Andreus

Born Deandrias Abdullah on the south side of Chicago, this singer/songwriter and producer
is ready to bring his organic, street funk to the world. Andreus came by his musical gifts
naturally. His mother was a singer who traveled to Chicago from Mississippi to pursue her
career in music, and met his father, a local sax player, shortly upon her arrival. Andreus
came up singing and playing piano, guitar, and drums in the church, and performing regularly
at local talent shows and parties.
Now a polished musician and performer, Andreus credits the music and culture of Hip Hop
for his development as a songwriter and producer. "I'm a die hard fan of Hip Hop. In the beginning
I would make beats on guitar and bass, and then borrow someone's drum machine and complete
the tracks. Rapping for so long taught me how to formulate songs with vivid images, and that
helped with my songwriting". Andreus is a storyteller who takes his listeners on a journey down
the gritty back streets of life and conjures images of love, pain, and freedom.
Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Sting, Santana, Elvis Costello, Roy Ayers, Run DMC,
and Rakim, have all provided inspiration, and Andreus incorporates these diverse influences to
produce funky, Latin flavored, soul music for the new millennium.
Andreus refers to two of his biggest influences, Curtis Mayfield and Bob Marley, as his "musical
father figures". Like those legends, Andreus wants to create music that moves the spirit, provokes
the mind and endures. "It's not that I want to sing or sound like either of them. It's kind of like I'm
taking the torch and keeping it moving. That's why a lot of the songs I write are about real experiences.
Street stuff. The real gritty stuff that you don't necessarily hear or see all the time in music."
And like Curtis and Bob, Andreus sees spirituality as a way to reach the masses. "I believe in music,
I'm a musician, and that's my religion. I look at music as something that can move the mind, the
body, and the soul. My voice is just an instrument, but the soul is coming from a higher power. So
I want to take whatever comes down from that and project it into the music and present it to the world."
Andreus' debut album "Street Troubadour" was first realeased in the UK in 2002, followed a year later
with a US release.