949F496C871C7700FBAF14419A6BF3B3201526132629495“So I got this song called Honey, I’m Good.,” says Andy Grammer to a packed house at New York City’s Grammercy Theater, “which I had no idea was gonna be as cool as it is.” He’s been onstage about an hour now, dripping with sweat in a heavy suede jacket, and he’s shown no sign of slowing down.

When the band breaks into the song—a pop-country tinged “relationship anthem” that’s become this year’s breakout hit—you wonder why he couldn’t see it coming. On the first notes, the whole crowd moves forward a foot, singing louder than they did to anything he’s played so far. They clap along to the syncopated backbeat like a baptist congregation, and he delivers the layered melody like their hyped-up preacher on Sunday.

It’s only about halfway through that you see what he was talking about: the foot-stomping hoedown rhythm, the big loud gospel harmonies. It’s been a while since anything this cool has even scratched the bottom of the Top 40, hasn’t it?

“We feel like as long as the song’s good, then go wherever you want to musically,” Grammer told a Milwaukee reporter on the song’s origin. “It was just like, ‘yeah, let’s go there for a second; let’s see what that means.’”

Over a decade-long career, he’s had to develop an acute, almost preternatural sense of what’s going to work. Often, that means going weird places.

It’s one of the skills he picked up on Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, where he spent long days busking and selling CDs during his early career. He’d try out covers from all over the musical spectrum, treating the passing crowds like a kind of focus group. From eight o’clock in the morning till as late as ten at night, he’d cast his net wide and see what came back.

“I showed me which songs people liked and which ones they didn’t like,” he told American Songwriter in 2012. “It was a serious hustle.”

Among the tunes that worked were Sunday Morning by Maroon 5 and a distinctive, beatboxed rendition of OneRepublic’s pop-ballad Apologize. He remembers both songs as big turning points for his style. “I saw that people liked the way I sang them and thought, ‘Man I gotta go write ten of those.’”

After cutting a deal with S-Curve records a few months later, he wrote eleven. The songs were bright, acoustic pieces that tied together the best of everything that ever worked for him; on his self-titled LP you’ll find traces of folk, hip-hop and R&B, often within a few seconds of eachother. They became pop radio staples in the summer of 2011, and built him a solid fanbase that’s stuck with him ever since.

On the album’s closing track—aptly titled The Biggest Man in Los Angeles—Grammer pays tribute to his time spent on the street. The breakdancers, preachers, belly dancers and Chinese bowl flippers that performed beside him are mentioned like old friends and family, and he sings about the boulevard like a childhood home.

Those moments on the street, when the crowd would rock with me,

I felt like the biggest man, the biggest man in Los Angeles,

You see all I really need, for my life to feel complete,

are some ears to hear me dream…

When the song became a hit, he spoke often about busking and how it helped him out, even tweeting ten tips for buskers:

  1.     Work out a unique cover song. Hard to grab attention with originals. If you can get them to stop, chances of tips double.

  2.     Once you have a crowd of 10+, make them cheer “On 3 lets cheer to double the crowd!” People are attracted to cheering.

  3. Location. Location. Corners with a lot of traffic where you aren’t in competition with others. Lack of competition for singers is key.

  4.     Make a tip jar that encourages people to purchase CDs on their own while you’re playing. “Make change I trust you.”

  5.     Put love into your street stage. Small rug, stool, TV dinner table with table cloth. Little touches make it seem more pro.

  6.     Make friends with those louder than you. Fighting for attention means everyone loses. Break dancers, etc. Offer to split time.

  7.     Shorter sets. 15 minutes and stop to sell CDs/clear the crowd. Two hour-sets aren’t needed. Play your best 4-5 songs.

  8.     Don’t beg. You will make more in the end creating demand based on quality. Begging sucks the magic out of the experience.

  9.     Get there early. The best spots go fast. You might have to hold a spot for up to 4 hours. It’s usually first come first serve.

  10.   It’s not them, it’s you! Listen to what crowds tell you. If CDs aren’t selling, switch up your show. It’s a great focus group!

It’s been a few years since he posted these, but it doesn’t look like he’s forgotten any. He’s looking for the same magic onstage at the Grammercy Theater that he was next to the slam-dancers and the monkeys, and by the sound of the crowd, he’s had no trouble finding it.

Send a tweet to Andy Grammer on our behalf!

.@andygrammer we are promoting and celebrating busking, helping defend street performers. we want a selfie from you! https://blog.busk.co/2014/06/call-to-arms-buskingisnotacrime/