Andrew Browning and the 9 Pound Hammers

Hailing from Los Angeles, Andrew Browning and the 9 Pound Hammers have created a sound that is uniquely California; it’s gritty, and at times, dark and irreverent. On their 3rd album, Love is a Beautiful Thing they build upon those qualities with great narrative songwriting, massive production, elaborate arrangements, foregrounded vocals and crunch, and big rock endings to create an album that explores the complexity of love and human relationships.   

While the last two albums were recorded with much the same crew of musicians at D.O.B. sound in Santa Fe Springs, CA., Browning decided to make changes for this record, “I didn’t think i could make the record I wanted to make if i didn’t change the way I did things and who i did them with. I was rolling around a bunch of different ideas including recording out at Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree but ultimately decided instead on 4th Street Recording in Santa Monica particularly because it’s close to home and close to where I wrote so much of the material for this record. I’m also a bit of a morning person and so it gave me the opportunity to get rolling early, much to the chagrin of everyone I was working with.”  New players this time around include Chris Lawrence (Mike Ness, Shooter Jennings), John DePatie (Don Randi), Belle Johnson (jlo, Miley Cyrus, Kanye), Sergio Cardenas (Mana, Pepe Aguilar, Jenni Rivera), and Jake Abernathie (Robert Jon and the Wreck).        
 

Love is a Beautiful Thing, which will be released on November 22nd, is the third time Browning and Derek O’Brien (Social Distortion, Agent Orange, The Adolescents) have come together to make a record. “While this record definitely has its Country moments, we were both leaning pretty heavily into our Rock backgrounds to give it some oomph”, according to Browning. “We felt like we wanted to put as much of who we are and where we’re from into this album as possible, we wanted to make it scream ‘California’.”