When first starting out, musicians often approach life with rose-colored glasses and a world view based on pursuing their passions.

As this somewhat idealistic group gets older however, they tend to become less satisfied with fast food meals in the back of an 18-passenger van and more preoccupied with desires for a family and material things.

Upon hitting their mid-thirties, they often quit living the dream and sell out to the man.

This sad fate has not been the case for Andy Gonzales of local band Marshmallow Coast. Although he finds keeping a band together increasingly difficult, guitarist Gonzales would rather play as a group than weather the storm of struggling musicians alone, and he feels that this goal is worth the stress it entails.

“I think it is really hard to keep a band together, and it only gets worse the older you get,” Gonzales said. “I used to play by myself, but it is so much more fun to rock out on stage with friends, that ultimately it is worth the headache of organizing.”

Gonzales has been rocking out with friends in some capacity since the tender age of 17. He generally performs under his band name Marshmallow Coast or under his alter ego “Andy from Denver.”

“If I play on someone’s record or produce a band I refer to myself as Andy From Denver. I stole the idea from Leonardo Di Vinci,” he said.

Gonzales thought up “Marshmallow Coast” as a child while flying in an airplane for the first time. Always an artist and visionary at heart, he thought the clouds looked like a marshmallow coast in the distance and has kept that vision with him ever since.

His vision for the band that later emerged from the childhood memory was a little more complex and a little less fantasy.

“I guess it is mostly pop, with some jazz chord stylings, a touch of French Impressionism and fondness for ’80s drum machine music,” he said.

Although they’ve tried to stay true to this blend of pop, jazz and ’80s rhythm throughout the years, the band’s newest album, “Phreak Phantasy,” has both a riskier and more polished sound. This is primarily due to Gonzales’s growing influence over the project.

“It is different in that I put together a home studio, so I can indulge in recording techniques without wasting time and money,” Gonzales said. “I also have been trying to get good at programming drum machines rather than just using pre-made little beats from keyboards. I also feel that I used faster tempos than before so the songs are more upbeat.”

In contrast to the band’s last record, “M Coast Say it in Slang,” on which bassist Derek Almstead wrote half the songs, Gonzales wrote every song on this album with some minor contributions from other band members.

Although this record was just released in May, the ever-persevering musician already has a new project in the works. It’s more of a solo venture, however, because he finds other sincerely dedicated musicians to be few-and- far-between.

“I am re-recording my first CD, ‘Seniors and Juniors,’ using all of my modern techniques and nice equipment, so I am engrossed in that right now,” he said.