Back when Huntsville band Toy Shop was a trio, at their gigs sometimes you’d see people in the crowd nudge the person next to them and point at the stage. Like, “Hey, look at that.”

They’d noticed Andrew Sharpe was now playing bass with his left hand and keyboards with his right, simultaneously. Totally nonchalant.

He’d do it on songs like Toy Shop’s melodic alt-rocker “Fireman” and Phish cover “Bouncing Around The Room.” Wasn’t stagecraft. Just getting the song across live best he could.

“It wasn’t something I set out to do,” Sharpe says humbly. “It’s just that when we were a trio, I stood behind the keys while I was playing bass, so I would just play them when I could to fill out the sound. Probably played both [instruments] on more songs than not, at least on parts of the song. Was actually pretty fun.”

That’s Andrew Sharpe for you. A casually brilliant musician who backpedals from the spotlight, preferring to play off to the side onstage or back towards the drummer whenever he can. And he’s been integral to some of Huntsville’s best music for decades.

Toy Shop — Andrew’s band with guitarist Antony Sharpe, Andrew’s brother and co-vocalist in the group — were a strong local draw in their ‘90s and 2000s heyday.

Huntsville guitarist/singer Dave Anderson, of Brother Cane and Atlanta Rhythm Section fame, has known the Sharpes since they were all teenagers.

Anderson says, “In the late ‘90s, all of a sudden, they [Toy Shop] had a new fanbase that was younger than all of us. And a fervent fanbase. I would go to the old Crossroads [now-defunct Huntsville venue] and it would be packed, and people knew all their songs. There are at least two generations that have Toy Shop in their DNA, memories in their formative young adult years Toy Shop was a big part of. I think that’s pretty incredible.”

Toy Shop recorded their sophomore album, 2009′s “Get Up Now,” with iconic producer Johnny Sandlin, known for his work with Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic. Top tracks included the Andrew written/sung “Emily.” Drawing from the likes of Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, Tom Waits and Neil Young, Toy Shop hit on a signature sound.

Antony says Andrew is, “capable of writing really involved songs. And he also can write some of the simplest things that cut straight through, just hit you where songs are supposed to. I think some of the stuff he does is really profound.”

Around 2020 or so, Andrew also began playing bass for Wanda Band, a local indie-rock group fronted by Wanda Wesolowski, a talented singer, songwriter and guitarist in her 20s.

She’d met him back years ago at an open-mic Andrew hosted at Voodoo Lounge. As Wesolowski played her original songs on guitar and sang, he’d instantly follow along on bass and keyboards simultaneously, like he did in Toy Shop’s trio days. Even though he was hearing the songs for the first time as they were playing them.

“So that was my first impression of Andrew,” Wesolowski says. “This guy is musically insane.”

Adding to their backstory, the first date Wesolowski ever went on as a teenager was to a Toy Shop show at local arts center Lowe Mill. So being in a band with Andrew now has extra dimensions.

“On a personal level,” Wesolowski says, “he’s such a good friend. And in a musical sense, he takes everything very seriously. He keeps it lighthearted, but he’s always ready for everything in rehearsal. He knows when to play parts the same way every time and when to go crazy. He knows his place in a band – he’s there to back you up – but he also brings such a unique element to everything he plays on.”

Onstage at Wanda Band shows, Andrew stays back into the shadows. He wears a cap pulled down low, almost like he’s trying to hide underneath it.

“He’ll pull the hat down,” Wesolowski says, “and just bob along to the music. But if you listen to what he’s doing, it’s the busiest bass line you’ve ever heard anyone play. Effortlessly.”

Andrew’s best Wanda Band bass lines include “Talking To Yourself,” a sinuous standout off their 2020 debut album “One-Hit.” Also check out “Playing Fair,” a lounge-y groover off “Only Feeling,” Wanda Band’s 2023 sophomore LP that opens with a cover of “Maze,” an Andrew solo song from 1995, the year Wesolowski was born.

“I was like, ‘You were the age in 1995 that I am now,’” Wesolowski says. “And so it makes sense I relate to these lyrics in such a way because they’re speaking to the questions, confusion, the maze of being a 20-something. I told Andrew, ‘I was born to sing this song. When you wrote it, you willed me into existence!’”

Despite differences in age and musical experience, Sharpe treats her like an equal, Wesolowski says.

“He has no ego,” she says. “And he’s not like one of those older players that I’ll run into a lot that are like, ‘Let me tell you how it is, kiddo.’ He’s not trying to teach me lessons and put himself above me. From the moment we met, it was like there was no age gap.”

The first time Anderson heard Wanda Band’s version of “Maze,” he “knew it was an Andrew Sharpe song, immediately. That’s a pretty remarkable thing to have a recognizable style like that, because you can’t fake that. You either have it or you don’t.”

It’s true. You hear one of Andrew’s Toy Shop songs, either studio or live, you know it’s them. Smart yet spirited. Foreign yet of this place.

When you think about it, Toy Shop is kind of the perfect rock band for Huntsville. Like many Huntsville ‘80s kids, the U.K. born Sharpe brothers came here because their dad got an aerospace engineer job here.

Toy Shop have a strong visual image too. Andrew, a talented visual artist, created trippy banners for the band to play in front of at shows. He also did the artwork for Toy Shop’s albums, including their self-titled debut and 2013′s “Strangeland,” the most recent album the band released.

Of his brother’s creativity, Antony says, “I think his visual art and his music, they’re all the same thing — you can’t even separate them. He has such an imagination. He’s just a great soul.”

Andrew and older brother Antony were born in St. Albans, England. Both their mom and dad played piano. Around the age of four, Andrew started playing piano too, imitating the jazz and blues stuff his dad played.

“It wasn’t something I was told to do or anything like that,” Andrew recalls. “I think I just naturally gravitated towards it. I never really took it all that serious for a long time. I just knew how to play piano.”

Eventually, he started teaching himself Elton John songs on piano. Then, some Steely Dan. The Sharpe family lived in Canada for a bit before moving to Huntsville.

Andrew got really into the music of Eurythmics, the English duo known for ‘80s hits like “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” He also took up the acoustic guitar. Even though he’s known instrumentally for bass and keyboards, he says he’s written around 80 percent of his many Toy Shop songs on acoustic.

He didn’t take up the bass until well into his 20s. Within a few months he was already an ace.

Growing up, Andrew was a gymnast. He even competed on the college level at Syracuse University before an injury ended his career. Meanwhile, brother Antony attended University of Alabama in Huntsville on soccer scholarship.

Back in high school, Anderson and Antony would play Judas Priest and Alice Cooper covers together in the Sharpe family basement. After Andrew got home from gymnastics practice, he’d just nod and say hi on on the way to his room.

Anderson says back then he “had no idea he [Andrew] had any musical inklings at all. And in the late ‘80s, he and Ant started playing together [as an acoustic duo], and it was like, ‘Oh my God, where did this come from?’ I had a house gig at [since shuttered nightclub] The Vapors. After my gig I’d go down to The Corner [another defunct local music bar] where they [the Sharpe brothers] played. We’d jam till the joggers were outside in the morning.”

Eventually, the Sharpe brothers and Anderson would team up in the band Then Again. In addition to local shows, they played Louisville, Indianapolis, Tuscaloosa, Auburn and other markets. Drawing from influences ranging from Supertramp to John Hiatt to Pink Floyd, Then Again released a self-titled album before parting ways.

Andrew also plays bass with another long-running group, Dawn Osborne Band. Fronted by big-voiced Dawn Osbourne, that band mixes jazz, pop, indie, rock and R&B. Sharpe’s also worked a lot with Josh Allison, a soulful local rock singer.

With Toy Shop, Andrew’s vocals are emotive and ethereal. Maybe even a bit elfin. Andrew says, “I feel like there are singers that are like singers, and then there are singers that are just trying to get the feeling out and across. I wouldn’t even call myself necessarily a singer. I’m just somebody who sings.”

Regardless, Andrew’s singing is perfect for Toy Shop’s music. Especially when he and Ant sing together, creating that special sound only siblings can.

The Sharpe’s brotherly harmonies contrast. Andrew has a purer tone and wider range. There’s more rock and roll edge and energy in Antony’s vocals.

Anderson says, “Ant and Andrew’s voices couldn’t be any more different, but that sibling chemistry. It’s almost like how The Beatles harmonies and definitely classic Fleetwood Mac. Those harmonies wouldn’t have been those harmonies with one person overdubbing.”

Personality-wise, the Sharpe brothers contrast too. Ant’s gregarious and loud-funny. Andrew’s shy and quiet-funny.

In Toy Shop’s heyday, in addition to local gigs and recording they peppered in shows in Nashville, Birmingham and Oxford, Mississippi. They also performed at festivals like Huntsville’s Big Spring Jam and Montgomery’s Jubilee CityFest.

Like many bands that’ve been around a while, a few musicians have come and gone. For a while now though, the lineup’s been Andrew on vocals, bass and keys, Antony on vocals and guitar, Newt Johnson on keys/bass and Aaron Cox on drums.

Now 56, Andrew, who does tile work by day, says, “The funny thing is I do more construction now than music. But I love what I’m doing, and what’s nice about it is I only do gigs I want to do because I make a living off something else these days. I’ve always loved to play music. And I’ve gotten to meet some really, really cool people through it.”

When he’s not playing music or laying tile, Andrew likes to work on his home. He recently turned a porch into a laundry room. He also spends a lot of time with his nieces and nephew.

For the last two years, Andrew and Antony have been working with Antony’s daughter Haley Sharpe, a successful TikTok content creator, on her own music. In April, Haley’s debut single dropped. It’s an eight-minute, classic-rock-style track written by Andrew and titled “Spotless Soul.”

It’s a tribute to his ageless musicality Andrew can collaborate so well with his niece. Haley grew up going to Toy Shop’s non-bar gigs. Uncle Andrew taught her the first thing she ever learned how to play on piano, the John Lennon classic “Imagine.” Now in her early 20s, the Toy Shop album title “Get Up Now” is tattooed on Haley’s forearm.

The Sharpes’ sibling harmonies are being carried on too. Haley’s younger sister Julia Sharpe sings background vocals on “Spotless Soul.”

Haley says of Andrew, “I love his songwriting. He’s so talented, but also so underappreciated. But I also feel he likes being behind the scenes.”

Andrew agrees. “I’m happier there, honestly,” he says. “Even doing an interview like this isn’t my thing. You know, one of the things I like the most about bass is it doesn’t get noticed as much. But it’s a real pivotable pivotal instrument. You want someone who knows what they’re doing on bass.”

Toy Shop play PorchFest Five Points tonight 8 p.m. at “Porch #5,” address 1104 Pratt Avenue. More info including band schedules on the PorchFest Instagram. A map of porches local bands will be performing on tonight can be found here. PorchFest is free to attend. Dawn Osborne Band play 10:30 pm tonight as part of a PorchFest After Party show at St. Stephens Music Hall, located at Campus No.  805, address 2620 Clinton Avenue. There’s a $7 cover at St. Stephens.

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