PureVolume

Members: Andrea Gonzales

Andrea Gonzales has been writing songs since she was 15 years old for the pure joy of self expression. She learned to play guitar by watching and listening to Nancy Wilson of Heart and is a self professed Hearmonger.

In 2009, Gonzales decided to listen to the advise of friends and get out of her bedroom and started playing publicly for the first time in her life.

"Music is my religion and my guitar is my altar," says the 43 year old openly gay guitarist-singer-songwriter. "I write very personal songs and I have always played for me. My music has been my best friend when I've been lonely, my diary when I needed to vent and therapy when I wanted to go off on someone. I pretty much have always written for myself. But it is nice to have an audience."

Gonzales is working on her first CD, tentatively titled, Acoustic Therapy. "A lot of the songs that will be included on my first CD were written after my 20 year relationship ended. During that time I pretty much channeled all the emotional stuff into my music. Figuring out who you are alone, after being so intertwined with someone else's identity for so long is an emotional journey I wish I had never had to go on. But the songs that have come out of the few years after the break up are some of my best stuff ever."

And while Gonzales is a lesbian, she does not use her music as a means of protest or to promote social issues.

"You know, I could go down that road and use my music in that way, but really my sexual orientation is only relative where my music is concerned because I don't change pronouns."
Gonzales says she is pleased that no one seems to care either way. "For years I had this idea in my head that my music would not appeal to a wide audience because I'm a lesbian. But when it comes down to it, straight or gay, love is love and heartbreak happens in both worlds...these are universal feelings that anyone can relate to if they open their minds and get beyond our differences."