There’s a new Piano Man in town

A man leans back while playing a piano.
Andrew Simek puts his unique style on singing and playing as the new Piano Man.

URBANA — After more than a decade, The Canopy Club is bringing back the Piano Man, and welcoming a new performer to lead the weekly series of music and singing. Andrew Simek will be playing the keyboard and performing classics and modern hits every Monday night at 8 p.m. starting January 20th.

IPM Morning Edition host Kimberly Schofield spoke with Simek about his take on the new position and the role music has played in his life.

The music heard in this interview is performed by Simek. This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

SCHOFIELD: Andrew, I have performed with you in musicals and a radio…I don’t know what would you call that?

SIMEK: A radio spot, a live set.

SCHOFIELD: Yeah, we sang songs, you played the piano. It was great. But I have never seen you, and only you perform on stage.

SIMEK: Not a lot of people around here have seen it. I used to do this sort of show, just playing whatever I wanted, whatever came to mind. I was so young. I was 13, 14, 15, 16, years old, and playing in bars that I probably shouldn’t have been playing in, but I knew the owners pretty well. But my friends’ parents actually would take more of a liking to my taste for music and my old soul. They would ask for these songs that were really nostalgic, and the whole bar would erupt into singing songs that I thought were modern. I was like, ‘This song came out in the 80s! This was a 1970s hit! And you know, it was hit or miss for my friends, but their parents loved it, so I targeted that audience and really honed my nostalgic musical tastes. Playing stuff that people know is so much fun. There’s such an enjoyment to people hearing music that they recognize out live. I love seeing their faces light up when it’s a song that they know and love and…singing along.

SCHOFIELD: Do you have family who plays? How did you get into music?

SIMEK: My mom is a world-class fiddle player. She has played in country and bluegrass bands my entire life. Growing up, I distinctly remember she had a fiddle and it was always sort of a church thing. And I don’t know if I didn’t separate it from her playing it at masses, but then one time, she just ripped out something in the kitchen at my grandma’s house. I was just clapping along. I asked her to do it probably 10 times in a row. And I was like, ‘I didn’t know my mom could do this!’ I was five or six, and I was enamored. From then on, anytime I had a chance to watch her play, she’s so, just so, so talented. I got into piano. They got us all a keyboard for Christmas one year and it just sort of gravitated towards me the most. My dad’s got a great shower voice. My brother always played the guitar, but eventually, I don’t know, the piano was sort of drafted to me by way of a Christmas gift, and I never looked back. Music was always such a big part of my house.

SCHOFIELD: And then, obviously I’ve heard you sing.

SIMEK: I went to school at Berklee College of Music for vocal performance. You need to declare an instrument. As much as this is the Piano Man, I consider myself more of a vocalist than anything else. My vocal stylings have always sort of carried my performance. This is a true story. The first time I ever knew I could sing, there was a fad going around where you cup your fists and pull it up to your mouth you say the word girl. It was so popular in, like, third or fourth grade, and I was just doing “Amazing Grace” to people who were like, “Whoa, Andrew! You do the ‘girl’ thing!” That was the very first instance of me being like, ‘Oh, wait, I think I can sing.’ And I shelved it for years, but eventually, I got it back out. Choirs seemed enticing, and things like that, as an outlet. But really my grandfather’s funeral was the first time I ever performed. I sang “I Can Only Imagine” to a rousing applause at his funeral and I never looked back. The power of that moment has shaped my entire life.

SCHOFIELD: That’s nice, the crowd, in what could be a somber environment.

SIMEK: Well, that’s just it, right? I was waiting for this moment of like, ‘This is hurting really badly. How do I let this out?’ And that release of the music I played with-my mom was playing the violin with me. I believe my sister might have sang and my brother played guitar — it was a whole family affair, but it was very much … they asked me to do it centrally. And I got up and walked back and just felt free. I felt like that was my tribute to him and the hurt turned to healing immediately. It was really powerful and I was like, ‘Ooh,’ I mean…wrote that one down, you know, ‘music.’

SCHOFIELD: Andrew, during the the WEFT Sessions, where you performed with singing and playing the keys

SIMEK: And you.

SCHOFIELD: Yes, and I was there singing also. I remember you telling the people who run it that your musicality, or your interest, or your taste in music and the way you perform is ‘eclectic.’ Do you still consider yourself eclectic or just you musical taste? Is it your dress? What is it?

SIMEK: I do. My catch phrase is sort of, ‘Hey, if we can all just pretend I’m a cartoon character, this will go a lot easier.’ I dress that way, I move that way, I act that way. And I like for people to sort of see a character, but it’s very much me. I think I’m probably more of a character out in the real world than I am when I’m on stage. That’s closer to the real me. But eclectic is a great way to put it. I dress as funky and as fun as I can possibly dress when I’m on stage. I want people to know that it was no accident that I ended up there. I want to be up there. And sometimes there can be an awkwardness and an uncomfortableness for people watching people perform, and I think it’s easier when you show, ‘Hey, I am uncomfortable up here.’ People will get into it a little bit more, which is what we’re trying to evoke with with the Piano Man — people singing along and being more involved than just as a listener. Or just come and listen. That’s fine, too. But I would often, I would throw a different genre into a song that I love performing, or I would skew just, like a baker who added some random ingredient to everything they baked. I will do that. I will do that.

SCHOFIELD: Like the Sesame Street one.

SIMEK: Like the Sesame Street song, which came from an episode of Scrubs, originally, I saw that sort of somber cover. I found more of a medium between the somber nature of it and then the original. I love those kinds of songs where you’re like, ‘I know this song,’ but it’s not a top 40 radio hit.

SCHOFIELD: What do you hope that people get from coming out to Piano Man? This used to exist. You’re from New York, originally, so you were not here for Piano Man.

SIMEK: I’ve had this Piano Man, the original gig and the reboot gig that they’ve done at Canopy Club, described to me a couple times. It sounds just perfect, right up my alley. And honestly, I was probably doing exactly that in upstate New York around the same time, which is funny. I’m hoping that people will think of this as a calendar date, a day of the week that they can’t miss. They want to go because, if nothing else, ‘he played this last time and the whole bar sang along, and everybody was singing and it was so energizing. I’ve been riding that high for a week.’ Or just a couple of standards and things that we’ll do every week, I’m hoping, that just become an unmissable tradition for the gig. But that aside, this going to be just the best atmosphere you can imagine. People are gonna come in and it’ll just be fun music, fun atmosphere. I might call people up to sing with me. I might just have people screaming from their seats, we’ll see. The whole place will feel like a stage, is what I’m hoping for, and everybody will feel involved, and I’ll just sort of be a ringleader.

Kimberly Schofield

Kimberly Schofield is the host of Morning Edition and covers arts and entertainment for Illinois Newsroom. When she is not covering the arts, she is performing in plays and musicals or running the streets of CU.