Andrew Brown a former Pioneer student now a musician took his own path — in education, music and his personal life. He was different, unique, he was going to make something of himself on his own. That brought him to where he is today, leading a jazz group, being a professional guitarist, doing what he loves.

Brown had a different experience than most people when it came to his early education. He had been homeschooled for most of his education up until high school, where he attended a few years at Ann Arbor’s Pioneer High School.

Many people would hear about Brown’s life and childhood. They would immediately start drawing their own conclusions about what it was like for him to grow up, just assuming he would play guitar all the time.

“When I say that to people, their thought process is just, ‘Okay he’s a full-time guitar player now, so instead of going to school and not going to math class, he must have just been playing guitar all the time,” Brown said. “That’s not actually the case.”

People had ideas and assumptions about how Brown spent his childhood; they would immediately assume that he grew up a certain way.

“I was kind of unschooled,” Brown said. “Instead of having a super regimented structure, I was able to pursue whatever I wanted; it was like my parents letting me go wherever I wanted to go and see what happened. There are advantages and disadvantages to that in my life.”

When Brown had reached high school, he had decided to attend Pioneer briefly. When asked about his high school experience Brown said,

“At that age, I tried a couple years of high school,” Brown said. “Then, I thought, do I even want to go to college? I had no idea, my parents were also super supportive of whatever I was going to pursue, which helped me get to where I am currently.”

Brown’s parents were not pushing college like most parents would. They inspired him to think and go about life differently. But Brown wasn’t all so sure that he could make a life for himself if he went down an alternative route.

“At the same time I was really scared,” Brown said. “You always hear the trope about the starving artist and the starving musician. I didn’t really want to starve. But once I saw my opportunity, I was like, ‘Oh, you could actually do this. I just threw myself into it and never looked back.”

Throughout Brown’s 20s he had lived pretty frugally, and through his 20’s he kept worrying about not making it.

“Don’t listen to anyone else or any idea that you heard about on TV about what success means in life,” Brown states. “Because at the end of the day, it’s your life. If you want to be a writer, if you want to be a painter, if you want to be a musician, you can do that.”

Because of all the pressure and stress that Brown had put on himself, it led to him being unhappy and depressed. Realizing that it’s okay to branch out and explore without the worry of everything going wrong allowed Brown to be happier and more fulfilled in his life.

“We’re in an exciting time to be alive, right?” Said Brown. Before the 2000s, the internet wasn’t even a thing at all. People are putting a lot of pressure on the youth, saying you have to do certain things to be successful. It’s based on scarcity; you need to get a good job because you don’t want to be on the streets.

Brown talks about our society being at a major turning point, and that in their future workforce, we will see a shift from people being in office jobs, working hour after hour at their desks, to more of a work-life balance.

“No one’s making you a slave,” Brown said. “But you signed yourself up to slavery. It’s self-imposed slavery; you’re selling yourself like a contract. America shoves it down your throat, with all the advertising and the way things are portrayed.”

Heading into 2025, Brown wants to focus on more for himself and those around him. In the future, Brown is looking more towards a work-life balance. Brown feels that taking breaks and giving yourself time to relax and think about things is actually very beneficial for us as humans. A reset can be very beneficial for us, especially in the creative industries.

At the start of Brown’s career, he definitely had a different mindset going into it as opposed to how he would go about it now. That also led to him thinking about things in a very different way than most people think about things, such as work. Brown chose a different path than most people, even though he may not be everyone’s picture of success, he is living the life that he wants to live, doing what he wants to do and following what he loves.

If there is any piece of advice that Brown would give out to young adults, and if he could go back and tell his younger self something, it would be the fact that,

“The Sandbox is safe,” Brown stated. “You’re free to play.”

It wasn’t like that all throughout his life; the most important thing when looking at life in Brown’s eyes is the fact that the sandbox is safe, so you’re free to play.