"(Music and acting)scratch different itches," he says. "With music, I'm more like the writer, director, producer, and the actor. I determine the content and the music represents my personal aesthetics. As an actor, I'm more like a session musician. People hire me to interpret their ideas and my job is just to play. Both are satisfying and frustrating, which is why a steady diet of each is the recipe for good mental health for me."

Born in Santa Cruz, California in 1968, Andras Jones was raised in Olympia, Washington. For high school, he attended the "artsy" Cambridge School of Weston in Massachussetts, where he appeared in many theater productions. Afterwards, he moved to Los Angeles, where he appeared in commercials, rock videos, and TV shows (Good Morning, Miss Bliss (aka Saved by the Bell in junior high), The New Leave it To Beaver). His film debut was in the 1988 cult classic Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama, followed by his role in Nightmare 4 (also in 1988). "I've always been a film fanatic," he says, "... and really just got lucky getting to be in movies when I moved out to LA."

"Nightmare was one of my first films and so I remember it sort of like an amusement park when you're a kid," Jones recalls. "Everything was kind of magical. Now I understand how films work and might experience the whole thing differently, but, at the time, I remember feeling a real comraderie with the other actors and folks on the set."

"My opinion of the film is that it is pretty good for what it is," he says. "I was never a fan of the series before I got the part of Rick, but since then, I have grown to appreciate it."

His other film work includes 1989's Far From Home with Drew Barrymore, 1990's Tripwire with David Warner, 1992's The Prom with Jennifer Jason Leigh, and 1995's The Demolitionist with Heather Langenkamp.

"As an actor, my focus is generally on what is going on around me, and my character comes out of that," he notes. "I should say that I am almost never truly happy with my work as an actor. It could always be better and it seems like I only really figure out a role once I've finished it."

Apart from his acting career, Jones has also been performing music for the last ten years. "My earliest musical memories are listening to my parents' copy of the Beatles' Rubber Soul and sitting on my father's shoulders as he danced around the living room to the music from the film Zorba the Greek," he says of his interest in music. "I remember making up songs walking home from grammar school. I played instruments all through childhood but only started taking it seriously when I was 15 and got into the Who."

In addition to continuing live performances, Jones has recorded five albums with his band, the Previous, most recently 1997's Unpop.... He has performed with many other indie artists, and his songs have appeared on the soundtracks to several feature films. He also started The City Limits, a record company based in Olympia that produces his CDs and helps a plethora of other artists. "If you want to do something your own way, you usually have to set things up so that you can," he says. "The City Limits is the record company I started when I couldn't get another company to support my music the way I wanted them to. Since then it has evolved into something bigger that I have used to help other musicians put out their indie works, too."

He does occasional work as a freelance journalist, writing about music and politics, and hosts a radio show called Radio 8-Ball on KAOS 89.3 FM in Olympia. "The show... is a divining tool, like the tarot or the i-ching. People call in with questions that they would ask an oracle, and then we pick CD's at random and put them on shuffle function. The song, which is randomly chosen, is the answer to the question, and then my guest and I help the caller to interpret the answer," he describes. "The music is a hodgepodge of independent artists, obscure classics, and some kitschy guilty pleasures. Some of my guests have been: Rickie Lee Jones, John Wesley Harding, Dan Bern, Kinnie Starr, Veda Hille, and Seth Green." He adds: "I'm working at putting real audio and MP3's of the shows up on my web page."

What's next? He stars opposite the aforementioned Seth Green in the independent film The Attic Expeditions, to be released in October 2000. Of all the films he's worked on, he says this is his favorite. "The folks who made it are really smart and have worked really hard to make their film their own way. I respect them a great deal and think that I did some of my best work in it." His goal for his film career: "to work with good people on projects that are smart and soulful."

As for his music career, Jones says, "My music is very important to me, and I hope to make it more available to people who might like it without compromising its integrity. Performing music is a real blast, especially if there are people there to share in the experience."