Check out Birds and Arrows Andrea and Pete Connolly’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Birds and Arrows Andrea and Pete Connolly.

Birds and Arrows, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Birds and Arrows are Andrea and Pete Connolly. They met in Chapel Hill, NC in 2006. Andrea was recording and performing as a solo singer/songwriter and Pete was fronting a local rock band. When they found each other, their artistic and personal lives collided and formed the songwriting partnership that is Birds and Arrows. In 2007 they released two critically acclaimed EPs, “Self-titled” and “Woodgrain Heart”. They went on to release 4 full length records. “Starmaker” 2009, “We’re Gonna Run” 2011, “Coyotes” 2013 and “Edge of Everything” in 2015. On both “Coyotes” and “Edge of Everything” they collaborated with Chris Stamey of the dB’s and Robert Sledge of Ben Folds Five. In addition to their full-length records, they also released a holiday EP “Holiday Forever” which includes songs featured on compilations with Wilco, Big Star, The dB’s, Yo La Tengo, Whiskeytown and more….

On New Year’s Day 2016 the couple officially relocated from Durham, NC to the magical town of Tucson, AZ.

In 2017 the band released a new single “Stay Down” which hits you in the face with raw, white knuckle, rock and roll muscle. The song has an urgent energy that makes you want to grip the steering wheel and floor it.

The video for their newly released single “Stay Down” was created by Brooklyn based videographer Andrew Ellmaker and screen writer Emily Ragsdale and is set in the heart of the Tucson Mountains. It features the couple surrounded by desert dogs which all seem to be captivated by the sounds they hear swirling through the desert valley. Banjo, the most famous dog “actor” in the video, was featured in an Episode of “Breaking Bad”.

They have a brand-new record due out this fall on Baby Gas Mask Records recorded and produced by Gabe Sullivan at Dust and Stone Studio in Tucson, AZ.

HOW BIRDS AND ARROWS LANDED IN TUCSON:
On a cross country tour in support of their 2015 album “Edge of Everything” the band passed through Tucson, AZ and were deeply connected and drawn to the beauty of the Sonoran desert and the creative energy of the city…. this would be their next adventure.

After visiting Tucson, they decided to shake up their lives physically and creatively by moving cross country to a new town and start fresh. They pulled into Tucson on New Year’s Eve 2016 and began a new life in the desert southwest.

Since the move west in early 2016 the band has been busy writing, recording and touring. The couple had no trouble finding an abundance of creative inspiration in the rugged and unfamiliar desert surroundings. Birds and Arrows’ new music reflects the exciting, vibrant and raw energy they’ve drawn from the strange and amazing place that is Tucson.

BIRDS AND ARROWS’ VISUAL ART:
The Connollys have also been busy as artists and illustrators. They illustrated a series of children’s books in 2013 for a Baltimore based non-profit. These books went on to be used as learning tools in inner city schools in places like St. Louis, New Orleans and of course Baltimore. Pete has illustrated two published tarot decks, “The Connolly Tarot” and “Feng Shui Deck”. The couple have designed countless logos, brands and album covers for fellow musicians and small businesses…including t-shirt, album art and logo design for bands like Ben Folds Five, Justin Robinson of The Carolina Chocolate Drops and Dirk Shumaker of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. And Pete’s paintings have been featured in major network TV shows and was recently commissioned by Universal in Los Angeles. Andrea and Pete Connolly have established an imaginative brand for their artistic and musical creations that is uniquely Birds and Arrows

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
Together we make rock music and art… We tour as two-piece rock duo all around the southeast and southwest. We love writing music together and sharing it with our dedicated fan base. We are also professional artists doing everything from our own illustrated tarot decks to children’s books. Pete is a painter and just released a series of mixed media paintings of southwestern musicians that was displayed at historic Hotel Congress in Tucson, AZ. We are very inspired by our new southwestern surroundings and it’s really coming through in our art and music. When people experience our art and music we hope that they walk away with a feeling that they’ve heard or seen something new/interesting that inspires and energizes them.

The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Be flexible and creative with your lifestyle if possible. Over the last 12 years together we have done everything from picking up many odd jobs that allow us to still travel and tour and have time for our art….. And we’ve even gone as far as living on a horse farm for 5 years trading work for rent so that we could put more time towards our art and less towards cost of living.

Then, over two years ago when we decided that we’d like to move from the farm in North Carolina to Tucson, AZ but we knew we couldn’t pull it off financially. Pete’s mom had just passed away and his elderly dad was living alone in North Carolina. He was feeling restless and tired of the cold winters and heard us talking about our new-found love for Tucson. So, he then offered to help us pay for our move and invest in a home out here if we took him with us.
So, the three of us picked up and moved cross country….

We now live with Pete’s dad and take care of him in addition to pursuing our art and music. We aren’t able to travel quite as frequently as before but we go out in short bursts and our cost of living is still low to allow us to have part time jobs (Pete: brewing beer at Borderlands Brewery and Andrea: teaching voice and guitar lessons out of our home) It’s not easy being a full time artist and musician so you have to be creative with how you live in order to make it happen. Unless you have a trust fund…. which we’re still waiting, fingers crossed, that we have one of those waiting for us somewhere unclaimed;)

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find all our music and art on our web site.
www.birdsandarrows.com
or you can follow us on Instagram and YouTube to stay up to date on all our new audio and visual creations.
www.youtube.com/BirdsandArrows

Contact Info:

• Website: www.birdsandarrows.com
• Email: birdsandarrows@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birdsandarrows/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/birdsandarrows/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/birdsandarrows
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/BirdsandArrows

Image Credit:
Photos of the band in orange suits were taken by Julius Schlosburg. All other paintings were done by Pete Connolly of Birds and Arrows.

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