St. Lenox

St. Lenox operates as the solo indie pop outlet for singer-songwriter Andrew Choi, who calls New York home. Choi brings a commanding vocal presence, abundant melodic invention, and a talent for precise, story-driven lyrics that shift between wry humor, emotional release, and unguarded personal reflection. Across his output, this perspective on American life appears most clearly on the widely praised records Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for Our Tumultuous Times from 2021 and Ten Modern American Work Songs from 2024.

Born to Korean immigrant parents and raised in Iowa, Choi studied classical violin at Juilliard before completing a philosophy degree at Ohio State University. During his time in Columbus he began composing and tracking the material that would define St. Lenox. The resulting songs merge classic pop, folk, soul, electronic, and rock elements while rendering detailed scenes of American existence as experienced by a second-generation immigrant.

After relocating to New York and taking up work as a corporate attorney, Choi issued his first St. Lenox album, Ten Songs About Memory & Hope. The 2014 release on Columbus independent label Anyway Records carried an understated futuristic atmosphere and philosophical tone that drew extensive critical notice along with parallels to John Darnielle and Cee Lo Green. Two years afterward came the equally theatrical Ten Hymns from My American Gothic, a set of reflections on present-day American life conceived as a 70th-birthday tribute to his father. His third album, Ten Fables of Young Ambition and Passionate Love, gathered further personal notes on romance and career achievement into another loosely conceptual collection issued in 2018.

Continuing the established album pattern, Choi’s fourth effort, Ten Songs of Worship and Praise for Our Tumultuous Times, took up spiritual themes and surveyed numerous religious ideas. Three years later, labor itself supplied the subject for the fifth St. Lenox record. Issued in October 2024, Ten Modern American Work Songs drew directly from Choi’s own tenure as a New York attorney, recounting the weight of student debt, the pursuit of professional goals, and the effort to maintain creative balance.