Mike Andrews wrote the score for "Donnie Darko," but he certainly isn't as dark and baffling as the cult flick's demonic rabbit.

A member of the acid jazz-funk band Greyboy Allstars, Andrews enjoys hanging at his house in California, playing with his dog and relaxing with his girlfriend. After years of working as a producer, songwriter and composer (he also wrote music for "Me and You and Everyone We Know" and "Freaks and Geeks"), Andrews is now releasing his first solo album, "Hand on String," on which he played nearly every instrument.

Andrews told metromix he can't pull any strings and put "Freaks and Geeks" back on the air-and he doesn't even try to understand "Donnie Darko"-but he did say his life story could be told with animated citrus.

Why do your first solo album now?

It just happened. I always said that I would just do it when I felt like I had something I needed to communicate. It was a record I made for myself. I didn't really actually plan on even releasing it.

In Greyboy Allstars, you go by Elgin Park, and "Hand on String" is being released by Elgin Park Recordings. We're confused.

Elgin was my nickname when I was a little kid. I was very small, so [my brothers] called me Little Guy. Little Guy became LG. There was a guy named Elgin-I don't even know if it was basketball or football or whatever-and they thought it was funny, so they called me Elgin. When I joined Greyboy Allstars, I just wanted to start over in a lot of ways. And I didn't really think that the band was going to last. I don't really consider myself a jazz guitar player, so when I got into that music, I thought, "Well, this is almost like a script, so if this is a script, I'll just be a character." So I changed my name.

If someone says to you, "Oh, I thought Elgin Park was going to be here," have you ever wanted to say, "Let me go get him," and come back with a fake mustache?

(Laughs.) No, no, I don't do that. But there have been times when somebody will introduce me on stage [in Greyboy Allstars] as Mike Andrews, and someone will say they liked the old guitar player [Elgin Park] better.

You have a song called "Orange Meet Lemon." What happens when they meet?

You make some good juice. I've got an orange tree and a very strange lemon tree that every once in a while breeds these really strange-shaped, alien lemons, probably from all the pollution here in California. The record came from me sitting on my back porch and looking out.

If "Hand on String" was a soundtrack, what would the movie be about?

I would like to ask that of someone else, actually. I really think it's important for people to be able to draw their own things on it. To me, it's about my life. Now, do I want to divulge all that information? Maybe not.

It's a soundtrack to a movie you don't want anyone to watch?

It's a soundtrack to a movie I want someone else to make. I don't want any part of it. I always think about the quote that's in the Bob Dylan book that says, "You can sell your personal life, but you can never buy it back." I feel like that's a very wise thing to say, and I'm trying to live by that.

Who would play you in the movie?

Maybe a lemon or orange. It would be an animated movie. You could be in it. You could be the avocado.

Finally, my big break. As an animated avocado.

It would be incredible. You could have all the benefits of being in a movie, but no one would ever recognize you, so you could have a personal life without people getting in your way.

Matt Pais is the metromix music producer.


Originally published June 14, 2006.