Andy Koontz - YDNA - "YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS!"

~ BIOGRAPHY ~ MUSIC ~ BLOG/NEWS ~ ABOUT: Y.W.G.T.T. ~ CANCER/RESOURCES ~

ALBUM NOTES This album is a huge part of my BRAIN CANCER story. I recorded the majority of this project over three weeks in 2009 while in recovery. Keyboards, Drum Machines, KAOS Pads, Digital Drums, Samples, Layers of Vocoded Vocals and a little Electric Guitar (when I could) comprise the majority of the sounds featured in the album, with the exception of "WHAT YOU ARE" which was remixed from my first Original Acoustic Guitar Single recorded in 2005...

"YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS!" was the first song I recorded for this project. My wife would hold my hand and look me in my eyes and repeat, "YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS!" when things were bad and I didn't feel like I could handle it anymore...so I wrote this song kind of to remind myself and others that when things seem like they are the worst ever, there is hope and..."YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS!" - Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"WITNESS" was the second track I recorded. This song specifically reflects the abandonment I felt from people who left me when I was diagnosed with brain cancer.
It's hard to go through something that changes your life this much. To have everyone you know disappear on you after they were a "WITNESS" to the hell you were going through was devastating. It was a very frightening time of my life. Luckily I met a lot of great people throughout the following years who have become some of my best friends. I learned to forgive and let go of the pain I felt over the loss of my previous friendships...

- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"BREATHE" the third track I recorded. I wrote it for my wife! A truly amazing woman who stayed by my side through all of it! She is my hero in so many ways! My love and my life! Thank you baby I mean every word...and I know you "BREATHE" Me, like I "BREATHE" You!

- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"FORGIVEN" was the last track that I wrote for this project.
It was one of the few times I was feeling incredibly positive during my whole journey and I realized I have a lot of people I needed to forgive.
I wrote it for myself and for other people who might need to be reminded that they also need to forgive... I found it's truly the only way to have peace!
It's not easy, but once you do you will never feel better in life!
- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"SOMEONE HELP ME" was written after my dog Max died. He was my shadow followed me everywhere and had been with us for 12 years. He was my boy whom I loved deeply!
The day he passed away it was very hard for me. It really brought me back to when I was diagnosed and the fear of losing my own life and the fear of losing those I love while I was still so sick and unable to comfort them. I once again was confronted by my mortality face to face!
Ultimately this was my way of coping with losing My Boy (MAX) and accepting my situation and crying out, please God, "SOMEONE HELP ME!"
- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"THE TRANSITION", was written near the end of recording this album...
This song is mostly about my battles with PTSD..."THE DARKNESS"...At this point I think I had come to understand all I had been through a little bit better and I saw how in all honesty I had been blessed and saved for a reason...yes I had my fears imagined and my mortality confronted. I lost friends and I have pain every day! But, I am alive and happy...in the song when I say, "YOU saved me from the dark"...I'm referring to my Faith and my true first love my Lord and my God...Jesus Christ! For all the right and wrong in me, He saved me from The Dark! :)
All I went through, and all I go through...to all that I am right now...that is, "THE TRANSITION"
- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"SCREAM"...well have you ever just felt like you needed to scream, at the top of your lungs? Were you ever hurt, alone and feeling hopeless? In so much pain that you thought you were just gonna burst! Well that's where I was when I recorded this track...
Things felt pretty dismal...I was deep in the darkness, broken, scared and frustrated, feeling like no one understood what I was going through! All I could do about it was "SCREAM"
- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"HIT YOU WHERE IT HURTS" was written and recorded in early 2009 and went through many different mixes and remixes.
This was the point when I was starting to feel connected to the world somewhat again and I realized that there wasn't really anything I can do except recover and get better.
Chemo and radiation had wore me out but here I am recording a song! I poured all of my emotions into this track, it was the only way I had to fight back against the encroaching darkness at that point!
I'm a fighter, I have been my whole life...and this song was my determination to FIGHT against the darkness that was slowly consuming me...it beat me down first and in return I gave the darkness a beat down of my own with, "HIT YOU WHERE IT HURTS"
- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

"MYSTERY", was recorded at the very end of recording the album. It's just a little ditty I had been singing while i was in bed (three years sitiing in bed, hooked up to feeding tubes and Iv fluids can really make a man loose himself...it gave me alot of time to think) the "Mystery", at that point, "when will I get out of this damn bed and live my life again"!?
Recording all of these songs was very cathartic for me and the realMYSTERY for me, as I disovered...was simply, when will this finally be over? I just wanna know I'll be here for those who need me! Especially my amazing Wife, Mother and friends!
In the end I found that being diagnosed with BRAIN CANCER at 30 is a complete life changer and how it all works out is truly a "MYSTERY"
- Andy Koontz (YDNA)

~ BIOGRAPHY ~ MUSIC ~ BLOG/NEWS ~ ABOUT: Y.W.G.T.T. ~ CANCER/RESOURCES ~

All Content © Copyright 2020 Andy Koontz / Chrissy Koontz / Little Buster Studios. All rights reserved. Andy Koontz - YDNA - "YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS!"