The Biography Of The Artist Andy Mineo

Artist Andy Mineo pours out in the song titled “Lost” his sense of feeling lost; lost in the middle of pain, anxiety, depression, and confusion. However, Mineo writes this song to be a guide to anyone who has had the same struggles as him, showing the listeners that through the power of music all who is lost can be found, and with a bit of faith and hope, they will soon see the sun rise above the clouds showing them a way out.

Andy Mineo was born and raised in Washington Heights, New York City. Mineo’s upbringing was harsh, but that was what eventually paved the way for his music. Mineo’s father abandoned him and his deaf sister at a very young age, leaving his mother to work multiple jobs and raise a family all on her own. Without a strong male role model to look up to, Mineo turned to the wrong people for inspiration. He became known as a trouble maker in his community and when his reputation as the school bully got too far, he got kicked out of school and was sent to Behavior Modification centers. His mother was a strong believer in the Christian faith, and she hoped that her son could one day find God and change his life for the better. She sent Mineo and his sister to a Christian camp and there, Mineo came to have a supernatural experience with God. Mineo states how he “realized that I was a sinner in a need of a Savior [and] the idea of this Savior coming to die for my sin and give me a new life and a new heart it came to life for me” (Corry).

After this experience, Mineo moved to a new school district where he eventually bettered in school and improved his behavior. When he got to college, Mineo befriended Alex Medina, who introduced him to Christian hip-hop. Being someone who grew up listening to Tupac and B.I.G, Mineo was inspired to mix his newfound faith with his love for rap. Mineo began by building a small studio in his college dorm room and writing and producing his own songs with Medina. Mineo was then discovered by Reach Records, where there, he continues to this day write and produce best selling albums that expresses his life story and beliefs.

After Mineo’s 2015 album “Uncomfortable” was released, his fame and popularity rapidly grew among the media like never before, however, while many fans expected to see new content coming from the artist, Mineo spent a few years missing from social media and music. The fame masked the pain and affliction that Mineo was struggling with on the inside. Mineo describes his absence as a “profound sense of being lost.. lost in my own mind, in depression, anxiety, and doubt” (Mineo). Nobody expected that this cheerful and energetic rapper was struggling with some demons of his own. He began to fall deeper and deeper into depression, leading to many panic attacks, and eventually he began to doubt in his ability to create music, making him think that he would be better off quitting music forever. Due to all this pain that Mineo was suffering on the inside, he began to question his faith and this sense of feeling lost came over him. He began to “deconstruct and reconstruct much of what [he] believed” leading him to feel lost, lost in his mind, in his pain, and emotions (Mineo). He didn’t know in what direction to go career wise and even where to go regarding his faith. He recalls how this process of “unlearning is scary because you don’t know what you’ll be left with” (Mineo).

Mineo didn’t know what to do with his life, the mental battles that he was going through was too much of a burden for him to handle, so he turned to the very one thing that helped him many years ago when he was also facing tough battles as a child. He turned to his faith. As he began questioning God and wondering why he had to be stuck in depression and anxiety, God reminded him that even though he’s going through a turbulent storm, there will be a day where the sun will soon shine above the clouds. Andy Mineo recalls an experience that he had on a LGA airplane during this period. He tells the story of how the plane he was on was ready to take off, however “it looked gloomy and dark like thunder and lightening, I didn’t even think that we were going to take off… the pilot was like ‘Brace yourself, there’s going to be some turbulence’ [so] we started going through the clouds and everything is shaking [and ] I thought that we was gonna die, but when we got through the clouds, it looked like California.

It was like sunny and bright and beautiful, it’s like I almost had forgotten for a second that the sun even existed. but I had this moment where I [realized that] the sun was still there” (Andy). It was as if God himself showed Mineo everything that he was going through, but what marked Mineo was that image of the sun rising above the clouds. This image gave him hope that he himself will get through this tough period. Mineo’s journey of going through depression, anxiety, doubt, confusion, and then still finding faith and hope in the midst of it all was what sparked the inspiration behind the song “Lost”. Mineo took that hurting and turned it into something beautiful, so that who ever listened to it could be reminded that there are better days ahead.

Similar to the expressionists from the early 20th century, Mineo wanted to reflect his exact feelings and thoughts through melodies, lyrics, and instruments in the song “Lost”. The entire song as a whole can be compared to a cantata because Mineo uses the clouds and storm as a metaphor for his depression, anxiety and doubt, and the sun as a symbol of hope and faith. When breaking down the song to its individual pieces, the listener realizes that Mineo uses each part of the song to take them on a journey through of pain to eventually seeing the sun shining. Mineo introduces the song by creating an offbeat sound, resembling an irregular heart beat. The unsteady heartbeat creates the sense of feeling anxiety or scared.

As this heartbeat plays in the background, the words “ I’ve been lost” is repeated over and over again, setting it up to be an idee fixed. In the first verse, positive lyrics such as “I still got some hope that I’m gon’ be alright” are sung in a major tone along with a piano accompanying the voices, creating a thin texture; and Mineo’s singsong voice followed by the harmony between Mineo and the female’s voice in this part creates an airy and happy feeling. When the last lyric the first verse, “But if I lose my happy thoughts then I wont fly” is sung, all the instruments stop playing and a sound imitating an engine dying is heard in the background. This sets up the pre-chores to be the climax of the song. As the lyrics state how the airplane is going through turbulence, the sounds mimic the words by creating a dissonance sound of an airplane engine playing loudly in the background. The loud airplane engine almost covers the sound of the other instruments playing in this verse, representing how Mineo’s fears take over any other good thoughts he has left in his mind. More voices are also added, and there are dynamics between the voices and instruments, creating a more thick texture and building up the song to a high point where the listener wants to figure out of they survived the turbulence or not.

Mineo uses the technique through-composed so that when the chorus begins, it’s a completely new rhythm and tone from the pre-chores. The chores can be seen as an oratorio where the combination of a homophonic chores singing in harmonies create an image of angels singing above the clouds. As the voices sing “when I get above those clouds..”, the instruments mimic that feeling by going a higher pitch; and when they sing “I know that the sun’s out, I’ma be alright” , the instruments create a sound of a steady heartbeat. When the second verse comes in, Mineo raps in a declamation style where the listener can feel the pain that the lyrics expresses.

Unlike previous verses, this verse lacks harmonies, instruments and even voices. Its almost becomes a monophony where the only sound is a steady beat resembling an airplane engine playing in a minor tone, while Mineo raps with passion. This allows the listeners can truly feel the hurting that Mineo experienced. After the second verse ends, the contrast of the second verse to the chores creates the effect of word painting, where the joyful melody of the chores allows the listener to form a picture in their mind of how hope and peace would look like. The chores repeating more than once gives the listener assurance that even going through all that turbulence, everything is going to be alright. At the very end the song, there are no voices and no rapping and only the sound of a piano playing a simple melody in pianissimo is heard. This thin and airy texture resembles Claude Debussy “Clouds” because the tone colors creates the image of clouds floating in the sky while the sun brightly shines through them.

Music is much more than the sound of instruments mixed with lyrics. Music can have the power to heal a broken heart, to give someone hope when they thought it was lost, and even renew their faith. The song “Lost” had that very same effect on me. I grew up in a Christian household, where I continue to this day happily continue in my faith, but I still faced trials and struggles. One of those struggles was very similar to Mineo’s. During my high school year, I went through depression and anxiety, and it was one of the worst experiences I went through. I also felt a sense of feeling lost because I didn’t understand why God would allow such thing to happen to me, after I’ve been so faithful, it just didn’t make sense and it made me feel lost in every sense. I didn’t know who to turn to for help, but then I remembered how faithful God has been to me even when I didn’t deserve it, so I turned to him once again. I poured all of my feelings, thoughts, and questions to God and God came to my rescue. I vividly remember how after that prayer I felt a sense of peace like I never did before, and I had this joy overflowing inside that I didn’t know was even possible. I never knew how to put all of those emotions into words until I heard the song “Lost”.

When I saw Andy Mineo’s post on instagram about him describing exactly what I felt and that he turned it into a song, I eagerly awaited for its release. When I heard the song for the first time, I felt a wave of emotions crashing into me. The instruments, the lyrics, and the imagery of the sun shining above the clouds spoke to my heart and it reminded me of the good that came out of my pain. When I do any type of work, school work or chores, I always listen to music; ironically the song “Lost” started playing on shuffle while I was researching on the artist Lin Manuel Miranda, who was the artist I initially picked for the music paper. When the song started playing I became inspired to write about how something beautiful can come from a place of hurt, and I immediately began rewriting my paper on the song “Lost”.

“Lost” wasn’t just another ordinary song to me, but seeing how this song came from a place that I also went through made it became a song of healing and with every element of the song speaking to my heart, and it became a song of sentimental value for me. Whenever that sense of feeling lost comes over me, I play this song to remind myself of that peace and hope that God once and continues to give me even if I go through some turbulence in life. I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to look at music at a deeper level and have an experience with a song that can change their life somehow. Having that beautiful experience with the song “Lost”, I knew that it was the perfect song for me to passionately write about.