As Andrew Gardner steps on Proud Larry’s stage on Jan. 27, with his sunglasses, suit and fiddle in hand, he is one step closer to the start of his solo career as Mr. Neptoon.
Being classically trained from the age of seven in violin for eleven years, Gardner found he wanted to share his music with others. At eleven, he started to play violin at his church and from that moment on, the music that Gardner’s fans know and love started to crescendo.
“I started to understand how to be a field player, which means that I can hear the key that’s in the song and be able to throw in fills and things just based on what I’m hearing and not anything written on the page are annotated,” Gardner said.
By acquiring tonal skills, Gardner began to get recruited by different bands and performers. His first gig consisted of three men coming up to him after church and asking if he wanted to play fiddle for their country gospel band. Gardner also learned how to play guitar and performs with that as well.
From this stepping stone, Gardner then began to perform at Taylor Grocery, once a week for two to three years. Before Gardner started college he has been a part of 10 to 15 bands in total, all under different genres.
These performances allowed him to see all the violin has to offer. He realized he would trick the instrument from classical use to a more “out of the box” sound.
“I was developing the sense of music and understanding of music that I felt that I wasn’t really able to bring to the table in a classical setting,” Gardner said. “So when I was invited to start doing bluegrass and country and gospel, they were like, just follow your instincts and so I began to be able to, like play off of feel, and started to develop my own style, and I think that’s what people really respond to now.”
Once Gardner started his college career as an integrated marketing and communication major, he was approached by John Hart, an indie/rock musician, and in his junior year he started playing for Subcontra, a jazz fusion band, and Happy Landing, an indie-folk band.
“I was so worried about building a resume coming into college and making sure that I was doing things through an organizational standpoint, to make sure that I really made the most of my college career,” Gardner said. “But what I found was, I was able to build connections and create really, really beautiful memories with people through things that weren’t attached to university at all. And I will give the university its credit, they brought us all together, we wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for all this.”
Because of the sound he was bringing to Subcontra, Gardner said it truly influenced how he would use the fiddle in Happy Landing.
Wilson Moyer, the bass player in Happy Landing, will play bass for Mr. Neptoon’s show and said his favorite parts of live shows is playing underneath Gardner’s fiddle solo.
“Every single note he’s playing, it just rings with weight and pathos and profundity,” Moyer said. “It is already beautiful and kind of cry worthy in and of itself. It’s the way that he weaves it all together. You can just see on his face how deliberate he is about playing those notes.”
With each group Gardner played with and continued to say “yes” to, the experience and knowledge he received made him more comfortable with taking a leap into his solo career.
For his senior capstone project for the honors college, Gardner is using the tenets of IMC to learn how to create a brand for Mr. Neptoon. From writing music, to recording it and producing the songs in his room to social media and audience accessibility, every aspect of Mr. Neptoon has been completely self made.
“It’s incredibly gratifying, I will say that, because you’re seeing the fruits of your labor pay off almost instantaneously and that’s really cool,” Gardner said.
However, the concept of Mr. Neptoon was in the works for Gardner’s whole life. When he was in high school, Gardner wrote and recorded a song, and after hearing it once it was produced, he realized he was not ready. Four years later, the production of Mr. Neptoon began to orbit.
The origin of Mr. Neptoon stemmed from a summer camp Gardner worked at a couple of summers ago. The campers called him “Earth Daddy,” a name Gardner still does not quite know the answer for why.
“I was like, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be funny if I could be Earth Daddy as an artist?’” Gardner said. “And I thought about it, and I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s gonna work,’ but I love the planetary element. So I went on the far side of the solar system and picked out Neptune and I thought Mr. Neptoon just kind of worked.”
Gardner put in a lot of thought for the image of Mr. Neptoon, starting with the outfit.
On Gardner’s Instagram, every post captures him wearing both a suit and sunglasses. This outfit embodies the concept of his upcoming album.
“The concept album is about the college experience, specifically, the undergraduate upperclassmen experience, that’s what I’m going for. It’s that moment where you start to realize that, oh, adult life is actually really about to start, and I need to get my (stuff) together,” Gardner said.
Gardner shines light on his great grandfather and grandfather’s suit business that was located in Jackson, Mississippi. Unfortunately, his grandfather passed away before he was born, and he was unable to meet them and see the store. However, the suit not only offers homage to his grandparents, but also represents his family history and the start of Gardner’s new future.
As for the sunglasses, they represent hiding your true identity, a concept, Gardner believes, many college students resonate with.
“They put on their best self, they put on their suit and they want to look their best, but they’re still hiding their soul behind their eyes. They put the glasses on, and you can’t really see the truth. And so in a way, I think that’s kind of what I’m trying to portray,” Gardner said.
Gardner’s genre he describes as “youthful” independent rock, he is never going to be younger than he is right now. Just recently Gardner was voted number one underrated artist in Oxford in the Local Voice.
Growing up in Oxford for 22 years, after graduating, Gardner plans on moving to Nashville to be closer to Happy Landing, who currently reside there, and hopes to start doing more solo gigs.
He is still working on his solo album, which he hopes to finish before the end of the school year, however, he has an upcoming single to be released on Feb. 4 called “American Holy Spirit.”
After performing on stage for nearly half his life, Gardner is taking his biggest step as Mr. Neptoon on Jan. 27 at Proud Larry’s.
“I’ve played countless supporting roles and played live genuinely more times than I could count in a variety of settings and a variety of places and states,” Gardner said. “ I was waiting, because I wanted to be ready for this and I do feel like I’m ready, and we’re gonna kick ass, it’s gonna be really, really fun that everybody should come out.”
Gardner will perform all sorts of songs and music, with Moyer as bass, as well as Bedon with Drumming Bird. Doors open at 8 p.m. and the show starts at 9 p.m.
