If I had more time and money, I would fly out to Pittsburgh and try to spend some time getting to know Steve Andrews of Beyond from Within. It seems like there is an interesting story to figure out. His father was a carpenter and his mother, a housewife. It wasn’t a musical family, but somehow, music caught Steve’s interest. Was it at church? Various reviews talk about how he started off writing Christian Rock, how he conducts a church choir and how he is a vocalist with a Greek Orthodox chant choir.

Others have written about how he enjoys opera and going to the Duquesne University Orchestra. They note how he is a drafter for an engineering firm and a big sports fan.

His bio on his Electronic Press Kit (EPK) on Sonicbids starts off by talking about another key influence, The Doors. If you listen to his music, you can clearly hear the influence.

He submitted his music for review back in May, one of the first people to submit their EPKs to me. He has sent me frequent emails about his music and a copy of his CD. It seems like he has a burning desire to be heard, like many of us, I suppose.

I thought about Steve as I went to see William and the Tradesmen. William was a struggling thirty-one year old New York musician trying to be a British punk rocker. In the show, William sends out lots of desperate messages trying to get someone to listen. Unlike William, it sounds like Steve has a good job, and there is something more in his desire to be heard.

Yet I wonder, what is it like, hanging out with Steve next to the water cooler at work? Do the people in the choirs he’s involved with know about his desire to channel Jim Morrison? How about the buddies he hangs out with when watching a football game? What is it that makes Steve Andrews tick?

The name of his one person band perhaps gives a hint, “Beyond from Within”. Is there something beyond what is within each of us? Is there something greater that calls us to more than our daily working life and the football game at the end of the week? Can we get in touch with it?

It’s hard to tell. Steve’s website doesn’t have a calendar of events he’s playing at. There is a link to iTunes where you can buy some of his music, and a few scattered reviews, but that seems to be about it.

Maybe I don’t have Steve’s story right at all, but it seems to me that he is a great example of the unrecognized talents and passions that are hidden within people that we walk past in our daily lives. Listen to Steve’s music. Listen to your own music, and keep your ears and eyes up for something bubbling up from beyond from within around you.