I went to the Bible dictionary Hallelujah that we have a Bible dictionary right and looked at the topical guide, just looked up hands. So I just like looked at a bunch of stuff about hands, right, and I don't know when it happened, but at some point and I actually have a book that's right here. Look at that, how fortuitous. It's a fantastic book, by the way. It's translations and annotations of choral repertory.

Scott Brandley: 35:24

Those are just a lot of big words a lot of big words.

Andy Lloyd: 35:28

So I like, I love ancient music and so I'm really, I was really drawn to gregorian chant. So I love the old, old, because to me that music gets the closest to christ. Like I don't know, I don't know, I don't know if it is.

Andy Lloyd: 35:40

But but I, if, if I wanted to figure out what music sounded like at the time of christ, like I gotta go as far back as I possibly can and then go a little further. So right now I'm actually doing a lot of research on byzantine chant and how it's done and it's because that's even older, uh, chant, but it's just so different than modern music. So, like, I love finding, like other texts from from other church, like from from the antiquity, because I have a huge reverence for the offerings that people gave back in the 1700s and the 1400s and the 1200s. You know that this is what they had, this is what they knew and they gave everything to the Lord and I have reverence for that. So I started looking at so mostly biblical texts and then I eventually some point I settled on using the Catholic catholic mass as kind of a, as a center point for this piece. So the catholic mass formally starts with the kyrie eleison and there's usually some sort of gloria. We probably you've heard probably a gloria or something. Glory in excelsis deo, laudamus te. There's a lot of tradition. There's a lot of tradition with this most major composers, in fact, bach, wrote a piece called the B Minor Mass. It's very common to write a mass for serious composers, so there's a Gloria, there's an Agnus Dei, there's not a Sanctus, and then that piece ends with a Hosanna in Excelsis. So, anyways, I'm writing a piece that's based on a Catholic formal musical structure.

Andy Lloyd: 37:11

And here I am a good, faithful Mormon boy and of course I love my church, right, I love the Book of Mormon. And so I kept thinking, kept thinking, I want to incorporate, incorporate third nephi 11 into this, right. So I've got you know, I've got you know. So. So then you start asking the questions of how, how do I depict things? And of course I'm a good mormon boy. I love isaiah 53, right, he was bruised for our iniquities, he was wounded for our transgressions with his stripes. Be our heel. That's such a great, I mean, we love that those. That's great, right.

Andy Lloyd: 37:46

So so I'm infusing this piece with rich mormon theology, right, and um, I remember asking the lord at some point I said, hey, like, why am I doing this? Because I probably should be a better mormon boy and write an arrangement of you know, the morning is, you know, uh, the morning is, you know, whatever spirit of God or something. And I remember the spirit whispered to me that that this, this church is, is the restoration, but it's. It's a church for all, all people. You know that, that my ancestors were Lutheran. Well, they wouldn't have known the spirit of God, like they might know a Bach chorale, right? They might've heard Herzlichen Tuchny Gerlangen, which is another piece that I wrote, and so I envision I'm speaking to all, I'm speaking to Latter-day Saints, all of all backgrounds, right, and I just kind of, again, it was one of those moments where I feel like I kind of went through that dome and saw a whole nother way of thinking about the music that we write in our church.

Andy Lloyd: 38:50

You know, and, and, yeah, I don't know that my music will be performed at the tabernacle anytime soon, but I think maybe a couple hundred years, maybe it will be and it'll be special, you know, but and that's okay, but right now my music gets performed in cathedrals and by other faiths. Christus was performed by a completely non-LDS choir. We had two people in there and they came out to be actors. Like you're a Latter-day Saint, I'm like, yeah, yeah, they're. Like we saw 3 Nephi 11 on the score, because I put the scriptures on the score.

Scott Brandley: 39:19

We saw 3 Nephi 11.

Andy Lloyd: 39:20

I was like, yeah, that's so cool, oh, I was like, yeah, that's so cool, oh, that's so cool, so, yeah. So I compiled a bunch of biblical texts and then I mostly infused those with the Latin texts. So, for example, the first movement is Kyrie eleison, christe eleison, Kyrie eleison, and basically, with that movement I placed Christ in Gethsemane, christ in Gethsemane suffering for our sins. And at that moment it opens with this beautiful baritone solo and the baritone sings, in representing Jesus, kyrie eleison, which is Lord have mercy. We recognize that. So I'm using this Catholic text which is actually Greek, by the way, catholic text to paint a picture of Christ in Gethsemane. To paint a picture of Christ in Gethsemane. And then, after he sings that, the choir comes in and sings Christele Psalm, which is Christ have mercy. So we're pleading for him to do this right. And then, over the top of that, you hear the choir singing my Redeemer liveth and his hands are outstretched still.

Andy Lloyd: 40:24

And as I was writing this piece, I started to feel like I didn't want to do a piece that was chronological, like here's the birth, here's the ministry and the death and the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ, right. I was intrigued by this idea that these can coexist together. And what. What kind of discussions open when you hear my redeemer, liveth and his hands are stretched out still. Over the top of this, like you said, we're setting the scene and the scene is christ in gethsemane. It's as if the resurrection already happened, right.

Andy Lloyd: 40:58

And as I was doing this, I spent a lot of time on my knees in prayer to understand like what this doesn't make any sense to me. Why am I doing this? Like I just write the music, I just let it flow. And through some beautiful spiritual experiences it was open to my eyes, just the infinite power of the atonement that it's timeless. Atonement that it's timeless, it goes backwards in the time that people who lived before Christ could experience the power of Atonement before it ever even happened, and that the idea that these coexist on top of each other, it actually works.

Andy Lloyd: 41:37

So for the fifth movement, for example, is the text he was bruised for our needs, he was wounded for our transgressions. With his stripes we are healed. And while the choir is seeing that in English, the choir is also seeing et resurrectit, et ascelit in shalom, which is, he was resurrected and on the third day he ascended into heaven. And so you hear this idea that Christ when he ascended into heaven, wow, and so you hear this, this idea that Christ when he ascended into heaven, it there's this weight of what he just did that we always praise resurrection, right, yeah.

Andy Lloyd: 42:17

But, I love the idea of this humble resurrection, this idea that Christ was ascending with the weight of what he had just experienced, and I can't. It opens the discussion right To ask the question. Ask the question what? What is he really feeling?

Andy Lloyd: 42:35

And you start to feel more the love that he has for us and the sadness Like I feel 35, 17 when he has to leave and he says I perceive that you wish to stay and he stays just a little longer. It depicts that, you know. So the Hosani Shelshi is to me, just the most powerful movement in the work. It's about 11 minutes long, it's the piece that ends the work and it's the last of nine movements. There's so much more I could talk about. I have like 15 pages of notes about this piece. Like I could go for hours about it and I feel like when I listen to it I'm still being taught, and this kind of goes back to what I was talking about earlier that the lord magnifies our offering. Like when I go back and listen, I'm learning new things, like I'm reading the scriptures. I don't want to compare my music to the scriptures, but but it's the only way I can make sense of it. You know, when you go back to the scriptures and you hear something and it just sounds different the second time it feels that way. But this last one is called Hosanna in Excelsis. And how do you not hear Hosanna in Excelsis as a Latter-day Saint and not think of 3 Nephi 11, right. So I knew that this was going. But again, it's in Latin. It's Hosanna in Excelsis, and one day I don't know how it happened, but at some point I felt like I needed to make this piece into seven sections representing each day of creation. Now I'm a science guy so I'm like I don't understand the creation. I love it, I love the temple. I just don't get too worked up about it and I'm a guy like I want to learn about all the other stuff. But I believe in a god who can create the world in seven days. I believe in a god who's all powerful. So I just decided to go with it. I'm gonna go with it, and if my friends make fun of me for writing a piece about the creation, I don't care. So I wrote it in seven sections and it opens with this massive e flat major chord. Now if you know the key of e-flat, it's three flats, three flats, it's. According to Bach. Bach used the key of E-flat to depict any piece referencing the Trinity, in our case the Godhead, god, the Father, jesus Christ and the Son. So in the opening movement it's light and the last three movements before that chord it's that with the strike, it's that with the stripe. That that was what it's. It's all waiting. It's very, it's very subdued. And you hear this chorus. It's like fiat let there be light, let there be god, the father, jesus christ and the holy ghost, and then, and then the music gets wild. You have to listen to it, audience. You just go to the 50 minute mark in the piece and go listen to this movement and the organ's going crazy and you can see god's face moving along the waters. You can just see it. And and then I and I depict. I depict the um, the sun, the moon and the stars, and through three sections, and then it ends um, it ends. So this, this is all.

Andy Lloyd: 45:26

The latin text was on extend, whatever, whatever, whatever. And it builds this cataclysmic moment. I wanted to pick the chaos. Before you heard the words behold my beloved son. Heaven in the loud, bountiful. 2500 people were there and heard this voice. And so this builds this chaos and it comes down and it's just quiet and the choir sings with the pianissimo. Just a quiet, subdued voice. Behold my son.

Andy Lloyd: 46:00

And the very next text you hear. About a minute later you hear Christ say behold my hands. And I love this imagery. There's nothing in between. It's just behold my son, behold my hands, and it's as if you see God saying behold my hands. Like you see the unity and you see the unity of God, the father with his son, jesus Christ. Now I can't come up with this stuff. Like this isn't me, like this is you know what I'm saying? Like this is mountaintop stuff, this is the veil is thin and I don't even know what's going on because the veil don't look very thin to me. Like I'm looking at ahead of me is just a big white wall Like, but my mind is saying otherwise. My mind is gets it?

Scott Brandley: 46:44

yeah, well, I love behold, behold my hands, because it's god, it's god's hands, christ are god's hands, but then christ is also standing there before them absolutely, but not just because guess what?

Andy Lloyd: 46:58

I dropped this text in a piece that is depicting the creation. So this is just's hands. Come touch them and know that I am the God of Israel. It's behold my hands that created you, that created the universe. And then the choir builds. It's just glorious. It's just this massive Mahler, gustav Mahleruler. He put these epic browses, massive, just builds. And if you watch the video, people require just bawling. And then, at the cataclysmic moment, there's this moment, just this dissonance just builds. And then it just resolves to my son. So it's just like behold my, my hands, my hands, my hands, behold my hands, behold my hands, my son, and in this moment I just feel like I want to depict Christ in glory. Every time I hear that, I hear God speaking. You're part of this too. Well, and that's the prayer I pray that they may be one, as I am one and you and I are one together. That's the prayer that he wants us to be a part of.

Andy Lloyd: 48:30

The peace opens, this last movement opens with Hosanna and excelsis of praise. But we never really talk about what Hosanna really means. In Hebrew it's a cry. If you read definitions of it, it's a cry, it's a plea, save me, oh God, really. So the peace ends with the choir singing with quiet tones, hosanna in excelsis, as the peace fades and the violin soars and you see Christ ascend into heaven, and the peace ends with this beautiful B-flat major chord, which I've heard described. This is how I feel it's like a warm blanket that God left. He still loves us, he's not leaving us and man.

Andy Lloyd: 49:22

We finished at the premiere at a Presbyterian church in Fort Worth, a Latter-day Saint composer with a non-Latter-day Saint choir. The place was silent for 18 seconds, if you watch the video, it was silent. And what's? The seventh day of creation? Rest, rest, oh my God, rest, rest. The music, oh my god. The music continued after the piece ended. It was rest and anyways, I can't come up with this stuff on my own like. This is not. This is not. You know, this is for me.

Andy Lloyd: 49:59

I wrote this piece and I'm on top of the mountain and I, I felt like I was being taught and I, my heart was full. I felt the spirit so strong. I felt my savior close and I still, I still feel that he you know that that he was holding my hand through this journey. Holding my hand, no pun intended, right. But it ended and I thought we did a big video, we did a recording. You can buy a recording of it or listen to an apple music, whatever. I still get emails about it today. People are still moved by it.

Andy Lloyd: 50:37

But I thought, man, this is it. Like the lord asked me to write this piece. And I know, I know why. Because I'm going to be famous now, like I'm going to be able to write this piece. And I know, I know why. Because I'm going to be famous now, like I'm going to be able to do this rest of my life. No, he didn't.

Andy Lloyd: 50:48

I basically built a boat and he said cross the ocean, cross the ocean. You know what? You're going to get sick, your kids are gonna be thrown up over the thing and you know, your brother's going to start dancing and you're going to go in the wrong direction and then you're going to have to get back on the right direction. And when you get to the promised land by the way, it's the promised land. I called the promised land, but that's the wrong name for it, because it's basically sucks. You don't have any food, you're going to have to garden and you got to. You know there's not. There's not a day that goes by that I don't long to be back there, but I have a reverence for the enduring of the end part and I will tell you that my own personal reverence that the Lord has. I've had many more experiences like that. They're smaller, but he never leaves us alone. He loves us, he wants us to connect with him and when we bring forward an offering in faith, he touches our stones and he makes them light.

Scott Brandley: 51:57

And.

Andy Lloyd: 51:58

I really, really believe that. I feel like I look back on my life and even these pieces we're premiering next week, just how many tears were spent writing these pieces and just how much pain I've had in my own life. And I sit down at the piano and I play through these pieces that we're doing next week and just for a moment I just get, I just get a warm hug, you know, and I get back up and go hang out with my kids and just do the best he can, but I just, I never want to leave that tree. You know that, that tree of life, you know that, love of God.

Alisha Coakley: 52:27

So anyways, Wow, oh my gosh. It's funny because I, like, I, love music and Scott too, like we're, we both resonate with music. You know, um, we can greatest showman. Oh yeah, we, we love that kind of stuff. But even even just hearing you speak about it, I feel like I could almost hear it in my mind. You know, like I felt like my soul was resonating with it during a couple of different parts there where you mentioned, you know, the, the meaning behind it, and the, the way that there was a rise and a fall and an opposition and and a poll, and I just, oh my gosh, I I can't help but think about um. I don't know if you've ever been to it, but in Dallas there is the um. It's like the, the museum of Bible art. Have you heard of this?

Andy Lloyd: 53:20

Yeah, yeah, I actually did a performance there once, did you?

Alisha Coakley: 53:24

Yeah, okay, that's really cool. So my husband and I we went to it last year and I remember we walked around and it was really neat seeing the art and everything like that. Then we walked into this one room and instantly the feeling was different. And I don't know if they had this artist, if you know where I'm going with this, but the feeling was instantly different. And I don't know if they had this artist, if you know where I'm going with this, but the feeling was instantly different and I just remember feeling like there was almost like this kind of like heaviness throughout, you know, like it was nice, it was good art, but it just it didn't feel so big and inspirational and almost kind of felt like a little, a little scary or a little dark or a little, I don't know it was. You know there was art of like demons and angels and the way that they depicted. It just kind of felt, you know, just burdensome in a way, but beautiful, right, you know.

Alisha Coakley: 54:12

Then we walk into this one room and immediately I I told my husband, I said there's something different about this room, you know, and we're looking at these, these pictures of art, and it's the most interesting. It's very modern, very geometric, and there's pictures of Christ and there's pictures of, you know, him on the boat and walking on water and and, and I'm like man, I was like honey. This is my favorite artist, like I, like I want to get some of his paintings. I wonder if this museum is selling any of them, you know, and, and there was one in particular, and I looked at the painting and I was just like, oh, like my soul resonated with it. And then I looked at the title of the painting and it said come unto Christ, and I was like oh what?

Andy Lloyd: 54:55

That's what I was thinking.

Alisha Coakley: 54:56

I was like wait a minute. I was like that's a very interesting phrase to use. So I Googled this artist and, sure enough, his name. I don't know if it's pronounced Jorge or George, but George Coco.

Andy Lloyd: 55:08

Santangelo yes, yeah, he's amazing.

Alisha Coakley: 55:12

I mean just so stinking cool. And it was interesting because I thought afterwards.

Andy Lloyd: 55:17

I thought that's really modern art too.

Alisha Coakley: 55:20

It's very modern, and the funny thing is I'm not usually into like the super modernist, I'm more like farmhouse. I don't know how to explain it, but anyway that's okay.

Alisha Coakley: 55:30

But it was, my soul resonated with it and I instantly knew that there was something that felt right. Right Like the message felt right that it's a message of hope, it's a message of light. It's a message of light, it's a message of love. This is the real Christ. He lives and he's there for us and he did this whole amazing mortal life experience for us. But even before then he did so much for us and he continues to do for us and he does it with this love, and it just felt so hopeful to me.

Alisha Coakley: 56:03

And so I tell you that, because the things that you were saying, the dichotomy of starting in the Garden of Eden and then having the Garden of Gethsemane and then having that Garden of Resurrection, it all exists together. It really is not a sequential thing, right? It's not a sequential, linear storyline. It all has always been part of the plan. It has always existed in the mind of our creator and our heavenly father, right, and because it's always existed in him and we're created by him, that means it's always existed in us. And so when our souls hear that, whether we're in a, it's always existed in us. And so when our souls hear that, whether we're in a Lutheran cathedral somewhere, or we're in an art museum in Dallas, or we're sitting on a podcast just talking about it, truth will resonate with our souls, and so the fact that you're willing to take those talents and, like you said, just like the brother of Jared, bring those stones and say this is what I have, lord, make it light, make it light please.

Alisha Coakley: 57:01

This is what I have, lord. Yeah, make it light. Make it light, please. You know, this is what I can give to you, and the things that Heavenly Father can do with the things we bring to him is just absolutely beautiful. It gets me so excited and I start to nerd out, but I love it so much and I just ah.

Andy Lloyd: 57:20

Well, Andy, I think I want to change careers after listening to you I don't know man, every once in a while I'm like, oh geez, like I could, real, yeah. But but you know what? I just try to think higher and holier and it gets me through still, through those times you're just like I could really use a few extra bucks, but he's always taking care of me, so yeah, yeah Well.

Scott Brandley: 57:47

I, I love, man, just I love the way that you tie music into meaning and how, how things have double meanings or triple meanings and when you realize it, you have that, just that aha moment and even as you were talking about it, just you know when you're talking about like the weight, the weight that he felt, but also being resurrected at the same time, like I've never thought of it that way before. Yeah, I'm interested to see how you portray that in music. In music, I guess one of my questions is when you picture something or you want to set a stage, how do you do that with music? How do you turn a picture into sound?

Andy Lloyd: 58:36

That's such a great question Because for everybody, everybody kind of interprets has their own musical depiction of Gethsemane. I remember once this is so funny this is kind of a side story, don't worry, I'm not going too off tangent here but I remember I had to play for a funeral service at the Methodist church I worked at in Denton, texas.

Andy Lloyd: 59:00

And the lady calls me during the week. She's like I'm going gonna do a solo arrangement of amazing grace. So I was like, okay, so I I kind of like kind of worked on because she's just like. I was like, do you have any music? She's like no. I was like, oh, okay, so I kind of worked up this like little classical version of it to improvise. I show up, and she's just like and I was like that's not what I had prepared.

Andy Lloyd: 59:25

Now, I love that and I think sometimes as musicians we get so caught up in like what's the higher, holier music that we lose sight of the fact that that there's, there's, there's. Everybody has. The Lord knows each one of us personally. So in that moment I had two choices to make. I could. I could be a, be like no, we're gonna do the classical version, the better version. Or I could just jump in and just go. So I I decided I'm gonna jump and we're gonna, we're gonna party, we're gonna do this. So I did this, just rocking, amazing grace.

Andy Lloyd: 59:58

I got that, we got done with the performance and man, people went, like people were just sobbing and and that was like a. Really that was a game changer for me when I realized like sometimes as a musician, I feel like I get too prideful for, like I've talked to you guys about just the ecstasy of, I think, with a lot of things there's, there's just more to discover, like, like we're just in different domes, right, and that that that sometimes it's, that, it's, it's okay. It's humbling to just recognize that that I, in the end, you just want people to feel loved, cared, and for some of those people. It's hotel California, you know I I played for a funeral in in Ogden, utah, scott last week where the dad loved.

Andy Lloyd: 1:00:42

Uh, goodness, gracious, greats of Fire. So I was asked to play that at the funeral and people, just you know, that's what they needed, that's what they needed to feel love. And in those moments Hosanna in Excelsis from Christus, ain't going to cut it, that big, large Catholic art mass that ain't going to cut it for them, and that's okay, but your question is how do you depict something like that?

Andy Lloyd: 1:01:07

And I think it's understanding your audience, but it's also being a good poet. If you really study good poets, they know the repertory, they know John Donne, they know John Milton, they know Shakespeare or Christina Rossetti. They know the poetry, they know the wit, they're familiar with the puns, the play on words, and so they can take something and drop it in a different context. Lds poet, by the way I don't know if you've ever had him he's an incredible Latter-day Saint poet. I feel like he really captures the magic. He has a Jewish background. He captures the magic of Old Testament ideas and whatnot. I think that's important. Yes, as a composer, there's tricks and techniques.

Andy Lloyd: 1:01:59

I've studied so much music. A lot of times what I'll do is I'll listen. I'll be like, okay, that composer really encapsulates the crucifixion, like this, whatever I'm listening to right now, and then I dive in and I study it, like I break it down. I'm like what is he doing with the bass liner, what is she doing with the melody and what is the counterpoint? Like, how are all those things um, tethering together? Or think about fabric? Uh, whatever, weaving, weaving.

Andy Lloyd: 1:02:33

Yeah, this guy's a professor um weaving tethering, you know yeah, tethering, I was like I'm like tetherball, no, no, but yeah, how it all plays together. And then I take that back to my own music and make it my own and then also not being afraid to be bold, I think sometimes as Latter-day Saints I wrote this piece called Il'Enei Le Divino Fond, which is a beautiful Christmas piece he is born the divine Christ child. Called Il'Ainé le Divin en Fond, which is a beautiful Christmas piece he is born the divine Christ child. And I remember it was early when I was composing and I came up with this massive cluster chord at the climax of the piece and I remember thinking, oh gosh, dude, my Larnay Saint friends, they might think I'm evil, they might think I've gone off the deep end and I've left the church.

Andy Lloyd: 1:03:20

I actually get a lot of that, by the way. A lot of people hear my music and they're like it's too Catholic. My family will be around and they'll be like I wonder if he's active. I'm like, well, I am. So I love it, I love the gospel, but anyways, where was I going with that, this piece that was all clustered.

Andy Lloyd: 1:03:41

Oh yeah. So I came up with this massive, awesome cluster chord and I loved it, but I was like maybe I should just tone it down a little bit, let's take out some of those notes and not make it so dissonant. And then finally I was just like you know what? Let's have some fun. Who cares? Let's just go crazy. Like I play it today, everybody goes nuts, mormons, catholics, anybody that hears that chord they just go. It's so great. It's right before, right before the ending of the piece and it just just just hauls. The pedals are going crazy. It's a organ piece and and and so. So I I learned from that thing that not to be afraid of like just because I put a distant core doesn't mean I'm an evil sinner. Does it make sense? Like it's okay to have dark music.

Andy Lloyd: 1:04:27

I think Nephi teaches us, lehi teaches us in second Nephi too right that to really understand the light it's a you. The light is greater with the darkness and I think you you know I don't want to encourage anybody to explore darkness so they can understand the light, but you've had people on this podcast that have right but I think you appreciate those beautiful transcendent moments more if the journey that you went through to get there was a little bit more challenging. A little bit more made you a little bit more uncomfortable.

Alisha Coakley: 1:04:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It just makes me think of you know, in all things, there must need to be opposition, right? Yeah yeah, that's amazing, wow, well, I, I can't wait. I've already listened to some of your stuff, but I can't wait to hear more. Um, we are going to have for our listeners, we're going to have, um, some of the music put in here that you can listen to, either little clips or um links that you could go to, and if you'd like to, you know, pick up an links that you could go to and, if you'd like to, you know, pick up an.

Andy Lloyd: 1:05:47

Is it an album? Is that what you call it? Is it? Yeah, I mean people. I don't think people buy cds anymore.

Andy Lloyd: 1:05:49

Uh, you can, but but no but no, yeah, yeah, it's on it's on apple. You can listen to creatures and apple music, but I mostly have youtube videos so you can find what you like on there. I have a ton of a ton of youtube videos, um, and, and some of my music's really wild, like, like it's, it's, it's it's art music, it's it's like an abstract painting. So some of it, some of it's pretty hard and that so like we did one of my pieces today, good friday, and yeah, I got a lot of funny comments so so sometimes it's a little bit, you know so, but then I have a lot of pieces that are you know, I just have all over the spectrum and I just love writing and and I've learned so much about my relationship with my heavenly father through composing, so I'm gonna I'm gonna keep doing it, so I love it. That's awesome. Yeah, so youtube videos or on my website, whatever, okay perfect.

Alisha Coakley: 1:06:39

We'll make sure we put all those links in the description so if anyone wants to do a little bit more research and everything like that, they'll be able to find you and find your art.

Scott Brandley: 1:06:50

I love it. That's so cool that you know your upcoming event and the concert Yep. Yeah.

Andy Lloyd: 1:07:00

I'm so excited. We're taking my kids in New York for the first time. So you know, pray for us. It's going to be wild.

Scott Brandley: 1:07:07

Yeah, they're going to have a blast.

Andy Lloyd: 1:07:09

Rachel's been texting me back and forth and she's been singing some stuff and I mean, gosh man, she's a once-in-a-lifetime talent and she's delightful and she loves the pieces. It's more than I can ask for she and she's delightful and she loves the pieces. It's more than I can ask for she.

Alisha Coakley: 1:07:26

She's really getting into them and I'm just so thrilled. That's amazing. Wow, yeah, carnegie Hall, I'm telling you that's like you've made it right.

Scott Brandley: 1:07:32

Like, yeah, there's certain things when you I wow dude like that's just so cool.

Andy Lloyd: 1:07:39

Yeah, cool, yeah, it's so, it is. It's, it's such a wonderful thing. But you know, like I recognize, like it's a great experience, but when you walk, once you walk away, there's things you know, there's things that are I've learned, as through this process, that relationships are the most, you know, most important thing. You walk away and it's going to be over at some point and and maybe there's going to be another Carnegie Hall down the road or another awesome venue somewhere down the road. There might not be. I'm going to enjoy it while I got it. Then, when the dust settles, I'm not going to get offended. You don't get any more performances or nothing happens. That's part of the endure, the end thing. I'm just going to get my boat and just keep trucking, you know, and try it. I'm working on another big oratorio right now. That's going to be, it's going to be stunning that I'm super excited about a massive seven movement choir work with two double choirs. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. I don't want to. I don't want to take more time. I can talk for hours.

Alisha Coakley: 1:08:46

Oh, andy, it has been just an absolute pleasure having you on today as our guest.

Alisha Coakley: 1:08:51

We are so, so grateful to you for not only like coming on here and sharing these, these insights in your, your music with us, but just for like sharing your talent with the world.

Alisha Coakley: 1:09:01

I definitely think that you know the reason why Scott wanted to start this podcast in the in the beginning was because he really wanted to share light, and there are so many ways for us to be able to do that, and so I love that the light that you're sharing is unique to your talents, but that it's reaching people all over the place, and I'm, you know, really happy honestly that that it can reaching people all over the place. And I'm really happy honestly that it can be found in other faiths that those who are more used to those things, it's planting those little seeds right, so when the time comes for them to hear the truth or to expand on the truth that they already know, you have no idea how much impact from your music is going to do for their future testimonies and stuff. So thank you for being you. Even if you're not Andrew Lloyd Webber, I like Sir Andy Lloyd, you're good people in my book.

Andy Lloyd: 1:10:01

Air guitar Got it, still got it, got it andrew wood weber. He's the real deal I mean well, I think that you both are so well. I appreciate you guys doing this. This is such a cool, such a cool podcast you've got I've seen some of them and you bring in some really fun people. So, yeah, um just just grateful to be a part of it and and just wish you, wish you both just tremendous success in what you're doing.

Scott Brandley: 1:10:27

Thank you, thank you, thanks, man. Well, thank you for everyone that's been watching this episode and hopefully you know this has inspired you and helped you to. You know, get some of that light and hope. And you know, get some of that light and um hope. And you know, if you have any um, you know any desire to share light, share your light, share your light, light um. Go to latterdaylightscom and share your story with us and let's have you on as well.

Alisha Coakley: 1:11:05

Yeah, absolutely, make sure that you uh, since we're talking about sharing do your five second missionary work. Click that share button. We want to make sure that we are able to get Andy's story out there. Uh, also, definitely, if you guys are in the area or you just really want to have an impromptu trip, go check out the concert at Carnegie Hall April 9th.

Alisha Coakley: 1:11:27

Don't skip out on General Conference this weekend. Maybe you make some trips, maybe you watch General Conference when you're in New York and then you get to go enjoy some amazing music outside of General Conference. So be sure to check the links and stuff like that in the description. Like I said, we're going to have music on there, we're going to have Andy's website, we're going to have Carnivica Hall. We will put all out there and we would love for you guys to just get this out there, share it. Let Andy know, maybe, after you listen to some of his stuff, let him know what you thought, let him know which pieces spoke to you the most, and maybe you have ideas for him. What's Andy's next big piece going to be? I don't know, but you might.

Scott Brandley: 1:12:07

So leave a comment, let us know you know what you guys thought of today's episode and, yeah, maybe you can do a mashup and he like cold play and you know something to do with the piano right here. I got you covered. I got a piano right here I got you covered.

Andy Lloyd: 1:12:25

I do a lot of Coldplay covers, for sure.

Scott Brandley: 1:12:27

Nice.

Alisha Coakley: 1:12:30

Coldplay and the Greatest Showman. That's what Scott and I need.

Andy Lloyd: 1:12:35

Listen, I think it can work, you know, I think it can too, because you're a showman full of stars I love it, I love it, I love it.

Alisha Coakley: 1:12:46

All right guys.

Alisha Coakley: 1:12:47

Well yeah, thank you so much. We appreciate you, and until next week, we hope you guys have a beautiful conference weekend. I hope that those who are able to make it to Carnegie hall to support Andy in this and Rachel in this as well, and all those who participated in creating and executing all of these numbers, I hope you guys are just filled with a spirit and that you're able to feel the Lord close by, and with that, I think that's all we have for today's show, so we will talk to you guys on Latter-day Lights. See you later, take care.