Andy Koh Photo credit: Andy Koh
The Dallas singer-songwriter and pediatric oncologist shares “Taking the Long Way,” the title track from his forthcoming debut LP, out October 30th.
In the 1980s, while studying at Harvard College as a Rhodes Scholar, Andy Koh began writing songs. In the 1990s, he was playing and recording with the band Coloring Tunes, drawing interest from major labels. Then, rather than pursuing a career in music, Koh chose medicine.
Today, nearly four decades after he first began writing songs, the Dallas-based singer-songwriter and pediatric oncologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center is returning with his debut album, Taking the Long Way, due October 30, 2026.
The nine-song collection is a record about time, distance, and return — a body of work shaped by songs written across nearly forty years, some carried forward quietly, others revisited and completed only in recent years. Together, they form a portrait of an artist returning to a creative life that never entirely left him.
Today, Koh shares the album’s title track, “Taking the Long Way,” an upbeat, driving song about pushing through uncertainty and finding a way forward when the easy path no longer feels possible. With its infectious energy and defiant spirit, the track turns struggle into momentum and doubt into the belief that everything is going to be alright.
“The title track ties the whole record together. It was written at the very end, after enough time had passed to understand what the journey had actually been,” Koh shares. “The idea of ‘taking the long way’ isn’t just about delay or detour. It’s about the path that, in the end, is the only one that makes sense.”
That idea is central to the album. Taking the Long Way is not simply a collection of old songs finally being released; it is a record about what happens when time changes the meaning of the work itself. Songs that once belonged to an aspiring young musician now sit alongside newer material, informed by the experiences, responsibilities, and perspective Koh gained in the decades between writing them and recording them.
The album was recorded with a small group of first-call session players, including bassist Sean Hurley and drummer Jake Reed, with the sessions focused on finally realizing what these songs had sounded like in Koh’s head for years. Mixed by Grammy-winning engineer Darrell Thorp, the record keeps its attention on the writing, performances, and emotional movement of the songs.
The result is an energetic, heartfelt collection that understands optimism as something earned rather than assumed. Across Taking the Long Way, Koh explores the tension between ambition and responsibility, the persistence of unfinished work, and the possibility of returning to something meaningful without needing to recreate the person you were when you began.
There is also a striking duality to Koh’s life as an artist and pediatric oncologist. His work in medicine is rooted in care, urgency, and the complexity of human experience; his songwriting offers another way of examining those same questions. The album does not attempt to separate these parts of his life. Instead, it reflects the patience, depth, and perspective that come from having lived with its songs for so long.
“Taking the Long Way” is ultimately a song about continuing forward, even when the route is uncertain. In the context of Koh’s story, it becomes something more: a statement about the paths we leave, the ones we return to, and the possibility that a detour can become the journey itself.
After decades spent writing, recording, practicing medicine, and living with these songs, Andy Koh is finally releasing Taking the Long Way, a debut nearly forty years in the making.
How has taking the “long way” ultimately shaped both your life and your creative voice?
ANDY KOH: So many aspects of my life have taken the “long way.” My path through music was anything but linear. Music took a back seat, as I built an entirely different professional life in medicine and as my family grew. Then somehow, decades later, I found my way back.
Medicine took an unexpected path too. I had always assumed I would become a full-time clinician, but at the ripe old age of 32, I picked up a pipette for the first time and decided to try laboratory research. I have now run my own independent research program for the last seventeen years. So while I am inherently a pretty impatient person, I’ve learned over time to be patient enough to see where the journey leads me.
Creatively, I am now obsessed with creating the most emotionally honest, and hopefully engaging, songs I can. Songs that give me the tingles and that I would actually want to listen to. And if getting there requires grinding away until the songwriting, arrangement, performance and production all work together seamlessly, then I’m willing to take the long way.
What made you decide that restraint was the best way to communicate the song’s message, and were you ever tempted to build it into something larger?
ANDY KOH: They say if a song doesn’t work with just a voice and piano or guitar, then it’s not really a great song. This song became an exercise in less is more. I did try adding drums and keyboards, but it just didn’t sound good or right. The stripped-down arrangement of vocal, guitar, and bass gave the song more room to breathe and made it hit harder emotionally. I was specifically inspired by two amazing songs with very simple arrangements: “Blackbird” by the Beatles and “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day.
What do you hope listeners who feel pressured to have everything figured out take away from the song?
ANDY KOH: There’s this age-old saying that the journey ultimately matters more than the destination. That made no sense to me when I was younger. I totally get it now. There is so much pressure to make the right decision quickly, choose a direction now, and get to the payoff ASAP. But some of the most important choices and developments in my own life did not happen this way. I certainly did not plan to step away from music for decades and then make my first album at more “advanced age.” I hope the song gives folks some reassurance – that it is OK and actually good to live with uncertainty and to recognize that the slower or less obvious path can still take you to where you ultimately want to be.
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