An avid member of the Athens music scene, Lampela is not only co-owner of the only independent record store in town, Haffa's Records, but he also volunteers his time at ARTS/West and the Aquabear Legion, in addition to being a member of about half a dozen Athens bands.
Lampela moved to Athens in 1992 from Amesville to attend Ohio University and graduated with bachelor's degree in English. While it may have been hard for Lampela to decide what he wanted to study in school, his free time was less difficult to account for as he pursued music, a love he has had since he was a child.
"I had a really cool uncle that would give me all kinds of stuff," Lampela said. "Queen's Greatest Hits was the first record I bought with my own money."
From there his musical interests grew, and while in college, Lampela worked at the School Kids Records on Court Street, which is now the costume shop. When the record portion of the store folded four years ago, Lampela went to Stewart-MacDonald, an international guitar parts store, before starting work at Haffa's in 2000.
"As long as I've known Andrew he's been totally about music," said Scott Hedrick, guitarist for Skeletonwitch.
"Anytime someone has a fundraiser and is a band short, he will bring one of his bands to play."
Ever since the two met in 2000, they have been friends, with Hedrick often coming by to hang out at Haffa's when Skeletonwitch isn't on tour.
"...Professors will come in that are huge jazz heads and (Lampela) will recommend things to them, and then he will talk to someone else about noise or to me about metal. He isn't about one kind, but very diversified," Hedrick said.
This diversity plays into the various bands Lampela contributes to. A member of various projects, he is actively involved as a bassist in the drone bands Weedghost and Dinner of Swords, as well as a noise band and a solo project called dead winds of summer.
In addition to these bands, Lampela is currently helping the Aquabear Legion release its second Aquabear Reader newsletter and organize events at ARTS/West. Being involved with so many musical projects shows how deep Lampela's love for music continues to be after all these years.
"Once in middle school I spent my entire day's lunch money on a Slayer cassette," Lampela said. "And so then with nothing to eat, I spent the entire lunch hour listening to it. It was pretty awesome."
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