When J.D. Andrew put the guitar down years ago to focus on becoming a professional audio engineer, he also put aside his intentions of pursuing a career as a musician. But all of that changed after a recording session with Academy Award-winning actor/musician Billy Bob Thornton.

“I had been working in a couple of recording studios out in Los Angeles, and I got a call that Billy was trying to finish his new record and needed someone to do some editing and final overdubs for it,” recalls the Full Sail Recording Arts grad, who has previously worked on records with the Rolling Stones, Keyshia Cole, and Kanye West. “We got along great during the sessions. A month and a half into it, he needed to record a song for a Canadian television show, but everyone in his band was out of town, so he asked me how well I could play guitar. I hadn’t really played in ten years, but I gave it a shot, we liked it, and we started recording more songs.”

That union was the genesis of the Boxmasters, the self-anointed “electric hillbilly” trio that J.D. formed with Thornton and lead guitarist Mike Butler. Having just released their double-disc debut, The Boxmasters, the group is currently on a U.S. tour this summer promoting the record. A video for the Boxmasters’ song “Poor House” has received rotation on GAC and CMT, and the band was among the top five most added at Americana radio.

For J.D., the transition from engineer to artist may have been strange at first, but overall the process has been fairly smooth. “It was pretty weird, because in the beginning I was really uncertain as to what to play, having not played in quite a long time,” J.D. admits. “But the parts that I came up with naturally fit into what we’re doing, and Billy was amazingly supportive about playing what I felt. After the first couple of songs, we knew we had something.

“When I came out of Full Sail, I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but when I stepped into the studio…I just got that feeling where you feel like you’re in the right place,” he continues. “I had no intentions on even being a musician again – I just focused on becoming a really good engineer. Now that things have changed, it’s kind of bizarre. Even though I’m playing on all the songs, as soon as we play them back, I switch hats and I’m back to being an engineer again. It’s kind of wild.”

J.D. now mixes all of the Boxmasters records, and there are more on the way; the group has another double-disc coming soon and intends to release a Christmas album in November. As both an engineer and band member in Thornton’s band, he’s able to enjoy the best of both worlds. Yet he still maintains a sense of modesty about his career and accomplishments.

“It’s not like we’re going to be a huge multi-platinum success,” he says humbly. “If we sell 10-20 thousand records, we’ll be really happy. It’s just really exciting to have a record out in stores and be able to go out on tour and see that people like it.”

Check out the Boxmasters at www.theboxmasters.com and www.myspace.com/theboxmasters.