Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Andy relocated to Southern California and graduated from UCSD in La Jolla, California, with degrees in Music and Engineering. After which his band Foreign affairs signed with Criterion Music. The band toured for two years and released two singles.
In the late 1990’s he co-wrote and produced an album with Kim Fowley (KISS, The Runaways, Nirvana, Sonic Youth). This began a long relationship with Kim who mentored him in his own “wildly eccentric” style.
“Like Snoop Doggy Dog before them, Bob Dylan of yesteryear and other spokesmen of the downtrodden, Carpool unleashes, for the first time, the velvet curtain behind the cleanly manicured lawns and blue skies. From “Rehab Girl” to “Running Out Of Time” there’s no question there’s not a weak cut or one piece of filler material on this album. Andy Machin, like Todd Rundgren and Prince, produces the band in his own recording studio.” -Kim Fowley
He established Bigrock Studios in 2000 and has produced well over one hundred albums there. Recently “The Unconditionals” debut album was nominated for “best local record-ing” at the 2014 San Diego Music Awards (SDMA). In addition to producing the record, he also played most of the instruments as well as co-witing two of the songs. This year, “The Jackstones” album “What Brings You Here” won the "Best Country Album" at the 2015 Independent Music Awards (IAM). He produced, engineered, mixed and mastered the album as well as co-wrote all the songs.
“The Jackstones’ What Brings You Here is a must-have disc for anyone who wants to hear good, memorable music with a rock beat, regardless of genre….the new country the Jackstones shoot for is more straight ahead rock, with themes in a few tunes that have a country feel. No problem: their guitar/key classic/arena rock draws from bands like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Wallflowers and it is infectious.”
-Frank Kocher, San Diego Troubadour
In 2005 Andy teamed up with singer/songwriter Margaret McClure and has had hundreds of film/tv placements as well as several artist cuts. Their alter ego “Seventhings” has re-leased two albums and as a songwriting team they have won many contests, and are cur-rently working on a new project specifically targeted for film and tv.
In 2015 he became one of the founding members of BigWest Music and has taken on the role of Head of Production. This San Diego based independent label is working with some of the most talented artists in Southern California and exploring the marketing and exploitation of these artists in this brave new world of music. Andy is also a member of the group songwriting team “The System” and a staff writer for OC9.
As a world class producer and engineer, Machin works with vocalists and instrumentalists to help them find their own unique “voice”. He has produced albums in various styles, including; Rock, Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Hot AC, Country, New Age and Metal. As a songwriter he’s penned for various artists. Many of his songs have shown up in movie soundtracks, ESPN’s “Surfer Magazine”, MTV and even the theme song for a national ad campaign for PCH Clothing. Most recently he composed, produced and recorded the score to the award winning independent film “Death, The Desert and Joe”. Andy excels in the following: guitar, mandolin, bass, vocals, percussion, keyboard, MIDI and drum programming.